Worldcrunch
Welcome to Tuesday, where G7 leaders meet to discuss Afghanistan, Kamala Harris accuses China of “coercion” and the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games open. Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based media The Initium reports on the pressure still put on unmarried women in Chinese society.
Welcome to Monday, where chaos continues at Kabul airport, flooding kills at least 22 in Tennessee, and Taiwan hisses at the culling of smuggled cats. Meanwhile, Les Echos invites you to mind the gap and hop on Europe’s rekindled love for overnight rail travel.
Staying updated with the news has become a way to pass time, but there are real effects on the health of the polity.
Watching the nightly news on television was a recipe for unhappiness. It’s just one lesson from two years on the road in Europe, even though the depressing headlines will follow you through other channels.
For many people, the lesson from the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 – and more broadly from the experience of the last four years – is that American democracy has become newly and dangerously fragile. That conclusion is overstated. In fact, American democracy has always been fragile. And it might be more precise to diagnose the United States as a fragile union rather than a fragile democracy. As President Joe Biden said in his inaugural address, national unity is “that most elusive of things.” Certainly, faith in American democracy has been battered over the last year. […]
After four years in office and two months of denying his defeat to Joe Biden, U.S. President Donald Trump bids farewell this week to the White House. Whether this also means a final exit from the world stage remains to be seen — and one way to judge will be whether this is the last […]
From The Freedom Of Vanlife To A Pandemic Quarantine — And Back Again? RUE AMELOT Pathogens In The Permafrost: A New Climate Change Health Risk LES ECHOS No Work, No Way Home: Russia’s Migrant Workers Trapped By COVID-19 KOMMERSANT Brazil’s Stranger-Than-Fiction Descent Under Bolsonaro CLARIN Quiet Killer: When Coronavirus Got Inside A Capuchin Convent LE […]
COVID Death Toll At 1.5 Million: A World United By Those We Lost WORLDCRUNCH Abidjan Postcard: Black Lives Matter, But They’re Different Here JEUNE AFRIQUE Pandemic Postcard: Nearly Alone As A Paris Museum Reopens RUE AMELOT “Joan Of Arc” In Exile: Can Tikhanovskaya Lead Belarus From Abroad? KOMMERSANT COVID-19, Address To The Nations: Faces Of […]
In addition to coronavirus-related deaths, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) recorded 42 murders of journalists and media workers since the beginning of 2020 in targeted attacks, bombings and shootings.
PARIS — With much of the world trying to minimize the impact of a COVID-19 second wave, governments are again forced to make impossible choices between relaxing restrictions to avoid total economic implosion or staying shut down to limit death tolls. Even countries typically mentioned as pandemic role models, like South Korea, are seeing a […]
Gaspard Koenig has returned after several months spent traveling across Europe on horseback. The journey included a conscious effort to limit his exposure to current events, relying only on the local newspapers and conversations.
Welcome to Tuesday, where the Taliban have launched an attack on a strategic city in southern Afghanistan, Iran’s new leader vows to fight U.S. sanctions and a world record is shattered in Tokyo. In Switzerland, there’s also an odd story of a man fond of his fondue fork for criminal purposes. • Taliban attack key […]
Welcome to Friday, where the global COVID-19 death toll exceeds 4 million, ousted Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo is back in town and Joe Biden makes Juneteenth official. We also go to Hong Kong where so-called “vaccine hesitancy” is particularly high as a direct result of rising mistrust of the government. • Global COVID-19 death […]
Welcome to Tuesday, where at least 23 die in a Mexico city metro accident, Bill & Melinda are splitting up and Japan spends COVID relief money on a giant squid statue. Les Echos also tells us about the pandemic-linked spike in anosmia cases, a.k.a. “smell blindness’ and the impact on France’s renowned wine tasters. • […]
Welcome to Friday, where dozens die in a stampede at a religious festival in Israel, Brazil’s COVID death toll surpasses 400,000 and an owl-like bird is crowned Instagram influencer. We also look at how a Taiwanese oenologist is working to turn his country into a tropical wine terroir. • Dozens killed at Israeli religious festival […]
Welcome to Friday, where tensions between far-right Jewish activists and Palestinians escalate in Jerusalem, Russia withdraws troops from Ukraine border and four ponies jump over Brexit obstacle. German conservative daily Die Welt also tells us why the country’s political parties should keep a close eye on the Greens’ candidate in the upcoming chancellor election. • […]
Merhaba!* Welcome to Tuesday, where the death toll among pro-democracy protesters tops 500 in Myanmar, Suez Canal gets unstuck at last, and a mafioso’s love of food (and tattoos) is his downfall. Le Monde also reports from Belarus, where Lukashenko’s regime is doing everything it can to avoid new mass protests.*Turkish • Myanmar protests top […]
Welcome to Thursday, where Tanzania tries to understand if its president died of COVID, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi faces new charges and we discover what life on Mars *sounds* like. We also tune in to Le Monde to see how the invitation-only audio-chat app Clubhouse is seen as trouble by Arab regimes. • Death […]
Welcome to Monday, where Myanmar’s death toll keeps rising, more countries suspend AstraZeneca vaccine and Beyoncé makes Grammy history. Le Monde takes us to northern Morocco where the closure of the border with the Spanish enclave of Ceuta has led to the collapse of an entire ecosystem. • Myanmar’s deadliest day: Myanmar’s junta imposed martial […]
Welcome to Tuesday, where Italy surpasses 100,000 coronavirus deaths, Lula is cleared of corruption charges, and the trial of the former police officer accused of murdering George Floyd starts. We also look at how the pandemic has impacted fertility rates in developed countries. • COVID-19 latest: Italy passes 100,000 deaths mark, as it announces it […]
Welcome to Wednesday, where Myanmar police side with protesters, the Senate votes to continue Trump’s trial and Europe’s oldest person survives COVID. We also look at the reasons why the “capital of Canadian humor” isn’t laughing so much lately. • COVID-19 latest: Ghana parliament shuts down over outbreak that leaves 17 MPs and 151 support […]
Welcome to Friday, where Myanmar trouble deepens, Navalny’s doctor dies and $60 million in Bitcoin is lost behind a password. We also look at one country trying to figure out where it fits in with the global rush to do business with China. • COVID-19 latest: AstraZeneca applies for approval of its COVID-19 vaccine in […]
Welcome to Monday, where Navalny is arrested upon his return to Moscow, Brazil starts its mass vaccination campaign and there are signs of life from China’s trapped miners. Meanwhile, Le Monde travels to the French port city of Calais to see how high-tech is being used to ease post-Brexit commerce with the UK. SPOTLIGHT: ON […]
Welcome to Monday, where the UK blocks Assange’s extradition, vaccinations are moving too slowly (almost) everywhere and the Asian business world is asking: Where’s Jack? We also follow Le Monde to Casablanca where Moroccans are rethinking what it means to be a man. SPOTLIGHT: DEMOCRACY HAS MORE GRIT THAN YOU MIGHT THINK There are more […]
Welcome to Thursday, where Israel announces a 3rd national lockdown, a Brexit deal looks imminent, and we’ve got the price for zooming with Santa in Lapland. We also look at the effects the pandemic is having on the gig economy. SPOTLIGHT: JOE BIDEN’S REAL CHALLENGE: MOVING BEYOND ANTI-TRUMPISM President-elect Joe Biden’s ample support base is […]
Welcome to Friday, where the hundreds of kidnapped Nigerian students have been freed, Russia has been banned from the Olympics and French police have made a high-profile arrest in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking probe. We also follow Yemen’s itinerant honey producers as they (and their bees) dodge the stings of the country’s ongoing civil […]
Welcome to Wednesday, where the pandemic has spiked again in Germany and South Korea, New Zealand reports decades of child abuse and a cigar box contains an ancient Egyptian mystery. Le Monde, meanwhile, reports on France’s Chechen community reeling since a radicalized 18-year-old beheaded a French teacher in October. SPOTLIGHT: THE NEXT PANDEMIC MAY BE […]
Welcome to Tuesday, where Trump’s Attorney General resigns, Somalia cuts diplomatic ties with Kenya and we meet one weird-looking dinosaur. Meanwhile, t’is the season to look at how the world is getting ready for a very special kind of Christmas. SPOTLIGHT: EUROPE IS RIGHT TO CALL UP BIG GUNS AGAINST BIG TECH Europe is moving […]
CAIRO — There are “forces of evil” that control Egypt’s media outlets, according to a statement issued last week by Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadek. To protect “national security” and prevent “spreading fear throughout society,” Sadek instructed public prosecutors and regulators to monitor media outlets and arrest anyone who disseminates or broadcasts false news. However, it […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Remember conspiracy theories? There was a time, not so long ago, when we used to worry about how the internet encourages the proliferation of crackpot versions of what “really happened” on 9/11 or circulated “the ultimate proof” that Moon landings were actually staged in a television studio. Nowadays, a website hocking a […]
By 2022, disinformation could completely replace real facts online. So what are we supposed to do about it? Sharp ideas from France to Denmark to the U.S. and beyond.
Facebook has agreed to give the government information on political ad campaigns. But the social media giant must behave more like other media companies in a functioning democracy.
What kind of a world do we live in, when Turkey can’t even give us a proper coup anymore? Unable to sleep for the summer heat in Valencia, I remember that twisted thought coming to me as the July 15 coup — or at least its broadcast version — was unfolding on the radio. Typically […]
Looking back on this week, and forward to the next.
UNITED STATES TIME Washington City Paper The New Yorker BRAZIL Veja Carta Capital PERU Caretas UNITED KINGDOM The Economist The Spectator New Statesman SWEDEN Fokus FRANCE Courrier International Le Point GERMANY Stern ITALY Internazionale PORTUGAL Visão UKRAINE Korrespondent SERBIA Nedeljnik SLOVENIA Mladina INDIA The Week India Today INDONESIA Koran Tempo HONG KONG Yazhou Zhoukan
From Italy, India and Indonesia through to 10 other countries, the name was heard in many a language around the world today: T – R – U – M – P. Trump Wins, How TV News Called It In 13 Countries par Worldcrunch
SPOTLIGHT: DEATH IN IRAQ As the attacks in Paris and Brussels have shown, ISIS is a very real threat to daily life in the West. But as unacceptable as the toll paid by innocent European victims may be, it’s always worth remembering who bears the brunt of Islamic terrorism: innocent Muslims. The latest case is […]
PARIS — Our fair-minded but ever subjective staff of journalists, translators and editors have chosen what we believe to be the year’s most engaging and provocative stories. Why The Chinese Are So Good, But Rarely Great CHINA / Caixin, Jan .5 That Slippery Euphemism We Call “Cultural Differences” FRANCE / Worldcrunch, Jan. 15 Artificial Intelligence […]
TALIBAN SIEGE IN AFGHANISTAN Afghan forces are battling Taliban fighters today in a desperate attempt to protect the police headquarters in the town of Sangin, after a Taliban attack killed six U.S. soldiers yesterday, the BBC reports. The Taliban have laid siege to the southern town and have reportedly cut it off from the rest […]