Myanmar’s generals struggle to restart its stalled economy
IN MID-JANUARY Thaung Tun, who was then Myanmar’s minister of investment, promised local and foreign business folk a swift recovery from damage wrought by covid-19. Plans for whizzier internet and renewable energy, he said, would bring opportunities they could once “only have dreamed of”. Two weeks later the army launched a coup, bundling Mr Thaung…
Asian investors have doubts about Myanmar’s military regime
May 27th 2021SEOUL, SINGAPORE AND TOKYOWHEN TANKS rumbled into Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, on February 1st, the man who sent them there, Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, tried to offer the public reassurance. Though the civilian leadership had been supplanted by men in fatigues, the coup, he suggested, would be good for…
Tens of thousands flee Goma, fearing lava and, perhaps, deadly gas
A governor orders a big city partially evacuated, in case the nearby Lake Kivu releases a suffocating cloud of carbon dioxideTHEY GRABBED blankets, clothes and mattresses and rushed out of their houses at dawn. In their tens of thousands, they streamed out the city of Goma, in eastern Congo, terrified of what its volcano might…
How the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is failing
BY THE STANDARDS of the peace process, if not international law, Oranit is not a terribly contentious Jewish settlement. The Palestinians previously accepted that this hilly town of low-slung homes in the occupied West Bank would remain part of Israel in a future two-state solution. In one negotiating session their disagreements amounted to an area…
What will it cost to end the pandemic?
ON MAY 2ND thousands of masked nurses, doctors and others who have battled against covid-19 watched Jennifer Lopez and other stars perform in the flesh at the “VAX live” concert in Los Angeles. Outside the venue, visitors could get their jab from the comfort of their own vehicles, while watching H.E.R., a singer-songwriter, perform the…
When does transitory inflation become sustained?
May 29th 2021AT NEARLY 43 years old, the median American worker has never in her career experienced an annual rate of “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, above 3%. That will soon change. Core consumer prices in America rose by 0.9% month-on-month in April, the highest jump since 1982, practically guaranteeing that…
The Philippines is repairing its relationship with America
May 29th 2021THE DISCOVERY in March of 200-odd Chinese vessels around a reef in the “exclusive economic zone” that extends 200 nautical miles from the Philippines’ shores has brought near-daily protests from its foreign and defence ministries. Whitsun Reef, which the government calls the Julian Felipe Reef, is one of many that make up the…
Bangladesh’s government cracks down on a big Islamist group
May 29th 2021THE MOOD was supposed to be jubilant when Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, visited Dhaka at the end of March to celebrate Bangladesh’s 50th birthday. Instead 13 people died in clashes with police after thousands took to the streets to denounce Mr Modi, whose treatment of Muslims at home is unsurprisingly unpopular among…
Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s vicious leader, is said to be dead
ONE CAN understand why Nigeria’s government has been slow to confirm the death of Abubakar Shekau. It has announced it five times before, between 2009 and 2016. Each time Mr Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, a jihadist group, turned up very much alive and ready to continue terrorising his compatriots. The war between Boko…
Gay people are reclaiming an Islamic heritage
May 27th 2021FOR DECADES regimes in the Middle East have alleged that homosexuality is both morally unacceptable and a Western import. Many gay activists disagree on both counts. Homophobia is the Western import, they claim, introduced by puritanical Europeans. “Ban the colonial law,” cried campaigners in Tunisia in December, referring to a law criminalising gay…