Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka has won the 2022 Booker Prize for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. The win couldn’t come at a better time for Sri Lanka, a country once more engaged in political and economic instability, as it suffers through one of the world’s worst economic crises, with soaring […]Continue Reading
Within days of each other, revealing portraits of the United States and China have been unveiled. In Washington, the Biden administration released its national security strategy. It says much about American psychology at a critical juncture. And Beijing witnessed the opening of the 20th Party Congress on October 16 and now ongoing that will see Xi Jinping confirmed […]Continue Reading
This week India hosted its 12th DefExpo in Gandhinagar in the western province of Gujarat. With its theme of “Path to Pride” – and guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” and “Self-Reliant India” campaigns – it not only showcased India’s state-of-the-art defense technologies but seemed to unleash its so-called “animal spirit” in […]Continue Reading
TOKYO – On October 18, the top article on the front page of Japan’s leading business daily screamed that cutting off imports from China would cost Japan 53 trillion yen (US$353 billion) in lost production, or about 10% of annual gross domestic product (GDP). Meanwhile, the yen has depreciated by 31% against the US dollar […]Continue Reading
There are countless examples of the dubious spending habits of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), from US$50,000 handbags for First Lady Emine Erdogan to purchasing political support ahead of elections. Yet there’s no greater proof of the AKP government’s reckless ways than the capital city’s failed amusement park, Ankapark. Today, giant decaying dinosaurs tower over the $801 million […]Continue Reading
The UK government is in tatters after Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned – the second leader to be forced out in mere months. It follows an economic mess largely of her own making that resulted in U-turns, a high-profile firing, curious absences and plummeting support. The resignation means that Truss will go down as the […]Continue Reading
Back in 2015, the RAND Corporation think tank laid out the pluses and minuses of reaching a deal to curtail Iran’s quest to arm itself with nuclear weapons. Here are the opposing arguments RAND set out then: Failure to reach or approve a deal would likely produce one or more of the following: an expanded […]Continue Reading
Just in case you thought Covid wasn’t bad or dangerous enough, Boston University is working to increase its lethality. In its latest defense of gain of function research, the university claims it is not that dangerous. Oh, really? The work is summarized in the research paper: The recently identified, globally predominant SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (BA.1) is […]Continue Reading
It’s never been a better time to be in the red in Hong Kong. The financial hub plans to ease its listing rules to allow more firms that have never turned a profit to go public as part of a plan to attract at least 100 innovative tech firms to list on the local bourse […]Continue Reading
SEOUL – North Koreans are so keen to consume overseas media that they take life-threatening risks to do so, a survey clandestinely conducted among respondents in the deeply isolated state and published this week has found.
Despite – or perhaps because of – the ongoing ultra-tight border closure instituted as a result of Covid-19, North Koreans want to learn about the wider world and are coming up with ingenious technological countermeasures to access external information, the survey notes.
The survey was conducted from June to August this year among 50 North Koreans who live in different parts of the country by the Unification Media Group, or UMG. UMG operates Seoul-based Daily NK, a niche media outlet whose reporters obtain on-the-ground information from sources inside North Korea and secretly smuggle it out on smartphones.