Worldcrunch
-Analysis- It was quite a statement about Brazil’s justice system: “I have been the victim of the biggest judicial lie in 500 years,” Luiz Inácio da Silva declared last week. But the hyperbole from the former president, better known as Lula, was also very much about politics — considered by many to be the opening […]
BUENOS AIRES — It’s only now that the news is finally spreading. El Vesuvio, the country’s oldest heladería (ice-cream shop), is no more. Founded in 1902 by the Cocitori family, the legendary Buenos Aires establishment had actually stopped operating shortly before the pandemic began. Its most recent owner was no longer able to keep it […]
While some cities are plagued by youth gangs and others by encroaching wild animals, one neighborhood of Ottawa is reckoning with a small but very scary cat. According to the Ottawa Citizen, the Glebe area of the Canadian capital has been terrorized by a relentless pet feline aggressor who swipes at peoples’ faces and bullies […]
Decoded data from messaging services have given the authorities in Germany a new weapon in the fight against gang crime, as shown in the latest raid in Berlin. Criminal families are feeling increasingly uneasy.
In France, at least, all those days and nights in lockdown didn’t result in an upswing of bouncing babies.
For a brief, strange moment this week, the geopolitics of the COVID-19 pandemic shifted from world capitals and pharmaceutical giants to a small town in Argentina. That’s where Juan Carlos Gasparini, district mayor of Roque Pérez, population 10,000, went for his second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine with the intention of sending a message […]
It was nearly nine years ago that Mario Draghi first burst onto the world stage. The Italian-born Draghi, who had recently taken over as the President of the European Central Bank, declared that he would do “whatever it takes’ to save the Euro from speculative attacks. “And believe me,” he added, “It will be enough.” […]
BEIJING — Menglin’s boyfriend accompanied her to the clinic. It took less than 10 minutes for the doctor to place the contraceptive implant in Menglin’s upper left arm. It’s now very unlikely she’ll get pregnant in the next three years. She is 31, a good age to give birth, but she is reluctant to start […]
Iran carries out more executions than nearly any other country in the world. China, which treats its capital punishment data as a state secret, is believed to be the only country that uses the death penalty more often than the Islamic Republic, which counted 255 executions in 2020 for everything from non-violent drug offenses to […]
For drivers in Mexico, the rule of thumb for traffic accidents is simple: el que pega, paga! In other words, the perpetrator of a crash — i.e. the incoming vehicle — pays. In a country where many are uninsured, that kind of unspoken understanding makes sense. But the pega-paga approach has also created an opportunity […]
Locals can’t tell whether it’s a second or third wave … or just a continuation of the first wave when Northern Italy was the West’s first epicenter of the coronavirus.
A good workout leaves you feeling the burn, but a parkour-style stunt in China could have wound up sparking disaster — and ultimately part of a mega-city blacked out. It began Sunday night in Chengdu, the central Chinese capital of Sichuan Province, when a 22-year-old man climbed an electric pole to do sit-ups. His gym […]
An 86-year-old identified as the last male member of the Juma, a Brazilian tribe on the verge of extinction, died of the coronavirus last week, Rio-based daily O Globo reported. Amoin Aruká died in a hospital Feb. 18 in Porto Velho, in the northern Brazilian state of Rondonia, where he was receiving treatment since earlier […]
Authoritarianism allows for swift, decisive action, and when it comes to controlling a viral outbreak, that may be an advantage. But that’s only part of the equation.
Faced with an unprecedented health crisis, the López-Obrador administration has proven itself to be incompetent, overpoliticized and self-involved.
Talk about the use of documents proving immunity evokes a measure invented more than a century ago by French authorities.
For Leitizia Moratti, head of welfare policy in the Lombardy region and former Milan Mayor, it wasn’t the first outrageous statement on Covid-19.
TEHRAN — A 26-year-old Iranian woman suspected of more than a dozen thefts began by befriending wealthy female targets. But the plot for her big payday would require setting the trap for an unsuspecting young man. Iranian newspaper Sharq reports that the woman, arrested last week for allegedly stealing 700,000 euros in cash and property, […]
With Joe Biden, Cairo’s relations with Washington are undergoing an uncomfortable reboot.
The coup? What coup? China remains extremely cautious about upsetting its delicate relationship with Myanmar, given the important economic and strategic elements at stake.
Many urban dwellers fantasize about a rural lifestyle, especially right now. But leaving city life behind is easier said than done.
Vaccines are slowly arriving, but many of the shifts COVID has created will be lasting. These reverberations are much deeper than just working from home or increased digitization — society’s priorities have evolved. Thanks to the pandemic, people all over the world are completely rewiring their lives. They’re leaving once-vibrant cultural metropolises for serene greenery […]
Long considered the ‘capital of Canadian humor,’ the Quebec city is currently facing simultaeous storms: the pandemic, #MeToo accusations and a deeper debate on the limits of comedy.
Resumption of nuclear talks between Islamic Iran and the Powers will not be easy, as the West also thinks it’s time to discuss Iran’s missiles and regional policies.
Once part of the cocaine kingpin’s private zoo, the animals are now an invasive species impacting the local environment. But few in Colombia have the heart to kill them off.
An elderly COVID-19 victim, presumed to have been dead (and buried) for 20 days, has been located alive in the same Portuguese hospital where he was being treated. The 92-year-old, who had been hospitalized for about two months due to respiratory problems, was infected with COVID-19 while in the hospital the Jornal de Noticias reported […]
Argentina must discern and deftly negotiate for its national interests in the rising, global trading order dominated by China.
-Essay- — What does it say at the bottom of a Norwegian ketchup bottle? — Opens at the other end. As a Swede, I know about a hundred jokes like that, and it wasn’t until I moved to Norway in my early twenties I realized Norwegians tell the exact same ones about Swedes. This fraternal […]
“I’m not against hijab in principle; I myself wear it,’ says one mother. ‘But I refuse to have my daughter wear it against her will.”
Residents in the far-flung city of Trinidad, Bolivia can rest assured: 1,100 doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine were successfully delivered this week, albeit by the most unlikely of means. After being flown into the region on a flight operated by the national airline Boliviana de Aviación, the potentially life-saving cargo was loaded […]
The head of state, a political outsider who had promised to fight corruption, must contend with the powerful oligarchs in his own entourage at the risk of disappointing his voters.
It was quite an entrance earlier this week in Stockholm, when a man came rushing into a local bar holding a revving chainsaw. The guests managed to flee through the backdoor and no one was harmed, reports Swedish daily Expressen. Following the suspect’s arrest on Tuesday, it was revealed that he had a history of […]
ROME — The story began grimly, with an all too familiar ring: another Italian grandmother had tested positive for COVID-19. At the age of 98, Nonna Maria was at particularly high risk in one of countries hit hardest by the pandemic — and though she had only developed light symptoms, doctors told her to remain […]
Since 1979, Iran’s presence on the African continent has been part of a push for ideological expansion and anti-Americanism, to the detriment of economic and political relations.
German psychologist Stephan Grünewald has some insights on how nearly a year’s worth of coronavirus restrictions are impacting people’s mental health.
Welcome to Tuesday, where drug companies are being called out for vaccine delays, Italy slips into a political crisis and a special lion is born in Singapore. We also look at the rise and fall of Uber in Egypt. Why local history matters in a globalized world History, as it takes place on the local […]
Founded a century (or centuries) ago, these businesses survived world wars and economic depressions. Now the pandemic could close them forever.
Mexico’s current leader, and loud-and-proud leftist, has more in common with the outgoing U.S. president, a conservative Republican, than many people realize.
A motley crew barging into the U.S. Capitol can hardly be considered to be an attack on democracy in a country where capitalism has already systematically squeezed the rights of common folk.
Civil society’s scope and powers are taking a hit in places like Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil.