Worldcrunch
👋 Sannu!* Welcome to Thursday, where Kim Jong-un affirms his support for Vladimir Putin, the UAE denounces Israeli plans to annex the West Bank, and today’s quiz question is about a Nazi-looted Italian painting. Meanwhile, we offer a tour du monde of the state of the debate as to whether adults can physically discipline children. […]
Beijing is using the anniversary of the end of World War II to project its new power in opposition to the United States. Donald Trump has accused Xi Jinping of downplaying American support for China in defeating Japan and of “plotting” against America.
Pyongyang has just ratified its new defense pact with Moscow. North Korean soldiers are deployed near Kursk, in an unprecedented engagement that marks a reversal of Kim Jong-un’s foreign policy.
With tens of thousands North Korean troops confirmed to be moving toward the Russia-Ukraine front line, to fight on Moscow’s side in Ukraine, the two big questions are: What is Kim Jong-un trying to achieve? And more importantly, how does China fit into this picture?
Tensions have suddenly escalated after North Korea accused South Korea of sending drones over its capital. Threats from Pyongyang are common, but amid an uncertain international context, experts are taking these latest ones more seriously.
Updated Oct. 9, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. North Korea conducted its first nuclear weapon test on this day in 2006. The test marked a significant development in North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. What was North Korea’s first type of nuclear weapon it tested? The exact nature of the device tested has been a subject of debate […]
Updated July 18, 2024 at 12:05 p.m. On this day in 2012, Kim Jong-un was officially appointed as the Supreme Leader of North Korea and given the rank of Marshal in the Korean People’s Army by the Workers’ Party of Korea, the ruling party in North Korea. What does it mean to be the Supreme […]
Updated June 30, 2024 at 11:45 a.m. Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, visited North Korea on this day in 2019. Trump and Kim Jong-un met at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), specifically at the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the village of Panmunjom. This location is a historic site where previous meetings […]
Vladimir Putin presents himself as the leading advocate for multipolarism, but continues to reveal his true world view, where we are divided among those that respect nothing but personal power — and fools.
The Sierra Madre, a World War II cargo ship grounded 300 kilometers off The Philippine coast, was involved in an incident between the Philippine and Chinese navies on Monday. It’s the focus of a tug-of-war between Beijing and Manila, against the backdrop of the U.S.-China Cold War.
Russia is digging itself into a hole as it becomes increasingly dependent on China, as a result of international sanctions and isolation. This shifting dynamic, analysts argue, is bound to have ripple effects around the world
North Korea lends its full support to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and will supply ammunition to Moscow, which in return will help Kim Jong-un with his space ambitions. With the whiff of a Cold War alliance, it shows how two regimes that have become so isolated they multiply the risks for the rest of the world.
Vladimir Putin was eager to welcome Kim Jong-un for a rare visit to Russia in order to replenish depleting supplies of shells and ammunition. But North Korea has its own demands help to build satellites as part of an advanced space program.
What should the world make of Kim Jong-un, his young daughter Ju Ae in tow, flexing North Korea’s military hardware? Nothing good, though the scenario that it is mostly just a flex is still the most likely.
How to handle a nuclear armed pariah state is not a simple question.
“Taiwanese would laugh at the leader worship of the North Koreans, but wasn’t that what we did in the days of Chiang Kai-shek?”
? Zdravo!* Welcome to Friday, where Purdue Pharma’s $4.5 billion opioid settlement is overturned, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un celebrates his 10th year in office and water is found in Mars’ Grand Canyon. Weekly news magazine Jeune Afrique also looks at the reasons behind the Muslim Brotherhood’s failure to properly run national governments. [*Serbian] […]
? Dydh da!* Welcome to Wednesday, where Merkel makes way for Scholz, Biden threatens Putin and a Botox scandal has hit Saudi Arabia’s camel beauty pageant. We also tune in to London-based Kayhan, which unpacks the geopolitics of last week’s reported clashes on the border of Iran and Afghanistan. [*Cornish, UK] SIGN UP This […]
? Manahoana!* Welcome to Monday, where global coronavirus cases hit 250 million, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega heads toward a fourth term and Amy Winehouse’s little minidress is a big auction hit. We also look at the ups and downs of Singapore’s Zero-COVID strategy. [*Malagasy – Madagascar] SIGN UP This is our daily newsletter Worldcrunch Today, […]
? வணக்கம்* Welcome to Thursday, where America’s top general reacts to China’s test of a hypersonic weapon system, Russia is forced to reimpose lockdown measures and Venice’s historic gondola race is hit by a doping scandal. French daily Les Echos also offers a cautionary tale of fraud in the crypto economy. [*Vaṇakkam, Tamil – India, […]
? Molo!* Welcome to Thursday, where Kim Jong-un offers to reopen hotline with Seoul, a 96-year-old Nazi war crime suspect flees and a Turkish man gets so drunk he joins a search party for himself. From France, we also take a look, and listen, to the surprisingly loud noises of the countryside. [*Xhosa – South […]
Despite Kremlin denials, Western sanctions are hitting Russia hard, and prompting its president to look elsewhere for new alliances and opportunities.
Bill Clinton once called it ‘the most terrifying place on earth.’ A no-man’s land with barbed wire and robot sentries, the area between the two Koreas has also become an unlikely wildlife refuge.
WASHINGTON — When Kim Jong-un came out in the open, analysts, spies and all kind of experts were running through the footage, sound bites, testimonies, intelligence reports and open-source information collected during the few hours the North Korean dictator visited South Korea, Pyongyang’s staunch enemy since 1953. Since that year, not a single member of […]
It will be marked in the historical record as the date when China took over control of Far East Asia.
Recently opened to visitors, the ‘816 Nuclear Military Plant’ in Fuling takes visitors back in time, to the height of the Cold War. It also brings to mind the current nuclear ambitions of China’s provocative neighbor, North Korea.
The U.S. president’s threat to ‘totally destroy’ a nation is beyond the pale. But is there method to it?
In May 1999, I visited North Korea. I was based at the time in Beijing as a correspondent for a Slovenian newspaper, and it was impossible not to visit the country that had aroused so many questions and offered so few answers. One just needed to see the place. So I did. I joined a […]
-Analysis- As Kim Jong-un again edges the world closer to an unthinkable nuclear showdown, the tribulations of a humble music store owner in Berlin may help explain why it’s so hard to figure out what to do with North Korea. German daily Die Welt spoke last week with Andreas Schmucker about a court case pending […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Here in France, one learns that the first step to flipping a crêpe is to ensure the batter is cooked all the way through. Only then can you shake the edges loose, and with a flick of the wrist, flip the crêpe high in the air. The kitchen of foreign diplomacy has […]
Kim Sul-song, the Supreme Leader’s enigmatic half-sister, has extended her influence to new heights. Could she be the real threat to her brother?
Amid extraordinarily high tensions on the Korean peninsula, Switzerland managed to get diplomats from Pyongyang to sit down with counterparts from Seoul.
SPOTLIGHT: NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA SECRETLY MEET Just how dangerous is a nuclear-armed North Korea? Run by Kim Jong-un, the unpredictable 32-year-old scion of an autocratic dynasty, the country has been virtually sealed off from the rest of the world for decades. What we know is disturbing: The pace of both nuclear weapons and missile-delivery […]
At first, most thought it was another earthquake. But the 5.3-magnitude rumble coming from the northeastern corner of North Korea was a potentially much more frightening event: Pyongyang had set off its most powerful nuclear weapon test ever. World leaders were quick to react to this latest act of defiance. South Korea denounced Pyongyang leader […]
Foreign correspondents, and their editors, have long wrestled with translations of newsworthy words from one language to another — both those quotable quotes from colorful personalities, and the jargony langue de bois of international bureaucrats and businessmen. We like to think of ourselves at Worldcrunch as experts in the field, and watched with some amusement […]
SPOTLIGHT: A PUTIN THINK TANK IN BERLIN Far from both the Transatlantic chattering about Brexit, and the simmering war in Ukraine, a new “Research Institute” was quietly christened in the capital of Germany last week. The “Dialogue of Civilizations” think tank moved its headquarters from Vienna to central Berlin, which German historian Karl Schlögel writes […]
SPOTLIGHT: BEYOND BREXIT The big day has arrived. Britons have begun voting to decide if their country should remain a member of the European Union, or go its own way. The latest polls all suggest the race is too close to call, with two surveys putting the “Remain” camp ahead while two others say those […]
SPOTLIGHT: SARAJEVO RUBBLE TO TRUMP TOWER The pace of modern communication tells us that what’s here today is gone … tonight. The potential worldwide virality of any piece of digitally circulated information comes with the caveat that everything is also potentially, and eternally, invisible. The tree falling in some proverbial unseen forest of the Internet. […]
SPOTLIGHT: GREECE REDUX It’s that time of year again: Greek anger and economic strife are making headlines: general strikes, bailout reviews, anti-austerity reforms. But a recent study looking to the recent past, published in Handelsblatt, a business newspaper from Germany (of all places), shows the Greeks have every right to be angry. Berlin-based economists found […]
ECUADOR INTRODUCES REBUILDING TAX Photo: Guillermo Granja/Reuters/ZUMA The death toll in Ecuador after Saturday’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake continues to rise and now stands at 570, with hundreds more still missing and as many as 4,000 wounded. And with the extensive damage the quake caused, estimated at $3 billion, authorities unveiled yesterday a new series of measures […]