Jimmy Lai. Yung Chi Wai Derek/Shutterstock Amid the widespread anti-zero-COVID protests in mainland China, political and judicial persecution in Hong Kong continues in the criminal court, where key pro-democracy figures and journalists are facing national security trials that could result in life in jail. Jimmy Lai is one of theContinue Reading
European Council president Charles Michel heads to Beijing on December 1, the latest in a procession of western leaders to seek an audience with Xi Jinping, in a year when the Chinese president has cemented his position as the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. Xi met more thanContinue Reading
The war in Ukraine has put Turkey into the geopolitical spotlight. One of Nato’s earliest member states, with a special relationship with Russia, Turkey is attempting to balance its competing interests, as well as increasing its own influence. Meanwhile, Turkey is in the middle of launching a military operation intoContinue Reading
Emmanuel Macron has just completed the first major state visit to the US since the pandemic. As central pillars of Nato and the broader western, democratic alliance, France and the US are historic allies. However, there was a sense of tension ahead of this particular visit, mainly because of concernsContinue Reading
Jirsak / Shutterstock Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has denied reports that the UK is reconsidering its relationship with the EU. The “Swiss-style deal” rumoured to be favoured by some in the government would result in a softer form of Brexit, six years after the referendum. Although not a member ofContinue Reading
Medtech firm Earli is working on a way to make tumors announce themselves as they appear—and even provide directions to where they are in the body.Continue Reading
The German government has become divided over a deal, agreed last month, which saw Chinese conglomerate Cosco invest in the Port of Hamburg. The deal had been in the works since September 2021 and was championed by the chancellor (and Hamburg’s former mayor), Olaf Scholz. Scholz’s coalition partners have beenContinue Reading
Like many extremist and authoritarian leaders before him, outgoing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro seized on national symbols during his rise to power and tried to make them his own. The national football shirt is a case in point. For years many Brazilians avoided wearing the famous yellow shirt because ofContinue Reading
The latest wave of protests sweeping through China were sparked by the deaths of at least ten people in a fire in a high-rise apartment block in Ürümchi, Xinjiang. Residents were apparently prevented from leaving the building due to the enforcement of ethnically targeted zero-COVID regulations. The region is homeContinue Reading
The Grenfell inquiry showed that every death incurred during the fire was avoidable. JessicaGirvan | Shutterstock A senior coroner in Rochdale, a large town in England’s northwest, has ruled that two-year-old Awaab Ishak died as a direct result of prolonged exposure to mould, due to the repeated failure of hisContinue Reading
