What happened? 27 countries recently pledged a total of US$9.8 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The GCF was established back in 2010 during the Cancun Agreements to help developing countries reduce their emissions and cope with the impacts of climate change. This…
Assisting China’s political agendas? A now-deleted controversial tweet by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey offering support for Hong Kong’s anti-government protests saw hostile backlash from China. Various Chinese companies, such as the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), Li-Ning, Tencent and the Shanghai Pudong Development…
The Fight Over the Time Bomb The resurgence of measles over the last few years in many Western societies has been alarming. In 2016, 5,273 cases of measles were reported, but that number ballooned to 83,540 cases in 2018, with eight European countries reporting…
What is #KuToo? The #KuToo movement started in January 2019, when 32-year-old actress and writer Yumi Ishikawa tweeted about her frustration against a workplace stipulation that women had to wear high heels. Ishikawa feels that being required to wear high heels is rooted in…
No more fighting, ok? Singapore and Malaysia have been embroiled in disputes regarding the use of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Seletar Airport, as well as Malaysia’s unilateral claims of port limits sovereign to Singapore. Nonetheless, both sides have agreed to resolve the…
Increased entropy for the nuclear energy market? In April 2016, Japan liberalised the local electricity market, paving the way for renewable energy companies to sell their electricity to a wider range of consumers at competitive prices. Many consumers have enjoyed the benefits of cheaper…
What happened? Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman to US President Donald Trump has been found guilty for perpetrating a decade-long, multimillion-dollar tax and bank fraud when he was advising Ukrainian politicians. To the puzzlement of many, he has been sentenced to 47 months…
What will happen? Indonesian authorities want to expand benefits towards businesses by reclaiming about 8,000 hectares of idle or confiscated land in Batam, and develop it into enclaves of special economic zones. These enclaves would serve as an alternative shipping and manufacturing hub, with…
What happened? Twitter has deleted more than 10,000 accounts that posted misleading tweets. These accounts were “disguised” as run by Democrats and posted tweets that discouraged people from voting in the coming elections. One of the tweets discouraged Democratic men from voting as it…
A U.N. human rights expert has called on the Japanese government to halt the return of women and children displaced by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. In wake of the disaster, the Japanese government raised the annual acceptable level of radiation from 1 millisievert…
