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.
The 1960s was a momentous period for the French island of Corsica, caught between opening up to tourism and dealing with a growing nationalistic movement. But in Ajaccio on that sunny spring day, it was just fishing business as usual.
“The King is dead,” writes the Post Today on its black-and-white front page Friday, a day after Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej died in Bangkok at age 88. Having spent 70 years as head of state, King Bhumidol was the world’s longest-reigning monarch, as well as the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha […]
The newspapers, they all went along for the ride …
Momentous national referendums in Colombia and Britain have shown how dangerous it can be to put complicated decisions in the hands of a fickle populous.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s first question at Sunday night’s presidential debate was, not surprisingly, about the just-released lewd 2005 recording of Donald Trump boasting of being able to force himself on women. Cooper looked up at the billionaire Republican nominee: “You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?” After Trump circled […]
TEHRAN — Some Iranian legislators want to end the Islamic Republic’s systematic execution of drug dealers, saying it does little to reduce the country’s massive drug abuse problem. More than 150 members of Parliament are preparing a motion to amend the country’s drug enforcement laws and restrict death sentences to particular cases such as recidivism […]
For more than a century now, the Coastal Express has been a staple of the wonderful Norwegian coast, taking passengers through barren landscapes and fertile lands, large towns and fishing hamlets nesting in magnificent fjords.
When Hillary Clinton became the first woman to win the presidential nomination from a major party, the historic moment got a rather lukewarm response. Many young women who had grown up taking gender equality as a given were unmoved. One twentysomething concluded that Clinton’s nomination was “greeted with a collective millennial yawn”. Was there really […]
These half-timbered structures of the Den Gamle By open-air museum in the Danish town of Aarhus remind me of some houses in the eastern French region of Alsace and across the border in Germany.
Like other Latin American countries, Bolivia has squandered commodity revenue and failed to make the hard reforms necessary to bolster the economy for the long haul.
House for rent, move in date after Nov. 8. Quiet neighborhood, 18 acres of grounds, well-equipped security system. (Exterior unchanged from date of photograph, alterations to interior; tenant at the time: George H. W. Bush.)
The committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize does not approach its task the way the Academy assigns the Oscars. The Nobel is not a trophy to crown an achievement as much as a message … or more precisely, a “shot in the arm.” The Nobel committee has long made it clear that they choose […]
Publico — Oct. 6, 2016 “We all win” reads the front-page headline of Lisbon-based daily Publico on Thursday, after Portugal’s former Prime Minister António Guterres was chosen to become the next UN secretary general. After what was largely considered an unremarkable tenure by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, commentators are hoping for better results […]
The Sorbonne University, in the center of Paris, is the second oldest university in the world. No, not behind Oxford — behind Bologna. I took this shot of the Chapelle Sainte Ursule de la Sorbonne more than 50 years before my grandson and partner-in-crime went to one of the university’s branches, just a few hundred […]
SPOTLIGHT: ABORTION BACK ON WORLD AGENDA The recurring battle over abortion was bound to resurface in the U.S. presidential campaign, becoming what the Los Angeles Times called “one of the most personal, intense” moments of last night’s debate between the respective running mates of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both Republican vice presidential candidate Mike […]
I was lucky enough to see some of the world’s greatest treasures at a time when there were few fences and rarely entrance fees. But even when there were limits, like here in Hadrian’s Villa near Rome, they were of little concern for my daughter Cécile.
Meet Thotsakan, a demon from the Hindu epic Ramakien guarding one of the entrances to Bangkok’s Wat Arun Buddhist temple.
There are various reasons the wage and wealth gap is growing, but in Europe’s strongest economy it makes no sense to blame the global marketplace.
BUENOS AIRES — This city wants to make itself a kinder, friendlier place for the elderly, with plans to improve urban infrastructure and promote common-sense practices to help reduce accidents inside homes. Taking its lead from the World Health Organization (WHO), which has pushed in recent years for more user-friendly cities and better conditions for […]
In many ways, Barack Obama’s election eight years ago as America’s first black president broke the mold. But in other ways it has not. Both at home and abroad, there are certain codes and behaviors and best practices that the preternaturally moderate Obama has abided by for the past eight years to ensure a kind […]
New signs from Poland that racism and xenophobia are on the rise. A Polish lecturer at the University of Warsaw, Jerzy Kochanowski, was beat up on a tram in Warsaw for speaking German to a professor from another university, Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reports. An inebriated man near Kochanowski reportedly told him not to speak […]
You’re never quite sure of what’s in the wicker baskets of the street peddlers in Jaipur. It could be some fresh fruit or vegetables — or a cobra!
SPOTLIGHT: COLOMBIA, NOW TO THE PEOPLE When Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed an agreement yesterday with top rebel FARC commander Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londoño, the pair used pens made from the casings of bullets. It was a powerful piece of symbolism as the last major war in the Americas appeared to draw to a close. […]
El Tiempo — Sept. 26, 2016 “Peace after 267,162 dead,” declares the stark headline on the front page of newspaper El Tiempo on Monday as Colombia gets ready for a historic accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Latin American country has seen war for 52 years in a […]
Financial advice from computers could help private investors make more rational, efficient and profitable decisions. But even if a human element is irreplaceable, the humans in the industry must adapt.
This stone calvary in western France’s Brittany region depicts scenes from the life and death of Jesus with incredible attention to detail — and someone on Wikipedia was kind enough to explain it all exhaustively.
Before this week, few outside of France knew his face. But no doubt, millions have been busy Google-Image-searching the name “Guillaume Canet.” Yup, bel homme. He is also an accomplished actor and director, and happens to be the husband of the already internationally known French actress, Marion Cotillard. And that, as you are disturbingly likely […]
British Prime Minister Theresa May is just the latest female world leader who’s not a mother. A hard look at a gender double standard that reaches all the way to the top.
In our globalized world, climate change, economic collapse and all sorts of warfare (nuclear, biological, cyber, etc.) are viewed as the most terrible and frightening danger threatening our planet. But scientists recently pointed to an imminent threat that could wipe out the human race — the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria or, simply, “superbugs.” Today, the […]
Taking pictures of license plates allowed me to remember where I took this or that series of photographs without having to write it down. When you’re dealing with over 20,000 slides, it comes in handy.
Can you spot the little red riding hood playing in L’Aquila’s Fontana delle 99 cannelle (“The Fountain of the 99 Spouts”)? Luckily, the landmark fountain suffered only minor damage during the deadly 2009 earthquake.
Beyond the Middle America stump speeches and coast-to-coast pancake breakfast stops, a U.S. presidential elections is also very much a global event. All the talk of the decline of the economic, political and cultural might of the American empire starts sounding a bit premature every four years, as November approaches. So this morning, it’s no […]
It was rather quiet when we got to the indigenous town of Otavalo, in northern Ecuador, and I was able to take my time photographing a woman using a big spinning wheel. The image ended up looking something like a Flemish painting.
Russian daily Kommersant reports today that more athletes’ medical files from the World Anti-Doping Agency have been leaked, including three-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. With tensions rising between Russia and the West, such an information security breach — whether about alleged banned substances in sports or gossipy […]
Among the tombstones at Petersfriedhof cemetery in the Austrian city of Salzburg are those that are not stones at all, but intricate works of wrought iron.
The withdrawal of the ambassadors of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela from Brazil to protest Dilma Rousseff’s ouster is a good example of partisan zeal harming the national interest.
On the first of our many trips to Greece, my wife and I drove down to Mystras in the south of the country. Abandoned in the 19th century, the town’s churches, castle and fortress walls stand as a reminder of Byzantine grandeur.
The days without reports of a terrorist attack, somewhere in the world, have become rare. And no, today is not one of them. Details are emerging this morning of three veiled women attacking a police station in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, reportedly wounding two officers before they were shot dead. What stands out in […]
“UK government has just gone full Trump.” The British announcement yesterday that the construction of the “Great Wall of Calais” is about to begin was bound to arrive at the feet of Donald Trump. Of course, the New York businessman is far from being the first, or the last, to have the idea of setting […]
About a hundred kilometers south of the Himalaya mountain range, the village of Chobhar is a far cry from the country’s bustling and polluted capital, Kathmandu.