Category: Business
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Business as Usual: Chinese Investments After the Myanmar Coup
Paradoxically, collaboration with the Myanmar military could mean more instability for Chinese investments in the long run. Since the coup in Myanmar on February 1, some foreign investors have pulled out, suspended, or scaled down their businesses in the country. Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), however, have seized the opportunity to advance the Belt and Road…
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‘America first’ again? Is Biden echoing Trump on Afghanistan and vaccines?
For Donald Trump, the former US president, beating the drum of “America first” was something of an obsession. “The future doesn’t belong to the globalists,” he once told the UN. “The future belongs to patriots.” Last year, he was rejected by voters in favour of Joe Biden, a committed internationalist who vowed: “America is back.”…
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‘It’s a miracle crop’: the pioneers pushing the powers of seaweed
Motoring out of Montauk Harbor aboard a research vessel, Sean Barrett waves hello to a commercial fishing boat, yelling “What up, Jay! Any slipper snails in there?” It is a crisp, sunny day – the kind that brings tourists to Montauk, a small fishing village at the end of Long Island, New York. Although the…
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Morning mail: ACT lockdown, Kandahar captured, a ‘sexy Miss Marple’
Good morning. The ACT is in lockdown. The US and UK are sending troops to help with emergency evacuations as the Taliban advance towards Kabul. And a leaked IPCC report warns that global greenhouse emissions must peak in the next four years. Canberra entered a snap week-long lockdown late yesterday with four Covid cases –…
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After slavery, oystering offered a lifeline. Now sewage spills threaten to end it all
On a cold winter morning early this year, Mary Hill was helping her 101-year-old mother get ready for the day when she received a distressing email alert. Tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage were heading for her prized family oyster beds. Yet Hill was not surprised that the wastewater pipe built in the…
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A Struggle for Information Control Between China’s Government and the Tech Giants
On July 2, 2021, just one day after Xi Jinping celebrated the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Chinese government abruptly announced a cybersecurity review over DiDi. As the most popular ride-hailing company in China, which offers daily service to 550 million users through an app, DiDi had a low-key IPO in the…
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African Swine Fever Cases reportedly increasing in China
Beijing, China: China has the highest rate of Pork consumption. The cases of African swine fever are increasing in the country. The country has one of the world’s highest rates of pork consumption. It’s also home to nearly half of global pig stocks. But its porcine population has been severely affected by a swine…
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An oral history of Oxford/AstraZeneca: ‘Making a vaccine in a year is like landing a human on the moon’
Show caption Members of the academic team who worked on the AstraZeneca vaccine, shot on location at Blavatnik school of government, University of Oxford. Photograph: Manuel Vázquez/The Guardian Vaccines and immunisation An oral history of Oxford/AstraZeneca: ‘Making a vaccine in a year is like landing a human on the moon’ It has shipped more than…
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A new book explores “cultish” language
“D RINKING THE Kool-Aid”, meaning to unquestioningly adhere to a belief or system, is often used jokingly by people unaware of its awful origin in Peoples Temple, a 20th-century religious community. (Jim Jones’s followers in Guyana in fact committed suicide by putting cyanide into Flavor Aid, a different drink.) The cult had its own internal…
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As Rohingya Wait for Justice, Myanmar’s Military Continues to Revel in Impunity
Four years on, there is an urgent need for international action to tackle the Myanmar military’s culture of impunity. On August 25, 2017 – four years ago today – the Myanmar military launched a campaign of genocide against the Rohingya. In the weeks that followed, the military systematically attacked Rohingya villages in western Myanmar, committing…