WorldcrunchIrene Caselli is a multimedia reporter and writer, with two decades of experience in radio, TV and print, now focusing on early childhood, caregivers, and reproductive rights. She is also a senior advisor for The Early Childhood Reporting Initiative at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. For a decade, she was a foreign correspondent in Latin America, reporting for the BBC and others. At Worldcrunch, she works as a senior editor and translator, putting to use the six and a quarter languages she speaks.
In Naples you will often hear people exclaim: “Maronna ro Carmine!“ To understand the meaning of that expression, here’s a true story from my childhood. Although everyone called her Maria, my grandmother’s real name was Maria Carmela, taken from the Madonna to whom she was devoted. And if you’re not from Naples, you wouldn’t know […]
I pass by the old lady who lives downstairs. “Dottoré, yesterday I wanted to knock on your door because I wasn’t feeling well”. “What was wrong?” “I don’t know. I felt a strange sadness, like a void inside, then started having palpitations! So, to distract myself, I prepared a nice parmigiana.” “Well done! And how […]
Between 300 and 500 birds (not to mention eggs and chicks) are thought to have died near a natural reserve, potentially all because of a land dispute.
The unusual public remarks by Germany’s First Husband comes as the country faces a new wave of COVID-19 infections and trails European neighbors in vaccination rates.
A German politician lashed out after Angela Merkel spoke on the phone with Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko. But like in other hot spots, avoiding the worst along the Belarus-Poland border means casting aside moral superiority and naiveté.
Since winning this year’s Eurovision contest, Italy’s rock band Måneskin has been taking its message of breaking down stereotypes around the world, while its native country’s politicians are stuck in last century’s prejudices.
It would be a mistake to assume that Italy has seen the last of the controversial ‘Captain,’ who will have a different kind of influence at the helm of the opposition.
We can only solve our traffic problems if we stop idealizing car and bike sharing, and focus on how people behave and what they want.
A traditional party and a populist movement may join forces to get Italy out of its political crisis and avoid yet another election.
A lot of the current debate surrounding the world of work is about figuring who will get the job in the future: machines or humans? We have covered it before, and we will continue covering it. But are we becoming too fixated with the idea that robots and algorithms will replace us, that we have […]
Italy reached a preliminary agreement with other EU countries on rescuing migrants at sea. But Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has not shared the news at home, and has kept attacking his supposed partners, especially Germany.
MONTE CASTELLO DI VIBIO — “Sei la figlia di Satana! Gesù non ti ama!” It was 1989 and I was 8 years old — and my teacher was screaming at me in front of my classmates, telling me I was Satan’s daughter and that Jesus didn’t love me. I had been looking forward to my […]
The Italian writer’s work is best known for his role recounting the horror of concentration camps. He was that man, and so much more.
Laws take time to catch up with reality. Could we program them into binary systems? It is tempting, but it is also dangerous.
The murder of a local politician has put new attention on the kinds of verbal hate and periodic harassment that was largely repressed until recently.
Democratic systems offer little incentive for long-term thinking. But unless we can implement true, forward-looking policies, problems like climate change will only multiply.
Today, young women like Carola Rackete and Greta Thunberg have the power to conquer hearts and instill idealism into politics. But ultimately, their admirers have to act themselves if they want change.
Social media dialogue and reader comments on news stories suggest that the far-right’s xenophobic rhetoric resonates for immigrants.
A new study shows Germany must look for other ways to convince automobile buyers to switch to electric cars. Shall we say: quota?
Sure, Naples has sun, sea and amazing pizza. But it’s also violent and corrupt, and there’s no point in pretending otherwise. A look from Italian city’s celebrated author.
Germany’s first post-War generation had cause for optimism. But their descendants have a different, darker outlook, poll numbers suggest.
Italian soccer has had its fair share of icons — and prejudices. With the Women’s World Cup underway, it’s time to rewrite the rules of the beautiful game for the beautiful country.
Against a tide of right-wing nationalism, Germany’s Basic Law — with its emphasis on fundamental rights — is as relevant now as it was 70 years ago, when it first appeared.
From France to Poland, the far-right draws people in with plot lines that offer fast and easy answers but no long-term solutions.
The recent EU election results show that younger voters in particular are sick and tired of slow-motion climate policies.
In the Balkans, developers are rushing to install hydroelectric plants on Europe’s last untapped river systems. Activists — including an unlikely group of Bosnian villagers — are fighting back.
Rather than fear the so-called Middle Kingdom, European companies should recognize its rapid ascent as an opportunity.
Chancellor Kurz deserves credit for trying to work with the populist FPÖ. But he’s also right to end the relationship in the wake of the damning scandal
The 1948 neo-realist cinematic masterpiece can be a key to understand Italian society today. With a digital twist.
Should schools add new subjects every year to keep up with the times? Or is their job simply to help students become critical thinkers? A new mother’s musings.
It is telling that parents in Silicon Valley, who would know, are restricting and even banning screen time for their children. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has just released a new set of guidelines on how much time parents should allow young children to spend with screens: Kids younger than 1 year old should have […]
Caster Semenya’s case shows that the sport world must have an open debate about intersexuality, and finally step up.
Once upon a time, Italy embraced its own politically incorrect billionaire-turned-politico. And yet the real shift toward Trump-style nationalism came after Berlusconi’s departure.
A report turns much-needed attention to a dark and long-ignored chapter in Swiss history.
With drought comes malnutrition and a run to the slums, where fatty foods, sugar, and obesity await.
It started as an unlikely marriage of convenience: after Italy’s elections in March 2018, the far-right League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) formed a coalition government. Fighting over the choice of prime minister, the two parties settled for an unknown political figure: Giuseppe Conte, a lawyer whose 12-page résumé raised more than […]
From Afghanistan to Argentina, women soccer players are pushing against the grain to earn equal treatment and respect in a growing, global sport.
Zuzana Čaputová becomes the country’s first female head of state, and brings hope to Slovaks looking to end to corruption and to others for a response to populism across Europe.
Ramy Shehata is a 13-year-old boy who saved the lives of as many as 50 classmates during a March 20 school bus attack in Italy. The driver, an Italian citizen of Senegalese origin, hijacked the bus, threatening to set it on fire. Shehata secretly — and courageously — sent out an alert on the phone […]
–OpEd– BERLIN — The late Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a great European who led Germany through its unification, was wrong. European integration is no longer “irreversible.” Today, in 2019, disintegration is the declared goal of many member states. It is dependency, not independence, that has until now made Europe strong. For the future, Europe does not […]