Last week, the great beatnik bard Bob Dylan gave his first interview in three years to AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons’ magazine — a peculiar choice until you consider that the AARP publication actually has the largest magazine circulation in the U.S. The interview proves, if it’s even necessary, that at age 73 […]
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.
ISIS LOSES LONG KOBANI BATTLEAfter more than four months of intense fighting, Kurdish fighters have taken control of the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border and have driven out ISIS fighters, though these still occupy important areas outside the town, Reuters reports. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 1,600 […]
The anti-corruption activist, under house arrest in Moscow, says that Putin is pursuing war in Ukraine to consolidate his power and fulfill his ambition to be Russia’s “president for life.”
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Balancing Act
The inhabitants of Nazaré lent themselves well to portraits back when people were more open to being photographed than today. This woman was carrying a recycled oil can that she used to draw water from a well.
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FIRST QUARTER MOON – Jan. 26 – Feb. 2
(March 21 to April 19) Professional connections developed last week now turn out to be winning options. A positive phone call or reply comes your way around Jan. 30. It is a good time for work, which will dominate your sky in this lunar cycle — but this doesn’t mean emotions are to be forgotten. […]
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Syriza Wins Greek Election, Europe Reacts
SYRIZA WINS GREEK ELECTIONAs expected, Greece’s anti-austerity party Syriza secured a resounding victory in yesterday’s general election but came just two seats short of an absolute majority in the parliamentary assembly. But the far-left party has already struck a coalition agreement with the right-wing Greek Independents, which also rejects the austerity policies that have plunged […]
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Mini Brides
For their First Communion, these German mädchen were still dressed as little brides, before albs became more customary.
Revelations of massive corruption at Petrobras come with more than economic consequences. The credibility of the entire state is at stake. All eyes are on President Dilma Rousseff.
SAUDI KING ABDULLAH DIES“The Good King Leaves, Salman Becomes Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat writes on its front page after Saudi Arabia King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud died early Friday at age 90, three weeks after being hospitalized for pneumonia. Abdullah is succeeded by his 79-year-old half-brother Salman […]
BEIJING — One of the overlooked problems brought by China’s infamous family planning policy is a crticial gender imbalance. With the latest release of the country’s demographic data, Beijing has openly acknowledged the situation, as China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission declared that is the country “with the most serious gender imbalance at birth […]
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Extra! King Abdullah Of Saudi Arabia Dies
“The Good King leaves, Salman becomes Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” Asharq Al-Awsat writes on its front page after King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud died early Friday at age 90, three weeks after being hospitalized for pneumonia. One of the many sons of Ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi […]
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Deafening Rip
The theater of Epidaurus is famous for its incredible acoustics. In the center of the picture, our guide is tearing up a piece of paper to prove it: Sitting midway to the top of the rows as we were, we heard it perfectly well.
UKRAINE DEATH TOLL TOPS 5,000At least 13 people died after a Donetsk city bus was hit by a shell this morning amid ongoing fights between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists. It takes the death toll in the Ukrainian conflict to more than 5,000. The attack, during which many more were injured, appears to have […]
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Camouflage Turbans
Jaisalmer, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, is nicknamed the “golden city of India” for the yellow sandstone used in building its houses. Maybe that also explains the choice for these men’s turbans, which like others, made our travels in this region especially colorful …
For many in these very different extremist camps, it all begins with a “lying media.”
12 WOUNDED IN TEL AVIV BUS ATTACKTwelve people were injured, including 3 seriously, in a stabbing attack Wednesday morning in Tel Aviv. A 23-year-old man from the West Bank city of Tulkarem was arrested after being shot in the leg as he attempted to flee the scene, Haaretz reports. EXTRA! STATE OF THE UNIONIn a […]
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Lucky Weather
Almost 60 years of travels, and hardly a drop of rain. Yes, even in Scotland, that’s how lucky we were. And what better proof than these Scots working on their tan in Princes Street Gardens, the charming public park in the centre of Edinburgh — or as we say in French, Édimbourg.
Most carmakers know that the real money isn’t in the car itself but in its parts and components, which are increasingly high-tech. Those who invest in development will win the revenue game.
IMF CUTS GROWTH PROSPECTSThe International Monetary Fund has sharply cut its global growth forecast of just six months ago, with almost every economy except the United States expected to grow at a slower pace than previously thought, Bloomberg reports. The Washington-based lender said an economic slowdown in China, recession in Russia, and poor prospects in […]
This picture is old, but not as old as it seems: These men were actors taking a break on the set of a war movie on the river Krka in the historic town of Sibenik. Still, the image provides a slice of history, as we were on a trip through the Socialist Federal Republic of […]
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NEW MOON – January 19-26
(March 21 to April 19) The New Moon in Aquarius throws the spotlight on your growing popularity! More sociable and treasured than ever, your satisfaction ratings just keep rising — but at the same time, so does the sensation that every move you make has become the focus of gossip and that everyone is getting […]
-OpEd- BOGOTA — Skokie is a mostly Jewish district outside of Chicago, Illinois. In 1977, the far-right National Socialist Party of America decided to organize a march there, which the scandalized residents, including thousands of Holocaust survivors, naturally sought to stop, arguing it would incite hatred and lead to violence. But the ACLU, the American […]
After last week’s deadly attacks in Paris, a passionate open letter from four high school teachers in a French neighborhood not unlike those where the killers grew up.
Two entrepreneurs have seized on a business idea first founded in Dallas, a place where people who want to dispense with their aggression can destroy set rooms with castoff furniture. But does it work?
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Anti-Terror Raids Across Europe
ANTI-TERROR SWEEP ACROSS EUROPESuspected terrorists were arrested in France, Belgium and Germany in a series of dawn operations aimed at preventing future attacks. According to Le Figaro, 12 people were arrested in several outlying towns around the French capital, with some of the suspects believed to have provided weapons, hideouts and cars to to Said […]
Art Week and the sumptuous events around its star show, Art Basel Miami Beach, was a perfect showcase not just for art, but also guiltless expenditure of vast amounts of cold hard cash.
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Memories In The Haystacks
These good old-fashioned haystacks in the Ötztal valley, in the Austrian state of Tyrol, remind me of haymaking in the village of my ancestors in eastern France, before mechanized balers and tractors became commonplace.
ISTANBUL — Instead of discussing the Paris massacres and the ties between Islam and terrorism, Turkey has instead been focused on “Islamophobia.” Someone not following the news could mistakenly believe, based on the debate here, that there had been a violent attack against Muslims in France instead of a jihadist terrorist attack against journalists, Jews […]
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Satellite Images Show Nigeria Massacre
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW NIGERIA MASSACRENew satellite photographs released by Amnesty International today provide evidence of the scale of the Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria that are believed to have left hundreds dead earlier this month. Before and after images, taken on Jan. 2 and 7, show razed and burned structures in Doron Baga, a […]
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Road Confusion
On Sept. 3, 1967, traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. Our daughter Cécile was understandably puzzled by the overlapping lane markings on the road, just a couple of months before the big change — and frankly, I find it somewhat of a miracle that no […]
An odd postscript to the dramatic events in Paris that says much about the evolving state of the media in China, which sometimes can be as “free” as it wants to be.
The discourse of East and West, and specifically Islamic East and Christian West, is flawed and implicitly destined for conflict. A view from Latin America as Paris burns.
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The Candlelit Path To Nirvana
It only seems fitting that to achieve Nirvana — or, as it is sometimes referred to in the West, “enlightenment” — some Buddhists would turn to burning candles. This woman picked the right place to pray: The ancient city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka was the center of Theravada Buddhism for many centuries.
The imminent injection of wealth into Cuba as the U.S. embargo ends, and the measure of prosperity that should follow, may be the first steps toward its eventual democratization.
PARIS — Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner instructed her Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, who happened to be in Paris this past weekend, to skip Sunday’s march to honor the victims of last week’s terror attacks, Buenos Aires daily Clarín reports. The march, which followed the deadly Jan. 7 attack on the Paris-based satirical weekly […]
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Quito Contrasts
Quito’s old market takes place right in front of the presidential palace, in the city’s centro histórico. It’s this colorful jumble of rowdy, narrow streets and dignified colonial buildings that makes the Ecuadoran capital one of the most beautiful Latin American cities.
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LAST QUARTER MOON – January 12-19
(March 21 to April 19) The start of the week oscillates between agitation and full dilemmas, but there is no need to panic. This is the final backlash of a mediocre lunar phase for you. It has at least led you to resolve some problems. At work, straight after the weekend some sticking points which […]
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Introducing The CowCam
Uschi, scratching herself on the leg, takes a picture of her udder. Fat Lola, who is mainly interested in eating, keeps her head down, which means the photos she takes are close-ups of grass blades. Only old Frida shows considerably more artistic talent, because she looks around while chewing her cud and takes in the […]
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Zulu Pompom
We saw another glimpse of Zulu culture in Swaziland, the landlocked country where a small portion of this community lives. The pompoms these dancers wear on their arms and legs are actually frilly goatskin bands.
Where the French Revolution took place, religious terror now haunts the streets. Today’s voices of free speech must turn to state authority to feel secure. What we need to do now.