The growing popular discontent over China’s “zero COVID” restrictions has now erupted into public protests in cities across the country. The unrest comes in response to a number of unrelated tragic incidents that have brought to the surface tensions surrounding lockdown-driven economic precarity among Chinese citizens.
In Uganda, climate change is leading to longer dry seasons, lowering crop yields and threatening the livelihoods of farmers and pastoralists. A surge in violent cattle rustling at the height of planting season exacerbated the situation. Now competition over increasingly limited natural resources could potentially lead to more conflict.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s effort to project an image of a politically monolithic society has been remarkably successful in shaping how Europeans have come to view China. But as protests against China’s “zero COVID” policy spread, it’s clear that EU policymakers have been operating under a false stereotype of the country.
Much of the world looked on with consternation as Xi Jinping began his third term as president of China and leader of the Chinese Communist Party in October. Xi’s ironclad grasp on power has crucial implications for how the CCP will respond to critical domestic challenges, which in turn will affect China’s foreign policy.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup, one of the biggest international sporting events, is being held for the first time in the Middle East, with Qatar as the host nation. My experience attending the tournament underlines the economic, political and social tensions that this World Cup has put on prominent display.
The U.N. COP27 Climate Change Conference wrapped up this month with a historic breakthrough, as world leaders agreed to create a dedicated fund to address “loss and damage” stemming from the impacts of climate change in developing countries. Now that’s been agreed to, though, the real work of financing it begins.
This fall, same-sex couples in Cuba won a significant victory, culminating an uphill struggle decades in the making: A referendum on a new Families Code expanded their legal recognition, granting them equal access to marriage, adoption and surrogacy. Despite the referendum victory, though, Cuban families still need more from the state.
After the financial and cultural success of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, more and more nations have vied for the chance to host the Olympics and the World Cup, leading to ambitious budgets and corruption in the selection process. Since the selection of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, though, FIFA and the IOC have course-corrected.
China’s challenges at home and abroad have grown more pronounced in recent years—so much so that a longstanding debate over China’s intentions increasingly coexists with one over its trajectory: Is it on a path to global preeminence, or is it near the zenith of its power and perhaps even on the verge of systemic decline?
Last week, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador canceled a Pacific Alliance summit scheduled to be held in Mexico this month, after Peru’s Congress prevented President Pedro Castillo from traveling abroad. The incident highlights a challenge for the group, which is floundering for a purpose and facing internal tensions.
After much foot-dragging, the European Commission proposed a cap on the price it will pay for natural gas yesterday. Fifteen of the union’s members had proposed such a cap to limit Russian energy revenues due to spiking gas prices since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but a group of members led by Germany are opposed to it.
The U.N. COP27 Climate Change Summit concluded Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with a breakthrough in negotiations to set up a “loss and damage” fund. For countries in Africa, the agreement to allocate loss-and-damage financing is hopefully the first of many necessary steps toward a fairer climate transition.
The initial inability of many in the West to fully grasp the scale of what is now unfolding in Iran is the product of three dynamics that reflect deeper problems with how the EU and U.S. engage with the wider world. To avoid repeating those mistakes, the West needs to mitigate such distortions of perceptions and policy.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two successive waves of Russian “war refugees” have descended upon countries in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. The response from the receiving countries to date has been mixed, ranging from a welcoming attitude to downright hostility, in part due to the economic impact of the new arrivals.
As the United Nations COP27 Climate Change Conference closed Sunday, Egypt, this year’s host, hailed the agreements brokered there as a success. But there continues to be a gap between the climate-change commitments most countries in the Middle East and North Africa have formally expressed and their actual behavior.
Mental health issues were already a growing concern long before the pandemic. Now, they’ve been exacerbated, as global cases of depression and anxiety have become more and more prevalent in the last few years. Attention to mental health is growing, but awareness, funding and resources remain woefully inadequate.
A recent mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado has elevated conversations about the risks and rights abuses experienced by queer people and those with nonconforming gender identities in U.S. society and worldwide. But it also underscores the connections between gender extremism and violence more broadly.