The Economist Magazine (March 7, 2024): The latest issue features Three big risks that might tip America’s presidential election – Third parties, the Trump trials and the candidates’ age introduce a high degree of uncertainty; Xi Jinping’s hunger for power is hurting China’s economy; How to fix the Ivy League – Its supremacy is being undermined by bad leadership…
It was August 2017 when the world really started to take note of Myanmar’s Rohingya people. Descendants of Arab Muslims who speak a different language to most other people in Myanmar, the Rohingya had up to that point lived mainly in the northern Rakhine state, coexisting uneasily alongside the majority Buddhist population.
But the Rohingya were reviled by many as illegal immigrants and treated by the then government as stateless people. In 2017, when violence broke out in the north of the state, security forces supported by Buddhist militia launched a “clearance operation”that forced more than 1 million Rohingya people to flee their homes and the country, actions that many onlookers saw as ethnic cleansing. Most Rohingya were driven into vast refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh, where they have remained ever since.
The Guardian global development reporter Kaamil Ahmed has been covering the Rohingya crisis for almost a decade, making multiple trips to the region. For this week’s Big Story, Kaamil returned to Cox’s Bazar where, in two moving reports, he details how disease and illness are widespread in the ramshackle camps, and how the desperation to escape has resulted in rich business for people traffickers.
And, with Myanmar now controlled by a military junta and introducing a deeply unpopular conscription drive (as Rebecca Ratcliffe and Aung Naing Soe report), the prospect of any Rohingya people being able to return home to Rakhine state remains as distant as it did in 2017.
Falling well short in a spirited campaign to dethrone Mr. Trump, Ms. Haley brought to a close the latest struggle over the soul and direction of the Republican Party.
Israel-Hamas Talks Over Hostage Releases and a Cease-Fire Stall
Officials say Hamas has continued to press Israel for a commitment to a permanent cease-fire after a multistage release of all hostages, but Israel has refused.
Biden Promised Calm After Trump Chaos, but the World Has Not Cooperated
Inflation, an explosion of migration at the border and wars in Europe and the Middle East have created a sense of instability that polls show have eroded his support.
President Biden tries to take on worries about a tough race by turning to TikTok influencers, a late-night talk show and more give-and-take with reporters.
A panel of experts voted down a proposal to officially declare the start of a new interval of geologic time, one defined by humanity’s changes to the planet.
Shift in Russian Tactics Intensifies Air War in Ukraine
Moscow’s recent gains in the east have been aided by more aggressive air support on the front lines. But that also has helped Ukraine shoot down enemy planes in the past two weeks.
Emails and texts unearthed in a lawsuit show how key figures intended their plan to create a “cloud of confusion” to help keep Donald Trump in office after his 2020 election loss.
Both campaigns view this week, with Super Tuesday and the State of the Union, as a critical period that will set the tone and define the early contours of the coming general election campaign.
Joe Biden’s Superfans Think the Rest of America Has Lost Its Mind
Bewildered by tepid enthusiasm for a president they see as transformative, these Democrats occupy a lonely place in U.S. politics: “I feel like I’m the only one.”
A New York Times/Siena College poll revealed how much even his supporters worry about his age, intensifying what has become a grave threat to his re-election bid.
The Russian authorities vilified the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny with a viciousness
Lack of Plan for Governing Gaza Formed Backdrop to Deadly Convoy Chaos
Israel has no clear plan for governing Gaza. That is a particular problem in the north, where the fighting has ebbed, and where a deadly stampede occurred on Thursday around an aid convoy.
Monocle on Sunday, March 3, 2024: Juliet Linley and Fabienne Kinzelmann join Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, to discuss the weekend’s hottest topics.
We speak to Monocle’s Balkans correspondent, Guy de Launey, for the latest news from Ljubljana and Monocle’s editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, joins us from London. Plus: MagCulture founder, Jeremy Leslie, gives updates from the print industry.
The share of voters who strongly disapprove of President Biden’s handling of his job has reached 47 percent, higher than in Times/Siena polls at any point in his presidency.
Donald Trump’s approach to the bloody Mideast conflict reflects the anti-interventionist shift he has brought about in Republican politics — and his personal feelings about the Israeli prime minister.
The brutal cold, revolting food and beatings aren’t the worst part of being imprisoned at IK3, where Aleksei Navalny died. Rather, it’s being inside a system meant to break the human spirit.
Developers Got Backing for Affordable Housing. Then the Neighborhood Found Out.
The push from an affluent community in South Carolina to kill a plan for 60 subsidized apartments brought into public view how hard it is to give low-income families access to opportunity-rich neighborhoods.
Monocle on Saturday, March 2, 2024: On Friday the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny drew thousands of mourners. What was the mood in Moscow? In the UK what has the reaction been to prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street address on Friday evening?
Meanwhile in Austria, an investigation has exposed the fraudulent COO of Wirecard as a decade-long GRU spy – what do we know? Join Vincent McAviney and political journalist Terry Stiastny for all this, as well as a breakdown of the Willy Wonka experience scam in Glasgow. Plus: Monocle’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco gives us a rundown of the world’s best biscuits.
Witnesses of Aid Convoy Violence Describe Shooting, Panic and Desperation
“I saw people falling to the ground after being shot,” said one witness, “and others simply took the food items that were with them and continued running for their lives.”
Thousands Turn Out for Navalny’s Funeral in Moscow
The police presence appeared heavy for the service. Some attendees shouted, “No to war” and “Russia will be free” as they marched to the cemetery where the opposition leader was to be buried.