Worldcrunch
For many, getting back to “normal life” means going out to eat. But people also want to be safe, which is why eateries — from Amsterdam to Australia — are experimenting with distancing innovations that might soon become the new normal in the field of gastronomy. So how will dining out look like in the […]
In India, Thailand and elsewhere, authorities have recently passed laws or decrees limiting what media can do and say.
Alcohol can be problematic. But it’s also a simple source of pleasure, and in moderation, may be just what the doctor ordered — until a vaccine is available instead.
Forced to stay home from one day to the next, millions of quarantined people were suddenly faced with a rare luxury in our fast-paced world: time. That, of course, came with a question: What to do with it? Where others may have chosen to Netflix, garden, read, meditate or complete a 51,300 pieces-jigsaw puzzle, the […]
Chinese officials are realizing that the ‘soul’ of a city is key to strength and prosperity.
Rock hero Dave Grohl, of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame, has described live music performances during the COVID-19 lockdowns as: “unflattering little windows that look like doorbell security footage and sound like Neil Armstrong’s distorted transmissions from the moon.” One month later, in some corners of the world, authentic, in-person live music is ready to […]
Compared to other EU member states, Poland was barely affected by the international financial crisis or the refugee crisis of 2015. Now, the country could emerge from the coronavirus pandemic in a stronger position than before.
When the coronavirus hit, Valérie, a rising business executive used to a grueling daily commute into Paris, realized her life needed to change. Now, she and her husband have revived a long dormant dream: a house in Normandy with an ocean view. “We have the impression of advancing — finally,” she told Le Monde, adding […]
If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that no one is safe until everyone is safe.
From hospital beds in Mali to ventilators in Algeria to an airlift of supplies deliver by Ethiopian Airlines, China has used the pandemic to cement its economic footprint across the African continent. As socio-economics researcher Hicham Rouibah told Le Monde, “Chinese companies have seized the opportunity of COVID-19 to try to restore their image tarnished […]
For strongman leaders like Putin and Bolsonaro, the health crisis looked like a natural opening for greater top-down control — at least on paper.
No crisis has ever hit the entire film industry as badly as the coronavirus lockdown. With sets empty, movie premieres postponed, screenings canceled and box offices closed, the global film industry has been largely frozen in time — and revenue. Even as activity is gradually resuming, it will take time for the movie business to […]
The pandemic added an extra layer of obstacles for patients with already limited access to quality attention for their sexual and reproductive health needs.
Sports are an important part of the fabric of local communities as well as a multi-billion dollar global industry, and their absence in recent months has been conspicuous. The coronavirus pandemic shut down both professional and amateur athletes around the world, forcing viewers to watch replays of old championship matches and limiting weekend warriors to […]
-Essay- Among the many things that COVID-19 taught us, one is to not measure the world by latitude. Take the case of Milan, a shining example, we’re told, of northern Italian industriousness and efficiency that’s supposedly absent in the south. And yet this capital of the Lombardy region saw one of the world’s worst COVID-19 […]
The Brazilian president’s antics were cause for alarm even before the deadly pandemic. But with the illness running rampant, the story is taking an ever darker turn.
Some of the country’s eateries may not survive. Others are having to adapt — and quickly — to a still uncertain scenario.
Working remotely has its advantages. But it can also be tricky to manage, as countless people pushed out of their offices by the pandemic are now discovering.
Welcome to Monday, where China ends its two-child policy, Netanyahu risks losing his job, and Darth Vader’s house is up for sale. We’ve also zoomed in on a single photo to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre in our This Happened video. • China bumps two-child policy up to three: China announces […]
MILAN — In March, the first coronavirus outbreak in the West put Italy’s hospitals under unprecedented strain, with health authorities facing what they described as a “tsunami” of new patients. As intensive care units filled with COVID-19 patients, hospitals scrambled to convert other wards, freeing up corridors and operating theaters for patients of the potentially […]
By now, our regular readers know that Worldcrunch works hard at being of and for and about no one particular place or people or subject matter. Our beat and our audience are written in our name, and we work with journalists and newspapers everywhere to tell the stories (no matter how big or small) that […]
Life was difficult enough for refugees even before the coronavirus outbreak. But with the lockdown depriving them of even meager earnings, the situation has beyond dire.
Skeptical. Overwhelmed. Disappointed. Exhausted. Helpless. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, healthcare workers have felt it all. But in recent weeks, doctors and nurses around the world have added one adjective to their list of feelings: angry. In Europe, the mood has indeed shifted from the images of people applauding their medical heroes every night, from […]
We must remember the many lives lost to coronavirus. But we should also not forget the fate of many new lives that have been left up in the air as travel bans and strained health care systems have disrupted plans for surrogacy, adoption and in vitro fertilization around the world. Surrogacy: Some 100 surrogacy babies […]
Today, the European Commission will unveil plans for an unprecedented EU economy recovery package in the face of the coronavirus crisis. The proposed EU rescue fund comes on the heels of last week’s surprise announcement that French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed to a 500-billion-euro recovery package set out to […]
-Analysis- PRAGUE — From a geopolitical perspective, the Czech Republic is a case apart. After four decades of being “abducted” to the East (as writer Milan Kundera, for one, described the era of Soviet communism), it has spent 30 years as part of the West, first as part of Czechoslovakia, with its Velvet Revolution, and […]
To mitigate the high economic costs of the pandemic, it’s time to demand greater contributions from those who can afford to pay.
Before COVID-19, when we heard the word “virus,” most of us thought about our computers. Cyber-security terminology has borrowed from the biological world because of the similar ways that viruses spread and can be combated. Both rely on hosts for transmission and can be prevented by immunity, which for a computer comes in the form […]
For a number of French people, the two-month confinement period offered time to reflect and reassess priorities.
Around the world, creative minds are coming up with bright (or at least, new) ideas to help people stay germ-free while returning to work, school or travel.
After months of quiet amid the COVID-19 crisis, Hong Kong demonstrators attended an unauthorized rally this weekend to protest Beijing’s proposed security law that would tighten China’s control over the island territory. Police repeatedly fired tear gas,
U.S. President Donald Trump has failed spectacularly in his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. But he’s not the only world leader coming up short.
As countries around the world scramble to conduct sufficient COVID-19 testing, there is now an urgent need for the design of rapid diagnostics of early symptoms to identify potential carriers to test, and eventually, isolate them. Researchers and the so-called “health tech” and “wearables’ sector are racing to release new devices, and adapt existing ones, […]
The pandemic, and especially the fears whipped up by states and the media, may be pushing society toward greater submission to the world’s powers.
Across the globe, the coronavirus crisis has forced people to change not only the ways they work and interact with each other, but also how they travel. And in several countries, one of the unexpected consequences of all this has been a renewed interest in transportation of the pedal-powered, two-wheeled variety. In some places — […]
PARIS — There’s a price to be paid, in euros and other things, when you choose to live in a city like Paris. But there’s a reason people pay: There’s only one Louvre, one Opera Garnier and exactly 114 Michelin-star restaurants. And even if you don’t have tickets, or the euros, to make it through […]
Advertising has us convinced that cheap meat is something we can’t live without. But the meat industry is based on exploiting both people and animals.
When we think of modern urban planning, it tends to be focused on improving efficiency in where we live and work, and how we move from place to place. But it should also be about keeping us healthy. The concept is neither a knee-jerk reaction to COVID-19 nor some nod to corporate social responsibility and […]
A reflection from Egypt, where a culture of warmth and feeling is suddenly shut down.
With people returning to work, there’s the question of how to get there. Many cities around the world are encouraging biking, walking and other private transportation methods to avoid clogging public transit systems that could be cesspools for the coronavirus as lockdowns ease. But for those without other options, taking trains, subways and buses will […]