Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Taylor Swift can learn a lot from Billie Eilish
News, Published on 17/05/2024
» Not long ago, I lamented the lack of climate anthems. Perhaps we'll find one on Hit Me Hard and Soft, the third studio album from Billie Eilish that's due to drop today.
A 14th century warning for the 21st century
News, Published on 12/02/2024
» A history student told me recently that he loves researching the 20th century but can't see the point of the Middle Ages. I responded that it can be a big help to understanding our own times -- very troubled times -- to view them in the context even of the remote past.
Henry Kissinger brought Germany redemption
News, Published on 01/12/2023
» His timbre was just one reason I always looked forward to hearing Henry Kissinger, who died yesterday after living a full century, expound on international relations. It was gravelly and deep, and grew only more so over the years. But it wasn't just the voice. It was his unique accent, eccentric to some but strangely familiar to me.
We can move to a post-privilege era. Who's first?
News, Published on 06/09/2023
» Privilege is often carved into walls and etched into the landscape.
Lessons from Korea on soft power
Life, Arusa Pisuthipan, Published on 28/03/2022
» South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae recently bagged the Best Actor title at the 27th Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month. This makes him the first Korean actor to take home the Best Actor accolade in the Drama Series category. Lee is known internationally for his lead role in the nine-episode survival drama Squid Game.
US presidential poll and implications
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 06/11/2020
» It is surprisingly unsurprising. Contrary to most polls and pundits, incumbent United States President Donald J Trump did not lose by a landslide in the presidential election this week. The final results are so close that both candidates, Mr Trump and Democratic Party rival Joe Biden, have claimed victory. Despite ongoing rancour and acrimony until the next US president is sworn in next January, several outcomes and implications are already clear.
The trade war could be fuelling the Amazon fires
News, David Fickling, Published on 26/08/2019
» The fires currently consuming Brazil's Amazon rainforest seem a world away from the tense diplomacy in the US trade war with China. In truth, they're more closely connected than you might suspect.
Modern world leaders are just walking cliches
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 30/07/2019
» One of the most striking things about Boris Johnson, who became UK prime minister, is how precisely he fits the stereotype of the eccentric upper-class Brit. With his elevation, Britain joins several major nations led by people who embody their national stereotypes and not the best of them at that. However, it could be argued that it's leaders defying such cliches who take their countries forward.
China is blowing an opportunity with Meng's arrest
News, Published on 21/12/2018
» China is blowing the geopolitical opportunity of a lifetime. There has probably never been a better moment to undo America's greatest strategic advantage by dividing the US from its global network of democratic allies, many of which are horrified by President Trump's rhetoric and policies and deeply worried about Washington's staying power. Yet, Beijing is doing its best to remind that democratic world that it has far more to fear from a hegemonic China than from an erratic America.
Xi's not for turning? Don't be so sure
News, Published on 05/12/2018
» As president-for-life, China's Xi Jinping is neither bound by rules nor limited by rivals. He has upended a careful political balance by concentrating power in his own hands, and overturned a cautious approach to foreign policy, while throwing in jail anyone he views as a threat. China's most dominant leader since Mao Zedong now has 90 days to head off an all-out trade war with the US provoked, in part, by his own mercantilist policies. Can anybody convince him to make a U-turn?