As we end 2020 there is some positive news as we start the new year. Trump will be gone. Joe Biden becomes President of the USA on 20 January. There are vaccines out there that work.
There are conscious social movements that can make a difference – from essential workers organising for health and safety and better pay, to the growing international movements for Climate Justice, Black Lives Matter, and the People’s Vaccine.
In Thailand young people are now making themselves heard – demanding a more equitable society and debating previously taboo subjects.
So at least at the start of the year let us all work for something better than the misery that was 2020.
April 2021
Myanmar on the Brink of State Failure International Crisis Group
My unusual week with Myanmar’s violent, paranoid military junta SouthEast Asia Globe
March 2021
How to deal with China Economist
Abuse of power: football’s culturally accepted contempt for its own referees Guardian
Why can’t Britain handle the truth about Winston Churchill? Guardian
The clown king: how Boris Johnson made it by playing the fool Guardian
What is journalism for? The short answer: truth Guardian
Japan’s 2011 tsunami, then and now – in pictures Guardian
February 2021
Why I stopped writing about Chinese Football Wild East football
How Covid-19 could limit travel for years beyond the crisis New Statesman
It’s landing day on Mars! NASA’s Perseverance rover will touch down on the Red Planet today Space.com
Nine months in the long limbo of long covid Dr. Ed Rooksby. RIP
The Man Who Captured The Hand Of God Has Been Erased From History Defector
‘A very dangerous epoch’: historians try to make sense of Covid Guardian
Aung San Suu Kyi overlooked Myanmar’s deepest problems Open Democracy
Life savers: the amazing story of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine Observer
Joe Biden’s Challenge Was Barack Obama’s Victory The Atlantic
Viral Woman Who Danced Through Myanmar Coup Tells Us What Happened Vice
Myanmar: Inside the coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s government Nikkei Asia
January 2021
Fall by John Preston review – the truth about Robert Maxwell Guardian
Covid-19: Five days that shaped the outbreak BBC
Thai opposition figure says government seeks to silence him on vaccine Reuters
DES files complaints against Thanatorn over vaccination programme scrutiny Prachatai
Navalny Is All-In on Bringing Down Putinism Foreign Policy
The strange case of Alibaba’s Jack Ma and his three-month vanishing act Observer
Joe Biden’s inner circle: meet the new president’s close-knit team Guardian
The abandoned and hidden Kent railway stations which have long been forgotten about Kent Live
Off the rails: Behind Trump’s post-election meltdown Axios
‘An unmitigated disaster’: America’s year of Covid Guardian
Dubai, Pandemic Party Haven, Faces Its Biggest Surge Bloomberg
Covid-19: ‘Don’t end up like us, please’ BBC News
Human Rights Watch – World Report 2021 HRW
Anyone shocked by the US Capitol attack has ignored an awful lot of warning signs Guardian
2021 storming of the United States Capitol Wikipedia
Insurrection Day: when white supremacist terror came to the US Capitol Guardian
Swarms of Trump supporters storm U.S. Capitol Reuters
Inside the Capitol siege: How barricaded lawmakers and aides sounded urgent pleas for help as police lost control Washington Post
How one of America’s ugliest days unraveled inside and outside the Capitol Washington Post
2020 was the year of inequality: can we turn it around in 2021? Thomson Reuters Foundation