Worldcrunch
PARIS — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund whose sexual exploits cost him a shot at the French presidency, has been working as a lobbyist in France for cigarette maker Philip Morris, Le Journal du Dimanche reports. The French weekly cites anonymous sources linked to the U.S. tobacco giant who […]
Bathroom breaks and oxygen tanks mix with kilos of cocaine and money laundering: The “papy connection” trial of aging ex-cons unfolded in a Marseille courtroom.
Oysters are my péché mignon — literally my “cute sin,” or guilty pleasure. I’ll have a shovelful or two, thank you very much.
A century from now, the global population will finally begin to decline. But before that, the world must deal with the waste created by an exploding overpopulation: How do we hold on until then?
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These garlic garlands, in southeastern France’s Provence region, may have been destined for a batch of aioli: a local kind of mayonnaise that also includes olive oil and sometimes egg yolks, and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Ten years after the 2005 French riots, the anxious image of the country’s banlieues has changed. The fear is no longer about hooded youths armed with Molotov cocktails, but instead the suspected radical Islamist.
PARIS — In today’s globalized automotive market, the average driver has two dreams: to purchase an SUV, and to switch from a manual to an automatic transmission. Used by just about everyone in the United States, Japan and China, this transmission mode is gaining ground in Europe and is set to takeoff in India and […]
Aspiring writers who don’t have an inside track welcome the online publisher’s latest advances, such as awarding independent authors, but defenders of traditional publishing say it’s all a scam to destroy the publishing system and
Are new technologies making the wage system obsolete, turning employees into independents? No, workers aren’t so much freelancing as moonlighting.
An 18-century gallery has been transformed into a “venue of free and creative exchange,” upending the usual relationship between art and the public.
French academic André Gunthert asserts that the selfie is not narcissistic folly at all, but rather represents a new kind of revolution that threatens elite control of society.
What if everything were free? Well, it is at Debora Fischkandl’s little Paris shop, no strings attached. And hers isn’t the only one. A look at the radical side of the sharing economy.
Sima, a Parisian mother of three, hits the poker tables every night around 10 p.m. and plays for a solid eight hours, just like a day’s work. She earns a decent living, if not the respect of her children’s teachers.
Estaing in southern France is one of the most picturesque villages in the country. Typiquement français. It’s a favorite stop among Christian pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela — still some 700 miles away in northern Spain.
PARIS: French civil engineering firm Colas has launched the world’s first “photovoltaic roads,” capable of withstanding the weight of cars and bicycles and producing electricity by exposure to sunlight. Known as “Wattway,” the concept could revolutionize solar energy production. Colas says that covering just 2.5% of France’s road and highway network would be enough to […]
ROME — Bordeaux or Borolo? Burgundy or Chianti? Yes, please! Though some have distinct preferences, most wine lovers around the world wish nothing but success to French and Italian winemakers alike. Still, the two European nations have something of an ongoing rivalry, both about the quality and quantity of the wines they put on the […]
With writing and then printing, man had already externalized a part of his memory. But those transformations pale, in both speed and breadth, with the current digital revolution.
Slowly, the sands of time eat away at the concrete bunkers on Utah and Omaha beaches. The half-buried structures still bear witness to the German efforts to repel the Normandy landings.
London’s over-the-top mayor has published a book about Winston Churchill, and may aspire to a similar national destiny. But he strives for greatness by looking for a laugh.
Libération, Oct. 8, 2015 “How Brussels screwed up European sperm.” Libération dedicated its front page Thursday to an in-depth story about how the European Union has failed to restrict the use in every day products of endocrine disruptors, which researchers say are responsible for cancers, diabetes and poor sperm quality. Manufacturers use parabens, phtalates, bisphenol […]
French daily Le Parisien called yesterday’s violence against two Air France executives “unjustifiable” on its Tuesday front page. On Monday, angry workers and union members stormed Air France’s headquarters at Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, to protest some 2,900 proposed layoffs. Pierre Plissonnier, the director of the Air France hub, and the company’s […]
AIX-EN-PROVENCE — Over the past two days, Hervé Pighiera has picked up 118 cigarette butts, 60 cigarette packs, 69 plastic bottles and 7.75 kilos of non-classifiable garbage, including a little dollhouse armchair made of wicker and plastic. Pighiera is on a mission to clean roadsides. On July 12, this smiling fellow in a straw hat, […]
There’s a video circulating on the Internet that stunned me stone cold. You see a group of animal rights activists literally tearing a homeless man’s puppy from his arms. You can see the poor guy trying in vain to free himself from the leader of the activist group, while the frightened little pup squeals and […]
Going to Lourdes as a tourist, not as a devotee, you come across a diverse bunch: the ailing believers looking for a cure, the admirable volunteers taking care of them, the peddlers cashing in on people’s faith. When I went there 45 years ago, I took this shot of pilgrims waiting for a group photograph […]
PARIS — Pépite is still in shock. “It’s hard to deal with it,” repeats this mother, whose youngest daughter converted to Islam. Pépite comes from a Catholic family, and never expected this to happen. She didn’t worry when her daughter, Alexandra, became infatuated with a boy who had converted to Islam, or even when she […]
Climate change is already starting to affect wine growers, who scientists say will have to use other varieties of grapes and periodically move vineyards, among other interventions.
When moving as a group, each bison in a herd can “vote” on which direction to take, and the decision will depend on the majority, just like in elections, according to a report published by scientists in the forthcoming issue of Animal Behaviour. Researchers concluded this while observing the herd movements of about 30 European […]
The European airplane giant has just opened its first U.S. assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama. Airbus is banking on lower labor costs and an aging American aircraft fleet.
Peyrelevade, a village of 800 people in central France, has welcomed 60 refugees since April. Its former retirement home has been renovated, the primary school has avoided a class closure, and there are new jobs for residents. But the future is no less un
Every French region has its own version of brioche, which has a solid but modest history. But now in some corners, this lightly sweet breakfast bread is taking on a high-end air.
Gadgets that make it possible to spy on spouses, children, clients and bosses are more popular than ever. Few realize it is rarely legal to do so.
The most popular politician in France these days is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been lauded for her leadership on Europe’s migrant crisis. “The Incredible Mrs. Merkel” reads Thursday’s cover of weekly Le Point. “If only she was French…” adds the French magazine. Germany’s response to the latest surge of refugees from Syria and […]
Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest-serving monarch in British history. And since her crowning in 1952, she’s gotten out of Buckingham Palace quite a bit, including visits (often multiple times) to 128 different countries. That makes her the most widely traveled head of state in history. Have a look at a few of Elizabeth’s […]
Far from rigid Koranic institutes, this new private school in central France is as much about smart boards as religious values. It is also trilingual: French, Arabic and English.
It is not just the economics of the media that is putting traditional news photographers out of business. It is our troubled relationship with images themselves.
REFUGEES SQUARE OFF WITH HUNGARIAN POLICE A standoff between refugees, many of them from war-torn Syria, and Hungarian police in the town of Bickse has entered its second day, with Die Welt reporting that some 500 people spent the night in the train station and were refusing to eat or drink until being allowed to […]
-Essay- PARIS — There are times when it is necessary to compare things that are not comparable. There’s a chance at least that it will wake up some anesthetized minds. Between 1933 and 1940, several million refugees who had escaped from Germany, Poland, the Baltic countries and elsewhere, fleeing Nazism, were met with closed borders. […]
CALAIS — Three rows of men gather side-by-side, their heads bent down. A coffin lies on the sand, in front of them. They silently pray and place the coffin down a deep pit. Moussa Houmed was 17; he was Eritrean. He dreamed of setting foot on English soil, but ended up drowned in the retention […]
You don’t always have to travel halfway across the world to see a historical wonder. Here is a shot of the closest UNESCO World Heritage Site to me: the 18th-century Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, just a little more than an hour’s drive away from my hometown.