Worldcrunch
There’s a video circulating on the Internet that stunned me stone cold. You see a group of animal rights activists literally tearing a homeless man’s puppy from his arms. You can see the poor guy trying in vain to free himself from the leader of the activist group, while the frightened little pup squeals and […]
PARIS — Pépite is still in shock. “It’s hard to deal with it,” repeats this mother, whose youngest daughter converted to Islam. Pépite comes from a Catholic family, and never expected this to happen. She didn’t worry when her daughter, Alexandra, became infatuated with a boy who had converted to Islam, or even when she […]
Climate change is already starting to affect wine growers, who scientists say will have to use other varieties of grapes and periodically move vineyards, among other interventions.
Digging into the intellectual history of Germany and Greece, ancient and otherwise, adds yet another level of irony to Europe’s current struggles.
It’s home economics, not geopolitics.
STOCKHOLM — Ing-Britt Akerberg, 70, receives us in front of paintings of nymphs and a beautiful Persian carpet. A swaggering spaniel licks her toes. “I live in the apartment below,” she explains. “But I’m keeping my friend’s three dogs; she went to town to do a bit of shopping.” The apartment building is squeezed between […]
Carmen Balcells, literary agent to some of the greatest Spanish-language writers of our time, died this past weekend in Barcelona. One of the novelists she discovered, Isabel Allende, pays tribute.
This Argentine family decided a 13,000-mile trip in a VW van was the perfect way to see Pope Francis, their former archbishop. There were bumps along the way.
The conventional wisdom says a male teacher shortage is bad for society, and the surplus of women in education might work against boys. A new study confronts the myths.
Depending on his audience, the pontiff’s messages vary. On a historic visit to the U.S., President Obama and the whole world will be listening carefully.
The world of rugby is not what it used to be. Artists gave way to men built like tanks, and the 2015 World Cup, kicking off in England, will take the Robocop scrum to a new low.
If you ‘like’ extreme right-wing Facebook pages, this German will try to contact your boss, and perhaps the police. Is he going too far?
Latin American governments have shown scant interest in restricting cars and improving public transport. But some citizens in smoggy Bogotá have chosen a different path.
Despite some hopes inside and outside of Greece that a political coalition will emerge in Athens to lift the country out of crisis, the nation’s deeper forces do not bode well.
EAST SUMBA — The island of Sumba, in southern Indonesia, is famous for its horses and regularly hosts racing festivals. In one such event last month, some 600 horses participated, as did a large number of jockeys — all of them children, some as young as four or five and none older than 11. Among them is 7-year-old Ade, who doesn’t even reach my waist. He’s putting on a balaclava so I can only see his eyes and mouth. He’s also wearing a small helmet and no shoes. He has a black eye from falling off a horse. Ade doesn’t […]
Gadgets that make it possible to spy on spouses, children, clients and bosses are more popular than ever. Few realize it is rarely legal to do so.
A new proposal in Germany to move to a later school starting time is backed by many scientists, even if it runs against entrenched social norms that rising early is virtuous.
From local politics to the the battle against polio to a banned prostitution film, here’s a quick tour of what has been happening in Morocco in recent days.
Japanese women are challenging the three-year-old Shinzo Abe government with “constitution cafes” and street protests.
When Rio de Janeiro won its Olympic bid back in 2009, Brazil was hailed as a nation on the rise. Now, it is the wrong place at the wrong time to host the 2016 Summer Games.
Some adults between 45 and 55 years old act more like they’re 25 or 30. At least one sociologist says they may be onto something.
Under a repressive regime that outlaws independent lawyers, Laritza Diversent is blazing a trail for victims of Cuba’s harsh judicial system.
Fears are rising in Japan that a large-scale gang war could erupt, following a major schism in the yakuza organized crime syndicate. Cyber-crime might be making headlines today, but this is a reminder that “traditional” organized crime is still strong. And scary. Here’s a look at what’s happening in five criminal networks around the world. […]
You can’t blame the Taliban anymore.
A pregnant Chinese woman must abort her baby, or see her husband fired. After first changes to family planning laws, sweeping reform is now urgently needed.
CAIRO — In the past two months, at least five people have died in Egyptian police custody after being arrested on politically related charges. Four of the detainees belonged to the conservative Jama’a al-Islamiya group, while another was accused of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Three of those Jama’a al-Islamiya members died over just […]
Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest-serving monarch in British history. And since her crowning in 1952, she’s gotten out of Buckingham Palace quite a bit, including visits (often multiple times) to 128 different countries. That makes her the most widely traveled head of state in history. Have a look at a few of Elizabeth’s […]
Far from rigid Koranic institutes, this new private school in central France is as much about smart boards as religious values. It is also trilingual: French, Arabic and English.
SAO PAULO — João Batista, a 45-year-old builder, has been unemployed since December. Jailson de Lima, 46, is luckier: He still manages to find construction work from time to time but doesn’t earn enough to pay rent, which has been on a relentless rise. Cristiane dos Santos, 27, lived in a hostel for some time […]
Arcangelo Ricciardi’s rise in the world of chess seemed too sudden. And it was. Caught using hidden mini webcams to defeat international chess masters, his board is tipped.
Ordinary citizens, the media and politicians make so much noise about ideology and petty politics, but quietly carry on in the face of massive mining pollution.
An agreement reached last month between India and Bangladesh has given citizenship to 50,000 previously stateless people who lived in disputed territory.
It is not just the economics of the media that is putting traditional news photographers out of business. It is our troubled relationship with images themselves.
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Conventional business wisdom now calls for employee “flexibility.” But too often that leads to work and rest becoming so intermingled that a hard-earned freedom gets lost.
Despite huge amounts of food still being wasted every day in the world, initiatives in various countries demonstrate growing public awareness about this modern-day abomination.
NEW YORK — I am one of those privileged people who live in New York and have the chance to escape from the city on occasion. No matter how many loops a person bikes around Central Park, riding across the George Washington Bridge, and biking along the Hudson River, it’s not until you get out […]
“It would have been more fitting for us to speak either Arabic or Turkish in this gathering today, especially given the common cultural heritage we share. There should have been someone present today to translate to Turkish. It is a shame really that we have to communicate in English.” — Orhan Pamuk at the 2007 […]
The U.S.-based Seasteading Institute is pursuing the notion of “startup governments” and the opportunity for like-minded people to live in shared offshore communities. Could man-made island colonies be our future?
Of all the milestones along the road to human civilization, none is more profound than the advent of reading and writing. But in the name of interactivity, the 21st century is marked by the shallow language of social media that risks burning all our acqui