March 22, 2023: Two Asian leaders visit countries at war: China’s Xi Jinping is in Moscow, while Japan’s Fumio Kishida travels to Kyiv.
We ask what this reveals about how Asia views the conflict. Plus: the new Brexit deal faces its first parliamentary test in the UK and why the demand for transatlantic travel is soaring to record levels.
March 21, 2023: What’s next for Emmanual Macron after Monday’s no-confidence votes?
Plus: a look at the latest market turbulence after the Credit Suisse deal, how Greece was trying to attract new business opportunities at this year’s Mipim property trade fair and how Finns have reacted to the news that their country has been ranked the world’s happiest for the sixth year running.
March 20, 2023: A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, what’s wrong with the banks? Also, we ask whether Bibi will break Israel (10:39) and why men should get a good night’s sleep to ensure vaccines work properly (19:03).
Only ten days ago you might have thought that the banks had been fixed after the nightmare of the financial crisis in 2007-09. Now it is clear that they still have the power to cause a heart-stopping scare. A ferocious run at Silicon Valley Bank on March 9th saw $42bn in deposits flee in a day. svb was just one of three American lenders to collapse in the space of a week. Regulators worked frantically over the weekend to devise a rescue. Even so, customers are asking once again if their money is safe.
This should have been Israel’s moment. As it approaches its 75th birthday in April the risk of a conventional war with neighbouring Arab states, for decades an existential danger, is at its lowest since 1948. The last Palestinian intifada, or uprising against occupation, ended 18 years ago. Israel’s tech-powered economy is more successful and globally relevant than ever. Last year gdp per person hit $55,000, making it richer than the eu.
Vaccines get all the glory, but it is really the immune system that does the heavy lifting. Indeed, those with weak immune systems often benefit little from vaccines. Aware of this, researchers have long thought that people deprived of sleep also ought to benefit less from vaccines, as sleeping less is thought to reduce immune function. A new analysis reveals that this is clearly the case—though only in men.
How the climate catastrophists learned to stop worrying and love the calm
The first signs that the mood was brightening among the corps of reporters called to cover one of the gravest threats humanity has ever faced appeared in the summer of 2021. “Climate change is not a pass/fail course,” Sarah Kaplan wrote in the Washington Post on August 9.
The science of the perfect second
When I was a kid, in the touch-tone era in the Midwest, I often dialed, for no real reason, the “time lady”—an actress named Jane Barbe, it turns out—who would announce, with prim authority “at the tone,” the correct time to the second. I was, in those days, a bit obsessed with time.
A popular, growing class of drugs for obesity and diabetes could, in an ideal world, help us see that metabolism and appetite are biological facts, not moral choices.
From the poster that turned Bob Dylan into an icon to the logo that helped revive a flagging city, he gave sharp outlines to the spirit of an age.
March 20, 2023: Xi Jinping heads to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin. Plus: an Asia-Pacific round-up, a flick through today’s papers, Saddam Hussein’s tourist-attraction superyacht and jewellers preparing for King Charles’s coronation.
March 18, 2023: The weekend’s biggest discussion topics. A round-up of the day’s papers, what we’ve learnt this week and a guide to Ibiza’s lesser-known, more peaceful corners.
March 17, 2023: Emmanuel Macron bypasses parliament to force through pension reform in France. Plus: Poland’s announcement that it will be the first Nato country to send fighter jets to Ukraine, Andrew Mueller’s irreverent round-up of the week’s events and the latest theatre news.
The New Statesman – March 17, 2023:
The breakdown of the West’s rules-based order began with the invasion of 2003.By Peter Ricketts
Could a resolute cabinet and a more sceptical press have stopped Tony Blair?
How do you mourn soldiers killed in an “unjust” war? For years the town of Wootton Bassett showed us…By Jason Cowley
The Guardian Weekly (March 17, 2023) –
In his closing speech at China’s annual parliamentary meeting on Monday, Xi Jinping, the country’s most powerful leader in generations, had an ominous message for his people and for those listening beyond its borders. “After a century of struggle, our national humiliation has been erased … the Chinese nation’s great revival is on an irreversible path,” he warned.
The UK was gripped this week by a saga that started off about controversial government plans to deter migrants crossing the Channel in small boats, and ended with Gary Lineker, host of the BBC TV football highlights show Match of the Day, being taken off the air. We reflect on a furore that revealed much about the contradictions of modern Britain.
From the buzzer to the finish line, the finest sports photography reveals human achievement and emotion at the extremes. In a feature special this week, Simon Hattenstone talks to award-winning Guardian sports photographer Tom Jenkins about capturing the perfect picture – followed by 20 of the most iconic sports pictures ever taken and the stories behind them.
Boomers Daily 