South China Morning Post (August 6)
Hong Kong’s “tough Covid-19 measures have lasted too long. They have sucked much of the joy out of everyday life and left the city isolated.” Politics have also lessened Hong Kong’s appeal. “The protests, the national security law, mass arrests and relentless rhetoric have all had an impact.” So many of the best and most “cherished memories of the city…. belong to an era that has ended.”
Tags: Appeal, COVID-19, Era, Hong Kong, Isolated, Joy, Mass arrests, National-security law, Politics, Protests, Rhetoric
Washington Post (January 10)
“As spending climbs and revenue falls, the coronavirus” is forcing “a global reckoning.” The resulting “debt tsunami” will threaten “even stable, peaceful middle-income countries.” Costa Rica is just one such country “scrambling to stave off a full-blown debt crisis, imposing emergency cuts and proposing harsher measures that touched off rare violent protests last fall.” The “progressive, eco-friendly nation is weighing desperate solutions — including open-pit gold mining, even oceanic fracking.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Costa Rica, Crisis, Cuts, Debt tsunami, Desperate, Eco-friendly, Global reckoning, Mining, Open-pit, Peaceful, Progressive, Protests, Revenue, Scrambling, Spending, Stable, Threaten, Violent
Washington Post (July 7)
“As the nation faces a pandemic, financial catastrophe and massive social justice protests, it is suddenly also confronting a spike in violence in some of its major cities. Tragedies struck in urban centers thousands of miles apart, with 65 people shot over the weekend in New York and 87 in Chicago, and homicides climbing from Miami to Milwaukee.” Shootings often rise in summer, but “the recent toll has been particularly devastating.”
Tags: Chicago, Cities, Confronting, Financial catastrophe, Homicides, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, Pandemic, Protests, Shootings, Social justice, Tragedies, Violence
New York Times (June 9)
“America, this is your chance: We must get it right this time or risk losing our democracy forever.” Amid protests, police violence and riots, “our democracy hangs in the balance. This is not an overstatement.”
The Economist (June 6)
“Until recently, conventional wisdom held that Hong Kong’s position would be assured for 20-30 years…. But the trade war, a year of street protests and China’s iron-fisted response to them raise new questions about Hong Kong’s durability.” So far, there is little evidence of capital flight, but the territory must again rise to the challenge or “its time as a global financial centre really will be up.”
Tags: Capital flight, China, Durability, Global financial centre, Hong Kong, Iron-fisted, Protests, Trade war, Wisdom
Washington Post (June 5)
“The Republican Party is full of people with no delusions about what an abominable president Trump is, but who see abandoning him as career suicide.” But a flood of defections may be nearing as they look for “a tipping point in their state or district when continuing to support Trump will become more politically risky than abandoning him. For some it may come fairly soon, since his disastrous failure to control the pandemic has now been followed by a widely condemned reaction to the protests against police brutality.”
Tags: Abandoning, Abominable, Condemned, Defections, Delusions, Disastrous, Failure, Pandemic, Protests, Reaction, Republican, Risky, Tipping point, Trump
Bloomberg (June 3)
“A more comprehensive abdication of leadership could scarcely be imagined. America has now lost more than 105,000 people to a still-uncontrolled virus. Some 40 million are out of work, with the economy in free fall. From coast to coast, cities are burning, protests raging and chaos…. And what is the president of the United States doing amid all this? Tweeting, mostly.”
Tags: Abdication, Burning, Chaos, Cities, COVID-19, Economy, Free fall, Leadership, Protests, Trump, U.S., Uncontrolled
Barron’s (June 3)
“The stock market’s rally in recent weeks has felt awfully disconnected from the grim reality on the ground. And that only felt more true as protests erupted around the country…. Investors, however, are motivated by fear and greed, and right now both are helping—fear of missing out and greed as the market goes higher.”
Tags: Disconnected, Fear, Greed, Grim, Investors, Missing out, Motivated, Protests, Rally, Reality, Stock market
Minneapolis Star Tribune (May 31)
“We’ve just had a week like we may never see again. Lord, may we never see a week like that again.” Rioters overpowered “earnest protests,” leading to days and nights of “smashing windows, looting stores and torching buildings, including a police precinct.” The Twin Cities and Minnesota… earned “notoriety by self-destructing as the world” watched.
Tags: Earnest, Looting, Minnesota, Notoriety, Overpowered, Protests, Rioters, Self-destructing, Smashing, Torching, Twin Cities
BBC (January 2)
“France’s transport strike against pension reform has entered its 29th day, making it the longest rail workers’ strike since May 1968.” Even though a majority of the French population supports President Macron’s pension reforms, plans call for additional disruption. “Union leaders have called for a day of mass protests on 9 January. A new blockade of petrol facilities, including refineries, petrol terminals and depots, is also planned on 7 January for 96 hours until 10 January.”
Tags: Blockade, Disruption, France, Macron, Pension reform, Petrol, Protests, Rail workers, Refineries, Strike, Transport
