Pakistan Day musings
Pakistan Day, March 23, 2020, passed this year in novel fashion. The coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of the traditional military parade on the day as well as the proliferation…
Syria’s displaced alarmed at aid impasse
After surviving months of bombardment, Nasr Sultan now fears his 10 children may starve or catch coronavirus as a divided UN holds up a renewal of cross-border humanitarian aid to…
When the US sneezes, the world catches a cold. What happens when it has severe Covid-19?
During a blue-sky moment in 2018 near the end of a decade-long economic expansion, it was the United States that helped pull the world along as the extra cash from…
Staff still shun London’s ‘ghost town’ finance hubs
Deserted streets, empty restaurants, shuttered stores: London’s financial districts remain largely abandoned by workers still worried about the pandemic and reluctant to return to office life. The City, a square…
When challenges offer opportunities — I
“It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view”— George Eliot, Middlemarch “Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people…
California wildfire smoke blankets parts of Canada
Smoke from California and Oregon wildfires has cloaked Canada’s third-largest city of Vancouver — known for its majestic mountain views and fresh ocean breezes — in the dirtiest air in…
Libyans caught between fear of pandemic and scepticism
Haytham, tall and well-built, turns away customers without masks from a shop entrance in Libya’s capital, telling them to return with a covering or buy one on the spot. “We…
As US battles Covid-19, flu shot misinfo spreads
US health officials are pushing Americans to get vaccinated against the flu to help prevent hospitals already busy battling Covid-19 from being overwhelmed this winter, but false claims are threatening…
Gazans take coastal walks to escape ‘double confinement
At sunrise in Gaza, a coastal path begins to fill up with pedestrians as growing numbers of Palestinians have taken up walking to relieve the stress of being trapped inside…
Breakfast, freezers, Lego: on the vaccine trail in Germany
Hui Min NEO with Yannick Pasquet in Hamburg and Michelle Fitzpatrick and Yann Schreiber in Mainz It was over breakfast on the wintry morning of January 24 that Ozlem Tureci…
