Showing 1 - 6 of 6
The Great Dying, the Little Ice Age, and little old us
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/02/2019
» The Black Death killed about 30% of the European population in a few years in the middle of the 14th century. A century and a half later the native people of the Americas were hit by half a dozen plagues as bad as the Black Death, one after another, and 95% of them died. The plagues of the "Great Dying" had much less terrifying names like measles, influenza, diphtheria and smallpox, but they were just as efficient at killing.
Trump has secret allies in China
News, Andrew Browne, Published on 15/01/2019
» In his tariff war with China, US President Donald Trump has some hidden allies. Just about every complaint US trade negotiators raised in Beijing last week -- not to mention their doubts about the sincerity of China's concessions -- are shared by Chinese entrepreneurs, who feel as underappreciated and unwelcome as their foreign counterparts. Their common enemy: the Chinese industrial state, an animus summed up in China by the lament guo jin, min tui -- the state advances, the private sector retreats.
Politics of confrontation heats up
News, John Lloyd, Published on 15/10/2018
» The next president of Brazil, Latin America's giant, is all but certain to be former army captain Jair Bolsonaro -- who was relatively unknown, even in his own country, just a few months ago, but who now has a large public profile all round the world. At 63, he has spent years in public life, leaving a mark -- but not a large one -- as a man of the far right, ready with insults for women who oppose him, disgusted by homosexuality, approving of the military dictatorship that killed and tortured leftists between 1964 and 1985.
Lula barred from fighting for presidency
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/09/2018
» On Sunday, Brazil's top electoral court ruled that "Lula", former president Luiz Inácio da Silva, cannot run in the presidential election this October.
Chinese savers won't save China
News, Christopher Balding, Published on 09/07/2018
» Chinese are, in the popular imagination as well as some economic statistics, inveterate savers. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Chinese savings rate stood at an astonishing 46% in 2016, compared to a global average around 25%. Chinese planners have long sought to bring that ratio down in order to promote consumption and ease the economy's overreliance on investment. If only Chinese would shop more, the thinking goes, China wouldn't need to rely on smokestack factories and boondoggle infrastructure projects to drive growth.
Phi Phi fire hurts 9 tourists, spurs safety fears
News, Achadthaya Chuenniran, Published on 08/02/2018
» KRABI: A blaze on Koh Phi Phi that injured nine tourists and left 100 without accommodation late on Tuesday night has raised concerns over inadequate fire controls on the resort island.