Shanghai, which is home to Tesla's Chinese factory and a key market for electric vehicles in China, has stopped issuing free license plates for EVs priced under 100,000 yuan ($15,560).
May 12, 2021
This time last year, the internet was awash with joyful videos of animals reclaiming the streets that humans had deserted in lockdown. Many of them turned out to be fake, but they went viral because they symbolized the possibility that maybe, just maybe,
after this is over, we would have a less destructive relationship with our natural environment.
There are plenty of other problems we hoped the pandemic would magically fix like the global conflicts that have simmered beneath the surface, erupting at times in violent ways, for decades.
Did conflict decline during the pandemic?
On March 23, 2020, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres called for a global ceasefire in the face of Covid-19. “It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives,” he said. Of course, that’s not what happened, with current tensions in Gaza and Israel offering a stark reminder of that reality, alongside violence in Myanmar, Colombia, and Afgh
April 29, 2021
Although Chloé Zhao’s Oscars win has largely been censored in China, one less sensitive aspect about the event has nonetheless been discussed enthusiastically. That is her very chill, no-makeup look at the awards ceremony, where she simply wore an ankle-length gown and a pair of white sneakers.
While Chinese-born Zhao is not the only, or the first female, celebrity to go for casual at such a major event, her appearance has become a hit among many Chinese feminists, who say Zhao made them feel they can also ditch cosmetics and stop appealing to mainstream beauty standards in the country.
April 28, 2021
India has fully vaccinated only about 23 million people, not even 10% of the 300 million it aims to inoculate by August. Lest we forget, there are 1.3 billion people in India.
To make things worse, the pace of vaccinations has slowed from 3.5 million doses a day in March
, to an average of roughly 2.5 million likely due to acute shortages. With cases exploding and touching nearly 350,000 new infections per day, getting as many people as possible vaccinated fast should be an immediate priority. But besides vaccine stocks, India will also need to improve on its communications strategy.
Historically, India does not have strong anti-vaccine sentiment. Its universal immunization program, against diseases like measles, rubella, and tuberculosis, is among the most robust in the world, with the drive against polio often cited as a success. But with Covid-19, there has been hesitancy and skepticism; India even has a homegrown vaccine, which has been presented and l