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As many take to the streets in China to protest covid restrictions, the people's dissatisfaction with freedom of expression and democracy resurface. While the effort is valiant and Chinese politicians have made certain promises to satisfy protesters, it remains unclear whether these protest will have any long-term difference. Protests in Hong Kong in 2019 were seemingly larger and had a large impact in the moment, but after the movement was suppressed, the communist party silenced those behind them. Given this past, will these protests create any real change?

I don't any change will come. The government has all the resources needed to prevent the protests and could simply slowly deploy vaccines and lessen the restrictions to stop the protests. The protests haven't been advocating for much change in the structure of Chinese society, so the government still maintains all the power.

And now the Chinese government has softened a bit to accommodate the protestors' demands for vaccines--maybe even fewer lockdowns; but not for free speech. Let's see how that goes with the protestors; will they be appeased? See https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/world/asia/china-covid-protests-restrictions.html

Coronavirus cases in the UK have surged to numbers even higher than the initial spike in May. Efforts to help the economy and keep the country open have made citizens at greater risk, and experts urge more restrictions and a potential second lockdown.

I think it's a bit of a dilemma, whether it is the right choice to impose another national shutdown after seeing such a severe economic consequence after the first one and a loss of almost 700,000 jobs, or to forgo the consequences and enact the shutdown anyway to prevent the further spread of the virus. Restrictions are probably the only in-between that might work or at least do less damage.

This article discussed the plans for reopening college football within the United States amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. I was drawn to the article because I was interested in learning about the guidelines and restrictions the United States was using to reopening recreational activities, such as college football. Through reading the article, I thought it was interesting that there was no coherent reopening plan, like with the NBA, but rather that different states and universities had very differing plans regarding what guidelines and restrictions will be in-place for reopening this activity. I would be interested in taking a deeper look into how other countries have attempted to reopen recreational activities and how their methods were different from those taken here.

Following up to the other comments on this post, I am curious how these universities expect to pull off this bubble, since there have been many outbreaks in colleges due to parties and general disregard for safety. I think this will only make an outbreak within college teams more likely and it is extremely worrying that there is not a unified plan to address these issues.

I agree with what Luke and Aaron have said. I think that attempting to create a "bubble" won't work for such large teams and at the college level. It's irresponsible of the officials to attempt to move forward with the season and risk the lives of the students. In my opinion, they should just scrap the entire season because they have no unified plans.

Polish citizens have violently protested in response to new restrictions on abortion. These restrictions will further Poland's already strict abortion policy by outlawing them even in cases of rape or fetal abnormalities. The government in Poland is heavily influenced by Christianity, which has also prompted them to condemn immigration (except for Christian immigrants) and gay rights.

This reminds me of the many new abortion laws in the south last year, which were also founded out of the christian idea that life begins at conception. Some of the more egregious laws even proposed punishing women for miscarriages if an investigation found that they had some responsibility with the fetus' poor health. It didn't say in this article, but I wonder if a similar process occurs under this new law? How extreme is it in comparison to the US and the countries around it?

What type of Christianity is dominant in Poland? All Christians are not necessarily anti-abortion. There are Christians of every political identity. . . . I just looked it up: "The overwhelming majority (around 87%) of the population are Roman-Catholic if the number of the baptised is taken as the criterion (33 million of baptised people in 2013)" source: Euruopean Commission Report: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/

"Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has signed a decree aimed at restricting the powers of social media companies to remove accounts and content"

Wow...this is super topical and unique especially when freedom of speech and social media in the US.

Yes. .. and the US has taken the position that tech companies have "freedom of speech" as well, including the freedom to prohibit material. Personally, it bothers me when corporations are redefined as equivalent to people. Really, however, corporations' speech is SO much more influential than individual people's speech.

I thought this was a little funny how seemingly petty the gov seems to be...also there is a post colonial analysis here showing how their foreign policy relates and interacts with their former colonists

Aren't India and Britain allies on the world stage now? I wonder how little jabs like this boost rivals like China and Russia in the public eye, or in other cases, economically.

Both Japan and France rank in the top 50 for Global Peace Rankings-- Japan 8th and France 48th. The biggest difference in their rankings comes from France's possession of heavy and nuclear weapons. The Japanese have limited possession of heavy and nuclear weapons as a result of the pacifist constitution they were forced to adopt following WWII which limited their ability to arm for war. Furthermore, France is involved in more conflicts and exports more weapons than Japan, which is also heavily related to the restrictions placed on Japan following WWII. However, Japan has a worse record when it comes to relations with neighbors which may be related to actions from WWII and rising tensions between Japan, China, and South Korea. Yet, perhaps unrelated to WWII and relating more to culture of society, France has a higher level of violent demonstrations and internal organized conflict than Japan. Japan has a homogenous population that has a main focus of work and a culture that accepts the social and economic hierarchy, but France has a more heterogeneous population with many disenfranchised groups that were once colonized that continue to face discrimination.

Political instability is evident in France as the cabinet fell apart over questions regarding the financial crisis of France and the overall economic downslide of the euro over the last 5 years. The Prime Minister Manuel Vall called for the dissolvement of the cabinet after President Hallonde made changes to economic regulations based on the urges of the European Union, German leaders to be specific. The big question regarding the European economy is whether government budget cuts and deficit financing is more important or finding a way to get cash flowing and creating jobs for citizens is more important. Many of the nations of the eurozone initially bought into the policies of austerity policies that Angel Merkel, the German chancellor, advocated, but now they're pulling back their restrictions and some economic growth is occurring. France and Germany, the largest economies in Europe are at odds and France's shift towards the right-wing National Front. France, as a part of the European Union, has pressure to do follow orders and maintain relationships with other European powers rather than do what's exactly right for their citizens. Political instability of France, unemployment, budget cuts, and debt-financing.

An article analyzing Swiss gun culture. At first, it seems similar to the US gun culture because Swiss citizens are allowed to own select fire rifles and keep them in their homes. However, their rifle is for their country, not for themselves. The types of guns you can own isn't very restricted, but you are not allowed to have them in a vehicle unless youre going to a shooting range, and concealed carry is illegal. The Swiss own guns to quickly fight off an invading foreign army. Many Us citizens own guns to, in their mind, "keep the government in check".

Health officials in Europe are sending out warnings of an imminent second wave of the virus. However, more and more people are dismissing the virus, claiming that it is a hoax. These times of crisis have only deepened the distrust of government. Protests of 10s of thousands of people have sprouted up in Europe. This type of behavior is dangerous.

This article talks about how all over Europe, but especially in cities such as London, trust in the governments advice regarding restrictions and guidelines due to the coronavirus, specifically around masks. People are attributing this behavior to the unknowns around the coronavirus and people trying to make sense of the world around them. While this is going on, the cases in most of the European countries have spiked, with 12,000 new cases in France in the last week alone.

Should be interesting to watch how the Taliban will execute this vow, especially since their spokesperson gave a pretty vague answer as to how the respect for women's rights would look within the Taliban.

I also think it will be very interesting to see whether the Taliban follow through with the vow and what respect means to them. It seems like everyone is waiting to see if this vow is an indicator that the Taliban have changed their ways since their strict form of rule in the 1990s.

Now we're at September 29, and the Taliban has closed girls' schools and colleges, women have to wear the burka, and the restrictions grow. . .

I think this is an interesting case study in how governments can make use of crises to seize more power. It makes us consider what checks and balances we can implement to maintain freedom.

I'd be interested in the kinds of laws different regimes have in relation to police and military forces in times of crisis

I think it is very interesting how governments can hide such harsh restrictions and violence under the guise of public safety. I agree with what Sam said about checks and balances that prevent these human rights violations, and I wonder what types of rights are protected by these governments.

While not directly related to the freedom and equality paradox, I think this article is related. As freedom is going down with government restrictions on speech in Hong Kong, equality is too (as human rights abuses are more likely to continue). So maybe the freedom-equality inverse relationship is only the case in terms of economics.

yup, I think so.

Mexico's economy is not making a strong recovery from Covid-19. This article lays out some reasons why and speculates on the country's economic trajectory.

It seems like the main issue with trans restroom rights is enforcement: "Although the Supreme Court declined in July to consider a challenge to Grimm's victory in a lower federal court, SCOTUS did not set a federal precedent for similar school restroom cases, essentially leaving it up to each presidential administration to enforce Title IX in educational settings."