East Asia is home to 30% of the world’s population but has recorded only 2.4% of the COVID-19 global death toll. Scientists are looking at possible immunity from past epidemics or even genetics.
Category: In The News
Delays, reluctance, shortages… the rollout of the coronavirus vaccines across the world has been beset by some recurring obstacles.
Insurrection, chaos, siege, storm, invasion, an attack to democracy… Newspapers in the United States and around the world expressed shock after supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, angry at what they considered to be a rigged election. Unprecedented scenes of violence led to the death of four people and […]
Javier Franco, a mountain guide in Argentina Patagonia, started with an idea. Next he had a prototype. Now, he and his siblings run a small but thriving business in Buenos Aires.
‘Covidization’ of healthcare systems worldwide has led to rising mortality rates in pathologies like cancer, and more births in the Third World.
It’s stupid to expect people without any medical training to understand how each vaccine candidate has been evaluated. Public accountability offers an alternative.
Public denouncements have pressured some Egyptian institutions to establish anti-harassment policies. But without ‘collective responsibility,’ policies alone can only go so far.
Iranian nurses are overworked and underpaid, and now angered by the government’s seeming reluctance to purchase coronavirus vaccines.
With a humanitarian crisis looming along the Sudan border, Ethiopian refugees pine for news of those they were forced to leave behind.
Bill Gates is among those predicting that the shift toward remote work will last beyond the COVID-19 crisis. But what if, to compensate, people start making more of an effort to mix and mingle?
Yemen’s itinerant beekeepers must follow the flowering season. But this nomadism, essential for their bees to produce this liquid gold known around the world, is hampered by the nation’s ongoing civil war.
When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in December 2010, it first triggered a wave of revolts, then hopes of a historic liberalization in Arab countries. But the doors of democracy, barely half-opened, have been shut ever since.
In a time of public impatience and online mobilization, the region’s governments are feeding frustrations with an outdated leadership approach.
After a year that’s been as trying as it is troubling, the holidays are finally upon us, and for many there’s a temptation to treat the upcoming festivities as a welcome catharsis. But for governments, this “most wonderful time of the year” represents a real conundrum: How to allow for some much-needed Yuletide joy while […]
In a country famous for its carne culture, a new generation is opting for a far different kind of diet, and food retailers are paying attention.
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 […]
Iranian officials have reacted cautiously to a string of strikes, killings and acts of sabotage against the regime in past months. Do they fear retaliating against the West could hasten the Islamic Republic’s demise?
It is a speech that stands out from all those we’ve heard from world leaders in the 10 months since the pandemic began — a far cry from the fact-defying rhetoric of Jair Bolsonaro or the cool logic of Emmanuel Macron. As Germany reported a record 590 deaths in one day from Covid-19, Chancellor Angela […]
PARIS — A threshold has been crossed this week as the first vaccinations have been administered, in the UK and Russia, with announcements of others to follow in additional countries in the coming days and weeks. It all sets the stage for the biggest vaccination campaign in world history. But even if the obvious logistical […]
From France to China, these female worship leaders not only provide spiritual guidance but also encourage diversity and dispel stereotypes, from both within and outside of their community.
In Germany and elsewhere, social distancing rules mean that people who don’t fit the heterosexual, two-parent-household mold, aren’t getting a fair deal.
Like former presidents Álvaro Uribe and Evo Morales in South America, Donald Trump may keep infecting public life, even after he exits the White House.
Britain’s race to be the first deploy the vaccine may be an attempt to whitewash their initial disastrous handling of this pandemic — not to mention the debacle of leaving the European Union.
In a kingdom torn between the rise of Islamism and always-connected digital world, more and more women are undergoing invasive operations, sometimes risking their lives.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reached every corner of the planet, and we remember those we lost from more than 20 different countries.
PORTLAND — I’m far from the first American living in Europe to extol the virtues of universal health care. It’s almost a cliche at this point, but may have renewed relevance as the pandemic has laid bare the failures in medical systems around the world. After living through COVID-19 in France, a trip home would […]
Despite decades of violence and tension between opposing army outposts, villagers caught in between have no choice but to keep living their lives.
Gasser Abdel Razek and his colleagues at a leading Egyptian NGO have been arrested as part of government crackdown. What it looks like to those who’ve been there before.
PARIS — After first reckoning with the physical toll of COVID-19, the world also began to register the risk of rising rates of depression and isolation as the first wave of the virus forced hundreds of millions of people to stay confined at home for months at a time last spring. But now the second […]
The lockdowns have arrived as technology accentuates the passage from ritually organized time to time without clear limits.
PARIS — Like much of the rest of the world, Sweden is now facing a second wave of coronavirus infections. But while other countries are debating which mix of restrictions to reinstate, the Swedish government has finally decided to announce its very first ban: closing bars and restaurants after 10:30 pm starting tomorrow. As a […]
The COVID-19 economic crisis has pushed the top Italian club to ask for tax payments to be deferred. It needs to pay coach Antonio Conte’s salary of 1 million euros … per month!
Also known as al-Khalil — the friend — the historic, contested city is steeped in enmity and overshadowed by Israel’s commanding military presence.
Qualified health care workers are urgently needed in the Islamic Republic. But because of the COVID-19 crisis, they’re also exhausted — and eyeing opportunities abroad.
The city-state’s leadership has never tolerated too much political dissent; and now when it comes in the Facebook variety, officials are using the courts to silence critics.
The announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech that their COVID-19 vaccine trials have tallied a 90% success rate comes as a second wave of the virus is hitting not only public health, but the public psyche.
No specific treatment or medication exists to treat anosmia. And yet, a patient’s brain can be trained to accelerate the recovery of the lost sense of smell.
Germany has made the airing out of closed spaces a centerpiece of its recommendations for limiting contagion. Others, including the CDC, are also touting the benefits.
New Zealand’s referendum last month to legalize recreational marijuana use was the first time a country put the controversial topic to a popular vote. Initial results point to a narrow defeat of the measure, which would still leave Uruguay and Canada as the only countries to fully legalize cannabis at a national level. Still, in […]
It’s said to be cultural differences, but what separates the success of countries in East Asian and Oceania is above all a question of policy choices.