Adam Minter

Beijing promoted its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics seven years ago with a video showing skiers and snowboarders performing under crisp blue skies. Clean air was a bold promise, and one that the host city is struggling to fulfill. Two weeks before the opening ceremonies, air pollution levels…

For more than two weeks, the government of Xian, a Chinese city of 13 million people, has confined residents to their homes as it tries to extinguish a Covid outbreak amounting to fewer than 2,000 infections. It's a continuation of the “zero-Covid” policy that crushed the initial outbreak in Wuhan…

Early in the pandemic, Americans lined up for hours outside of food banks, awaiting their chance to collect groceries. Many of them had experienced food insecurity before Covid-19. Tens of millions of others were new to such assistance. Only thanks to emergency federal intervention was a serious…

On Monday, the White House announced that American officials will boycott the Beijing Olympics in February over China’s human-rights record. Australia, Canada and the UK soon joined in. Other democracies will likely follow. Predictably, China has promised “resolute countermeasures.” Whatever…

Years ago, long before the iPhone, nobody needed a professional technician to switch out a phone battery. You simply slid open the back, inserted a replacement and the job was done. The first iPhone changed everything. Now you might need a screwdriver, nylon pry tools, a dental pick, a tweezer, a…

In April, scientists discovered an asteroid that had a roughly 1 in 2,500 chance of colliding with Earth in six months’ time. As the weeks passed, and observations improved, they determined that the space rock — perhaps 2,200 feet across — was on target for central Europe, potentially putting a…

There are dozens of ships anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach this week, imperiling global supply chains and holiday gifts. Also imperiled? The safety and well-being of the seafarers working on those ships, many of whom haven’t touched land in more than a year due to pandemic-era…

China recently sank to new depths, sending the Haidou 1, a remote-controlled submarine, 10,908 meters into the murky waters of the Mariana Trench. That’s exactly one meter past the submersible’s previous world-record mark. For the engineers and oceanographers involved, the feat means bragging…

Relations between China and the US may be scraping new lows, but that hasn’t stopped Chinese consumers from snapping up the iPhone 13. Shortly after pre-sales for the phone opened on Sept. 17, some colors sold out in minutes. Apple Inc.’s China website crashed. Social media erupted. A week later,…

In March, a Chinese military satellite appeared to spontaneously disintegrate in orbit, leaving a trail of debris high above the Earth. If China knew anything, it wasn’t saying. Did the propulsion system explode? Was there a collision with some of the space junk that’s accumulating in orbit? Or did…