Clara Ferreira Marques

Ask on the street in Hong Kong if passersby will get the Covid-19 vaccine, and you may hear what I did: “Sometime.” “Maybe.” “No.” Combating this hesitancy here and elsewhere will take more than opprobrium and exhortation. It requires tuning in. A combination of deep-seated distrust in…

Thermal coal’s days are numbered: It’s a major climate offender, alternatives are cheap and the world’s biggest diggers want to rid themselves of the fuel. The greenest among them can afford to go one step further, grouping the grimiest mines and promising even eco-friendly investors shiny…

“The vaccine works. It is safe, effective, and potent.” In 1955, those were the words that told the world US scientist Jonas Salk’s polio shot was a success. It was news greeted with popular jubilation, ringing church bells and boldface banner headlines. The sort of heartfelt relief that most of…

Hong Kong is no stranger to goodbyes. In the lead-up to the 1997 handover to China, thousands left, often for Canada and Australia. Now, hundreds of thousands more may be contemplating a new British immigration program aimed at providing solace to a former colony increasingly in Beijing’s grip. It…

One of US President Joe Biden’s first moves upon arriving in the Oval Office has been to require international travelers get a negative Covid-19 test before departing, then quarantine on landing; Britain too is considering tighter measures for arrivals. Both basic protective moves are long overdue…

Covid-19 exposed all the flaws of both national and international governance. The World Health Organization struggled. Too many countries, even those supposedly best prepared for a pandemic, flailed and failed to grasp lessons from each other’s experiences, at the cost of 2 million lives and…

Agflation is back, and so are unhelpful fixes. Under pressure from falling incomes and higher inflation, Moscow has rushed to cap the cost of basic foods and introduced measures to curb wheat and other exports. President Vladimir Putin’s televised displeasure was a symptom of the strain…

Russian prime ministers are often swiftly forgotten. Few, like Vladimir Putin himself, have gone on to greater things. Since taking over as prime minister in January, Mikhail Mishustin has promoted himself out of the first group. The tech-savvy former tax chief became the face of the government…

The universe’s most abundant element is having a good year. Clean hydrogen is enjoying unprecedented support among global political leaders, who see it as a means of decarbonizing hard-to-tackle corners of the economy, while powering up jobs and post-pandemic investment. From Portugal to Chile,…

China has all but met President Xi Jinping’s pledge to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020. More than 800 counties considered severely impoverished just under a decade ago have now cleared a government-defined line of 4,000 yuan, or roughly $600, in annual per-capita income. The last nine, in the…