Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Authoritarians' brave new cities
Oped, Robert Muggah & Carlo Ratti, Published on 23/09/2025
» Few policy ideas are as radical -- or as misleadingly packaged -- as "freedom cities". Championed by Silicon Valley's techno-libertarian elite and recently embraced by right-wing politicians like Donald Trump, the idea is to create digitally powered, master-planned enclaves of deregulated innovation.
School meal programmes give food for thought
News, Gordon Brown & Kevin Watkins, Published on 23/01/2025
» When governments adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, they pledged to eliminate hunger and poverty. But today, as the SDGs' 2030 deadline approaches, a gulf separates their initial ambition and the reality on the ground. The 2020s are shaping up to be a lost decade for development -- and the world's most vulnerable children are bearing the brunt of this slowdown.
When private corporations subvert states
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 12/12/2023
» Imagine a scenario where a private company effectively creates and controls its own jurisdiction within a sovereign country. This company introduces its own currency, enacts laws, and establishes courts, prisons, police forces, and even intelligence services. It formulates its own tax, labour, and environmental regulations (or lack thereof), regardless of their compatibility with national laws.
Is Najib Bukele the world's coolest dictator?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/08/2023
» 'It's not perfect, but it's good. We've done something really good here," said El Salvador's vice-president, Felix Ulloa, defending the government's no-quarter war against the street gangs that have dominated the Central American republic for decades. President Nayib Bukele agrees, calling himself "the instrument of God".
3 steps forward, but 2.5 back for populism
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/10/2022
» The reports about Luiz Inácio 'Lula' da Silva's impending comeback as Brazilian president verged on the ecstatic in the week before the vote on Oct 2. He was after all, fourteen points ahead of his populist rival, incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, in the last opinion poll before the vote.
The 'pink tide' is rising in Latin America
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/06/2022
» 'Corruption isn't fought with slogans on TikTok," complained veteran Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro. But social media can win elections, and a right-wing dark horse called Rodolfo Hernández, who calls himself the "King of TikTok", may crush Mr Petro's hopes of becoming Colombia's first-ever leftist president next Sunday.
Taiwan needs to pick better allies
Oped, Chang-Tai Hsieh, Published on 07/04/2022
» In the same week that Taiwanese took to the streets to repudiate Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan's leaders rolled out the red carpet for a visit by former US President Donald Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. This is the same man who, together with Mr Trump, withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure its government to initiate a bogus investigation into Joe Biden's son, and who then fired the US ambassador to Ukraine when she refused to go along with the extortion attempt.
Sustainable ways to wipe out hunger by 2030
Oped, Maximo Torero, Published on 13/11/2021
» In 2015, 193 countries gathered at the United Nations and pledged to end global hunger by 2030 as part of the Agenda for Sustainable Development. With less than a decade to go, prospects for achieving this goal appear bleak. Improving them will require governments and the private sector to address the global food and environmental crises simultaneously.
A step closer to a world without nuclear weapons
Oped, Sippakorn Chongchuwanich, Published on 20/01/2021
» Last year, the world commemorated the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, events so catastrophic that they burnt themselves into our collective memory, and have continued to define our geopolitical landscapes to this day.
Asia gets its kicks
Asia focus, Erich Parpart, Published on 18/06/2018
» There was no shortage of excitement in the world last week, what with Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un shaking hands and pledging to work toward peace on the Korean Peninsula. But the number of people tuning in to the "summit of the century" was probably eclipsed two days later when the World Cup kicked off in Russia.