A woman waits backstage during the recording of the dating show ‘Meet you on Saturday.’
Carlos Barria/Reuters
In only 30 years, a generations-old system of arranged marriages has been completely upended.
Uh-oh.
Phoenixman
If Brexiters thought that making new international tariff deals and joining the WTO would be a cakewalk, they’re in for a shock.
South African President Jacob Zuma arrives at a European Union-South Africa summit in 2012.
Reuters/Yves Herman
It’s unclear what South Africa’s attitude will be to negotiating new deals with the UK and the EU. In the past seven years it has lost its appetite for trade deals, particularly with the developed world.
China’s coal future is up in the air.
Coal image from www.shutterstock.com
China’s crackdown on pollution and climate change may yet see coal use fall - but it’s no certainty.
EPA/Etienne Laurent
It’s been a long time coming but Disney is set to tap into the vast and lucrative China market.
Strange bedfellows.
Jason Lee/Reuters
Trump is only the latest U.S. politician to bash China over its trade and currency policies. Is the criticism fair?
Supporting an infant industry.
EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG
A new industry is being created under President Xi Jinping. Meet the two men making it happen.
Reuters
There is so much going on in the world these days it’s sometimes possible to focus on the ephemeral and the inconsequential rather than the long-term structural changes that are likely to shape the international…
Chinese propaganda arms are offering tempting commercial arrangements.
Reuters/Damir Sagolj
There has been an odd silence around commercial deals struck between Australian media outlets and China’s propaganda arms.
Indian children overlook the dry Tawi river, in Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmir, India.
EPA/Jaipal Singh
Ambitious plans to divert rivers are all very well, but what is needed is to manage water sources at the local level.
Sorry, but the glass is half empty.
Image sourced from shutterstock.com
GDP growth that doesn’t translate into income is no cause for celebration.
BRICS leaders at a meeting ahead of the G20 summit in Turkey in 2015.
REUTERS/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin
The BRICS bank is positioning itself to play a significant role in those areas in which the international financial institutions are seen to have failed.
‘If Steve McQueen can do it …“
Gabriele Maltini
Conservative MP David Davies has been telling anti-TTIP activists that a leave vote is how they can torpedo the deal.
Purportedly Chinese dredging vessels are building up land around Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea last year.
U.S. Navy via Reuters
The Philippines is cheering a ruling that China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis. But the ruling will also ratchet up military tensions with the U.S.
Heading in the opposite direction?
AlexLMX/Shutterstcok
Sino-Japanese rivalry might well come to dominate this year’s G7 and G20.
Paying respects in Mao’s home town.
EPA/How Hwee Young
Five decades ago, China began a decade of devastating crackdowns and purges – and the causes are still poorly understood.
On their knees. Scrutiny and stigma for athletes has ramped up.
Phil Roeder/Flickr
The history of the fight against drug taking in sport shows us why we’re in such a mess right now.
Love and affection are as important as food, water and shelter.
jamesgoodmanphotography/flickr
Children raised in orphanages often lack a key ingredient for healthy development – love.
Michael Reynolds / EPA
As grassland turns to desert, dust is blown into the atmosphere and across oceans.
Reuters/Kim Kyung Hoon
Fifty years ago on May 16 the Cultural Revolution began. Don’t expect this event to be given much attention in China itself, though. The reality is that despite Mao Zedong’s continuing iconic status, his…