When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
BBC

The Latest: China’s Two-Child Policy Ends, Netanyahu’s Job At Risk, Darth Vader’s House

Tribute in Vancouver to the 215 children whose remains were found buried at a former boarding school in Kamloops, Canada
Tribute in Vancouver to the 215 children whose remains were found buried at a former boarding school in Kamloops, Canada

Welcome to Monday, where China ends its two-child policy, Netanyahu risks losing his job, and Darth Vader's house is up for sale. We've also zoomed in on a single photo to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre in our This Happened video.

• China bumps two-child policy up to three: China announces that married couples may have up to three children, after data showed a steep decline in birth rates in the country. The move puts an end to the existing limit of two, in place since 2016, which itself replaced the 1979 one-child policy.

• Netanyahu vs. coalition: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that a proposed coalition would be "a danger to Israel's security and future," a day after nationalist Naftali Bennett announced he would join forces with a centrist party to form a unity government by Wednesday, which would end the rule of the country's longest-serving prime minister.

Canada mourns 215 indigenous children: Flags were flown at half-mast across Canada yesterday, in homage to the 215 children whose remains were found on the grounds of a former boarding school in Kamloops, British Columbia, earlier last week. The preliminary findings of the investigation into what was part of a nationwide effort to force-assimilate Indigenous children into Canada, are expected to be published in a report this month.

Denmark helped NSA spy on Merkel: A European media investigation reveals how Denmark's secret service helped the U.S. spy on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European officials from 2012 to 2014. The report confirms NSA wiretapping allegations originally made by whistleblower Edward Snowden back in 2013.

• COVID Vietnam variant: Vietnam has started a mass COVID-19 testing campaign and toughening lockdown measures to respond to a new spike in COVID cases and the discovery of a new hybrid discovered in the country, said to combine features of the Indian and UK variants.

• Tarzan's Joe Lara presumed dead in plane crash: American actor Joe Lara, known for his role as Tarzan in the 1990s TV series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures, is presumed dead after a plane crash in Tennessee along with his wife and five other people.

• Living like Darth Vader: An ominous-looking home, nicknamed "the Darth Vader House," in Houston, Texas, is now on the market for $4,3 million. At 7,000 square-foot, it has plenty of breathing space ...



British daily The Independent features a photograph of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds, who got married in secret at Westminster Cathedral. Johnson is the country's first PM to get married while in office in nearly 200 years.



The Tulsa Race Massacre, 100 years later

May 31 marks the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, believed to be the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.

On May 30, 1921, a young Black man named Dick Rowland was arrested for an alleged assault on a White woman in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The next morning, in retaliation, a mob of white residents attacked the Greenwood district, known as "Black Wall Street" at that time for its prosperity and thriving businesses. The shootings, looting and lynchings only ceased 24 hours later: dozens of city blocks were destroyed and an estimated 300 people were killed. In the wake of this violence, thousands of Black residents were displaced.

A black and white photograph, taken in June 1921, shows the extent of the damages in the Greenwood district.

The Tulsa Race Massacre had been absent from most history books and newspapers for decades and was long referred to as the "Tulsa Race Riot." But as the U.S. is engaging in a new reckoning with its history of racist violence, led by the Black Lives Matter movement, a new light has been shed on this particularly violent episode. In October 2020, an investigation launched two years before by Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum unearthed a mass grave believed to hold victims of the massacre at the Oaklawn Cemetery. A full excavation is scheduled on June 1, in the hopes that some of the victims of this massacre can finally be properly laid to rest.


25 hours, 50 minutes

Ada Tsang Yin-hung, a former middle school teacher from Hong Kong, has set a new record for the fastest ascent of Mount Everest by a woman. The previous record (39 hours 6 minutes) set in 2018 was held by Nepali climber Phunjo Jhangmu Lama.

Whether you change the policy five children or eight children, housing prices are still the best sterilization tool.

— A user on the Chinese social media platform Weibo reacted to the country's recent decision to allow families to have up to three children, instead of two. The policy is intended to reverse the current decline in birth rates, but many Chinese refrain from having more children due to economic constraints and high cost of living.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

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

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

Economy

First It Was Poland's Farmers — Now Truckers Are Protesting Ukraine's Special Status

For the past month, Poland has been blocking off its border checkpoints to Ukrainian trucks, leaving many in days-long lines. It's a commercial and economic showdown, but it's about much more.

Photogrqph of a line of trucks queued in the  Korczowa - border crossing​

November 27, 2023, Medyka: Trucks stand in a queue to cross the border in Korczowa as Polish farmers strike and block truck transport in Korczowa - border crossing

Dominika Zarzycka/ZUMA
Katarzyna Skiba

Since November 6, Polish truckers have blocked border crossing points with Ukraine, citing unfair advantages given to the Ukrainian market, and demanding greater support from the European Union.

With lines that now stretch for up to 40 kilometers (25 miles), thousands of Ukrainian truckers must now wait an average of about four days in ever colder weather to cross the border, sometimes with the help of the Polish police. At least two Ukrainian truck drivers have died while waiting for passage into Poland.

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

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

The round-the-clock blockade is being manned by Polish trucking unions who claim that Ukrainian trucking companies, which offer a cheaper rate, have been transporting goods across Europe, rather than between Poland and Ukraine. Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian truckers have been exempt from the permits once required to cross the border.

Now, Polish truckers are demanding that their government reintroduce entry permits for Ukrainian lorries, with exceptions for military and humanitarian aid from Europe. For the moment, those trucks are being let through the blockade, which currently affects four out of Ukraine’s eight border crossings with Poland.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest