Global Issues
Digital Asia links: ode to the Belt n’ Road, rumour quasher, more
WeChat has built a mini-program into its social messaging application dedicated to refuting “rumours”, including postings on topics such as the disappearance of Malaysia…
Immigration links: 2018 budget, temporary protection status, and more
At the Council on Foreign Relations, Claire Felter and Amanda Shendruk explain “What is Temporary Protected Status?” In the past few months, US President Donald …
Immigration links: Central American migrant caravan, Windrush, and more
A migrant caravan travelling from Honduras and other Central American countries to the US has reached the US–Mexico border. Most of the migrants plan to apply for…
Asia: jobs policy vs the machines
Concerns about the negative impact of technology on the labour market are not new.
As early as 1817, at the beginning of the first industrial revolution, economist David Ricardo…
Immigration links: atolls at risk, French asylum bill, and more
A new study reveals that many of the world’s low-lying atolls, found mostly in the Pacific and Indian oceans, could be uninhabitable within decades. At The Guardian, Matthew…
Attack of the Twitter bots
One evening recently, over a glass of wine at an art opening, a friend who works in the cultural sector told me an interesting piece of news about my Twitter account.
“Do you…
5G dreaming
Do you dream of the day you can download a full movie to your phone in under two seconds? Or of the day you can set up your fridge to order your groceries? What about the day a…
Immigration links: disputed Rohingya repatriations, sporting refugees, and more
A joint paper released this week from Treasury and the Department of Home Affairs, “Shaping a nation: Population growth and immigration over time”, examines the effects…
Drones level the battlefield for extremists
In early 2016, I contributed to an Armament Research Services (ARES) report on the use of commercially available drones by non-state actors in contemporary conflicts,…
Is Japan’s rare earth discovery fool’s gold?
Rare earth. The term sounds like something derived from the imagination of J. R. R. Tolkien, but these composites of seventeen rare minerals are a silent but central…