Worldcrunch
-OpEd- LYON — Those following the news know that Google technology recently defeated one of the world’s greatest Go champions. To illustrate how significant this achievement is, the media explained that the number of possible combinations on a goban (the Japanese name for the Go board) is superior to 10 to the power of 170 […]
A book published recently by French writer Pascal Bruckner cuts to pieces the taboo of money in French society. For him, it’s one of the barriers French needlessly impose on themselves.
CHINA AND RUSSIA TO U.S.: CAREFUL ON KOREA In a joint press brief today, China and Russia urged the U.S. not to put a new missile defense system on the Korean peninsula in response to recent North Korean muscle-flexing and weapons testing, Reuters reports. The U.S. and South Korea had opened talks on expanding defense […]
In the best case, take Socrates as your instructor.
PARIS — French workers are allowed up to four leave days to celebrate their entrance into a civil union pact. But if a partner or, heaven forbid, child should die, they get just two. Losing a parent or sibling warrants just one single day off work. And there’s no legal leave for the death of […]
Participating in the world-famous Fêtes de Cornouaille with my choir of traditional folk singing in Britanny, I got to take some candid snapshots of a life that was still very much turned toward the sea.
GRASSE — They call it “the Provençal permit,” a local custom of sorts that involves building first and asking questions later. The logic is that once a construction is in place, authorities will feel more or less obliged to approve it retroactively. It is surprising how often that actually happens. Recently, though, one land owner […]
A heat map from French tourism professionals, forced to rethink where to send eager would-be globetrotters in the face of new and old security threats.
A French economist specialized in tax havens says only tough new international standards can eliminate the many gray areas that allow the wealthy to pay by their own rules.
A few decades ago, researchers dreamed of creating a machine capable of thinking as well as, or better than, humans. As the world becomes increasingly specialized, artificial intelligence can undermine the art of perspective.
“Fiscal Terrorism,” the front page of this week’s satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo reads in the wake of the Panama Papers leak, which implicates heads of state and other wealthy notables in a global money laundering and tax avoidance scandal. In parodic reference to last year’s Charlie Hebdo terror attacks, after which “Je suis Charlie” […]
PARIS — Does the Arab world party? The answer is yes. That’s also true in France, where the North African community doesn’t deprive itself of pleasures or amusements, and where raï music — contrary, perhaps, to the general public’s perception — is alive and well, albeit in a sphere of its own. The music used […]
Why this time it’s different — and maybe much worse.
From September to April in southern France, seafood lovers can participate in the “oursinades” festivals. Sea urchins are cut open, and you eat the gonads raw, with a squeeze of lemon.
In the Paris neighborhood of Belleville, home to a thriving Chinatown, prostitutes with no other prospects work to support families here or in China. And now, new dangers loom.
Spectacular, arresting, remarkable … That is how many would describe the Fort-la-Latte castle, in northeastern Brittany. But I’ll add one adjective to the list: dangerous. Climbing down the steep dungeon stairs, I bashed my head against a stone lintel, which left me with a minor concussion!
By next year, there will be three times more connected objects than humans on earth, all containing information that can be mined to improve public services, benefit consumers and boost economic growth.
Using hydraulics to churn energy from its most obvious natural resource, Ushant is on its way toward an environmental overhaul, and other countries are taking note.
PARIS — We’ve hardly made peace with the idea of driverless cars, and now we’re being told that artificial intelligence could also control rifles, missiles and bombs of the future. The warning was issued last summer by leading figures such as Tesla chief Elon Musk, physicist Stephen Hawking and MIT Professor Noam Chomsky. During July’s […]
MARCILLAC — From the edge of the vineyard, one can see a small wooden hosting shed for honeybees and other insects with translucent wings. The vegetation along the ground is dense with phacelia, rumex and crimson clovers to nurture biodiversity. Here in the French department of Gironde, more and more producers in and around the […]
Voltaire said he never saw female inventors. A study on female entrepreneurs in 19th-century France reveals a very different reality.
PARIS — Our usual spot at Parc Sainte-Périne to plop our blanket and sports equipment for a few hours of recreational escape was already taken when we arrived on Saturday. A group of about 10 young men were sprawled out on the patch, enjoying the sunshine and talking among themselves — in Arabic, I noticed. […]
User ratings systems on service apps and websites are making some people obsessive about their online reputations, even as customers. Where is all this headed?
“Can Barbarin fall?” asks French-language weekly Tribune de Lyon on its cover this week, in reference to Archbishop of Lyon Philippe Barbarin, who is accused of covering up acts of paedophilia. Cardinal Barbarin, one of France’s top Catholic clerics, is accused of failing to take action against 70-year-old priest Bernard Preynat in 2009, when he […]
As a result of the boom construction, worldwide demand for sand has led to an explosion of illicit trafficking in what would have seemed like a limitless resource.
PARIS — This is a new kind of police investigation. It is a terrorist affair that touches the edges of childhood, psychological manipulation and social discontent. The protagonists of this story are a group of girls torn between their teenage troubles and the traps of a tormented time. Aged between 14 and 19, they come […]
The temptation to get rid of coins and paper bills is evidence of the failure of the monetary policy of central banks, which has led to negative interest rates.
Libération, March 11, 2016 To mark the upcoming fifth anniversary of the start of the civil war in Syria, French daily Libération renamed itself Friday in Arabic, featuring a striking front-page image of children spinning on swings around a bomb. Calling itself Tahrir (“Liberation” in Arabic) for the occasion of the March 15th anniversary next […]
The twin problems of the economic crisis and university studies taking longer than expected have conspired to force many young adults to return home to their parents. Problem is, sometimes they bring their partners too.
Wanted in two countries for his actions to save endangered marine wildlife, the Sea Shepherd founder is now under the unofficial protective custody of France, where he manages an extreme conservation group that makes Greenpeace look like pikers.
In the second half of the 20th century, countless painters would set up their easels on the Place du Tertre, on top of Paris’s Montmartre hill. Some no doubt were trying to channel Picasso, who used to live nearby. By this point, the great Spanish master had set up shop in the quieter climes of […]
NANTERRE — He’s got Palmyra on his mind. Sitting as his desk in the judicial police office in Nanterre, near Paris, Ludovic Ehrhart is staring at his holiday pictures: four black-and-white snapshots of the ancient Syrian city. He put them up last summer, just after ISIS started to destroy it. He’s been to Palmyra twice, […]
The French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean is a place of green experimentation, but economic and climate realities make sustainability a huge challenge.
The rapid growth of the sharing economy is both inevitable and generally good. But only a fool can believe it will truly disrupt the natural capitalist forces of our market economy.
PARIS — Employees everywhere, here’s one more good reason to grumble: Your boss will probably outlive you. A new study from France’s national statistics bureau (INSEE) quantifies what many might have suspected, also in light of noted correlations between wealth and life expectancy. But the latest French study, which echos similar findings from other countries […]
KIM JONG-UN RAMPS UP NUCLEAR THREAT Raising his belligerent rhetoric again, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the national military to prepare its nuclear warheads “to be fired at any moment,” Pyongyang’s state-run news agency KCNA reported today. The comments were made as Kim supervised military exercises involving newly developed rocket launchers that were […]