Muslims are supposed to save water, Christians and Jews energy. In the past, we blamed those ideologies for ecological crises.
Author: Bertrand Hauger
Bertrand Hauger is a graduate of La Sorbonne Nouvelle school of bilingual journalism, and joined Worldcrunch after working briefly as a reporter in a local newspaper in his native eastern France. He now serves as Worldcrunch’s deputy editor-in-chief and director of content.
Watch Darth Vader’s heavy breathing in German, Yoda in Russian riffin’, and Princess Leia declare her love in French … in our 90-second video, to celebrate the release of the Star Wars franchise’s 7th installment.
CALIFORNIA SHOOTING MAY BE TERRORISM FBI officials investigating the Wednesday San Bernardino shooting that left 14 people dead and 21 wounded are probing a potential terrorist motive, though that connection has yet to be substantiated, the Los Angeles Times reports. Police officers told reporters that the level of planning and the arsenal used by killers […]
“Justice at last” writes Johannesburg-based daily The Citizen, one day after Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was found guilty of murder as a South African appeals court overturned an earlier manslaughter verdict. Pistorius could now face a 15-year prison term, after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) overturned his earlier conviction of culpable homicide to murder […]
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The Lord’s Way
This Orthodox bishop in the Greek city of Patras was on his way to St Andrew’s Cathedral, the largest church in the country.
As Venezuela’s government becomes nervous about possible defeat in parliamentary elections Sunday, its threatening rhetoric shows signs it might refuse to acknowledge a loss at the polls. Then, all bets are off.
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Old Bridge, Old Picture
This picture of the 14th-century Valentré stone arch bridge in southwestern France (one of the oldest in the country) is one of the very first photographs I took with my Exakta Varex camera. Though the German Ihagee brand is now defunct, the slides held pretty well — and are now digitized for all eternity with […]
CALIFORNIA SHOOTING: 14 DEAD, COUPLE SUSPECTED Photo: David Bauman/Press-Enterprise/ZUMA Police have identified a couple in their late 20s as the two shooters in the latest mass killing in the United States that left at least 14 people dead and 17 injured Wednesday in the southern Californian city of San Bernardino. UK BEGINS SYRIA STRIKES Britain’s […]
The speaker of Brazil’s lowest house of Parliament, Eduardo Cunha, has initiated impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. The political showdown between two leaders described as “arch enemies” was put in stark terms on the Thursday edition of Portuguese-language Brazilian daily Correio, which used the English word “Impeachment” on the front page. Rousseff is facing […]
UK TO VOTE ON SYRIA AIRSTRIKES Photo: Andrew Parsons/i-Images/ZUMA British Members of Parliament are set to vote on whether the United Kingdom will join the United States, France and Russia and several other countries in carrying out airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. The vote is expected late Wednesday after a long debate in the House […]
Clarin, Dec. 2, 2015 “Father, millionaire* and caring,” Argentine daily Clarin joins some North American dailies in giving ample space on the front page Wednesday to news that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced, in the form of an open letter to their newborn daughter Max, that they will donate 99% […]
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A Different Proverb
Here’s a Moroccan version of “like a bull in a china shop.” I must say “like three sheep in a pottery souk” doesn’t have quite the same ring.
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Lake Of Diamonds
During this cold night of May, the lake had frozen, and in the morning the banks were sparkling like diamonds … Beautiful, but chilly. Thankfully, at the Lake Louise Inn where we stayed, there was a fireplace in our bedroom.
GERMAN CABINET BACKS ANTI-ISIS CAMPAIGN After agreeing last week to send 650 soldiers to Mali to support 1,500 French troops deployed to fight Islamist extremists, Germany could be about to launch a military campaign in Syria. The German cabinet voted today to send reconnaissance aircraft, a naval frigate and a 1,200-strong military force to the […]
Roch Marc Christian Kaboré from the Movement of People for Progress was elected Burkina Faso’s new president, winning more than 53% of the vote in Sunday’s elections, according to an official tally late Monday night. It was the country’s first free election in 27 years, after authoritarian President Blaise Compaoré was toppled a year ago […]
La Croix, Nov. 30, 2015 “Climate, hope of a deal,” writes French daily La Croix on the front page on its Monday edition, with a picture of the top of the Eiffel Tower piercing a ceiling of clouds and pollution, as the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) kicks off in Paris. French […]
COP21 SUMMIT BEGINS Photo: 1heart1tree via Instagram French President François Hollande arrived this morning at Le Bourget airport to welcome nearly 150 world leaders, who have traveled to Paris for the much-anticipated global climate conference dubbed COP21. No summit in history has brought together this many heads of state in the interest of reaching meaningful […]
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Fish & Flowers
My wife was walking with a lei garland of flowers around her neck on a on the beach near Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Luckily, it was a windy day, so the ocean breeze kept the smell of the local fish away from us!
Deutsche Bank’s new chief John Cryan believes end-of-year bonus demands harm the company. But bonus culture may be too deeply embedded throughout the financial sector.
KREMLIN WON’T JOIN SINGLE ANTI-ISIS COALITION Photo: Dai Tianfang/Xinhua/ZUMA The Kremlin said today that Western nations were “not ready” to form a single coalition with Russia to defeat ISIS, AFP reports. The comments come one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with French President François Hollande at the end of a diplomatic blitz in […]
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From A Lost Tower
I took this shot from the top of the World Trade Center.
TOKYO — The large speakers at Quattro Labo, a music bar near Kichijoji Station in western Tokyo, mostly play U.S. rock music from the 1960s and 1970s: Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, the Allman Brothers Band. Not only that, but the sound has a depth to it — along with the distinct scratch-and-pop effect — that […]
HOLLANDE MEETS PUTIN IN MOSCOW French President François Hollande is set to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later today in Moscow in the hopes of forming an international military coalition against ISIS. Hollande has been engaged in a diplomatic blitz this week, having met with British Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. President Barack Obama, German […]
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Pope Kicks Off First Trip To Africa In Kenya
Thousands of people braved heavy rain on Thursday to take part in Pope Francis’ open-air mass at a university campus in Kenya’s capital on the pontiff’s first visit to Africa. The front page of Nairobi-based daily The Star, featured the pope’s arrival on Wednesday, where he was welcomed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. In his […]
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Miraculously Spared
The baroque Merced church is something of a curiosity in Antigua, Guatemala, a city famous for its ruins of colonial churches: It held up admirably well after a series of devastating earthquakes in the 18th and 19th centuries, after which the capital was moved from Antigua to its current location, Guatemala City.
The Islamic State has been significantly weakened, at least from a military point of view, in Iraq and Syria. But the final blow keeps being postponed, even as jihadists strike in the heart of the West.
TURKEY-RUSSIA TENSIONS REMAIN HIGH Photo: Russian Look/ZUMA “An unprecedented crisis,” warns Turkish daily Hürriyet on the front page of its Wednesday edition, a day after two Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border. Although the downing of the plane sparked fears of increased tension between the two nations, Turkey’s President Recep […]
“An unprecedented crisis,” warns Turkish daily Hürriyet on the front page of its Wednesday edition, a day after two Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border. Although the downing of the plane sparked fears of increased tension between the two nations, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech, […]
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A Quest For Balance
Watching the acrobatic show at the Shanghai Circus, one can’t help but think, “There’s got to be a trick.” But no, the stunning tower of chairs is genuine — the result of gestures perfected over 2,000 years in the quest for perfect balance.
TURKEY SHOOTS DOWN RUSSIAN JET Two Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane this morning near the Syrian border after the Turkish military repeated warnings about airspace violations. This is the first time the armed forces of a NATO member shot down a Russian or Soviet aircraft since the 1950s, Reuters reports. The Turkish military […]
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Russia Rebuilt
The village of Mandrogi, by the Svir River, is a tourist destination built in 1996 at the site of a village destroyed in World War II. The buildings, recreated in the traditional northern Russian style, house craft workshops and retail shops.
LOCKDOWN, MANHUNT CONTINUE IN BRUSSELS The terror threat In the Belgian capital of Brussels remains at its maximum level, with the city entering its third consecutive day under lockdown, Le Soir reports. Schools, universities and most public transportation are closed, as the police continue to hunt suspect Salah Abdeslam, believed to have participated in the […]
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Traditions On TV
Singing and dancing groups from all over the world, including the choir I conducted at the time, met in Middlesbrough, northern England, for the Teesside International Eisteddfod — a folk traditions festival so prestigious it was broadcast on the BBC.
Bewildering technology and savage capitalism fuels desperation and hatred against the West. War was declared a long time ago, and the underdeveloped world are the primary victims.
Long after the days of Pablo Escobar and cocaine cartels, Colombia has regained the crown as world’s No. 1 producer of coca. It gives further urgency that FARC-government peace talks succeed.
JIHADISTS ATTACK MALI HOTEL Ten gunmen screaming “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greater”) stormed the luxurious Radisson Blu Hotel this morning in the Mali capital of Bamako, initially taking at least 140 guests and 30 staff members hostage, Reuters reports. Eighty hostages have since been freed, but citing an unnamed UN official, CNN reports that at […]
PARIS — One week after the Paris terrorist attacks that killed at least 129, here are some of the magazine covers from France and other countries around the world: FRANCE “How to defeat ISIS” — L’Obs “Our war” — Le Point “To souls, citizens” A reference to the French national anthem “La Marseillaise“ — Courrier […]
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Enough Rum For Everyone
On the French island of Martinique, the La Mauny distillery is one of the biggest in the Lesser Antilles. About 30,000 tons of sugarcane are ground there every year, to produce three million liters of rum. Cheers!
BELGIAN POLICE RAIDS IN BRUSSELS Belgian police conducted a series of raids in Brussels today to find information related to one of the Paris suicide bombers and also arrested someone during a separate house search, Reuters reports. FRENCH PM WARNS OF POSSIBLE CHEMICAL ATTACK ISIS could attempt chemical attacks in France and other European countries, […]