After years of conflict, Afghanistan yearns for peace. The best forum would bring the government and Taliban together in a grand assembly. Members of the Afghan national consultative council known as the Loya Jirga in Kabul, Afghanistan, 24 November 2013 (AP...
A decades-long conflict over Kashmir escalated rapidly last week. Here’s why fights between India and Pakistan matter to the world. Indians wait to welcome the return of a captured Indian pilot at the India-Pakistan border, 1 March 2019 (AP Photo/Prabhjot Gill)...
Afghanistan is in peace talks. Governance by the government would be bad, governance by the Taliban worse. Afghans must resist fundamentalism. (Photo by Atiq Rahimi) On the eve of Valentine’s Day this year, a well-known Afghan poet, Ramin Muzaher, recited one of his...
Taiwan is an economic powerhouse caught between China and the United States, facing an uncertain future: Independence, subjugation or status quo? Soldiers hoist Taiwan’s national flag in Taipei, Taiwan, 1 February 2019 (EPA-EFE/David Chang) Who would have thought that...
Instead of having too many babies, China is now having too few. A declining population is increasingly referred to in apocalyptic terms. Indians commuting in Bangalore, 11 July 2018 (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi) The year 2018 saw a “historic turning point” in China’s...
China has exploded to superpower status since I lived there 40 years ago. On a recent visit, the progress was unmistakable. But so were shortcomings. The author dressed for work in many layers to teach all winter without heat in 1981-82 Thumb-sucker anniversary...
Hong Kong has a strong educational system. But its students are unhappy over the burden of work, and more and more are taking their own lives. Students do homework during a pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong, 11 October 2014 (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) A bereaved Hong Kong...
Indian women are turning to smartphone apps to protect against sexual violence. But is technology the answer — or will it end up being a scapegoat? An Indian girl participates in a street play during a protest against sexual violence, New Delhi, India, 15...
Zhongguancun, the tech neighborhood of Beijing, China (Photo by Marco De Nobili) News-Decoder has teamed up with Britain’s Podium.me to produce an eight-episode podcast about the world’s toughest problems. Today: Globalization By Claire JiIn our last episode for...
I went to Myanmar on a whim, and it was the best decision I could ever have made. (All photos by Sam Graves) By Sam Graves These are photos I took during my first trip to Myanmar in June 2018. I had been teaching in Vietnam and was able to travel all over Southeast...