WorldcrunchBertrand 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.
Bled Castle in northwestern Slovenia sure looks impregnable, perched as it is atop a steep cliff more than 100 meters above Lake Bled. From where I took this photo, it actually seemed unreachable.
After Colombian Energy Giant Mansarovar announced plans for oil exploration around one of Colombia’s natural reserves, local farmers asked Pope Francis to intervene.
GREECE APPROVES THIRD BAILOUT After what the newspaper Kathimerini describes as “a tempestuous night of debate,” Greek lawmakers this morning approved the deal reached with international lenders for a third Greek bailout. It will now go to the Eurozone’s finance ministers, who are due to meet later today, and all eyes will focus on the […]
LlanfairÂpwllgwyngyllÂgogeryÂchwyrnÂdrobwllÂllanÂtysilioÂgogoÂgoch — or Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, for “short.” What looks like an authentic Welsh name (it means “Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave”) is actually a 1860s publicity stunt meant to attract tourists to this village on the island […]
ISIS CLAIMS BAGHDAD ATTACK ISIS has claimed responsibility for an attack in Baghdad that killed at least 76 people and wounded 212 this morning. A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up inside the popular Jamila food market in Sadr City, a predominantly Shia neighborhood. It represents one of the biggest acts of violence in […]
My 4-year-old daughter and my father could not look more 1960s if they tried, posing by — and on — a cannon on the square in front of the Prince’s Palace of Monaco.
CHINA DEVALUES YUAN AGAIN China’s central bank stunned global markets by cutting the yuan’s value against the dollar for a second day in a row, this time by 1.6% after deciding on a 1.9% devaluation Tuesday. It’s yet more evidence that the country’s economy may be in a worse state than the government claims. As […]
Clarin, Aug. 12, 2015 “Six municipalities under water and 20,000 affected in the province,” Argentine daily Clarin writes on the front page of its Wednesday edition, alongside a picture of people forced to canoe their way around the city of Salto, after heavy weekend rains caused severe floods in the Buenos Aires area. The cities […]
This group of Mauritian musicians were having a picnic on the beach, in the ocean breeze, to the sounds of the ravanne goatskin drum and the triangle — traditional instruments of the Séga genre.
GUNFIRE AT FERGUSON ANNIVERSARY MARCH Police officers in Ferguson, Mo., shot and wounded a young man who reportedly fired his gun at them during an otherwise peaceful protest march to commemorate Sunday’s one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of officer Darren Wilson. The suspect, who reportedly unleashed a “remarkable amount of gunfire,” […]
In central China’s Xi’an, we spent a memorable evening at a fancy hotel listening to traditional Chinese music. (The lady in the foreground was playing the guzheng, the one in the back the pipa). But what I remember most had nothing to do with the music: We were sitting next to Portugal’s then-President Mario Soares, […]
St. Louis-Post Dispatch, Aug. 9, 2015 “A Painful Year,” the headline in Sunday’s front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reads, above a photo of Michael Brown Sr. pausing after a five-mile march from his son’s memorial in Ferguson, Mo. The otherwise peaceful protest march to commemorate Sunday’s one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death at […]
In Belém, the gateway to the Amazon River in northern Brazil, we were able to admire impressive examples of the Victoria amazonica (or Victoria regia, as it used to be called) which grows mostly in this region. The largest water lily on Earth, we were told it could sustain the weight of a small dog.
OBAMA TO UNVEIL CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION PLAN U.S. President Barack Obama is set to unveil what he described as “the biggest, most important step we’ve ever taken” to tackle climate change. The revised Clean Power Plan aims at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by almost one-third over the next 15 years and represents “the administration’s boldest […]
For 2,000 years, the Roman aqueduct of Segovia, in central Spain, has defied the passage of time. With the French Pont du Gard (of which I’ll show you a picture soon), it’s one of the best preserved examples of its kind.
With only the most basic tools at his disposal, this roadside blacksmith in Jaisalmer, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, managed to forge very robust knives.
The village of Fatima in central Portugal became known worldwide in 1917, when three young shepherds said the Virgin Mary appeared to them. Since then, she appears in various forms and packaging to whoever steps into one of Fatima’s religious shops.
Looking at this shot of the open-air market in Medan, on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, I distincly remember the incredibly strong smell of dry fish. Luckily for you, scentography has not yet been successfully developed.
The plastered façades of the mudbrick houses in and around Luxor, in eastern Egypt, are decorated with memorable episodes in the life of their owners. On many of the houses, one can see a large space devoted to the representation of the owners’ pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj, one of the most important experiences in […]
The paws are all that remain of the Sigiriya, the “Lion Rock” in central Sri Lanka. The giant sculpture was meant to guard the entrance to a now-destroyed palace — and judging only by the size of one of its claw (this is my wife sitting next to it), one can imagine it was doing […]
In the northeast of Canada“s New Brunswick province, the Village Historique Acadien depicts life as it was between the late 18th and early 20th century in Acadia, the area settled by French colonizers in North America. Dressed in period costumes, the village’s actors brought ancestral trades to life, allowing us to travel back through time, […]
STUTTGART — Very few topics are taboo in our society these days, but there is at least one subject people are reluctant to discuss: domestic violence against men. A Stuttgart pilot project known as “Save Men from Violence” is meant to offer much needed help to victims in this German city of 600,000. According to […]
Here is a preview of our exclusive newsletter to keep up-to-date and stay inspired by Smart City innovations from around the world.
Many shapes hide in the pink ganite of the calanques de Piana, on the French island of Corsica. Given the right angle, you may see a monk, a lion, a devil’s head — or in this case, a heart.
A stone’s throw from the Great Pyramids, these traditional potters used a peculiar, ancient technique: While we’re used to seeing the clay turn on a wheel, the man here used a kind of crank to carve the inside of his bowl.
“Wounded, He Continues Until Further Notice,” writes left-leaning Greek daily Efimerida ton Syntakton on the front-page headline of its Thursday edition after the Greek parliament approved a package of tough measures leading a third bailout deal. The he in question is Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who won a bittersweet approval late Wednesday of the […]
Having myself long been the conductor of a choir, it was only natural that I should snap a picture of this adorable orchestra of bamboo flutes in the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
If, like me, you believe in the truth of Latin roots, we can agree that the beautiful Corsican town of Bonifacio was aptly named: It means “well-fated.”
PARIS — After a marathon 15-hour meeting, Greece and the 18 other Eurozone members finally reached an agreement to avoid a “Grexit.” The Greeks will keep the euro and receive financial support in exchange for implementing a stringent program of reforms by Wednesday at the latest. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras welcomed the deal which […]
Le petit-fils (grandson) is back from his vacation through seven states in the southeastern United States. He tells me that the horse head hitching posts I saw in New Orleans 23 years ago are still there — though they’re not used by the innumerable carriage tours that have now invaded the city’s French Quarter.
GREXIT AVERTED, TSIPRAS IN TROUBLE AT HOME After a 15-hour negotiation that represented the longest European summit meeting in history, Greece and its EU partners finally reached a unanimous agreement to avoid a “Grexit” and keep the euro in Greece. European Council President Donald Tusk announced the success of the marathon negotiations this morning in […]
CAIRO — Interested in planting summer vegetables such as pepper, zucchini or molokhia? Now is just about the right time of year to plant, says Hany El Khodary, head of urban farming company Green Zone Egypt. Even city dwellers with no outdoor space apart from a small balcony can grow small gardens or recycle some […]
-Analysis- MUNICH — Slaughterhouses and farms are becoming increasingly larger in size. Tracing the origins of an animal has become next to impossible as our sources of meat are increasingly transported across Europe, and the world. This not only affects the animals but inevitably us as well. The schnitzel on your plate was once a […]
From the top of the cathedral’s towers, the Notre-Dame gargoyles — designed by genius Gothic Revival architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc — have been watching over the roofs of Paris, the Tour Saint-Jacques and the Sacré-Coeur since the 1840s.
GREXIT BECOMES MORE LIKELY Greece is edging closer to default and a potential Eurozone exit after talks with international creditors broke down once again late yesterday, The Guardian reports. Tensions with Berlin appear to be ratcheting up after the parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party said, “Greece needs to get back to reality.” […]
At least 24 people are still missing after severe flooding in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi that left at least 12 people dead. Potentially dangerous animals — including hungry tigers, lions and wolves — are on the loose too, as heavy rainfall damaged their zoo enclosures, allowing them to escape. Images of chaos and destruction in Tbilisi […]
This is how they used to farm oysters on the Île d’Oléron in western France: using tiles as cultch for the mollusks to attach to. This kind of traditional method has since largely disappeared.
Driving from what was then a peaceful Syria, we stopped in Jerash, in northern Jordan, to enjoy the view of the well-preserved ruins of the Greco-Roman city Gerasa.
Dong-A Ilbo, June 11, 2015 The outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) entered its third week in South Korea, with nine people dead, 122 declared cases of infection and growing concerns about the consequences of the virus on the economy. South Korean President Park Geun-hye canceled her planned Sunday trip to Washington to oversee […]
Some landmarks are baffling. Why has the statue of a naked little boy urinating into a fountain’s basin become so popular? More than the Manneken Pis, I remember Brussels for the only sauerkraut with champagne I’ve eaten in my life. Now that is a landmark.