Zooming in on the territory in question and the shifting history between Asia’s (and the world’s) two biggest nations.
Category: In The News
SAINT-BLIMONT — Two years ago, my partner and I set off across Europe in our campervan. We called it Foxy — and it was our home on wheels and ticket to freedom. In France, they still call it “la vanlife” — that ultimate mix of wanderlust and practicality that was popularized during the 1960s in […]
ROME — “We deserve a smile …” With these words, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged the country to celebrate the reopening of the country’s regional borders on June 3. Unfortunately, there’s very little to smile about, and nothing to celebrate. As it reopens, Italy is a country that has been worn out by the […]
-Essay- MEXICO CITY — Confinement has had few consolations, in spite of all the efforts to sell it as an “opportunity for personal growth.” The good news from where I sit is that I can see beer showing up again in Mexico City’s supermarkets and convenience stores. When the country imposed a nationwide shutdown, the […]
The world’s prevailing trade system was facing major challenges even before the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean globalization is destined to die.
Welcome to Thursday, where Biden-Putin talks reinstate ambassadors but achieve little else, Japan lifts some COVID restrictions ahead of the Olympics and boy is the Rhine river filthy. We also turn to Berlin-based daily Die Welt to understand why hackers (from Turkey and Russia alike) keep targeting Germany’s Green Party. • Biden-Putin summit talks: U.S. […]
Three months ago, as the pandemic began to spread beyond Asia, many worried that Africa was particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Yet, so far, the toll has been relatively contained across the continent. In Africa, there have been a total of circa 200,000 recorded cases, compared to over two million in Europe and more than three […]
Welcome to Wednesday, where Israel carries out first airstrikes on Gaza since the ceasefire in May, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin meet for the first time since Biden’s election and Ronaldo changes Coke into water. Chinese daily Economic Observer also advocates for more open discussion about the real reason why China’s couples are not having […]
From schedule changes and face shields to full operational shutdowns, the pandemic has directly impacted the country’s industrial sector.
Welcome to Tuesday, where Japan’s Prime Minister survives a vote of no confidence one month before the Olympic Games, the UK delays its reopening for fears of the Delta variant spreading and a devilishly high roller coaster opens in New Jersey. New Delhi-based news website The Wire also looks at the need for comprehensive development […]
COVID-19 has barely distracted Mexico’s leftist government from its political and electoral priorities. It may be forgetting the price earlier governments paid for ignoring the plight of millions of Mexicans.
Welcome to Monday, where Israel gets a new Prime Minister after Netanyahu’s 12-year tenure, more good news from another COVID-19 vaccine and a houseplant breaks a record in New Zealand. Ukrainian news website Livy Bereg also explains what’s at stake for Ukraine as Joe Biden meets with Vladimir Putin in Geneva later this week. • […]
It was the kind of definitive piece of information that has been rare since the COVID-19 pandemic began: On Monday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that coronavirus transmission has been officially eliminated in the country, since its appearance there in late February. According to the Director-General of Health, it has been at least […]
Beijing is stepping in to fill the leadership void left by a United States distracted and hobbled by its deep, structural divisions.
Welcome to Friday, where an Amnesty International report accuses China of “crimes against humanity,” Israel’s government makes PETA animal activists happy and the Euro 2020 soccer competition kicks off after a one-year delay. Business daily Les Echos also reports on how hackers manage to use fake news to threaten big businesses and influence the stock […]
In India, Thailand and elsewhere, authorities have recently passed laws or decrees limiting what media can do and say.
Categories
An Ode To Drinking In The Pandemic
Alcohol can be problematic. But it’s also a simple source of pleasure, and in moderation, may be just what the doctor ordered — until a vaccine is available instead.
Forced to stay home from one day to the next, millions of quarantined people were suddenly faced with a rare luxury in our fast-paced world: time. That, of course, came with a question: What to do with it? Where others may have chosen to Netflix, garden, read, meditate or complete a 51,300 pieces-jigsaw puzzle, the […]
Chinese officials are realizing that the ‘soul’ of a city is key to strength and prosperity.
Rock hero Dave Grohl, of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame, has described live music performances during the COVID-19 lockdowns as: “unflattering little windows that look like doorbell security footage and sound like Neil Armstrong’s distorted transmissions from the moon.” One month later, in some corners of the world, authentic, in-person live music is ready to […]
Welcome to Wednesday, where NGO workers are killed in Afghanistan, two are arrested after the French president is slapped in the face, and a 61-foot-long scroll makes a splash in China. Le Monde also takes us to Mali, where a second military coup in nine months leaves Malians and international allies alike worried about what […]
Welcome to Tuesday, where an encrypted messaging app leads to a major global organized crime bust, many of the world’s biggest websites were hit by global internet outages and there’s a new basketball-court-long dinosaur in town. Jeune Afrique also dives into the Rastafari ital diet, a precursor to some current food trends. • Report: Intelligence […]
Welcome to Monday, where two Latin American countries await the results of key elections, a deadly train collision rocks Pakistan, and Turkey faces a worrying — not to say pretty yucky — sea of snot. We also look at some of the most creative vaccine incentives around the world. (Spoiler alert: They involve free food. […]
From hospital beds in Mali to ventilators in Algeria to an airlift of supplies deliver by Ethiopian Airlines, China has used the pandemic to cement its economic footprint across the African continent. As socio-economics researcher Hicham Rouibah told Le Monde, “Chinese companies have seized the opportunity of COVID-19 to try to restore their image tarnished […]
For strongman leaders like Putin and Bolsonaro, the health crisis looked like a natural opening for greater top-down control — at least on paper.
No crisis has ever hit the entire film industry as badly as the coronavirus lockdown. With sets empty, movie premieres postponed, screenings canceled and box offices closed, the global film industry has been largely frozen in time — and revenue. Even as activity is gradually resuming, it will take time for the movie business to […]
The pandemic added an extra layer of obstacles for patients with already limited access to quality attention for their sexual and reproductive health needs.
Sports are an important part of the fabric of local communities as well as a multi-billion dollar global industry, and their absence in recent months has been conspicuous. The coronavirus pandemic shut down both professional and amateur athletes around the world, forcing viewers to watch replays of old championship matches and limiting weekend warriors to […]
The Brazilian president’s antics were cause for alarm even before the deadly pandemic. But with the illness running rampant, the story is taking an ever darker turn.
Welcome to Wednesday, where a second Chinese vaccine gets WHO’s greenlight, Sri Lanka faces its worst maritime disaster ever and an asparagus recipe makes its way into a Belgian legal decree. Meanwhile, our latest edition of Work → In Progress takes the pulse of the work-life balance in a fully-vaccinated future. • COVID travel system […]
After more than two months headlines around the world focused on a single topic — COVID-19 — collective attention has turned to another story: the death of an unarmed black man George Floyd at the hands of four police officers in the American city of Minneapolis on May 25th, and the violent protests that followed […]
Working remotely has its advantages. But it can also be tricky to manage, as countless people pushed out of their offices by the pandemic are now discovering.
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 […]
HONG KONG — The Beijing authorities have finally decided to set aside the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government and its Legislative Council and instead craft themselves a national security law for the former British colony. According to Wang Chen, deputy chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the Chinese government’s rubber stamp agency, […]
MILAN — In March, the first coronavirus outbreak in the West put Italy’s hospitals under unprecedented strain, with health authorities facing what they described as a “tsunami” of new patients. As intensive care units filled with COVID-19 patients, hospitals scrambled to convert other wards, freeing up corridors and operating theaters for patients of the potentially […]
Life was difficult enough for refugees even before the coronavirus outbreak. But with the lockdown depriving them of even meager earnings, the situation has beyond dire.
The pandemic will stress existing trends toward digitalization and wealth concentration — others will pay the price.
Today, the European Commission will unveil plans for an unprecedented EU economy recovery package in the face of the coronavirus crisis. The proposed EU rescue fund comes on the heels of last week’s surprise announcement that French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed to a 500-billion-euro recovery package set out to […]
Welcome to Thursday, where Joe Biden calls for a deeper investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, France recognizes its responsibility in the Rwandan genocide and six famous friends are reunited after 17 years. Persian-language magazine Kayhan-London also reports on how the pandemic, combined with dire economic conditions and government repression, has had a […]
To mitigate the high economic costs of the pandemic, it’s time to demand greater contributions from those who can afford to pay.