Bread & Roses: The False Freedom of the Gig Economy
Many people glamorize gig jobs. Freelancing conjures images of being free from corporate shackles, free to be one’s true self and to work on one’s own terms. But it is a trap.
America’s Belt and Road Initiative
The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) is the United States’ latest attempt to challenge China’s global investment strategy, the better-established Belt and Road Initiative, but it is unclear how serious a challenge PGII can present to Beijing.
The US Economic War Against Afghanistan
After decades of conflict and military occupations, Afghanistan has yet to emerge from its ongoing humanitarian crisis. The main culprits at this juncture are the poor governance of the ruling Taliban as well as the remarkably hostile policies of the United States and its allies, which are, in effect, waging economic warfare against one of the poorest nations on Earth.
UN Chief Warns Against “Sleepwalking” Toward Planetary Destruction
As the United Nations asked the world for US$160 million in response to catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also issued a broader warning about the human-caused climate emergency: “Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change. Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”
Taiwan Nationalists Defend Controversial China Visit
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is defending a trip to mainland China made by party Vice-Chair Andrew Hsia which provoked criticism from within the opposition party itself as well as from the Taiwanese government.
South Korea’s Kill Chain Strategy
South Korea’s new President Yoon Suk-Yeol is reinstating his nation’s “Kill Chain” strategy, which aims to deter an attack from North Korea by brandishing a highly aggressive military doctrine.
Cheetahs Return to India
Cheetahs are returning to India for the first time in seventy years, arriving from South Africa and Namibia. Never before have these striking big cats been allowed to repopulate a region from which they had once disappeared.
Bank Shot: Abe Assassin’s Wild Success
Unemployed loner Tetsuya Yamagami hoped to use his homemade shotgun on Shinzo Abe not mainly to kill Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, but to take his revenge on the Unification Church, which he blamed for destroying his life and that of his family. Improbably, the assassination has become a wild political success.
Visible Minorities: Reforming Japan’s Dickensian Foreign Trainee Program
News Item: video footage surfaced in 2020 of a Vietnamese “trainee” being physically abused by Japanese co-workers at a construction company in Okayama Prefecture, resulting in injuries including broken ribs and a broken tooth.
Israel Outlaws Rights Groups as “Terrorists”
Israeli forces raided, ransacked, and shuttered the offices of top Palestinian civil society groups in the West Bank, a move the organizations denounced as retaliation for their efforts to end the decades-long occupation and hold Israel accountable for its ongoing war crimes.