Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, a city on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far east.
Kokhanchikov/Shutterstock
Putin is planning to bring a mass tourism industry to Russia’s wild far east.
Time for drastic action.
EPA
The EU’s biggest economy is on its uppers. Turning it around may involve additional pain in the short term.
Members of the rebel Ta'ang National Liberation Army standing guard in Shan state, Myanmar.
STR/AFP via Getty Images
Beijing is losing patience with Myanmar’s military, as well as its influence with resistance groups.
Christopher Furlong/Getty
New statistics show a spike in the amount of journalists jailed in the country. To protect its democracy, Israel needs to be transparent about why members of the media are arrested.
Shutterstock
Deaths have exceeded births by 3 million over the past two years. China’s working-age population is set to plunge to one-fifth of its peak.
Daniel Ceng/EPA
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has retained government, but it wasn’t a straightforward race. The campaign revealed much about Taiwan’s changing politics.
US treasury secretary Janet Yellen.
Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock
Geopolitical shifts that are dividing the world could create problems for the US dollar, traditionally the dominant currency globally for trade and investment.
Artist’s impression of a group of Gigantopithecus blacki in a forest in southern China.
Garcia/Joannes-Boyau (Southern Cross University)
What happened to the three-metre tall apes that once lived alongside orangutans? A new study suggests they were too slow to adapt to a changing world.
A Chinese flag is illuminated by sunshine in the Hall of Honour on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 2016.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
With a public inquiry into Chinese interference about to begin, China may feature prominently in the Canadian news cycle in 2024 — meaning a genuine thaw in Canada-China relations isn’t in the cards.
Kaliva/Shutterstock
Xi’s New Year address wasn’t about threatening Taiwan – there’s more going on than we think.
Posters of presidential candidate William Lai and his running mate, Hsiao Bi-khim.
Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images)
A candidate from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party looks set to win the presidency despite Beijing’s pressure and rhetoric.
Daoism, which emphasizes harmony with nature, can inform individuals on their relationship with the environment.
Ma Yuan 'Walking on Path in Spring.' National Palace Museum via Wikimedia Commons
A scholar of Daoist rituals explains how the indigenous tradition of China understands the human body as being part of the larger cosmos.
A US navy ship on manoeuvres in international waters in the South China Sea.
US navy/Alamy
China has learned a lot from the Ukraine war that could help it prepare for a conflict with the west over Taiwan.
Created in 2014, the G5 Sahel security alliance is about to be dissolved after members pulled out.
Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images
Foreign powers’ interest in the Sahel is driven by its natural resources and strategic location for security and illegal migration control.
Shutterstock
The World Bank used a tool known as purchasing power parity to make its calculations. An improved methodology suggests China’s pro-market reforms increased rather than shrank extreme poverty.
People walk under a light projection at a shopping mall in Beijing.
(Photo by Jade Gao / AFPJade Gao/AFP via Getty Images)
China has a lot of vacant retail space, including many underused shopping malls. An urban policy scholar describes how the Chinese are rethinking what the mall is for.
Sleepyfellow/Alamy
Trends of global power tensions, open war, democratic decline and extreme job market fluctuations are likely to continue in 2024
A Lotus Sutra scroll praising the manifold mercies of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
Universal Gateway chapter of the Lotus Sutra/Calligrapher: Sugawara Mitsushige/The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection
For many Buddhists today, both in East Asia and across the world, the Lotus Sutra offers religious support for various gender identities.
One of Ivory Coast’s new stadiums.
EPA-EFE/LEGNAN KOULA
Geopolitical tactics are already on display.
David Cameron meeting with Xi Jinping during a visit to China in 2018.
Alamy/Xinhua
The foreign secretary wanted to embrace Beijing when he was prime minister but times have changed.