Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 21 March 2023 | The Week UK

Murdoch marriage ‘sets up plot twist’

Rupert Murdoch is to marry for the fifth time. The media tycoon, 92, has announced his engagement to his partner Ann Lesley Smith, a 66-year-old former police chaplain. The couple met in September at an event at his vineyard in California. Speaking to one of his papers, the New York Post, he said: “I dreaded falling in love - but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy.” The Daily Mail said the marriage might not be welcomed by his children, as it is “plot twist to rival Succession”.

China zero-Covid policy: How did it all go so wrong for Xi Jinping ...

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

Hong Kong CNN —

2022 was supposed to be a triumphant year for China and its leader Xi Jinping, as he began his second decade in power with a pledge to restore the nation to greatness.

Instead, China had its most difficult year under Xi’s rule as it reeled from his costly zero-Covid policy – from months of overzealous enforcement that crushed the economy and stoked historic public discontent, to a wholesale abandonment so abrupt that left a fragile health system scrambling to cope with an explosion of cases.

The chaos and disarray is a stark contrast to the start of the year, when Beijing showcased the success of its Covid containment measures by keeping the coronavirus largely at bay from the Winter Olympics.

Over the span of a year, Xi’s hallmark pandemic policy has turned from a source of legitimacy for the ruling Communist Party into a spiraling crisis that threatens to undermine it.

As an unprecedented wave of infections – and deaths – sweeps the country, many have questioned why after sacrificing so much under zero-Covid and waiting for so long to reopen, the government ultimately let the virus rip through a population with little prior warning or preparation.

As 2022 draws to a close, CNN looks back at five key events of the year for China’s zero-Covid policy.

China's reported less Covid deaths since scrapping zero-Covid. CNN is seeing a different story 03:06 - Source: CNN

Beijing Winter Olympics

The Games proved to be a resounding success for China’s zero-Covid strategy.

In its tightly sealed, meticulously managed Olympic bubble, the ubiquitous face masks, endless spraying of disinfectant and rigorous daily testing paid-off. Any infected visitors arriving in the country were swiftly identified and their cases contained, allowing the Winter Olympics to run largely free of Covid even as the Omicron variant raged around the world.

The success added to the party’s narrative that its political system is superior to those of Western democracies in handling the pandemic – a message Xi had repeatedly driven home as he prepared for a third term in power.

It also boosted China’s confidence that its well-honed zero-Covid playbook of lockdowns, quarantines, mass testing and contact tracing could build an effective defense against highly transmissible Omicron and contain its spread. In the lead-up to the Games, these measures worked in January to tame the country’s first Omicron outbreak in Tianjin, a port city near Beijing.

Beijing kept the Winter Olympcis largely free of Covid inside a strictly managed bubble. Thomas Peter/reuters

Shanghai lockdown

But it didn’t take long for Omicron to seep through the cracks of zero-Covid. By mid-March, China was battling its worst Covid outbreak since the initial wave of the pandemic, reporting thousands of new cases a day, from northern Jilin province to Guangdong in the south.

The financial hub of Shanghai soon became the epicenter. Local officials initially denied a citywide lockdown was necessary, but then imposed one after the city reported 3,500 daily infections.

The two-month lockdown became a glaring symbol of the economic and social costs of zero-Covid. In the country’s wealthiest and most glamorous city, residents were subject to widespread food shortages, lack of emergency medical care, spartan makeshift isolation facilities and forced disinfection of their homes. The draconian measures triggered wave after wave of outcry, severely eroding public trust in the Shanghai government.

The lockdown also wracked havoc on the economy. China’s GDP shrunk by 2.6% in the three months ending in June, while youth unemployment hit a record high of nearly 20%.

But the costly lockdown did not prod China to shift away from its zero-tolerance approach. Rather, officials hailed it as a victory in the war against Covid. Other local governments came away with the lesson that they must curb infections at all cost, before outbreaks spiraled out of control.

Covid workers disinfect a residential community under lockdown in Shanghai in April. VCG/Visual China Group/Getty Images

Party Congress

As the party’s all-important national congress approached, the pressure only grew.

Having tied himself so closely to zero-Covid, Xi was stuck in a trap of his own making. He couldn’t afford to move away from it, the potential surge of infections and deaths posing too great a risk to his authority before he secured his norm-shattering third term at the congress.

And so instead of vaccinating the elderly and bolstering ICU capacity, authorities wasted the next crucial months building larger quarantine facilities, rolling out more frequent mass testing, and imposing wider lockdowns that at one point affected more than 300 million people.

But even the most stringent measures failed to tame Omicron’s spread. By October, China was reporting thousands of daily infections again. Amid mounting public frustration, the People’s Daily, the party’s main mouthpiece, insisted zero-Covid is “sustainable” and the country’s “best choice.”

At the opening of the congress, Xi gave a sweeping endorsement of his Covid policy, saying it had “prioritized the people and their lives above all else.” He scored a big political victory, securing a third term and stacking the party’s top ranks with staunch allies – including those who had loyally carried out his Covid policies.

Officials took the hint and became ever more zealous in enforcing zero-Covid, dashing hopes that the country could open up after the congress.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping emerges from the 20th Party Congress with more power than ever. Tingshu Wang/Reuters

Nationwide protests

As restrictions tightened, more suffering and tragedy emerged from the unrelenting lockdowns.

Migrant workers abandoned a locked-down Foxconn factory en masse, walking for miles to escape an outbreak at China’s largest iPhone assembling site. A 3-year-old boy died of gas poisoning in lockdown after he was blocked from being taken promptly to a hospital. A 4-month-old girl died in hotel quarantine after a 12-hour delay in medical care.

Then, in late November, a deadly apartment fire in the western city of Urumqi finally ignited public anger that had been simmering for months. Many believed lockdown measures had hampered rescue efforts, despite official denials.

Protests erupted across the country, on a scale unseen in decades. On university campuses and the streets of major cities, crowds gathered to call for an end to incessant Covid tests and lockdowns, with some decrying censorship and demanding greater political freedoms.

In Shanghai, protesters even demanded that Xi step down – an unimaginable act of political defiance toward the country’s most powerful and authoritarian leader in decades.

The nationwide demonstrations posed an unprecedented challenge to Xi. By then, Omicron had seemingly spun out of control, with the country logging a daily record of more than 40,000 infections, and the economic strain becoming too severe, with local governments running out of cash to pay huge lockdown bills.

Protesters march down the streets of Beijing to call for an end to zero-Covid on November 28. Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images

Haphazard reopening

In an apparent effort to appease protesters, some cities began to loosen restrictions.

Then, on December 7, the central government announced a drastic overhaul of approach, rolling back lockdowns, testing and allowing residents to isolate at home – effectively abandoning zero-Covid.

State media and health officials have since flipped from preaching the dangers of the virus to downplaying its threat.

While the easing of stifling restrictions is a long-awaited relief for many, the abruptness and haphazardness of it has caught an unprepared public off guard and left them to fend for themselves.

Over-the-counter cold and fever medicines – which had been restricted from purchase under zero-Covid – sold out instantly at pharmacies and on online shopping sites. Huge lines have formed outside fever clinics and hospital emergency rooms overflow with patients, many elderly. Crematoriums are struggling to keep up with an influx of bodies.

CNN report: The world's harshest quarantine is no more 03:43 - Source: CNN

Amid the chaos, the government has stopped reporting the bulk of the country’s Covid infections and narrowed its criteria of counting Covid deaths in a way that the World Health Organization warned would “very much underestimate the true death toll.”

While that move has taken the public’s panic into consideration, the political undertones are also hard to miss.

For nearly three years, China’s low Covid caseload and death count compared with countries like the United States had been held up as a measure of the party’s merit and legitimacy.

Now, the true scale of the outbreak and deaths could deal a serious blow to the credibility of a government that had justified years of painful restrictions on the grounds that they were necessary to save lives.

Some studies have estimated China’s abrupt and under-prepared reopening could lead to nearly a million deaths – close to the Covid death toll of the US.

As China enters its third – and darkest – pandemic winter, zero-Covid is finally dead, but the fallout from its demise will haunt the country into the next year.

Prince William just inherited a 685-year old estate worth $1 billion ...

London CNN Business —

Royal wills are never made public. That means what happens to much of the Queen’s personal wealth following her death last week will remain a family secret.

Forbes estimated last year that the late monarch’s personal fortune was worth $500 million, made up of her jewels, art collection, investments and two residences, Balmoral Castle in Scotland and Sandringham House in Norfolk. The Queen inherited both properties from her father, King George VI.

“[Royal wills] are hidden, so we have no idea actually what’s in them and what that’s worth, and that’s never ever made public,” Laura Clancy, a lecturer in media at Lancaster University and author of a book on royal finances, told CNN Business.

But the vast bulk of the Royal family’s wealth — totaling at least £18 billion ($21 billion) in land, property and investments — now passes along a well-trodden, centuries-old path to the new monarch, King Charles, and his heir.

CNN reporter predicts what we'll see from King Charles 05:17 - Source: CNN

The line of succession makes Prince William, now the first in line to the British throne, a much wealthier man.

The future king inherits the private Duchy of Cornwall estate from his father. The duchy owns a sprawling portfolio of land and property covering almost 140,000 acres, most of it in southwest England.

Created in 1337 by King Edward III, the estate is worth around £1 billion ($1.2 billion), according to its accounts for the last financial year.

Revenue from the estate is “used to fund the public, private and charitable activities,” of the Duke of Cornwall, its website says. That title is now held by Prince William.

Balmoral Castle in Scotland is part of the late Queen Elizabeth's private fortune. Andrew Milligan/WPA Pool/Getty Images/File

By far the biggest slice of the family’s fortune, the £16.5 billion ($19 billion) Crown Estate, now belongs to King Charles as reigning monarch. But under an arrangement dating back to 1760, the monarch hands over all profits from the estate to the government in return for a slice, called the Sovereign Grant.

The estate includes vast swathes of central London property and the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It has the status of a corporation and is managed by a chief executive and commissioners — or non-executive directors — appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister.

In the last financial year, it generated net profit of almost £313 million ($361 million). From that, the UK Treasury paid the Queen a Sovereign Grant of £86 million ($100 million). That’s equivalent to £1.29 ($1.50) per person in the United Kingdom.

Most of this money is spent on maintaining the Royal family’s properties and paying their staff.

The Sovereign Grant is usually equivalent to 15% of the estate’s profits. But, in 2017, the payment was bumped up to 25% for the next decade to help pay for refurbishments to Buckingham Palace.

King Charles also inherits the Duchy of Lancaster, a private estate dating back to 1265, which was valued at about £653 million ($764 million) according to its most recent accounts. Income from its investments cover official costs not met by the Sovereign Grant, and helps support other Royal family members.

Restrictions apply

Despite the vast sums, the monarch and his heir are restricted in how much they can personally benefit from their fortunes.

The King can only spend the Sovereign Grant on royal duties. And neither he nor his heir are allowed to benefit from the sale of assets in their duchies. Any profit from disposals is reinvested back into the estate, according to an explainer published by the Institute for Government’s (IfG).

The UK Treasury must also approve all large property transactions, the IfG said.

Still, unlike the Sovereign Grant generated by the Crown Estate, both duchies are private sources of wealth, meaning their owners are not required to give any details beyond reporting their income, the IFG said.

Regent Street in London during a pandemic lockdown. The prime retail location is owned by the Crown Estate. Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images/FILE

Last year, King Charles, then the Duke of Cornwall, paid himself £21 million ($25 million) from the Duchy of Cornwall estate.

Neither Prince William nor King Charles are obliged to pay any form of tax on their estates, though both duchies have voluntarily paid income tax since 1993, according to the IfG.

That move came a year after the Royal family faced strong criticism for planning to use public money to repair Windsor Castle, which had suffered damage in a fire, Clancy said.

“Of course, voluntary income tax [is] not a fixed rate, and they don’t have to declare how much income they’re making their tax on. So actually it’s just like plucking a figure out of thin air,” Clancy said.

Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to CNN Business when reached for comment.

Opinion: The Pope is wrong. Choosing to have few or no children is ...

Editor’s Note: Alistair Currie is the head of campaigns and communications at Population Matters, a UK-based charity campaigning for a sustainable human population through ethical means, to protect nature and improve people’s lives. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN —

Pope Francis’ comments that couples opting for pets instead of children were acting selfishly, has reinvigorated an important and timely debate about the future of our species. The pontiff’s comments, however, are wholly wrong.

“Today we see a form of selfishness. We see that people do not want to have children, or just one and no more. And many, many couples do not have children because they do not want to, or they have just one – but they have two dogs, two cats … Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children,” the Pope told an audience at the Vatican Wednesday.

“This denial of fatherhood or motherhood diminishes us, it takes away our humanity,” he added.

The Pope’s suggestion that failing to have children is selfish is far from the truth. Especially for those of us living in countries with a large environmental footprint, the choice to have a small family, or no human family at all, is one that helps everyone – particularly children, whose future depends on a more sustainable planet.

Additionally, a person’s value, moral standing and character is not defined by parenthood. And showing love for animals is surely something that enhances and demonstrates our humanity – rather than diminishing it.

The Pope has been a strong advocate for the environment and deserves praise for speaking out on inequality, consumerism and social justice. He recognizes the profound threat posed by climate change and biodiversity loss. And in raising his voice and challenging the complacency of politicians, he has done much good.

What the pontiff hasn’t done is connect the dots between environmental collapse and the Catholic Church’s position on family size and contraception. Indeed, his comments this week echo the church’s teachings about the importance of couples either bearing or raising children – while making unjustified claims about the potential demographic consequences of not doing so.

But population growth is one of the key drivers of both climate change and biodiversity loss, according to authoritative sources. A 2017 study published by Global Environmental Change suggested that if global population growth meets or exceeds the United Nation’s medium projection (most likely 10.9 billion people by 2100), it would be impossible to stay under the critical threshold of 2 degrees Celsius warming above pre-industrial levels.

Project Drawdown, a major analysis of all available climate policy solutions, found that achieving the medium projection instead of the higher projection by 2050 (a difference of 1 billion people) would result in emissions savings of 85.42 Gigatonnes of CO2 – making it one of the most powerful actions we can take in limiting global warming.

It’s not just population, of course. There is an urgent need across multiple fronts, not least addressing grotesque inequalities in consumption and the disproportionate contribution to environmental destruction among those of us who are wealthy by global standards – inequalities Pope Francis has done much to highlight.

The hundreds of millions of people living in poverty worldwide deserve far more land, food, water, energy and infrastructure than they currently have. And the more people there are squeezing nature and generating emissions, the harder it is to dig ourselves out of this hole.

Meanwhile, the Pope calls for more children. The pontiff has been part of a baby bust panic – touted by Elon Musk, among others – decrying a “demographic winter,” in reference to falling birth rates. Let’s put this in perspective. Half the world’s population is under 30. Ageing societies are a challenge, but effective, affordable policy solutions already exist. What doesn’t exist are solutions to melted glaciers or extinct species. The fundamental prerequisite of a decent future for young and old is a healthy planet.

Does it matter what the Pope thinks? After all, Catholic Italy has one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe, something unlikely to have been achieved by the contraceptive methods the Vatican endorses. But not everywhere is Italy. While Europe and the Americas are still home to a majority of the world’s Christians, according to the Pew Research Center, that share is much lower than it was a century ago. At the same time, the Catholic population has grown enormously in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asian Pacific region.

Despite this, provision of contraception worldwide is grossly underfunded. It needs all the support it can get – and the Pope and his church could do immeasurable good in supporting, rather than opposing it.

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Worldwide, 270 million women have an unmet need for modern contraception. Investing in global family planning is also extraordinarily good value for money. A 2014 assessment by the Copenhagen Consensus Center found that every US dollar spent on achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health services yields a $120 benefit in improving health and reducing pressure on other services.

Our humanity is enhanced by making careful decisions about the size of our families and by giving others the right and opportunity to make those choices too. The “winter” we face if we don’t make wiser decisions about how we live – including about how many children we have – is not demographic but planetary. The Pope understands that threat. He can and must bring his church’s policies into line with it.

Why have women been so disproportionately affected by Covid-19 ...

This story is part of As Equals , CNN's ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs .

(CNN) On March 8 -- International Women's Day -- CNN published the findings of an exclusive poll which revealed that women in the G7 countries (US, UK, Japan, Canada, France, Italy and Germany) felt less supported by their leaders than men did; their impressions of their government's response to Covid-19 were significantly worse than men's; they were more likely than men to perceive the gendered impacts of the pandemic and, inflation and financial issues were ranked as their foremost present-day concern in six of the seven countries.

CNN's findings align with other research that has been conducted over the past couple of years that shows that women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. But why have women been so adversely affected? What is it about the societies in which they live and their place in those societies that made them particularly vulnerable?

Across the five areas where women in the G7 said they had experienced the most disruption during the pandemic -- future planning, community (their relationships with close family and friends), mental health, access to healthcare and their financial stability -- CNN asked experts to help explain the findings in the rich nations of the world and beyond.

This is what they said. Their interviews have been edited for clarity and brevity.

'Women were more likely to lose their jobs or take on more uncompensated care work'

Luisa Sorio Flor, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington and lead author of a recent study into the global impact of the pandemic on women

Similar to what was found in the [CNN] poll, our study shows that the pandemic has exacerbated gender disparities across several indicators related to health and other areas of wellbeing. Women were, for example, more likely than men to report loss of employment, an increase in uncompensated care work, and an increase in perceived gender-based violence during the pandemic, even in high-income countries.

These findings align well with the feeling of being the most hurt by the pandemic reported by women in the poll and might explain the feeling of not being satisfactorily supported by their governments.

The life-threatening and traumatic nature of Covid-19, compounded by the persistent stress of prolonged social distancing, stay-at-home orders, school closures, and working from home, also had a large and uneven impact on global mental health, as reported by colleagues at the Institute of Health Metrics

Their results indicate that the pandemic contributed to an increase in major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders in 2020, with women more affected than men.

Understanding how the pandemic influenced health-care-seeking behavior, particularly for women and disadvantaged populations, has been limited by data availability. Yet, we see in our study that women were disproportionately affected by disruptions in the provision of sexual, reproductive, and maternal health services. Abortion services, for example in some countries, were considered non-essential during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, data on how age, race, occupational and socio-economic status, migration status, sexuality, disability, and other conditions differentially impact women is also still limited. Even when we talk about the gendered impacts of the pandemic, we are mostly restricted to women and men, excluding gender minorities.

We do know that women with multiple or compounding vulnerabilities are especially likely to bear the brunt of this public health crisis. As an example, immigrants, people from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds, and women who are in poverty, are disproportionately represented in low-wage and informal positions, and frequently lack social support, making them more likely to experience a larger burden of the economic impact of Covid-19.

These results have important policy implications. This differential impact emphasizes the need to explicitly consider gender in post-pandemic recovery plans to address both immediate and long-term impacts of this pandemic through research, public health and practice. This will ensure that many decades of previous progress towards achieving gender equity in the world is not stalled or reversed.

'Transgender healthcare services were considered elective and as such were postponed due to the pandemic'

Timo O. Nieder, associate professor at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and author of a study on the impact of Covid on transgender health care in upper-middle-income and high-income countries.

Our study , conducted in 63 upper-middle-income and high-income countries, showed that transgender people suffered under the severity of the pandemic, especially due to the intersections between their status as a vulnerable social group, their high number of medical risk factors, and their need for ongoing medical treatment.

For example, trans people experienced restrictions in access to transgender health care such as hormone prescriptions. Such services were considered elective and thus were postponed due to the pandemic. The difficulties were greater for people who lived in regions with low-level transgender healthcare provision.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, 35.1% of the participants in our study reported suicidal thoughts. And 168 reported having attempted suicide during this time.

Since the CNN report also lists "mental health" and "access to health care" among the areas where women experience more pandemic-related disadvantage compared to men, an overlap between bias against women and transgender people stands to reason. The pandemic has exacerbated both the extent of unfair disadvantage and the difficulties that accompany it.

'In Uganda, schools provided a safety net. Their closure saw teen pregnancies and early marriage rise'

Marie Nanyanzi, senior program officer at Twaweza, a 'citizen centered' non-profit organization working in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

Nanyanzi has been involved in conducting public opinion surveys on Covid in East Africa on a wide range of subjects. Twaweza's latest survey, focused on gender, is published today. She told CNN:

Half of citizens of Uganda reported that in their communities, physical violence (51%), emotional violence (51%) and sexual violence or assault (46%) got worse during the Covid-19 outbreak. But the largest effect, as reported by citizens, was on teen pregnancy: 8 out of 10 citizens (79%) said teenage pregnancy increased in their community during the outbreak, particularly in poorer households.

The closure of schools as a pandemic response helps explain the rise in teen pregnancy. Schools provide a safety net for girls and this was really clear once they closed. Teen pregnancy increased followed by early marriage. Some girls will lose years of schooling; others will never return. Their life course changed and how this is managed will have lifelong impact.

Yet, despite the significant social and economic problems facing girls and women in particular, women are much less likely than men to be actively engaged in governance processes. Our survey also found that, men (48%) are more likely than women (35%) to have attended a community meeting in the previous twelve months. Men (22%) are also more likely than women (14%) to have spoken during such a meeting.

The nature of our patriarchal society means that the Covid-19 pandemic has made existing structural inequalities worse and the voices and experiences of women are much less likely to be heard in decision-making spaces during the recovery period.

'Japanese women worked in the industries hardest hit by the pandemic and have more precarious employment'

Michiko Ueda, associate professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University.

study Ueda co-authored on suicide and mental health in Japan analyzed monthly suicide statistics between January 2017 and October 2020. It found that suicides among women increased by 70% in October 2020, with women under 40 showing the greatest increase.

Ueda said:

We are still trying to figure out why we have experienced an increase in suicide only among women, but not among men, and why the increase was observed among relatively young women.

One potential factor is the economic impact of the pandemic. We know that the industries that are affected most by the pandemic are more likely to be served by women (e.g. tourism, food service) and they were hit hardest. Similarly, women tend to have precarious employment status in Japan (such as part-time, contract-based work), and a massive number of workers with a non-permanent position lost their job at the beginning of the pandemic. Again, they are more likely to be women.

The fact that women in Japan were the only ones in CNN's poll to say Covid-19 is their top present concern is interesting. Compared to other G7 countries, the impact of Covid-19 has been much less in Japan, in terms of the number of cases and deaths. However, our life is still constrained by Covid-19. Less than 30% of the population has had three doses of a vaccine, not because they are reluctant to get a booster shot, but because it's not widely available yet, which might have contributed to their high level of concerns.

'In the UK, the majority of pregnant women working outside the home were not given risk assessments to ensure they were safe'

Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed a charity which took the UK government to court for indirect sex discrimination for the way its self-employed income support scheme -- introduced in March 2020 in response to the pandemic and intended to pay grants worth 80% of someone's average monthly profit for a three month period -- was calculated.

The self-employed income support scheme was found by the Court of Appeal to have indirectly discriminated against new mothers in the way it was calculated: if you had taken a period of maternity leave in the past 3 years then you would receive a much-reduced payment compared to your childless or male colleagues.

We heard from couples who did exactly the same job, but the mother received a payment that was less than half of her partner because she had taken some time off after the birth of their baby two years prior.

Although you could apply to be furloughed for caring reasons, a survey conducted by the British Trades Union Congress found that 71% of mothers who requested to be furloughed had that request rejected.

Our research found that in July 2020 fewer than half (45%) of pregnant women working outside of the home were given risk assessments to ensure they were safe. This left them terrified.

This daily fear, combined with hospital restrictions which meant pregnant women had to attend hospital appointments and endure early labor alone, meant pregnant women were isolated and alone when at their most vulnerable.

This gender-blind policymaking resulted in the deterioration of women's mental health. Indeed, analysis of NHS data found that the number of mothers requesting mental health support increased by 40% in 2021 , compared with 2019.

Stories of the week

A new report finds that skin whitening products containing mercury levels that are thousands of times over permitted limits are readily available on the world's biggest online retailers, including eBay, Amazon and sites owned by Alibaba.

Refugees arrive from war zones in Lviv. Since the beginning of the Russian military invasion, more than 1.7 million refugees have left Ukraine, according to the UN refugee agency. (Photo by Vincenzo Circosta / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

"We are painfully seeing that refugees are selectively welcomed, and war criminals are selectively punished. It's not just the western media that is biased; it's the western world." CNN's award-winning international correspondent, Arwa Damon, writes powerfully about the gross hypocrisy of the West's refugee response.

Women Behaving Badly: Mia Mottley

Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Amor Mottley addresses the 73rd session of the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York on September 28, 2018. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP)

Mia Amor Mottley became the eighth Prime Minister of Barbados in May 2018, and the first woman to hold the post.

Mottley has become known outside her country for her powerful speeches given at global events. At COP26, the climate summit in Glasgow last November, Mottley said : "Failure to provide the critical [climate] finance and that of loss and damage is measured in lives and livelihoods in our communities. This is amoral and it is unjust."

That speech, posted on the UN Climate Change Youtube channel has more views than those delivered by the famous nature broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough and former US president Barack Obama at the same event.

Under Mottley's tenure, Barbados became a republic when it removed Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and elected Dame Sandra Mason as its first president in 2021.

Mottley was born in Barbados in 1965 and received a Bachelors degree in Law from the London School of Economics in 1986, before joining politics in 1991. As Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture at 29 years old, she was Barbados' youngest minister, and later its first female Attorney General (2001).

In December 2021 Mottley was awarded the Champions of the Earth Award, " the UN's highest environmental honour ," for her policy leadership.

Other stories worth your time

Feb 26, 2022; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Fans fly the flag of Ukraine and a flag stating "Protect Trans Kids" in the second half between the D.C. United and the Charlotte FC at Audi Field. (Photo by Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports)

China Covid restrictions: Protesters win a partial victory as cities start ...

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

Hong Kong CNN —

It may be too early to call it a complete victory, but a collective uproar from people across China against stringent Covid controls has forced a remarkable partial climbdown from one of the world’s most authoritarian governments – and its leader, Xi Jinping.

Following protests nationwide, some local Chinese authorities have started to ease Covid restrictions – in what appears to be a shift toward gradual reopening as the country nears entering the fourth year of the pandemic.

Since last week, more than 20 cities, including the major metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Chengdu, scrapped the requirements for negative Covid tests on public transport, if not other public venues. And some residential compounds now allow infected residents with special needs to quarantine at home, instead of being sent to centralized quarantine.

“I feel like everyone’s hard work is paying off,” said a protester who took part in a demonstration in Beijing.

China’s top health official signaled a change in strategy on Wednesday, by declaring the country’s pandemic controls had entered a “new stage and mission.” Xi later shared his thoughts on the issue with the visiting European Council President, according to an EU official who said the Chinese leader had acknowledged people were frustrated and suggested China was open to relaxing its Covid rules.

It was an extraordinary contrast to Xi’s ringing endorsement of the “tenacious pursuit” of zero-Covid at the Communist Party Congress in late October – back then, he made no mention of the public anger that had been simmering for months, or the soaring economic and social costs of the policy that he had personally backed.

Just six weeks ago, Xi’s authority seemed all but unassailable. He secured a groundbreaking third term in power, moved politically more moderate leaders into early retirement, and stacked the new leadership with staunch loyalists – including some of the most faithful enforcers of his zero-Covid strategy.

That image of unquestioned and absolute control was pierced late last month by an explosion of dissent from residents, migrant workers and university students who’d had enough.

'River of blood': Foxconn employee describes violent protests in China 03:26 - Source: CNN

In a worrying development for the party, in addition to Covid restrictions, many young protesters also directed their anger at Xi’s authoritarian policies, from ever-tightening censorship to all-encompassing ideological controls, which now dictate what they’re allowed to watch, read, listen to and buy in their private lives to an extent unseen in decades.

Some demanded greater political freedoms, others decried dictatorship and life-long rule, but the boldest political defiance came from Shanghai, China’s largest city and financial hub, where crowds openly called for Xi to “step down” for two consecutive nights.

Protesters shout slogans against China's strict zero-Covid measures on November 28, 2022 in Beijing. Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images

While China’s security forces moved swiftly to snuff out the demonstrations, the growing calls for political change – unheard of on such a scale since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests – have likely pushed authorities to speed up the easing of restrictions.

State media has carefully avoided all mention of the protests, instead framing the policy adjustment as following the science, a development noted by one Beijing resident in a widely circulated – and later censored – Weibo post: “When you talk to him about democracy, he finally talks to you about science.”

Having stoked pervasive public fear of catching and dying of Covid, Chinese state media is now citing months-old research on the comparative “decreased pathogenicity” of the Omicron variant. Some state media outlets also shared an interview with a medical expert who raised doubts about long Covid – a sharp contrast to previous coverage playing up the long-term risks of contracting the virus.

The about-face in public messaging is not lost on many Chinese people critical of zero-Covid. Some shared juxtaposed screenshots of two reports from the state-run People’s Daily published five months apart – one highlighting the severity of long Covid, and one with the headline: “At present, there is no evidence showing long Covid exists.”

Despite the partial relaxation, many restrictions remain in place – and in some parts of the country, new lockdowns and travel restrictions are still being imposed.

“It appears that moving away from zero-Covid is pretty much a decentralized process in China: while some localities are easing restrictions, some allegedly still cling to zero-Covid, and still others are waiting and watching,” wrote Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “Policy flip-flop is common.”

In some cities, the partial relaxation has caused confusion and chaos on the ground. In Beijing, public venues such as shopping malls and office buildings still require a 48-hour negative Covid test for entry. The abrupt removal of testing kiosks in the capital has also caused long lines at the remaining testing locations.

Still, residents across major Chinese cities shared photos of testing booths being removed from the streets, celebrating what some saw as the “beginning of the end” to zero-Covid.

Others are in no mood for celebration, citing the livelihood ruined and lives lost due to the draconian lockdowns.

“There will be no compensations, no apologies, no discovery of the truth, just moving on. What can lock us down can also easily unlock us. How terrifying is this capricious power, and when will it overturn your life again? I don’t celebrate, I just remember those brave friends with gratitude,” a Beijing resident posted on Weibo, in a reference to the protesters.

“Freedom does not fall from the sky.”

Opinion: Good riddance Nord Stream 2. Now Europe has a golden ...

Editor’s Note: Paul Hockenos is a Berlin-based writer focusing on renewable energy in Europe. He is the author of four books on European issues, most recently “Berlin Calling: A Story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall and the Birth of the New Berlin.” The opinions in this article are those of the author. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN —

At long last, the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 has been suspended – a terrible idea from its conception and now, with Russia on the brink of a second invasion of Ukraine, finally ground to a halt.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ suspension of the gas pipeline’s approval is one of the first sanctions that the West has imposed on President Vladimir Putin for Russia’s blatant breach of Ukraine’s sovereignty. Scholz made good on a threat the Germans were hesitant to invoke, given what they see as its far-reaching implications for the economy.

While the energy implications for the rest of Europe – some of which intended to rely on Russian gas to heat its homes for decades to come – are far-ranging, they aren’t tragic. On the contrary, this is a blessing in disguise.

Europe may rely on Russia for around 35% of its natural gas – Germany over 50% – but there are green alternatives that can step in and at the same time serve the purpose of addressing the ever more urgent climate crisis.

In fact, the pipeline was wildly controversial from the get-go, over a decade ago. Natural gas, after all, is a fossil fuel, the combustion of which emits high quantities of carbon dioxide. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, also leaks along almost all of the gas supply chain. In Germany, natural gas is responsible for 20% of carbon emissions – in other words, it’s not in the least bit climate friendly.

The pipeline, which would have constituted Europe’s largest fossil fuel project, flew in the face of the 2015 UN Paris accord by ignoring Europe’s commitment to lower greenhouse emissions and keep global temperatures from rising less than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Also, it committed western Europe to Russia for an ever greater share of its energy supply – obviously an miscalculation given Putin’s geopolitical weaponization of energy since 2009 when it first cut gas deliveries to eastern Europe. Had the Europeans seen alternative energies as a cornerstone of geopolitical energy security 15 years ago, Russian gas would have much less muscle to flex in western Europe today. But that’s spilled milk now.

So now Europe has to jump to its feet and act decisively.

Fortunately, the continent is already in the thick of transitioning from fossil fuels to electricity-based renewable energy. There are plans in place, strengthened last year at the COP26 summit in Glasgow and driven by the EU Green Deal, as well as pledges galore, though most countries have been much too slow in acting upon them. These plans have to be put into fifth gear, understood now as the solution to two crises.

So what are the options? Of course, there are green alternatives to natural gas – such as biogas, wood pellets, power-to-gas, and other synthetic fuels. But the buildout potential of biogas, namely gases produced from raw materials such as waste and plant material, is limited. There’s only so much suitable waste and the cultivation of crop-based energy plants risks displacing food from families’ tables.

Power-to-gas is a technology that uses electrical power to produce gaseous fuel. For example, surplus power from wind generation can be converted into hydrogen. But this is still very expensive and not seen as a viable solution for heating all of Europe’s houses in winter.

Thus, Europe must rigorously accelerate its transition to electricity-based forms of heating, cooling, and transportation: called, logically, electrification. “Electrify everything” is considered a key step in transitioning away from fossil fuels, because when it comes to electricity, we know how to get to zero carbon. That’s not the case with gas. Electrification is also the most cost-effective way to decarbonize Europe’s economy.

Transportation, industry, and buildings can and will one day run on green electricity – nations have agreed upon this at climate summits. Gas was already, at best, a short-term “bridge technology” that was meant to hold Europe over between phasing out coal and oil (the dirtiest fossil fuels) and the full adoption of renewables. We can now ditch gas sooner than we had planned.

Of course, to power this electrified world, the massive expansion of renewable energy, storage technologies, hydrogen technologies, and smart grids is crucial, which now has to happen several times faster than it is now – a point that climate activists and experts have made for years.

Although hydroelectric, bioenergy, geothermal and even, in some countries, nuclear power, will play a role, the central technologies the world will rely upon are solar and wind power. Solar photovoltaic energy, namely turning sunlight into electricity, is the “cheapest energy source in history,” according to the International Energy Agency. Wind power, both onshore and offshore, are close on its heels, and in the midst of a massive worldwide roll out.

The EU intends to have renewables account for 40% of its energy supply by 2030, which means more than doubling wind power and solar energy production. Germany’s new government has pledged to quadruple solar power by installation of solar panels and more than double wind power production, largely by cutting red tape.

But studies show that even more clean energy is required to run factories and heat homes – and that’s even with gas flowing from Russia. Now those targets will have to be adjusted upward again.

Critically, energy efficiency targets, too, have to be ratcheted up. Europeans simply have to use less energy: drive less, heat less, consume less. The EU’s recently increased targets are actually quite tame: EU countries should collectively cut energy consumption by 9% by 2030, for example. Only 1% of Europe’s buildings are being renovated with high quality insulation every year – much too few. The introduction of a circular economy will shave energy use, too.

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Europeans have to realize that they are living in precarious, crisis-fraught times. Ramped up green transformation policies are required now for two reasons: to break free of Putin’s energy stranglehold on Europe and meet global climate goals to keep our planet livable.


What is misophonia? | The Week UK

Do sounds like crisp crunching, gum chewing, heavy breathing, throat clearing and sniffing generate an intense negative reaction in you? If so, it’s likely that you are one of the 18% of people in the UK who suffer from a relatively obscure but genuinely debilitating neurological sensory condition called misophonia.

Although research on the syndrome “is still in its infancy”, interest in “the phenomenon” has grown in recent years, reported misophonia sufferer Melinda Wenner Moyer in The New York Times (NYT) in September.

What is misophonia?

The Oscar-nominated new movie Tár, in which Cate Blanchett’s character is triggered by “the noise of a clicking pen and a steadily pulsing metronome”, has been credited with highlighting the little-known disorder, said The Times. And Ruby, a character in the hit Netflix show Sex Education, has similarly contributed to an increased understanding of the condition.

Even so, only “around 14% of people in the UK are aware of misophonia”, said Ellie Violet Bramley – who suffers from the syndrome – in a piece for The Guardian. A reason for this could be how hard misophonia, which Bramley says is known as “sound rage”, is to talk about.

“You are essentially telling someone: ‘The sound of you eating and breathing – the sounds of you keeping yourself alive – are repulsing me,’” explained Jane Gregory, a clinical psychologist who co-authored a paper on the condition. “It’s really hard to find a polite way to say that.”

What causes it?

Studies of brain scans have suggested that people with misophonia interpret “specific innocuous sounds as threats”, explained Wenner Moyer. Certain sounds seem to trigger a response by sufferers’ autonomic nervous system, the part of the body responsible for our involuntary “fight or flight” response.

For people with misophonia, ordinary sounds can lead to an “aversive reaction”, which could “take the form of physical changes”, said Bramley. These changes could include “increased muscle tension or heart rate, or emotional responses such as irritability, shame and anxiety”.

In Wenner Moyer’s case, seemingly innocuous sounds like her “husband chewing” and someone “slurping” send her “into a fit of rage”. “I often can’t help but make a comment… then I typically walk away to escape the sound before I do something that might land me in prison,” she wrote.

What is the impact of misophonia on lives?

Misophonia sufferers on the extreme end of the spectrum have reported it having a “severe” impact on their lives, necessitating the end of relationships or house moves to escape “triggering neighbours”, said Bramley.

So what options are available to those people whose misophonia is impacting their lives? “If your partner’s sounds are making you murderous, try talking with them about it,” suggested Zach Rosenthal, a clinical psychologist and the director of a misophonia centre at Duke University, North Carolina, in the NYT piece. “Tell them your reactions aren’t conscious choices, and ask for their support if you need to walk away or eat separately.”

And although there is “no magic formula” for treating misophonia, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) might help sufferers understand and better manage their reactions, said Psychology Today. Other forms of therapy, including sound therapy and music therapy, have been known to alleviate the symptoms, as well as “lifestyle changes” such as using noise cancelling headphones.

Sometimes, added Bramley, the “best option” for coping with the impact of misophonia is to simply “walk away”. “By the time you re-enter the room, the sound might be gone, or you might feel better equipped” to deal with the way your brain is reacting to the trigger.

Are you a tinglehead? The weird world of ASMR | CNN

CNN —

Does listening to a whisper send a tingle through your scalp? Do you find watching the snip of scissors around your ears at the hair salon soothing?

How about the sound of nails clicking softy, the swish or tap of a paintbrush on canvas, or the crinkle of foil as you unwrap a candy bar?

If these sounds and images give your brain a sparkly, effervescent feeling that relaxes you, then you are a tinglehead – one of the estimated 20% of people that some experts say experience autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR.

Is it a real or imagined sensation? There’s very little research on the phenomenon, so no one really knows. But legions of fans swear by ASMR, saying the actions in the videos foster a soothing meditative state that reduces anxiety and lulls them to sleep.

Some people go so far as to call ASMR tingles – which can cascade down the neck and shoulders and throughout the body – “brain-gasms.”

“ASMR is often described by those who experience it as ‘sparkling’ or ‘staticky,’ but tingles can vary for people,” said Craig Richard, founder of ASMR University, a website dedicated to understanding and researching the strange sensation.

“For me it is like my brain goes fuzzy, and I get this slight tingle,” said Richard, a self-proclaimed tinglehead and professor of biopharmaceutical science at Shenandoah University in Virginia.

Could it feel like goosebumps?

“No, not goosebumps. You can see and feel goosebumps on the surface of your skin. This is a deeper feeling,” Richard explained.

In addition to his own perceptions, Richard’s insight into this unusual phenomenon comes from a survey on ASMR he hosts on his website, where tingleheads share what triggers their shivery feelings. The majority of those who report experiencing ASMR are female, call themselves artistic or creative, and live all around the world, he said.

“ASMR is a global experience,” Richard said. “From what I see from my website, it is experienced in over 100 different countries, which supports the theory this is something biological rather than cultural.”

Gazillions of tingleheads

Whatever it is, ASMR has taken YouTube by storm. Since the first video about tingles hit the internet in 2013, eager fans have fueled the growth of millions of ASMR clips featuring soft whispers and calming, repetitive motions.

One video, which has over 13 million views, features beautifully manicured nails stroking or tapping objects next to a microphone. Other sounds said to trigger tingling are people eating crunchy foods like pickles, paper tearing, water dripping, hair brushing, humming, chewing, buzzing and purring.

One top ASMR YouTube provider has over 2.5 million subscribers to her whispering channel and over 38 million views of her 2017 hit, “ASMR 20 Triggers to Help You Sleep.”

If you’re a fan of something louder, this YouTube star and his friends are happy to chomp, crunch and loudly chew crispy fried chicken and sweet, sticky honeycombs for your listening pleasure – or maybe you’d prefer hash browns and burgers?

Advertisers have taken notice. Actor Zoe Kravitz starred in the first ever Super Bowl ASMR commercial this year. Reese’s peanut butter cups created a film that’s more than an hour long, featuring five people whispering while unwrapping candies.

McDonald’s has an ad of a young girl crunching her way through chicken nuggets and slurping a flurry. KFC’s UK YouTube channel has also gotten into the ASMR vibe, with a soothing British voice comparing raindrops to frying chicken.

Behind the tingle

Research on ASMR is in the early stages. Richard has done one of the few scientific studies on the topic, using functional MRIs to study reactions in the brains of people who have self-identified as tingleheads.

He said the part of the brain that lit up during a sparkly episode was the reward center. That’s where the feel-good hormone oxytocin, also known as the “love or trust hormone,” is produced. It’s the same part of the brain that becomes addicted to drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.

“Which could explain why people can stare at these videos of tapping and crunching for an hour or more at a time,” Richard said.

University of Winnipeg professor of psychology Stephen Smith has also studied the personalities of people with ASMR, finding them to score high in curiosity and neuroticism, and lower in conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness.

“People with ASMR score high on the personality trait ‘openness to experience.’ I think they’re more receptive to specific types of physical, auditory and visual experiences than the rest of us,” Smith said.

ASMR falls into the same sensory category as synesthesia, Smith said, where senses commingle and people taste shapes, see sounds in color, feel music as a touch on the back of the neck, or see letters and numbers displayed in color.

While reports of synesthesia go back centuries, science has only recently been able to measure brain activity to prove its existence. Today, researchers believe some types of synesthesia may be genetic. The condition typically appears in childhood, and many people enjoy the extra sensory input the body receives.

Smith also put self-proclaimed tingleheads into functional MRI scanners to see how their brains were wired during a resting state. He found “unusual patterns of connections” in areas of the brain related to attention and sensation, “and in some cases, the brain areas that were part of one network appeared in different networks instead, suggesting there was some sort of cross wiring involved.”

In another study, Smith used electroencephalograms, or EEG machines, to measure the activity of groups of neurons in the brains of people who say they experience ASMR. Smith found that when people first began to experience tingles, there was a sudden surge in alpha waves, which indicate a state of wakeful rest.

“Alpha waves are associated with meditative types of experiences,” Smith said. “This suggests that what people describe as ASMR is fairly similar to a relaxing meditative experience.”

A feeling of connection

Richard believes it’s the calming effect of ASMR that brings tingleheads back again and again. People love the deep sense of relaxation they feel after an ASMR practitioner has spoken in a caring, soothing manner, he said.

“It’s very similar to the feeling of sitting down on a couch with a loved one you feel safe with, and when you feel safe with someone, you relax,” Richard said. “It’s also very similar to the way we talk to an infant to calm them: ‘Hey, it’s OK. I’m here for you. You’re safe. I care about you.’ These are universal behaviors of how to calm someone.”

Unlike sitting next to a loved one on a couch, ASMR doesn’t have to happen in person. Many ASMR YouTubers brush or clip hair directly into the camera – giving the impression that it is the viewer who is being groomed, slowly and with gentle purpose. One video, which has over 9 millions views, features a woman putting on “your” makeup.

“I find this all very off-putting,” Smith said. “I can’t watch the videos because there’s a voyeuristic quality that makes me feel uncomfortable, like I’m trespassing in some way.”

Those who do respond to the videos are attracted to the “positive personal attention,” Richard explains. “It’s the person in the camera looking into the lens and acting in this super caring way like they known you their whole lives and care about you.”

However therapeutic ASMR may appear to be, Smith hastens to point out that any use of ASMR would not replace professional counseling for anxiety or stress any more than a stroll in nature would.

“It’s good for your blood pressure to go for a walk and relax. ASMR is the same,” he said. “If someone wants to use it therapeutically, it would be more as a supplement to help them relax, as opposed to their main treatment.”

A primitive beginning?

Why would such attention be so enticing? Richard believes in an evolutionary explanation. He said we can trace the need back to the Stone Age, where developing trust may have come from chimplike grooming behavior – “removing some parasites, getting some twigs out of your hair, or whatever” – and slow, purposeful actions that would benefit us in some way.

“If someone in a cave was handling something for a long time, he or she was probably preparing food, creating clothing or making a helpful tool,” Richard said.

Of course, not every caveman and woman responded positively. Somewhere along the way, a few must have responded with irritation, even anger, to the same stimuli. Today, that reaction is called misophonia, which experts believe can affect up to 20% of the population.

“It’s an extremely negative reaction, such as annoyance or disgust, mostly to specific sounds such as chewing, clicking, tapping and whispering,” Richard said, adding these are some of the most common triggers for the pleasurable aspects of ASMR as well.

“There is a tendency for people who experience synesthesia and misophonia to also experience ASMR, so there is some overlap here,” Smith said. “It’s just for some people, they experience it as pleasurable and for others, they experience it as extremely aversive and gross.”

Despite the lack of in-depth research on ASMR, Richard believes people should not carelessly dismiss the phenomenon, or the benefits it provides to those who experience it.

“It’s another tool in the toolbox along with mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing or cognitive behavioral therapy,” Richard said. “It’s another aspect of self-care that’s helping people deal with their stress.”

Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 23 March 2023 | The Week UK

Trump: arrest could be ‘fun’

Donald Trump has told friends that being arrested could be a “fun experience” for him. The former US president told them he is relishing the idea of a “perp walk” and plans to turn his potential arrest into a “spectacle” to fire up his base. “He wants to be defiant – to show the world that if they can try to do this to him, they can do it to anyone,” a source told the New York Times. Trump’s expected indictment was delayed this week.