Also China's

China's Policy Reversals

Andrew Batson | Tangled Woof | 8th February 2023

China is executing a series of major policy reversals — on Covid, on real estate, and on tech. These were some of Xi Jinping's flagship policies. So either Xi is proving more pragmatic than anybody had thought possible; or there has been a "quiet revolt" against him in the party leadership. Absent any hard evidence for either reading, it may be best to presume that the truth is a bit of both (1,200 words)


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Also Italian

Dylan Byron | Lapham's Quarterly | 6th February 2023

In the city people spoke a Venetian dialect of Italian. In the countryside they spoke Slovene. In the government they spoke German. Such was Trieste in 1913, capital of the Adriatic, still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, if only just, and one of the most cultured cities in Europe, beloved of Joyce, and Svevo, and Musil. Its magic survived World War 1, but did not survive Mussolini (2,250 words)

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