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.
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.
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.
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.
The government of newly elected Colombian President Gustavo Petro listed countering deforestation as one of its top priorities. But those efforts promise to raise tensions between the central government and local farmers, who in recent years have been on the receiving end of heavy-handed government efforts to counter deforestation.
Whether or not Donald Trump is on the way out as the leader of the Republican Party remains to be seen. But the policy views he espoused first as a candidate in 2016 and then as president from 2017 to 2021 are not. This will be especially evident when it comes to the cornerstone of “Trumpism”: opposition to immigration.
As Sri Lanka tries to regain its footing after its economic collapse this year, legislators have introduced changes to the constitution, limiting the power of what was a dominant presidency. The question is whether Sri Lanka will be able to implement more wide-ranging reforms needed to prevent another disaster in the future.
African delegates arrived at the U.N. COP27 Climate Change Conference with little patience for more pledges that they believe will likely go unrealized, especially as many African countries experience extreme climate events while rich, industrialized nations are responsible for the lion’s share of historical global carbon emissions.
Since June, a series of strikes by railway workers represent the U.K.’s largest industrial action in decades. Long dormant, British trade unions are hitting their stride again, and the leadership and grassroots members are mobilized. Yet their resurgence poses a peculiar set of challenges for both of the U.K.’s dominant parties.
Efforts by the Biden administration to accelerate its quiet diplomacy with Venezuela have already produced some breakthroughs. But the greater challenge comes next, as Washington tries to leverage sanctions to incentivize Caracas to allow greater space for the opposition to compete in the 2024 presidential election.
One key priority for children’s advocacy groups is the prohibition of child labor. But as World Children’s Day approaches this year, it’s worth examining whether children need to be protected from work, or whether it would be better to set regulations that empower child workers, rather than prohibiting it altogether.
Of all the autocrats who have managed to secure their survival by providing “stability” in a volatile region, Cameroonian President Paul Biya has arguably proven the most skilled. But the structural pressures currently building up around Biya indicate how misguided it is to rely on authoritarian systems to sustain political stability.