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.
INVESTIGATORS SAY ALPS CRASH WAS DELIBERATEThe co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps Monday, killing all 150 people on board, took sole control of plane and intentionally started the descent, officials say. He has been identified as 28-year-old German national Andreas Lubitz. The New York Times reports that voice recordings from […]
Hundreds of thousands have left Spain, until recently a land of plenty with a booming real estate sector, to seek work abroad. American countries are favored destinations, even if recession is now raising its ugly head there.
That shade of blue you often find on the Greek island of Santorini was also perfect for this donkey’s saddle. “The Donkey That Wanted To Be A Chameleon” would make a great fable by Jean de La Fontaine, wouldn’t it?
Caribbean states are aware of the environment’s crucial value for tourism and their overall economies. Still, much of the investment is in upgrading high-end hotels and resorts.
BLACK BOX EXAMINED AFTER GERMANWINGS CRASH Photo: Maxppp/ZUMAA search and recovery operation continues in the French Alps, as investigators have started examining the black box of the Germanwings flight travelling from Barcelona to Düsseldorf that crashed yesterday with 150 people on board. French officials told reporters that the first findings from the recording devices would […]
“Nothing but debris and bodies” reads French daily Libération“s front page, conveying the state of shock and disbelief around Europe the day after an Airbus A320 carrying 150 people crashed in the southern French Alps. According to Alain Vidalies, France’s junior minister of transport, there were no survivors from the crash of flight 4U9525. Search […]
These Dutch klompen in Volendam bring back a precise chidhood memory: In 1940, when I was about the age of the boy on the left of the picture, I fled from my hometown in zone occupée to the village of Lacrost in the region of Bourgogne — then in zone libre … and I had […]
As it faces an aging population, China has announced plans to raise its retirement age. But the better solution, and a clearly more urgent issue, is to encourage couples to have more children.
“NO SURVIVORS” EXPECTED IN ALPS PLANE CRASHPhoto: A Germanwings Airbus A320 — Xinhua/ZUMAAn Airbus A320 carrying 150 people crashed in the southern French Alps near the town of Digne this morning, and French President François Hollande has said officials expect no survivors in what represents the first crash of a low-budget airline in Europe. VERBATIM“It […]
I Kathimerini, March 24, 2015 Alexis Tsipras and Angela Merkel look like they were having a hard time understanding each other on Tuesday’s front page of Greek daily I Kathimerini. The German chancellor was welcoming the Greek prime minister in Berlin — his first visit to Germany since taking office in January — as Tsipras […]
The mighty Danube divides Buda and Pest, the two cities that were unified in 1873 to form the Hungarian capital. The 19th century Széchenyi chain suspension bridge was the first permanent bridge across the river, becoming a national symbol of this linkage between East and West.
Today Worldcrunch celebrates his Hit It! curator and nonchalant rock star Patrick making yet another successful trip around the sun. Surely, this calls for an Italian new wave/gothic rock/post-punk band, right?
The European Union was built atop the rubble of so much bad history, meant to build democracy and keep peace among neighbors. But something came undone, and the union itself is now in mortal peril.
MERKEL MEETS TSIPRAS IN BERLINGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Berlin today, starting a week that Bloomberg characterizes as “decisive for Greece’s future in the euro area.” According to the Financial Times, Tsipras told Merkel in a letter last week that without the European Union’s continued support, it would […]
I could have run into famous French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson in the steep streets of Bonifacio. In 1969, the same year I went there for the first time, the master took a series of black-and-white pictures of Corsica.
Lula da Silva spent liberally when the Brazilian economy was booming, leaving Dilma Rousseff to face the deferred impact of the global recession. His personal popularity aside, the country’s current woes are largely his fault.
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YEMEN MOSQUES ATTACKEDTwo suicide bombers attacked two separate mosques in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa during Friday prayers, killing at least 35 worshipers and wounding dozens more, according to early reports from Al-Arabiya. This story is developing. U.S. “RETHINKS” ISRAELI APPROACHU.S. President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to congratulate him on Tuesday’s […]
Not much to do in Kathmandu? On the doorstep of a Hindu temple, these Nepalese men seemed on the verge of following the dog’s example.
In New Orleans, we were granted access to a warehouse where they keep the papier-mâché heads of the famous figures destined for the Mardi Gras floats. Granted, Reagan is pretty well done. We were stumped on the one in the middle; as for the one on the right, if we had been in France, I […]
TUNISIA DECLARES WAR ON TERRORISMPhoto: Adel/Xinhua/ZUMATunisia is in a state of shock today after the terror attack on the National Bardo Museum in the capital yesterday left 19 people dead and 44 wounded, most of them foreign tourists. In Paris-based Libération, Algerian writer Kamel Daoud says that yesterday’s “sniper attack” targeted the “true heart of […]
The Sidobre mountainous forest in central France, studded with massive, weirdly shaped rocks, is unique in Europe. And though, contrary to Stonehenge’s standing stones or Brittany’s menhirs, man had nothing to do with these geological formations, the place has also inspired many legends and tales — and allowed my daughter Cécile to pretend she was […]
NETANYAHU WINSExit polls had them neck-and-neck yesterday evening but in the end, Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party secured a solid victory ahead of the centrist Zionist Union led by Isaac Herzog. Likud came in with an expected 30 Knesset seats ahead of 24 for the Zionist Union. With pre-voting polls suggesting a defeat of the […]
Chinese consumers still don’t trust goods made in their own country. The latest buy-abroad craze? Japanese toilet seats. Why the country must pull up its pants and stand proud.
ISRAEL VOTESPhoto: Omer Messinger/ZUMAMillions of Israelis are voting today to elect a new parliament and potentially a new prime minister in a tightly fought election that has become a referendum on incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running for a fourth term. Late polls show center-left opponent Isaac Herzog, leader of the Zionist Union, with a […]
The valleys of south Ecuador are lush, and the Andean foothills impressive. But 22 years ago, it was better to look up, not down because the amount of plastic waste along the roads was simply astonishing.
Brazilians are furious as their personal prosperity slips away amid reports of runaway corrruption. All the while, President Rousseff looks forced to impose new austerity measures. Which way out?
CYCLONE LEAVES 150,000 HOMELESS Photo: Luo Xiangfeng/Xinhua/ZUMAA tearful Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale urged the world to send humanitarian help immediately to the South Pacific archipelago after cyclone Pam devastated the country over the weekend. “The humanitarian need is immediate,,” he said. According to aid agencies, up to 150,000 people could be left homeless in the […]
When we first visited Tunisia, the tourism industry was just starting to take off in the country, although most of the economy still relied on farming. Here in the oasis of Tozeur, it was the harvest of dates.
Buildings, tarmac and air conditioning are turning some cities into fetid, airless saunas. Experts urge more trees and grass to mitigate the heat of increasingly hot cement jungles.
Scandals and stagnation, crime and curbs on democracy are spreading across the region. Are things about to take a sharp turn back to the bad old days?
With the Panama Canal set to expand and Nicaragua planning its own huge canal, the Caribbean is bracing for big shifts in shipping traffic. On the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, hard questions from both fishermen and environmentalists.
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In the barren Hungarian puszta, livestock dehorning is out of the question — unlike in my native France, for instance. That’s lucky for the Hungarian Grey cattle, with their long slender horns.
TIKRIT SIEGE TIGHTENS Iraqi armed forces and Shia militias were surrounding ISIS fighters inside the city of Tikrit yesterday with Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi confident that victory over the terrorist group was only a matter of time. “Time is on our side. We have the initiative,” AFP quoted him as saying. Since the operation started […]
Obama’s executive order slapping sanctions on Venezuelan officials is ostensibly in defense of liberty. But it could just as well be another of a long line of aggressive American interventions.
U.S. SENDS WEAPONS TO UKRAINEThe United States will send more “non-lethal” military equipment to Ukrainian forces, including Humvees, drones and night-vision goggles, $75 million worth, a senior administration official said yesterday. Washington also extended its sanctions on Russia by adding a bank and eight Ukrainian rebels to the list of targets, Reuters reports. The decisions […]
Elephants, symbols of steadfastness and mental strength in Buddhist culture, are a recurring motif in Sri Lankan sculpture. Some of the finest examples can be found in Anuradhapura, the former center of Theravada Buddhism.
The announcement of major layoffs for Tesla China, the entrepreneur’s electric car company, prompts a deeper analysis of Musk as manager.
ISIS VIDEO SHOWS CHILD KILLING TEENA video posted online by ISIS shows a young boy fatally shooting 19-year-old Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab whom the terrorist group accused of being a spy for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence services, Reuters IRAQI FORCES ENTER TIKRITThe Iraqi military, in alliance with private Shia militias, have entered parts of […]