Worldcrunch
WARSAW — Even as change spreads from such historically Catholic countries as Ireland and Mexico, same-sex marriage rights still look to be years away in Poland, home to a diehard traditional Catholicism that some say was even too pious for Pope Francis. The 2015 Eurobarometer survery found that just 28% of Poles favored same-sex marriage, […]
-OpEd- BERLIN — The ministers of the interior of Germany’s 16 federal states have presented their plan against terrorism. Among them, the abolition of the dual citizenship and a public ban on wearing the burqa. As far as is known, no dual citizenship holder has committed a crime of a terrorist nature. The number of […]
In northern Norway, this Sámi family was wearing colored gákti costumes. And I don’t think it was merely for tourists — in the 1960s, some northern families were still in the habit of wearing traditional clothing when selling hides at the local market, or herding reindeer.
Following attacks in Paris, Brussels, Istanbul, and now Nice, Europe must unite to combat the Islamist terror campaign.
PARIS — For more than three years now, the French startup Qwant has been trying to prove that a search engine can be efficient and profitable while respecting the privacy and anonymity of users. After a slow and difficult start, Qwant is finally taking off. Six months ago the search engine had 8 million visitors. […]
A decade ago, the “Polish plumber” became the symbol of British fears of immigrants coming in poorer Europe Union countries. After the UK’s referendum to pull out of the EU, uncertainty reigns for all.
“This has implications for absolutely everything,” political editor for BBC News Laura Kuenssberg declared of the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union. And now that Brexit camp has won, and the UK prepares to bid farewell to the EU, the parties and the gawkers have begun to gauge the fallout of ending the 43-year-long […]
Amalienborg, the winter home of the Danish royal family, is located next to a ferry docking point — very convenient for tourists. You may notice this slide is a little bit dusty, but my grandson and I didn’t want to photoshop that away.
Le Parisien, June 10 “It’s time to party!” reads the front page of French daily Le Parisien Friday, which features a photograph of supporters celebrating the opening ceremony of the 2016 UEFA European soccer championship at the Eiffel Tower. The tournament kicks off on Friday with Romania facing France. The latter could do with a […]
PARIS — The former head of France’s anti-drug trafficking agency has been accused of playing a central role in the smuggling of tons of cannabis into France, the Paris-based Libération daily is reporting. François Thierry, who until recently headed the main agency charged with combating drug trafficking OCRTIS (Central Office for the Suppression of Illicit […]
La Croix, May 17, 2016 VATICAN CITY — In a rare interview, Pope Francis told French Catholic daily La Croix that there is no “fear of Islam” in Europe, and that the freedom to practice religion must be protected “not outside, but inside society.” The wide-ranging interview, published Tuesday, covered the Pope’s views on the […]
Italian Valentina Simeone’s eyes were opened by her six months at Tehran University, yet another breakthrough in relations between Iran and the West.
It’s a two-hour drive between my hometown and this picturesque village of Morat in Switzerland. On our way home through the still white-capped Jura mountains, my then 10-year-old grandson and I got into a merciless snowball fight. That’s the kind of warm memory that sticks far more than any quaint village scenery.
GASR GARABULLI — Migrant #322 slowly lifts his head and opens his eyes. The long shadow of the sun, punctuated by the jail’s metal bars, bathes the cement walls as the blue sky seeps through the metal grate ceiling. It’s silent in the cells, except for the faint sound of children crying in the distance […]
How impeccably dressed and well-behaved these students appeared when we visited the University of Coimbra in central Portugal. The university, the country’s oldest, is also well known for its annual Queima das Fitas, a massive and sometimes rowdy “burning of the ribbons” student festival that lasts for eight days each spring.
LONDON — According to a new British law, any teacher, doctor, nurse or social care professional who comes across a case of a girl who has undergone genital mutilation has the duty to report it to the police. This law, which took effect on Oct. 31 and applies to any victim under the age of […]
Average age: 65. The one immigrant family in town had a baby girl, the first birth in a decade — and they’re already making plans to leave.
A group of well-educated Afghans with credentials to work in Europe are instead committing to stay in their troubled homeland – and using Facebook to encourage others to do the same.
Either this is a very original place to store a lifebuoy, or sculptors on the shores of Hungary’s Lake Balaton — the largest lake in central Europe — have a peculiar sense of humor.
Christmas decorations? Firelighters? I have no idea why anyone would want to dry that many pine cones …
The ancient windmills on the entry to the Lasithi highlands, on the Greek island of Crete, look like sentinels, warning passersby: You’re not far from the Dictaeon Andron — the cave where Zeus, the Greek god of thunder, is said to have been born and reared.
The fishermen of Henningsvær in Norway“s Lofoten islands have either horrible taste in decoration or a good sense of humor … and love of opera!
In Norse mythology, Bifröst is a rainbow bridge that connects the world to Asgard, the realm of the gods. Could the colored houses on the western coast of Norway be a modern-day nod to the country’s folk stories?
Bled Castle in northwestern Slovenia sure looks impregnable, perched as it is atop a steep cliff more than 100 meters above Lake Bled. From where I took this photo, it actually seemed unreachable.
Among the families in war-ravaged Syria are many being held together by women alone, as their husbands have left to try to cross into Europe and prepare a life for their families. The wait is long, and often futile.
In the wake of the showdown over the Greek debt crisis, Germany has wound up in the role of European bad guy. Germans ask if there’s a way to make things better.
La Razón, July 1, 2015 Right-leaning Spanish daily La Razón declared Wednesday that “the Greek contagion is Podemos.” According to the Madrid-based newspaper, allowing the Spanish left-wing populist party Podemos to come into power could undermine Spain’s economy just as it has begun to recover from a deep recession. Podemos was one of several anti-establishment […]
BT, June 19, 2015 “The Losers’ Triumph,” Friday’s headline in the Danish tabloid BT reads. Yesterday’s elections demonstrate a shift to the right in the Scandinavian country. While the Social Democratic Party of current Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt won the most seats, her center-left coalition lost to the right-wing opposition. She conceded defeat, as the […]
Kos is one of the Greek islands closest to the Turkish coast and receives hundreds of Syrian and Afghan refugees every day, a heavy burden for a country already ravaged by economic crisis.
TURIN — Italian politicians from very different backgrounds have been trying to capitalize on last week’s victory of Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos in regional elections: from centrist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the populist Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, to the banker-turned-cabinet minister Corrado Passera and leftist LGBT activist and governor of the Puglia region […]
Katrin Dölz is one of 385 officials in Germany handling cases of asylum seekers. Her days are filled with tragic immigrant stories and the power to change lives.
Doctors in Germany have noted an alarming rise in psychotic episodes linked to excessive marijuana use among young people, which follows other studies around the world raising alarms.
As the European Commission targets Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom for antitrust violations, tensions between Europe and Russia over Ukraine are only bound to rise.
Bags, pouches and purses are among the world’s oldest fashion items, used through the ages for carrying seeds, weapons and eyeliner. A history of this most indispensable adornment.
At the border between Serbia and Hungary, the number of illegal arrivals has increased dramatically over the past few months. Syrians and Afghans who take the road in the Balkans cross paths with migrating Kosovars.
Syria Deeply met with some young Syrians who have recently made it to Europe to seek asylum. With so much at stake, no two viewpoints are quite the same.
Why is debt-ridden Greece still spending more, per capita, on its military than any other country in Europe? And why are German companies so eager to sell them arms?
France hasn’t won the Eurovision Song Contest since 1977,when Marie Myriam moved the audience with her song “L’oiseau et l’enfant”. Nobody has been able to renew that performance in 38 years, even though France has tried extremely hard to seduce the members of the jury. The country has sent some of its biggest stars to […]
In the barren Hungarian puszta, livestock dehorning is out of the question — unlike in my native France, for instance. That’s lucky for the Hungarian Grey cattle, with their long slender horns.
Before you ask: Yes, I also have the tourist shots of my wife and daughter pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But this one catches it in a much different light, both in space and in time.