Results for world

New York Times reporting: A mob of people loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol on Wednesday, halting Congress’ counting of the electoral votes to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory as the police evacuated lawmakers from the building in a scene of violence, chaos and disruption that shook the core of American democracy.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was common to divide countries and their responses according to their political systems, with many attributing China’s success in controlling the virus to its authoritarianism. As of late 2020, however, it is clear that the real dividing line is not political but geographical. Regardless of whether a country is democratic or authoritarian, an island or continental, Confucian or Buddhist, communitarian or individualistic, if it is East Asian, Southeast Asian, or Australasian, it has managed COVID-19 better than any European or North American country. The fact remains that you were much likelier to die of COVID-19 in 2020 if you were European or American than if you were Asian. - By Bill Emmott

Just as vaccines begin to offer hope for a path out of the pandemic, officials in Britain on Saturday sounded an urgent alarm about what they called a highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus circulating in England.

According to the conventional wisdom, the twenty-first century will be characterized by the global shift from American hegemony to Sino-American rivalry. But a bipolar international order is neither inevitable nor desirable, and in fact, would be deeply unstable. Its emergence would heighten the risk of violent conflict and three of the biggest challenges facing humanity would either be ignored or made worse. We should start imagining and working toward alternative arrangements. - By Daron Acemoglu.

New York Times reporting: An unexpected contest over the 2021 presidency of the U.N. Human Rights Council is pitting some of the United Nations' most powerful member states against tiny Pacific Island nations and is playing out as U.N. members jockey for influence in anticipation of a new, more engaged U.S. administration.

New York Times reporting: A day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to stay home for Thanksgiving, more than 1 million people in the United States got on planes, marking the second day that more than 1 million people have flown since March. Nearly 3 million additional people have flown in the days since. For some, the desire to see family is worth the risk of potentially getting the coronavirus while traveling.

Though it has not come as a surprise, the attack on the credibility of the 2020 election by US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party cannot simply be brushed under the rug of history. Once the norms that underpin constitutional democracy have been tossed aside, there is little left to fight for. America’s failures to address past injustices – including the subjugation of indigenous peoples, slavery, racism, and the deprivations of the poor, immigrants, and the incarcerated – helps to explain why trust in democratic institutions has been so corroded in the first place. Having been made brittle, America’s institutions have long been vulnerable to attack. By Katharina Pistor

New York Times reporting: At the end of a tough year, spiritual leaders offer some ways to prepare yourself for whatever comes next. By Erik Vance.

New York Times reporting: After eight years of talks, China and 14 other nations from Japan to New Zealand to Myanmar on Sunday formally signed one of the world’s largest regional free trade agreements, a pact shaped by Beijing partly as a counterweight to U.S. influence in the region.