Worldcrunch
ELEFSINA — Greece must repay 7 billion euros of debt by July. But, as has been the case since 2011, the country will not be able to honor its debt without first receiving the credit promised by the International Monetary Fund and the members of the eurozone in July 2015 (86 billion euros). Athens’ creditors […]
With dire economics and the Trump immigration crackdown, the situation is fluid in the troubled Mexican border city.
Introducing deep thoughts to early child education can pay off later.
Japanese and Chinese rivals battle for dominance in this billion-dollar industry, a tale of a worldwide economy drawing ever closer.
WASHINGTON — With President Donald Trump in his fourth full week in office, the upheaval inside the administration that West Wing officials had optimistically dismissed as growing pains is now cementing itself as standard operating procedure. Trump — distracted by political brushfires often of his own making — has failed to fill such key posts as White House communications director, while sub-Cabinet positions across agencies and scores of ambassadorships around the globe still sit empty. Upset about damaging leaks of his calls with world leaders and other national security information, Trump has ordered an internal investigation to find the leakers. […]
SAO PAULO — When the contraceptive pill first appeared in the 1960s, it was celebrated as a symbol of sexual freedom for women. But an increasing number of women in Brazil now see it very differently. Many say the pill has become something that is imposed on them by their partners. They believe it has […]
WASHINGTON — The world seems to be stepping into a new era — literally. As if, all of a sudden, the Gregorian calendar is no longer valid and the world needs to start counting from the beginning. On January 20 of the year 2017, according to the old calendar, the new Trumpian calendar will start […]
After Brexit and Trump, Europe is forced to fight back. The precious Transatlantic Alliance may be at risk.
Big Brother, if and when he arrives, will start out looking small. Take that mundane office badge or key card you use to pass security before entering your office. Rather than having to carry one around, and risk losing it, technological advances make it easy enough these days to get an RFID microchip implanted in […]
-Analysis- More than 4,500 people lost their lives off the Libyan coast last year. And yet, there have never been so many vessels carrying out rescue missions in the area — from Italian coast guard ships and European operation Eunavfor vessels to those from the border control agency Frontex and others chartered by NGOs. This […]
GENEVA — Sapiosexual. The word only recently emerged from Internet limbo to warrant real-world study. It defines a sexual orientation. Namely, that of a person who will be sexually attracted to another person solely because of their intelligence, their erudition. In other words, a sapiosexual is someone sexually obsessed with IQ. For such a person, […]
After the stunning Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s election in the United States, all eyes shifted to the land of “liberté, égalité, fraternité” to see what modern democracy held in store, as French voters cast their ballots in the April 23 first round of the presidential election. And it did not disappoint, with France’s two […]
-Analysis- PARIS — For more than 70 years, the United States was the ultimate life insurance policy for Europe against the Soviet and now Russian thirst for power. The U.S. also held sway in Asia, in large part to counter China and to contain North Korea’s dangerous and eccentric drifts. The rise of China’s economic […]
It was always going to be a tricky nomination. Still, Brazilian President Michel Temer could hardly have made a more controversial choice for the vacant seat on the nation’s Supreme Court. With anti-corruption investigation Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) still very much at the center of national debate, giving the nod to his close ally and […]
-Essay- LAUSANNE — The cult of the strong man is back at the forefront of our societies, albeit in different forms. There are strong-man politicians, military leaders, even autonomous survivalists. And yet as formidable as he may be, the strong man finds himself challenged by someone even better, even more powerful: the augmented man. Against […]
CHONGQING — Every day since 2014, a train leaves from the western German city of Duisburg. It winds its way across Europe and Asia to finally reach Chongqing, a megalopolis of 28 million inhabitants in southwestern China. Huge cranes there extract gigantic matchbox-like containers from the train. BMW cars made in Germany are taken from […]
CORK — On a December morning, as my plane pierces the ceiling of clouds and begins its descent toward the airport of Cork, my eyes are drawn to the flocks of sheep spread across the green fields below. It’s hard to imagine but this seemingly rural backdrop in southern Ireland houses the European headquarters of […]
CAIRO — Strolling through Lisbon’s hilltop alleys in 2008, I came across a shop selling uniquely designed “upcycled” products, things made by reusing material that would otherwise be discarded. The items there included a milk-carton wallet, a liquor-bottle lamp and a cereal-box notebook cover. In my young, hopeful state, I felt right at home. It […]
The arrival of Russia-friendly Donald Trump in the White House has heightened concerns that Moscow is ready for its next move after Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.
I live in a small village in the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France with my four brothers and sisters. My father works in industrial maintenance and my mother takes care of the family. I attended kindergarten because I had asked to go there. But I left after a year. My siblings aged 18, 15, 12 […]
-OpEd- When Donald Trump spoke at his inauguration on Jan. 20, there wasn’t even a hint of trying to be magnanimous. Instead, he called for the most narrow-minded form of nationalism. It’s tempting to see this as one of the many personal shortcomings of the new president of the United States. But that’s not the […]
France has long been the only country in continental Europe to invest in its military. Though others are now reacting to new threats, it may be too little too late.
Like the jousting events of the Middle Ages, modern-day tennis tournaments combine skill and courage with unparalleled excitement and drama.
MANAUS — There’s a gang war raging across northern Brazil. It has led to prison riots in which close to 100 inmates have been killed since the beginning of the year. This violence is linked to the flow of cocaine from Peru to Brazil’s northern, northeastern and central-western regions. The money involved is huge — […]
PARIS — Even as President Trump appears clearly convinced that eight years of Obama environmental policy were bad for business, other governments are betting on the massive investments that energy transition requires. Le Figaro reports that France has become the world’s second country to issue green bonds, raising a record 7 billion euros ($7.5 billion) […]
Among the world’s many gloomy corners, it is hard to get any gloomier than Brazil. After a drug war broke out among several criminal groups, leading to huge prison riots and the death of close to 100 inmates, what looks like a worrying yellow fever outbreak and the death of the Supreme Court judge leading […]
Well that was quite a first weekend. After Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, an estimated two million people took to the streets worldwide to protest against the controversial new president, who continued his open warfare with the American press — and some would say, with the truth itself. Now, he faces a first work week […]
‘We wondered how we should react until they told us they’d been wounded by the regime forces and had nowhere else to go …’
Newspapers across the globe featured a defiant, ‘America First’ Donald Trump taking over the White House.
MINAS GERAIS — After two failed attempts to get vaccinated against yellow fever, 72-year-old José Pedro de Jesus woke up before dawn to get the job done. He lives in a municipality in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais in Brazil called Piedade de Caratinga, where four people are believed to have died of the […]
Beyond the beltway, far from America’s heartland: the most unlikely of incoming U.S. presidents is daily bread for the international press. See what they’re saying.
-Analysis- With the violence that ISIS has sown in the West, it’s sometimes easy to forget about Boko Haram, another Islamist terror outfit, which while pledging allegiance to ISIS has confined its horrors to western Africa. There, it has killed an estimated 20,000 people since 2009, with methods of murder that have included using young […]
Women held in Syria’s government prisons report psychological abuse, sexual assault and torture. But for many, the suffering they experience after their release is even worse.
It is yet another alliance of ideas that fiction could not have invented. The leftist vice president of Bolivia, who has never disavowed his Marxist past, is seeing eye-to-eye with a certain out-for-himself American real estate mogul with a taste for gold-plated everything. Writing for America Economia, Álvaro García Linera has penned a kind of […]
Pete Souza has worked for the Chicago Tribune, Life and National Geographic. He’s covered the war in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks and the beginning of Barack Obama’s Senate career. He’s been the White House’s official photographer twice, for Ronald Reagan and for Barack Obama. At 62, Souza is always ready for another shot. But […]
-OpEd- SAO PAULO — Donald Trump is horrifying. Still, there’s a part of his package that could be quite useful to have in Brazil. I’m referring to the president-elect’s threats against General Motors, Ford and Toyota to try and force them to bring back factories installed in Mexico to the United States. It’s true that […]
PARIS — Here’s some terrible news for millions of people around the world who need pacemakers, insulin pumps or electrodes that relieve chronic pain or symptoms of Parkinson’s disease: These implant devices can be easily hacked. Remember that episode from television series Homeland a few years ago? The one when hackers attempted to kill a […]
WASHINGTON, DC — President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he has “NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” Trump, however, has a long history with Russia, trying repeatedly to build luxury properties in Moscow, holding a beauty pageant there, and benefiting from heavy investments from Russians in his properties around the world. It is not possible to verify whether Trump has no current deals or loans with Russian entities because he has refused to release his tax returns. But a look at Trump’s record since the 1980s shows that he and his family long have […]
-OpEd- PARIS — As far as beginnings go, this is a terrible start. As a matter of fact, it’s going badly before it has even started. Though American politics has no shortage of scandals, this is still unprecedented. One week before his inauguration, President-elect Trump finds himself under devastating fire. Accused of mixing with a […]
SAO PAULO — The hatchet has been dug up. No surprise there. The truce brought about in the ride-hailing war by Didi Chuxing’s acquisition of Uber’s Chinese operation in August was only ever going to be temporary. Instead, this hiatus allowed both competitors to pick a new battleground: Brazil. São Paulo-based business magazine Exame reported […]