Worldcrunch
PARIS — April Fools’ Day is an international celebration of silliness, with roots in ancient Rome, India and the first written reference in The Canterbury Tales. In France and Italy, the poisson d’avril and pesce d’aprile respectively, is a traditional call to spend the day trying to tape a paper cut-out of a fish on […]
A pivotal diplomatic journey, the debut of a timeless opera, and the birth of a basketball icon.
The establishment of a new capital, a diplomatic recognition, and a notorious bank robbery.
A dictator’s fall, a deadly blizzard, and a tragic day for rock ‘n’ roll.
According to psychology research, lying to kids about the subject of Santa Claus risks ruining their confidence and altering the parent-child relationship.
As 2024 comes to an end, the words we’ve chosen reflect a year of division, from “polarization” in the U.S. to “brain rot” in the UK, or Switzerland’s “non binario”, international Words of the Year show how languages mirror the complex issues of our world.
Updated July 26, 2024 at 11:20 a.m. The Solar Impulse 2 completed its historic circumnavigation of the Earth on this day in 2016, after a journey that spanned approximately 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers) and took over a year to complete. It demonstrated the feasibility of long-duration, solar-powered flights, encouraging further research and innovation in renewable […]
Canada has become the most recent country to impose restrictions on non-residents buying real estate, arguing that wealthy investors from other countries are pricing out would-be local homeowners. But is singling out foreigners the best way to face a troubled housing market?
Every year, countless tourists make the pilgrimage to the place where Sherlock Holmes is supposed to have died – the Reichenbach Falls, near Meiringen, in northern Switzerland. Die Welt looks back at the famous detective, and his final days — and how those pages of literature have become a driving force for locals to market their land to tourists.
The Davos Forum was once a true shaper of our collective future in a globalized world. Today it is beyond its expiry date, even if global solutions to global problems are needed more than ever.
In order to begin to alleviate decades of tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union, Switzerland hosted the Geneva Summit of 1985 where American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev would begin to lead the world out of the Cold War Sign up to receive This Happened straight to your inbox each […]
Moscow has been forced to turn to rogue regimes for military supplies for its stalled invasion of Ukraine.
Switzerland has rejected a NATO request to take in injured Ukrainian soldiers, arguing it would compromise its neutrality. This is an old game of masking moral cowardice by a country that has profited off the Putin regime.
Switzerland is famous for its fondue, a national specialty that is eaten by dipping bread into melted cheese, using uniquely shaped long-stemmed forks. Now a 60-year old Swiss man has found a rather unexpected use for his fondue fork, reaching with the length of the utensil and its sharp prongs to steal envelopes containing condolence […]
Five Questions for the legendary pilot, environmental activist and founder of Solar Impulse Foundation, supporting solutions that are profitable and protect the planet.
Drugs, weapons and… spring rolls? Add the Asian fried staple to the list of contraband items that have been seized in the illegal international smuggling market. Police discovered 61.5 kilograms (136 lbs) of chicken spring rolls stashed in a car trunk during a control at a France-Switzerland border crossing on Feb. 16. The driver, a […]
A report turns much-needed attention to a dark and long-ignored chapter in Swiss history.
-Analysis- Two years ago Chinese President Xi Jinping — in the wake of the twin election victories of Brexit and Donald Trump — arrived at the Davos World Economic Forum as the would-be savior of international free trade. “We should adapt to and guide globalization, cushion its negative impact, and deliver its benefits to all […]
A series of recent legal cases across Europe have questioned whether those who refuse to shake hands with people of the opposite sex for religious reasons are guilty of discrimination.
Women have the most to lose if governments don’t start investing more in quality care services, the International Labour Organization warns.
More and more young and not-so-young people are returning home to live with their parents. A phenomenon which is hard on their aging parents.
GENEVA — One day last October, during the morning talk show on Swiss state broadcaster RTS, still groggy viewers were brutally awakened by a sentence dropped live on-air: “Schools train children who will be decimated by artificial intelligence.” The voice that dragged them out of their reverie belonged to a French doctor and entrepreneur named […]
GENEVA — At a time when trust and truth are under attack, it’s somehow comforting to see that some reputations can still go untarnished. For the third year in a row, Swiss company Rolex has earned the designation as the company with the world’s best reputation, as awarded by the Reputation Institute, based in Cambridge, […]
It may not be Europe’s biggest trend setter, but in subtle ways, the land-locked, quadrilingual republic is fashioning a hipper, more confident cultural identity.
Alternative energy projects might be good for the environment. But with a few exceptions, they’re awful on the eyes.
In their own silent but deadly way, cattle are contributing to climate change. Adapting their diets may be one way to ease the problem. Changing our eating habits is another.
LAUSANNE — “We struck off, heading for the horizon with a fever we thought could be cured by accumulating kilometers. But it just riled us up even more. Still, moving quenches something. It eases our melancholy at not having done anything with our lives, at having been born too early and having failed at everything. […]
LAUSANNE — There are books and newspaper articles, technologies promising relief, even theater productions devoted to the topic. Indeed, it seems like everyone is talking about insomnia these days. In Switzerland, insomnia already affects about a third of the population, according to a study carried out between 2009 and 2012 by the Center for Investigation […]
LAUSANNE — Is wildlife a world of bullies? We like to imagine the relationships among living beings as a no-holds-barred struggle for survival, a twisted vision of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, conveyed by the political and economic doctrine of social Darwinism. And yet, examples of cooperation abound in the animal world. Mammals, insects and […]
François-Xavier Mousin and Caroline Buechler used to do marketing for Switzerland’s watch industry. But that was before they went cuckoo for cacao.
This bio-friendly cattle rancher doesn’t win many friends among either vegetarians or traditional ranchers. But those who eat his ‘no-stress’ beef can taste the difference.
LAUSANNE — Margaux and her partner, Séverine, have spent more than a year traveling in a van from the United States to Patagonia. It makes sense then that they’ve come across #Vanlife, an Instagram hashtag van users like themselves use for posting pictures of their lives on the open road. The couple, from Lausanne, enjoy […]
The male god of tennis cried (profusely) after his Australian Open win. Not just his tears, but the place he gives his family, show a different way to be a sports hero.
The global economy is doing wonderfully well. And yet, its key players are wary. Why? Because for all the good news about GDP growth, there are signs of deepening divisions in society, and a sense that for many people around the world, life will be harder for their children than it has been for themselves. […]
LAUSANNE — A few decades from now, that steaming cup of coffee you enjoy (and rely on) every morning won’t taste the same. Climate change, a multitude of alarming forecasts tell us, is threatening the precious bean, prompting researchers and industrialists alike to work on ways to make the plant more adaptable. The trick is […]
When the masses descend upon snow-covered Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering, Esther Heldstab is determined to swim against the tide. The purveyor of tourist mementos on the town’s main street is one of the few shopkeepers who won’t hand over their keys to multinational conglomerates who transform shoe stores and bakeries into lounges and cocktail party space for the week. While the likes of Zurich Insurance, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank take over prime space on Promenade, Heldstab and her sister who run Swissalp Fantasy at no. 79 — where the window display features a stuffed Bernese […]
GENEVA — His video, “I’m testing a blackhead vacuum,” has more than 200,000 views. The one entitled, “Baldness: my hair transplant” has been seen at least 440,000 times. But his bestseller remains “How to have a beautiful, well-trimmed beard,” with more than 800,000 views. Since he created his YouTube channel, The Winslegue Tutorials, two and […]
The historian and sociologist Georges Vigarello recounts the evolution of the dress, which tells the story of female representation and liberation in society.
The many ways your iPhone or Android, and their apps, are built to hook you like a drug user. The UX (user experience) designers are confessing to their sins.
An experimental television show on France’s Canal+ relies more on sounds than images to scare the daylights out of people