Worldcrunch
From remote work to unlimited time off to now, the four-day working week, the workplace continues to evolve. While workplaces seek to avoid employee burnout, and workers hoping for greater flexibility, what was once a dream is quickly becoming reality around the world.
👋 Hyvää päivää!* Welcome to Thursday, where a ceasefire in Syria appears to be holding after government soldiers clashed with Druze minority forces, Ukraine gets a new prime minister and our daily quiz question is about a festival in Belgium. Meanwhile, Marcelo Cantelmi for Argentine daily Clarín looks at why Trump’s threats against Brazil aren’t […]
June 14-15 • Putin’s long game• Music world mourns Brian Wilson, Sly Stone…• “Climate-responsive” paint• … and much more ⬇️ STARTER Israel’s Iran strikes required extensive planning, with parallels to pager attack in Lebanon On Sunday, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff was due to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi in Oman to negotiate a […]
A royal divorce, the beginning of global diplomacy, and the debut of a legendary comic.
For 15 years, Nicolas Buissart has been guiding curious visitors through the industrial ruins of Charleroi, the largest municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. With his storytelling skills, he has transformed the supposed ugliness of this urban landscape into a tourist attraction.
A landmark decision last year by the Mexican Supreme Court is part of a push in Latin America to expand abortion access. But as seen by the U.S. overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the presidential election in November of this year the issue is moving in different directions around the world.
A failed coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo saw the unusual involvement and arrest of U.S. fighters, but it is part of a growing anti-Western sentiment throughout the continent.
Spain’s national anthem, dating back to 1770, is the oldest in continual use — it also happens to be wordless. For other nations, what can be done about aging anthem lyrics that may need to be placed in their original context to avoid upsetting or offending contemporary ears.
Unfairly living in the shadow of neighboring France, the Belgian capital boasts some outstanding places to eat and drink — from AM to PM. Here’s a quick guide, based on local sources, to help you pick the very best beer, waffle, speculoos and much more!
Belgium has lobbied hard for the past year to keep Russian diamonds off the list of sanctioned goods. Indeed, there would be a huge impact on the economy of the port city of Antwerp, if Europe finally joins with the U.S. and others in banning sale of so-called “blood diamonds” from Russia. But a 10th package of EU sanctions arriving this month may finally be the end of the road.
On the same day that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte officially apologized for the Netherlands’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, in neighboring Belgium, a parliamentary committee was unable to garner enough political support to apologize for decades of brutal colonization in central Africa.
As Britain begins the world’s largest trial of the four-day work week, other European nations are experimenting with the idea too. Could a permanent three-day weekend be in reach for workers elsewhere?
Male contraception, both pharmaceuticals and procedures, is gaining increasing interest. Yet to date, there is no male contraceptive drug authorized on the market.
“He loves me and I love him. Why would you take that away?”
When it comes to food, the fears linked to globalization must be put into perspective. They must also be weighed against the negative effects that Belgian protectionism could have on our economy.
A serious AI fail in Belgium for the supposed algorithm experts of Mountain View.
“Preheat oven to 250 °C, add three teaspoons of salt into water, rinse and peel the asparagus and wait 30 minutes before cooking…” If you are craving asparagus au gratin after reading these lines, you can find the rest of the recipe online, on any number of cooking websites … Or, until a few days […]
A road sign for a ‘detour’ gets lost in translation.
Belgium’s vaccination campaign is a prime example, computer scientist Hugues Bersini argues, of how technology can not only improve efficiency, but also, in some cases, make things more fair.
The concept of smart cities is a kind of received wisdom among planners and technologists, but our digital world of today is not sustainable.
In addition to coronavirus-related deaths, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) recorded 42 murders of journalists and media workers since the beginning of 2020 in targeted attacks, bombings and shootings.
PARIS — A threshold has been crossed this week as the first vaccinations have been administered, in the UK and Russia, with announcements of others to follow in additional countries in the coming days and weeks. It all sets the stage for the biggest vaccination campaign in world history. But even if the obvious logistical […]
Authorities in Belgium say that regardless of how Brexit negotiations unfold, fishers from Bruges have ‘royal privilege’ to continue operating in British waters.
The pandemic closed classrooms and pushed the education process online. It was a desperate measure for desperate times that avoided the worst, but shouldn’t be the norm.
Coronavirus travel restrictions have been a wake-up call for Europeans, especially since nearly a third of the population lives in cross-border areas like France and Belgium’s Eurometropolis Lillle-Kortrijk-Tournai.
Anti-racism and anti-colonial protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd raise new questions about how societies fill their public spaces.
Among the many villains through Europe’s colonization of the African continent, a case could be made that Belgium’s King Leopold II was the worst. Responsible for the genocide of an estimated 10 million people, the 19th-century monarch ordered his troops and administrators to pillage the central African colony known as Belgian Congo, renamed the Democratic […]
The EU introduced its ‘Blue Card’ system to facilitate the arrival of qualified, non-European professionals. But only one country — Germany — really takes advantage of it.
‘Italy is our starting point, and Salvini the model,’ says this Belgian politician bringing the populists of Europe under one roof with the help of Donald Trump’s former right-hand man.
Big Brother, if and when he arrives, will start out looking small. Take that mundane office badge or key card you use to pass security before entering your office. Rather than having to carry one around, and risk losing it, technological advances make it easy enough these days to get an RFID microchip implanted in […]
This is supposed to be the week that Canada and the EU ink their landmark Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) after seven years of painstaking negotiations. Hopes are fading, however, due to last-minute objections from Belgium’s Wallonia region. The French-speaking area’s 3.6 million people represent less than 1% of the EU’s total population. Yet […]
The EU Commission is taking a tough stance on tax evasion, as shown with the 13 billion euro bill leveled at Apple.
There are no more “Beguines” in the Beguinage: In the early 20th century, these lay nuns were replaced by Benedictines, pictured here walking in front of the convent, with Bruges’ Church of Our Lady visible through the leaves.
Following attacks in Paris, Brussels, Istanbul, and now Nice, Europe must unite to combat the Islamist terror campaign.
A troubling tale of how the European Commision stalled the regulation of potentially cancer causing chemicals
Many locals are trying to maintain a so-called “belgitude” after last week’s deadly terror. But the city’s vulnerability is on full display.
PARIS — Jihadism in Europe seems to always be one step ahead of European security services, which despite enhanced cooperation remain fundamentally national operations. Paradoxically, terrorism is unifying Europe with a sense of common identity in the face of the attacks in Paris and Brussels, which seem as if they could have just as well […]
The Brussels attacks are a reap-what-you-sow moment for Europe, after biding its time and coddling its dangerous allies for too long.
MEXICO CITY — Should we grieve? How should we react to calamities, death and pain? I mean other people’s pain, because your own pain is your business, and you can handle it as you please. But to others struck by life’s arbitrary monstrousness, it seems we owe what we might call a “decent” amount of […]
In Brussels, the jihadists have again shown they have a plan, which extends from the Middle East to the heart of Europe. The West must urgently get one of its own.