Worldcrunch
Welcome to Tuesday, where Biden calls for Gaza ceasefire, 6,000 refugees reach Spanish shores in a day, and a Sicilian Mafioso takes grandparenting to a new low. We also tune in to Hong Kong-based digital media The Initium for some *strait talking* about the stakes in Taiwan. • Biden calls for Israel-Gaza ceasefire: The U.S. […]
Shortage of masks and respirators, lack of hospital space, muddled government action: inadequate responses to the COVID-19 outbreak are evident even in the world’s most stable countries. So what happens when the virus arrives in places already under the weight of war? Yemen: Given the ongoing stalemate, many had hoped Saudi Arabia would take the […]
The insidious path of COVID-19 across the planet is a reminder of how small the world has become. For the coming weeks, Worldcrunch will be delivering daily updates on this crisis from the best, most trusted international news sources — regardless of language or geography. To receive the daily Coronavirus Global Brief in your inbox, […]
Welcome to Wednesday, where Joe Biden chooses a major anniversary for the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout is stopped and there’s an even taller Christ statue in Brazil. We also look at how different countries are finding creative ways to commemorate the COVID-19 victims. [rebelmouse-image 27046599 original_size=”600×200″ expand=1] [rebelmouse-image 27046600 original_size=”394×47″ expand=1] • U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan: U.S. President Joe Biden has officially announced the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks that led to the 2001 […]
The camera pans across families waiting around with their luggage and children. Men stand with rifles slung over their shoulders, ready to board the evacuation buses north. Migrating birds pass overhead. “Where are they going, do you know?” asks a voice, from the man holding the camera. “Every year, they go to their homes and […]
It was 3 p.m. on January 27, 1945, when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Soviet Army. The full scope of the Nazi barbarities, which included the extermination of six million Jews, was about to be exposed to the world. That January afternoon 75 years ago also marks the beginning of the documenting process, the painful but necessary gathering of evidence, accounts, photographs and film that would later be used in the Nuremberg war crimes trials, and stand as the historical record of the Holocaust. About 1.3 million people (mostly Jews) had been deported to the Polish camp […]
PARIS — In diplomacy, there’s always room for talk, even when the window for negotiation seems all but shut. Such is the scenario that Emmanuel Macron faces in wake of the assassination by the United States of Ghassem Soleimani, an act that has kicked up a whirlwind in the Middle East, with consequences that remain […]
With a battered economy and recent anti-government street protests, can Iran fulfill its promise to avenge the U.S. killing of Qasem Soleimani? Can it afford not to?
An end to the conflict in Eastern Ukraine doesn’t necessarily seem closer, though at least it’s not farther away.
-OpEd- MOSCOW — Despite the predictions before this past week’s NATO summit of a major split in the alliance, and some awkward moments among its respective leaders, the meeting itself concluded without any real substantive complications. Even traditional anti-globalist clashes we’ve come to expect from these kinds of gatherings were absent. As for Russia, it […]
An attack on a guerilla camp killed several minors earlier this year. It was an ‘accident,’ say authorities, but it says a lot about the country’s dismal child welfare record.
It marked the end of an epoch: on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell — and seemingly in an instant, the decades-long Cold War was over. Built in 1961 by the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) to keep the different sectors of Berlin separated, the wall became the singular symbol of the Cold War divide, and a concrete example of the limits and repression of the communist system. The final chapter of the Cold War began when East Berlin’s Communist Party announced that, from midnight, citizens of the GDR could cross the Iron Curtain. “Tor auf!” (“Open […]
Grapes grow almost anywhere, and they’re easy to ferment. So don’t worry, even if the world as we know it crashes and burns, we’ll have wine to ease our souls.
-Analysis- MOSCOW — The USA betrayed the Kurds. This was the blunt interpretation from Dmitry Peskov, press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the Turkey-Russia agreement on northeast Syria signed earlier this week in Sochi. The Kurds have been the Americans’ most loyal allies in Syria, yet Washington abandoned them. Now Kurdish military units […]
As Trump leads a U.S. retreat from the region, Russia has methodically moved back into a position of influence that it had in Soviet times.
May marked the 25th anniversary of the ceasefire that ended Armenia and Azerbaijan’s war for the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. It wouldn’t take much to reignite fighting.
The Norwegians have a mixed history of conflict mediations in recent decades. Can their dubious track record lead to any success in Venezuela?
A rapid tour around the planet shows that some monetary compensation is increasingly seen as a way to try to right the wrongs of the past.
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – Ten days ago, on Feb. 23, our continent and the whole world were watching what would happen at Venezuela’s borders with Colombia and Brazil . In an attempted show of force, Venezuela’s opposition chief and self-proclaimed head of a provisional government Juan Guaidó , sought to bring humanitarian aid across the border, […]
Six men, one flag: it is the defining image of the Greatest Generation. No bodies, no planes or tanks, and yet it has become one of the most recognizable images of that worldwide conflict that killed tens of millions and changed history forever. It was 74 ago, on Feb. 23, 1945, that U.S. photographer Joe Rosenthal captured image later dubbed Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. The photograph shows five U.S. Marines and a Navy corpsman planting the American flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in Japan. Three of the men — Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal […]
WASHINGTON — How long must you live, how strong must be your memory, to turn back and say: damn it, this world has really changed. Look at the millennials, they seem to be better educated than the boomers, but they are sui generis in their thinking, seemingly inspired and shaped by memes rather than historical […]
-Analysis- PARIS — So what has become of this France, champion of maintaining order, exporter of its savoir-faire and its materials to other democracies — and to totalitarian regimes anxious to quell burgeoning opposition movements? Just a few years ago, a spokesman for French tear gas manufacturer Alsetex, which supplies to the French police, told […]
Towards the end of World War II, 800,000 German women and girls were deported to forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. A visit to the abandoned camps near the Russian-Finnish border.
November 11, 2018 marks 100 years since the end of World War I. The signing of the Armistice brought to an end the war that Ernest Hemingway called “the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth.” A century on, as the world celebrates the anniversary with ceremonies and memorials, this […]
GOTHENBURG — I’m often asked: “Where do Yemenis escape to?” Syrians largely flee to Lebanon and Turkey, but where do Yemenis go? “The majority cannot afford to flee,” I respond. “For those who can afford it, their destination always depends on which country hasn’t closed its borders to Yemenis.” Often, they head west, across the […]
From individual artisans to prosperous wholesalers, this isolated place has developed a vibrant economy despite numerous obstacles.
Rising tariffs between the U.S. and China may boost trade between China and Latin American states, but ultimately this could harm their economies if all China wants is energy and commodities.
The do-nothing approach to migration being taken by the new Spanish government and others in Europe is untenable, and plays right into the hands of racist far right.
More than just a vehicle to communicate, language expresses and helps construct identity. As such, it has the power to inspire and unite people — but language can also be a source of division, or an impediment to peace between groups already in conflict. From squabbles over things like spelling and pronunciation, to minority groups […]
A determined architect continues to pursue her dream of opening a civil war museum in Beirut, where people are still rattled by the bloody events of the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990.
As Donald Trump stares down NATO, we may be witnessing the dying days of the post-War alliance between Europe and the U.S..
On June 6, 1944, WWII Allied Forces launched a combined naval, air and land assault on Nazi-occupied France. To commemorate the 74th anniversary of the D-Day landings, OneShot chose this iconic shot by U.S. Coast Guard photographer Robert F. Sargent. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/P4wfLGV0nwA expand=1] OneShot — Into The Jaws Of Death (© Robert F. Sargent) OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an immersive one-minute video. Follow OneShot: [rebelmouse-image 27068863 original_size=”320×320″ expand=1][rebelmouse-image 27068864 original_size=”174×174″ expand=1][rebelmouse-image 27068865 original_size=”128×128″ expand=1][rebelmouse-image 27068866 original_size=”227×227″ expand=1][rebelmouse-image 27068867 original_size=”256×256″ expand=1]
BEIRUT — Lebanon appears to be mobilizing for the mass return of Syrian refugees, disregarding warnings that conditions in their home country are not conducive to voluntary returns in safety and dignity. Last week, ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, Lebanese President Michel Aoun asked the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to help secure the return of refugees. After the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) stated that it was not involved in last month’s return of around 500 Syrians from Lebanon due to conditions in Syria, the UNHCR’s representative to Lebanon, Mireille Girard, was summoned by the foreign ministry […]
-OpEd- MUNICH — Donald Trump may have extended the grace period by one month, but make no mistake about it, he’s still holding a gun to Europe’s head in the tariffs dispute. The EU shouldn’t have any illusions: To get what he wants, Trump will continue his attempted extortion. And why not? It’s worked elsewhere, […]
-Analysis- MOSCOW — The list is long: the scandal around the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, an unprecedented expulsion of Russian diplomats, sanctions leading to the fall of the ruble and a hit on aluminum giant Rusal, retaliatory sanctions, strikes on Syria and over-the-top rhetoric of official Moscow during and after all-the-above crises. […]
We should not be proud of of the insufficient response against the Damascus regime, but total inaction would be even worse.
Better than nothing? Too little, too late? Settling their own scores? The people on the ground in Syria have no false illusions as to what’s at play with Western attacks in response to reports of the use of chemical weapons.
-OpEd- Tensions are reaching a bursting point over Syria! Just as Saddam Hussein’s (hypothetical) possession of weapons of mass destruction led U.S. President George W. Bush to invade Iraq, the (alleged) use of lethal gases on Douma, a district in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta controlled by Islamists, now allows Donald Trump to announce harsh reprisals. Once […]
-Analysis- PARIS — The Syrian population continues to endure various armed conflicts. Despite all the attention this war gets from international, political and humanitarian organizations, it is now more than seven years since it began — and Syria is suffering from three open wounds. On April 9, at dawn, the Tayfur air base, located between […]
Refusing to fund reconstruction efforts until attacks stop could be a solution to combat violence against civilians in war torn Syrian cities such as Ghouta and Alleppo.