Libya’s feuds cross the Mediterranean
FOR ONCE Italy’s populist government will be pleased to see a group of Africans cross the Mediterranean. On November 12th the leaders of Libya’s warri…
Africa’s growing cities are inspiring protest and opposition parties
“FREE BOBI WINE!” say the graffiti outside his recording studio in Kamwokya, a poor district of Kampala, Uganda’s capital. On August 13th the pop star…
Vietnam is getting old before it gets rich
AS DAWN BREAKS in Hanoi the botanical gardens start to fill up. Hundreds of old people come every morning to exercise before the tropical heat makes sport unbearable. Groups of fitness enthusiasts proliferate. Elderly ladies in floral silks do tai ch…
New Zealand agonises about Chinese meddling
“WE ARE FREE from political interference,” protests New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. A scandal in the National Party, the main opposition…
Japan is both obsessed with and resistant to robots
HOTEL RECEPTIONISTS are rarely this intimidating. Yellow eyes glare as the room number is snarled through razor-sharp teeth. The mechanical T-Rex behi…
Uzbekistan tries to end the use of forced labour in the cotton fields
IN SOME WAYS, there is nothing surprising about the videos that have been doing the rounds on social media in Uzbekistan. In one, farmers and local officials in a district near Tashkent, the capital, were made to stand in a watery ditch, heads bowed,…
China is struggling to explain Xi Jinping Thought
THE INSTITUTE of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era occupies several rooms in the Marxism department of Renmin…
Japan pampers its pets like nowhere else
print-edition iconPrint edition | AsiaNov 3rd 2018 | TOKYOA FEW LAPS of the pool can help prevent diseases in later life, stave off obesity and maint…
How 500 Yemeni refugees in a Korean resort sparked protests
“DEPORT FAKE refugees”, read the signs held up by protesters in central Seoul in late October. The object of their ire was a group of 500-odd Yemenis who had arrived over the summer on Jeju island, an agreeable resort 500km to the south, to seek asyl…
The European Union threatens the mainstay of Cambodia’s economy
FROM STITCHING sequins to printing logos, making clothes can be a delicate, fiddly process. Even so, Cambodian factories swiftly fulfil huge orders pl…