Worldcrunch
👋 Haaahe!* Welcome to Friday, where Vladimir Putin warns Western troops deployed to Ukraine would be “legitimate targets,” Afghanistan is struck by third quake as death roll tops 2,200, and today’s quiz question is about David Bowie’s secret final project. Meanwhile, Bogotá-based daily El Espectador examines the debate over banning former Colombian soldiers from fighting […]
Miraña, spoken by just 170 people, is one of the indigenous languages that is in danger of disappearing in Colombia. Researchers and activists are working to save it from extinction.
Rats, which can transmit deadly diseases, seem to have proliferated everywhere, unchecked. Is the anthropocene a mere prelude to a nightmarish, golden age of rats?
Colombian superstar Shakira performed in a rare concert in her hometown, timed with its world-famous carnival. The connection with locals comes not just from her stardom but the singer’s humble way of enjoying the city like any local mom with her kids
After Colombia’s president took on U.S. President Trump and lost, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has managed this new complex relationship with remarkable deftness and clarity of purpose. But can this strategy be maintained with Trump’s mind set on tariffs everywhere?
A groundbreaking novel, the birth of a global music star, and the tragic loss of a celebrated actor.
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro plans to declare himself president on January 10, as he becomes the likely winner of the 2024 elections. Will there be a showdown or a revolt, or will a tired nation give in to tyranny?
A French scandal, the birth of a dark political movement, and the start of an engineering marvel.
Also: a look inside the slippery world of stand-up comedy in China and Ukraine’s clandestine online school network.
The birth of a pop icon, the murder of a famous drug lord and the crowning of an emperor.
The Vilcabamba, the Atrato or the Whanganui have achieved recognition as living entities with rights. More and more rivers are achieving this type of legal protection (and respect). In Spain, the Tins was the first river to have its rights recognized.
Former One Direction member Liam Payne, who died last after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, reportedly had “pink cocaine” in his system. Also known as “Tuci,” this “designer drug” has been spreading in Latin America and globally over the past decade.
A new generation of coca leaf growers and pickers is posting video content on social media. They show their life in the fields, how the crops grow, the laboratories where they create the coca paste, and even the exit routes for drug trafficking. And while they used to be stigmatized, and threatened by armed groups, their content is escaping censorship and violence.
Though mainly associated today with Islamic countries, underage marriage is increasingly being reported in Colombia, and other places in Latin America, often with a financial motivation pushing poorer families to effectively “sell” their daughters to older men.
Bezos, Branson, Musk, Isaacman. Will the billionaires throwing untold resources into private space travel prove to be visionaries or just thrill seekers? The latest, Isaacman’s Polaris dawn mission, launched Tuesday with the objective to feature the first ever private spacewalk.
Marta Lida Arias, a veteran LGBTQ+ activist in Medellín, discusses how she’s created a community for other women who were once intimidated by Colombia’s patriarchal society and norms, and why their fight isn’t over yet.
Chiquita — the former United Fruit Company — is being ordered to compensate victims of the paramilitaries it financed in Colombia in the late 20th century. Like Monsanto with pesticides, it might begin saving funds to pay more such fines.
Venezuela and its neighbors are nervously waiting to see if President Maduro and his clique will soon hold a fair election, or cling onto power, fueling more despair and unleashing yet another migratory wave over the region.
An ad for one of Colombia’s biggest banks sparked controversy for including a gay couple. Some viewed it as a step in the right direction, while detractors said the ad was not suited for a bank.
Tourism has become big business in Medellín, Colombia, but it also be fueled the city’s worst sociocultural traits and encouraging drugs and abusive sex work. With new laws and bans being put in place, is change afoot in “the City of Eternal Spring”?
As the world’s climate becomes erratic and hostile, we might remold our cities from being expressions of our cold triumphalism to vessels and tools for inclusive, peaceful cohabitation with nature.
Shakira made headlines this week for calling the Barbie movie “emasculating,” yet the Colombian superstar, with a radical image change in 2009 and her signature hip moves, has created her own pack of undeniable feminist she-wolves.
As Colombia debates banning the abusive practice of “conversion therapy,” a Colombian teacher recalls the four years of therapy he undertook as teenager and his path to self-acceptance.
Following the announcement of Colombia’s first rare earths mining project, Climate Tracker reports on the incomplete licenses, unreal expectations, bad relationships with indigenous populations and suspicion of planted minerals that surround the venture, which seeks to extract minerals critical for the energy transition.
Latin American governments have barely denounced the Russian attack on Ukraine, partly for lingering distrust of the United States. But there is also a regional misperception of Russia as a new Soviet Union and friend of “lesser nations” struggling for betterment.
The release of “En agosto nos vemos” as a posthumous novel by Gabriel García Márquez would have horrified Colombia’s Nobel laureate, who had described it as useless and wanted it to be “destroyed.”
An elephant in the street in India, otters on the beach in Cape Town, wild boars in Rome, big cats in Colombia cities, polar bears in Russian towns: a series of factors, including climate change and urbanization, is creating unlikely encounters between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.
We’re renouncing books to gorge ourselves on digital imagery and short texts. If we continue like this, ditching the written word of the past, we may soon become fitting descendants of the cringing, timorous masses of the dark ages.
The crisis of gang violence in Ecuador is being driven by international drug trafficking, a major illicit economy that exists because of the ban on drugs. It and other Latin American countries are paying a high price for this unjust ban, and must unite to call for its end.
A noted expert of the late Gabriel García Márquez is putting to rest the idea that the legendary Gabo was just a fantasist and man of fiction, revealing poignant and pointed essays and literary criticism.
The number of migrants and refugees who have passed through the Darien Gap reaches historic figures. So far this year, it is estimated that 250,000 migrants and refugees have crossed through the dangerous Darién jungle, mainly from countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador and Haiti.
Like Cuba, Venezuela churns out doctors who are poorly trained and overworked. Colombia then lets them practice medicine in the country in yet another senseless gesture of political goodwill toward Venezuela.
Industrial-style farming should certainly be reimagined, but not with a guilt-ridden assault on the livelihoods of millions of farmers, herders and fishermen.
Three women who were victims of sexual violence during the Colombian Civil War recount their stories of struggle and survival. They speak up in the hopes that the judiciary will open a new case to bring justice to them and many more survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated during the conflict.
Colombia’s leftist president claims Russia and the United States act in “much the same” way in the world, disregarding the fact that only one of those states poisons or throws critics out the window.
Much has been said about how the children’s local culture helped them survive 40 days stranded. But there are indigenous people in Colombia who believe “natural spirits” watched over them, keeping them safe until it was time for them to be found.
The throuple of three gay men married together has challenged the standard vision of a family in traditionally conservative Colombia.
In traditionally Catholic Colombia, Protestant preachers have learned to effectively combine marketing and religion to make themselves enormously wealthy. And thanks to political lobbying and religious freedom, they are exempt from the law and taxes.
Male dominance and violence is often encouraged in popular Latin American music, and particularly in genres like salsa or bachata. The more memorable the songs, the bigger the harm they will have done to generations of women.