Month: May 2022
Foreign Investors Exiting China
A two-month lockdown of the city of 25m people has forced the developer- Yanlord, to halt construction on the site in north Shanghai . Homebuyers have been on edge for months as some of the country’s largest developers default on bonds and struggle to deliver homes to ordinary Chinese buyers. Now Yanlord, until recently considered
Title 42 America Immigration Rule
Title 42 is a public-health rule invoked in March 2020 by President Donald Trump’s administration to combat the spread of covid-19. It aimed to seal America’s borders from migrants, allowing the immediate expulsion of border-crossers, including asylum-seekers. The policy has been used in nearly 1.9m instances, and has endured despite America reopening to travellers. Under
Sweden and Finland joining NATO
Most nato leaders have welcomed the Sweden and Finland applications with open arms. In contrast with many recent members the most recent being Montenegro and North Macedonia the Nordic applicants would bring advanced military capabilities to the alliance and help to strengthen its northern flank. And by abandoning their tradition of non-alignment, their decision to
Ivory Sale Ban
In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) banned the sale of ivory, to feed a demand mainly in China, in order to fight poaching. Africa is home to about 415,000 elephants, the largest population in the world. Zimbabwe has 85,000 jumbos, double the carrying capacity, and conflicts with farmers are rising
China and Taiwan Tension
Taiwan is an island, roughly 100 miles from the coast of south east China. Taiwan sees itself as an independent country, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders. China’s President Xi Jinping has said “reunification” with Taiwan “must be fulfilled” – and has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this. China
Why we are hooked on Facebook
When apps like Facebook first debuted, they didn’t allow users to “like” other posts or tag users. It’s not a stretch to say the like button was one of the best innovations of the last decade, but perhaps also the worst at the same time. Tagging and liking on social media were not part of
African Development Bank Strength
The African Development Bank is the most important African development institution in a region with about 70% of the world’s extremely poor people. The World Bank is far larger, but the African Development Bank , with its headquarters in Abidjan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast, focuses exclusively on the continent. It has a strong
Flagging Hate on Twitter
Twitter has struggled to deal with abuse and harassment on its platform and now faces closer scrutiny from regulators. The firm said it will collect more insights on how the feature is working and potentially incorporate additional improvements. Twitter is to expand its Safety Mode feature, which lets users temporarily block accounts that send harmful
online politics
Before the coronavirus pandemic, there was an epidemic of anxiety about social media’s supposedly destructive effect on political debate. Enabling everyone with access to a smart phone or a computer to publish their opinions has undoubtedly transformed politics. But the debate about whether social media is good or bad for democracy can feel increasingly irrelevant,
A bacterium that tricks the immune system
The immune system has many weapons with which to counter hostile incomers. But what works against one may not be effective against another. An interloper can take advantage of this by misdirecting the system into thinking it is fighting an enemy that it is not. Mammalian immune systems have two modes of attack. Type-1 is