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A Weird 2021 : Our Favorite "What The World" Stories

A man in a white polo shirt reading the news

A man reading the news

Zahra Amiri via Unsplash

Tales of odds and ends from deep inside the world's newspapers....


Starsky And Hutch Busted In France For Driving Under Influence

Starsky And Hutch Busted In France For Driving Under Influence

worldcrunch.com

Yes, they are both French. Yes, those are their real names. No, they weren't driving a Ford Gran Torino.

— WORLDCRUNCH

Skiing Across Sweden-Norway Border To Slip Past COVID Lockdown

Skiing Across Sweden-Norway Border To Slip Past COVID Lockdown

worldcrunch.com

There was only one problem: the weather.

NRK

It's Raining Fish, Hallelujah! Mysterious Lluvia de Peces Lands Again In Honduras

It's Raining Fish, Hallelujah! Mysterious Lluvia de Peces Lands Again In Honduras

worldcrunch.com

Residents near the Caribbean coast of Honduras have been witness to an unlikely, and much welcome, event: fish that seem to arrive from the skies. Or maybe from somewhere else?

LA TRIBUNA

Author Of Italian Thrillers Arrested For Staging Parents’ Murder-Suicide

Author Of Italian Thrillers Arrested For Staging Parents’ Murder-Suicide

worldcrunch.com

Police say the published novelist killed his father with a hammer and slit his mother’s wrists to make it look like the wife killed her husband and then herself. The mother is clinging to life.

— WORLDCRUNCH

In Skinny Japan, New Company Offers Plus-Sized People 'For Rent'

In Skinny Japan, New Company Offers Plus-Sized People 'For Rent'

worldcrunch.com

It's an economic dictum that virtually anything that is rare is bound to create a valuable market: diamonds, limited edition clothing and, in Japan, obese people.

OUEST-FRANCE

Budapest or Bucharest? A Tale Of Very Lost French Soccer Fans

Budapest or Bucharest? A Tale Of Very Lost French Soccer Fans

www.google.com

Let's be honest, as European capital names go, Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania) are pretty similar. It's even slightly closer in French.

— WORLDCRUNCH

Fart At Famous Thermal Spa Sparks 12-Person Brawl, Three Arrested

Fart At Famous Thermal Spa Sparks 12-Person Brawl, Three Arrested

www.google.com

Close your eyes. You've arrived in the lush and peaceful microstate of Andorra, known around the world for its natural spas. You've spent the day relaxing with that special someone in the 70°C thermal waters. Maybe you've just gotten a nice massage... And then someone farts.

— WORLDCRUNCH

Asparagus Recipe Baked Into Belgian Legal Decree

Asparagus Recipe Baked Into Belgian Legal Decree

worldcrunch.com

"Preheat oven to 250 °C, add three teaspoons of salt into water, rinse and peel the asparagus and wait 30 minutes before cooking…"

— WORLDCRUNCH

Plane Struck By Lightning Exorcized After Landing

Plane Struck By Lightning Exorcized After Landing

worldcrunch.com

What happens when lightning strikes a plane? First, thanks to modern safety features, it flies on and lands without incident. But in Togo, airport staff last week made sure one such plane was thoroughly *explored and inspected.

— WORLDCRUNCH

Parents Call Cops On Teen Son For Refusing To Clear The Table

Parents Call Cops On Teen Son For Refusing To Clear The Table

worldcrunch.com

Parenting can be a tricky thing.

Who can safely say they've never, in the heat of the moment, brandished over-the-top threats to try to get unruly offspring to comply? And who ever follows through?

— WORLDCRUNCH

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Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

If 3.3 Million Ukrainian Refugees Never Come Home? The Economics Of Post-War Life Choices

The war isn't the only thing that stands in the way of the homecoming of Ukrainian refugees. A lot depends on the efficiency of post-war economic recovery. A new study warns that up to 3.3 million won't be coming back after the fighting stops.

Photograph of a mother and her two children meeting an evacuation train from the Sumy region at the central railway station.​

July 16, 2023, Kyiv, Ukraine: People meet an evacuation train from the Sumy region at the central railway station.

Oleksii Chumachenko/ZUMA
Yaroslav Vinokurov

KYIV — Approximately 6.7 million Ukrainians have left their country since the Russian invasion. The longer the war lasts, the more these refugees will consolidate their new lives in their host countries, resulting in a heavy population drain for Ukraine.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

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Earlier this month, the Kyiv-based Center for Economic Strategy (CES) presented a study on the attitudes of Ukrainian refugees that shows a large number of them will likely not return to their homeland even after the end of the war.

According to their calculations, Ukraine may lose 3.3 million citizens. There is also a strong likelihood that a large number of men currently fighting in the war will move abroad in order to reunite with their families that have settled there.

Even in peacetime, counting Ukrainians is not an easy task. A full-fledged census was conducted in the country only once: in 2001. It concluded that Ukraine had a population of 48.5 million.

After the Russian invasion in 2014, Ukraine was unable to compute how the population in the temporarily occupied territories had changed. According to latest calculations, as on February 1, 2022, an estimated 41.13 million people lived in the unoccupied territory.

After February 24, 2022, it became impossible to count the exact number of inhabitants, partly because the state does not have information on the number of Ukrainians who have fled the country as a result of the war.

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