Worldcrunch
👋 Haaahe!* Welcome to Friday, where Vladimir Putin warns Western troops deployed to Ukraine would be “legitimate targets,” Afghanistan is struck by third quake as death roll tops 2,200, and today’s quiz question is about David Bowie’s secret final project. Meanwhile, Bogotá-based daily El Espectador examines the debate over banning former Colombian soldiers from fighting […]
Less than three weeks after Emmanuel Macron announced his intention to recognize Palestine, Israel and the United States are increasingly mounting obstacles to the French diplomatic initiative. Israel accuses the French president of seeking to “undermine stability” in the Middle East.
Decades after the country introduced quotas, phantom candidacies and political deals still stifle women’s representation.
As Colombia considers banning former soldiers from fighting as mercenaries abroad — in places like Sudan — the government should first look into the economic conditions that push them into this ugly line of work.
👋 Sannu!* Welcome to Thursday, where Kim Jong-un affirms his support for Vladimir Putin, the UAE denounces Israeli plans to annex the West Bank, and today’s quiz question is about a Nazi-looted Italian painting. Meanwhile, we offer a tour du monde of the state of the debate as to whether adults can physically discipline children. […]
Europeans are preparing their plan to “reassure” Ukraine after a peace agreement that never materialized. Their goal is above all to convince Donald Trump to sanction Moscow, and to help Ukraine. But that will mean increasing the Continent’s dependence on the United States.
An elderly couple recently had to flee their home in Karachi after their son was unjustly accused under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Their case highlights how religious laws in the country are increasingly exploited for extortion and vendettas, leaving families vulnerable to threats and violence.
By trading class struggle for identity politics and lifestyle dogmas, Germany’s left has estranged ordinary citizens and handed the far right a chance to pose as their defenders.
👋 Rimaykullayki!* Welcome to Wednesday, where China unveils new weapons at massive military parade attended by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, Israel’s military pushes further into Gaza City, and today’s quiz question is about Sweden’s cultural heritage. Meanwhile, Norberto Abdala for Argentine daily Clarín offers a quick dive into the loaded psychology of money. [*Quechua] […]
Beijing is using the anniversary of the end of World War II to project its new power in opposition to the United States. Donald Trump has accused Xi Jinping of downplaying American support for China in defeating Japan and of “plotting” against America.
👋 Allo!* Welcome to Tuesday, where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has arrived for a historic visit in Beijing, a landslide kills more than 1,000 in Sudan’s Darfur region, and today’s quiz question features a surprising find by the French police. Meanwhile, Juanjo Ramón in Catalan-language digital media outlet Catalunya Plural looks at how Spain’s […]
The leaders of Russia, India and China were all smiles as they posed for a photo on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, with their thoughts on the “absent” Donald Trump. The battle for world order in the 21st century captured in a single photo.
The housing crisis is not only driving families from their homes, it is also emptying democracy of its substance. Into this vacuum, fear, hatred, and authoritarian rhetoric are growing and gaining ground, especially among young people and the working classes.
👋 Esama!* Welcome to Monday, where a major earthquake kills more than 600 people in Afghanistan, Putin claims he and Trump have come to “understandings” over the end of the war in Ukraine and today’s quiz question is about an unusually specific ban in Australia. Meanwhile, Stéphane Kovacs for French daily Le Figaro unpacks the […]
With the regional summit in Tianjin and the impressive military parade planned for Wednesday in Beijing, to be attended by Vladimir Putin and other non-Western leaders, Xi Jinping’s China is showing its ambition to position itself as the leader of a “front of opposition” to Trump’s America.
In February, Stino Muhindo Sivyaghendera lit a match and held it to the grass in the field of eucalyptus trees he’d planted three years earlier. In the months before, the army had set up a position there, and left deadly ordnance behind. He’d heard about two young men who were killed by an explosion in the area, and he didn’t want anyone to come to harm in his field.
With less social pressure, more financial autonomy for women and more opportunities to meet new people, there are many reasons for French couples in their 50s and 60s to separate — and to take pride in their decision.
Even after diplomatic overtures and red-carpet treatment abroad, Moscow answers with one of its deadliest strikes since the invasion, showing the Kremlin has no intention of negotiating an end to the war.
Poland’s historic “New Jerusalem” once housed a vibrant Hasidic Jewish community before being destruction in the horrors of the Holocaust.
With more than 115 attacks since 2023, Yemen’s Houthis now offer ship operators a website to register vessels and avoid drone or missile strikes, a move that raises alarms among maritime security experts and highlights the rebels’ bid to control global shipping lanes.
👋 Salut!* Welcome to Friday, where a Thai court dismisses the prime minister, the U.S. names a new CDC director and today’s quiz question is about a woman fined 110 euros by a French train operator. Meanwhile, Marco Revelli in Italian daily La Stampa writes about his time with author Primo Levi and how that […]
On Thursday, Europeans activated a mechanism at the UN to reinstate economic sanctions against Iran if, within 30 days, Tehran fails to meet its obligations regarding the nuclear program. The tense international context does not favor an agreement, which signals a worsening of the crisis.
Experts in flood mitigation see a national system decades behind. A disbanded FEMA advisory group was supposed to help.
Practitioners want legal recognition, critics call it pseudoscience. Can osteopathy really heal? The problem is that evidence is not always consistent.
I can’t help but juxtapose lines from Primo Levi with the images the television brings, every evening, to the warmth of my own home. And I feel a desperate sense of disorientation. And shame.
👋 नमस्ते* Welcome to Thursday, where Russia has launched a massive missile attack on Kyiv, floods in Pakistan displace 250,000 people and today’s quiz question is about a lawsuit involving Sting. Meanwhile, Emma Confrère in French daily Le Figaro focuses on the rise of cryptocurrency sponsors in sports, from Formula 1 to soccer. [*Namaste, Nepali] […]
The ink had barely dried on EU-U.S. trade agreement when Trump issued an ultimatum to eliminate digital regulations. Europe is now backed into a corner, caught between trade and security.
Particularly young sports fans are digitally oriented, and tend to be more “crypto-native”, which makes them a natural target for the industry.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been open about wanting to win a Nobel Peace Prize. But while some call his nomination “absurd,” he would not be the only surprising recipient.
👋 Buna Ziua!* Welcome to Wednesday, where Ukraine says Russia has entered the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on India have kicked in, and today’s quiz question is about a New Zealand snail named Ned. Meanwhile, writing in Colombian daily El Espectador, Fernando Araújo Vélez argues the true father of the Magic […]
Macron, Merz and Tusk are in Moldova on Wednesday to celebrate the anniversary of its independence and to lend political support to pro-European President Maia Sandu, one month before parliamentary elections marked by a pro-Russian offensive.
The UK Ministry of Defence has paid more than £8 million in compensation to survivors of child sexual abuse by military personnel since 2017. Military police now face allegations of cover-ups and failures to properly investigate cases, raising fresh questions about accountability.
With resources poured into the fight, allies watching, and propaganda framing it as a struggle against the West, President Vladimir Putin has locked Russia’s foreign policy into a war Moscow cannot afford to lose.
The Russian author of “Crime and Punishment” thought plain-old realism was not good enough in art. Realism, he believed, must be but a tool to reveal a bigger, “hidden” and even implausible realities of earthly existence. The notion was expanded on a century later far away in South America.
👋 Përshëndetje!* Welcome to Tuesday, where world leaders call out Israel for yesterday’s “double-tap” strike on a Gaza hospital that killed 20 people including five journalists, Pakistan evacuates 150,000 people after flood warning, and today’s quiz question comes courtesy of Carlos Alcaraz. Meanwhile, Guadalupe Rivero in Buenos Aires-based daily Clarín tells the story of Yamila […]
U.S. ambassador to France Charles Kushner’s inflammatory letter on antisemitism is part of a campaign against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to recognize the State of Palestine. It is an unwelcome interference in France’s affairs and a warning ahead of its 2027 presidential election.
An Argentine couple went from seeking out sexual threesomes as aficionados to opening a swingers’ club and even chairing a national association for like-minded, libertine couples who would open their relations in a “responsible” way.
None of this means submission or surrender or a call to capitulation, but a call to read the reality in Gaza where we are threatened with extermination and settlement and annexation.
👋 Bonjour!* Welcome to Monday, where Israeli strikes on a Gaza hospital kill at least 15, Vietnam braces for Typhoon Kajiki and a little bird has tipped us off about today’s quiz question from Hong Kong. Meanwhile Andrés Nieto Ramírez, writing in the Bogotá-based daily El Espectador, argues that Colombia’s anti-drug forces need to rethink […]
Ten days after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, the hopes for peace negotiations that it had raised have faded: Russia has set conditions that are difficult to accept. There is no meeting between Zelensky and Putin planned, Russian Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed yesterday. What will Trump do?