As the world careens toward a climate catastrophe, the biggest banks in the world are still financing fossil fuels in the trillions of dollars. That’s according to a recently released report by a cohort of environmental groups including the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club, titled “Banking on Climate Chaos.” The report found that … Continue reading "The world’s biggest banks have pumped trillions into fossil fuel projects in the past 5 years"

The Biden administration has officially committed to Covax, the global effort to fund and deliver Covid-19 vaccines around the world, including to lower-income countries. The administration will commit $4 billion to Covax, releasing the first $2 billion immediately to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is one of the partners in this effort along with the … Continue reading "Why Biden’s pledge of $4 billion to help vaccinate the world isn’t enough"

Facebook’s sudden move on Wednesday to cut Australians off from the news (and the rest of the world from Australian news) was as surprising as it was draconian. It blocked Australians from sharing any news links, Australian news publications from hosting their content on the platform, and the rest of us from sharing links to … Continue reading "Facebook’s news ban in Australia is draconian. But it might not be wrong."

Myanmar saw its largest nationwide protests since the military coup earlier this month, with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating in the streets and businesses shutting down across the country. Monday’s protests are the latest in a nearly month-long civil disobedience campaign that erupted in response to the February 1 takeover by Myanmar’s military that … Continue reading "Myanmar’s pro-democracy protest movement is strengthening"

The Biden administration has begun allowing tens of thousands of asylum seekers who were forced to wait in Mexico for a chance to obtain protection in the United States under a Trump-era program to cross the border. Some 28,000 asylum seekers — primarily Cubans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans — have active cases in former President Donald … Continue reading "Biden is allowing asylum seekers caught by Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program to cross the border"

President Joe Biden has been presented with three broad options for how to prolong or end America’s involvement in the 20-year Afghanistan War — and all three have significant drawbacks for the administration and the Afghan people. Here’s what Biden’s military and intelligence advisers offered up in recent days, as reported by the New York … Continue reading "Leave now, extension, or indefinite stay: Biden’s 3 bad Afghanistan options"

The Arctic is now open for business year-round after a large commercial ship sailed the Northern Sea Route from Jiangsu, China, to a Russian gas plant on the Arctic coast, for the first time ever during the month of February, when winter temperatures normally make the icy waterway impassable. The tanker, owned by Russian maritime … Continue reading "The latest consequence of climate change: The Arctic is now open for business year-round"

Hong Kong transformed in a year. Starting in June 2019, the city convulsed with protests over a controversial extradition bill. That expanded into a pro-democracy movement that sought to push back against China’s efforts to further erode the city-state’s already tenuous autonomy, and the freedoms that went with it. By June 2020, the power of … Continue reading "A pro-democracy activist on Hong Kong’s year of turmoil: “The city itself is dying”"

Twelve of the richest European soccer teams came up with an ingenious scheme to make even more money: Instead of taking part in a longstanding tournament with poorer and mostly weaker teams, they would create their own exclusive “Super League” to attract global interest, prestige, and cash. There was just one problem: Fans hated the … Continue reading "Soccer fans destroyed the Super League"

This story is one in our six-part series The Pandemic Playbook. Explore all the stories here. Last summer in Berlin, Christine Wagner could safely do something Covid-19 prevented much of the world’s population from doing: go to a movie theater. The possibility of strangers sitting together, indoors, for hours, taking off masks to eat popcorn … Continue reading "Germany contained Covid-19. Politics brought it back."