Good morning. We’re covering unexpected growth in China’s economy and possible new U.S. sanctions on Iran. Plus, Australia’s feral cat problem. China’s economy grew more than expected China’s National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday that the economy grew 1.6 percent in the first quarter over the previous three months, despite a severe real estate crisis … Read more
The South Korean ferry MV Sewol capsized off the southwestern coast of the peninsula on the morning of April 16, 2014. Sewol’s departure from the port of Incheon the night before had been delayed by nearly two-and-a-half hours, due to a thick, persistent fog. Sewol commenced its journey shortly after the low visibility warning was … Read more
On April 15, two weeks after Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov signed the “foreign representatives” bill into law, the Open Society Foundations cited the law in its announcement that it would close its Kyrgyzstan foundation after 31 years. The Open Society Foundations, formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded by George Soros. According … Read more
Campaigning in the Maldives’ fourth multi-party parliamentary elections has entered the final stretch. Voting will take place on April 21. The fracturing of the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) and the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), and the fraying of old loyalties, have thrown traditional voter allegiances into question, injecting unpredictability into the contest. In … Read more
China has made it clear who it wants to win Solomon Islands’ upcoming election, and there is little surprise it is the pro-Beijing candidate Manasseh Sogavare. The increase in Chinese investment in Solomon Islands is the political ticket Sogavare and his coalition members need to win back power after the April 17 poll. Sogavare’s Democratic … Read more
In March 2024, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held their 10th Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) in Seoul, marking the first such gathering in almost six years. A week later, in their trilateral technology dialogue, the United States, South Korea, and India explored possibilities for collaboration in key … Read more
“With God’s help, we will lift Shanghai up and up, ever up, until it is just like Kansas City,” Kenneth Wherry, then the mayor of a small town in Nebraska, proudly proclaimed in 1940. It was a glaring display of race-driven paternalistic attitudes of the 19th and 20th centuries. Nearing a century later, the United … Read more
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens global security, in an apparent call for China to apply greater pressure on its neighbor and close strategic partner to resolve the conflict. Scholz also said the use of nuclear weapons in the two-year-old war should not even … Read more
As an Asia-focused tech and human rights journalist, I’ve found the TikTok debate has become far too polarized. There only seem to be two options: one, unilaterally ban or force a sale of TikTok, or allow it unfettered access to users in democracies around the world. To me, the idea of any democratic government essentially … Read more
On August 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi government revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which had guaranteed autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The state was bifurcated into two federally-governed union territories (UTs): Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and Ladakh. The upcoming elections to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian … Read more