Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | When the first COVID-19 case was detected in Dharavi, a crammed labyrinth of one-room shacks in the heart of India’s financial capital, epidemiologists feared the disease would spiral out of control.Inside one square mile live nearly 1 million people, many of whom survive on daily wages and share public bathrooms. Families sleep in eight-by-eight-foot rooms. People squeeze past one another in alleys. Social distancing .But nearly three months later, authorities in Mumbai appear to have pulled off a miracle — or at least found an unexpected...…Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | When the first COVID-19 case was detected in Dharavi, a crammed labyrinth of one-room shacks in the heart of India’s financial capital, epidemiologists feared the disease would spiral out of control.Inside one square mile live nearly 1 million people, many of whom survive on daily wages and share public bathrooms. Families sleep in eight-by-eight-foot rooms. People squeeze past one another in alleys. Social distancing .But nearly three months later, authorities in Mumbai appear to have pulled off a miracle — or at least found an unexpected...WW…

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement Offering a rare and surprising bright spot in the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam began easing its nationwide lockdown Thursday following an aggressive containment campaign that has meant few infections and no deaths in an Asian nation initially believed to be at great risk from the coronavirus.The communist-ruled country has sealed its borders, quarantined masses of people, used soldiers and police to track down potential infections and fined social media users for spreading misinformation. After deploying the full arsenal of a...…Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement Offering a rare and surprising bright spot in the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam began easing its nationwide lockdown Thursday following an aggressive containment campaign that has meant few infections and no deaths in an Asian nation initially believed to be at great risk from the coronavirus.The communist-ruled country has sealed its borders, quarantined masses of people, used soldiers and police to track down potential infections and fined social media users for spreading misinformation. After deploying the full arsenal of a...WW…

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement The newscast blares from a television set in a Beijing apartment, carrying through an open window and echoing across the compound. The refrain is the same every evening: praise for China’s handling of the coronavirus, dire scenes from foreign hospitals and condemnations of the United States.The tone is often withering. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo was declared “the public enemy of humanity.” A few nights later, the anchor feigned sympathy for Americans, who she said were left to die while their government...…Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement The newscast blares from a television set in a Beijing apartment, carrying through an open window and echoing across the compound. The refrain is the same every evening: praise for China’s handling of the coronavirus, dire scenes from foreign hospitals and condemnations of the United States.The tone is often withering. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo was declared “the public enemy of humanity.” A few nights later, the anchor feigned sympathy for Americans, who she said were left to die while their government...WW…

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement For years, critics of Thailand’s powerful king have chosen their words carefully, opting for allegories about his late poodle Foo Foo, inside jokes about his multiple marriages or references to Germany, where he lives almost full time at a hotel in the Bavarian Alps.Lately, some have donned Harry Potter costumes to evoke Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard so feared that his name must not be spoken.The comparison isn’t without basis: The Thai monarchy is cocooned from criticism by one of the world’s strictest lèse-majesté laws, which...…Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement For years, critics of Thailand’s powerful king have chosen their words carefully, opting for allegories about his late poodle Foo Foo, inside jokes about his multiple marriages or references to Germany, where he lives almost full time at a hotel in the Bavarian Alps.Lately, some have donned Harry Potter costumes to evoke Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard so feared that his name must not be spoken.The comparison isn’t without basis: The Thai monarchy is cocooned from criticism by one of the world’s strictest lèse-majesté laws, which...WW…

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | On a warm, cloudless morning in June, a giant vessel blasted through the still waters of the South China Sea toward a wooden fishing boat painted in cerulean blue and flying the red flag of Vietnam.The veteran fishing captain cranked up the engine to flee, but the approaching ship dropped two motorized dinghies into the sea with uniformed officers aboard. The rubber crafts raced along either side of the fishing boat, squeezing it like a pincer.As the captain slowed to avoid a collision, the large ship was soon upon them. The large letters across...…Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | On a warm, cloudless morning in June, a giant vessel blasted through the still waters of the South China Sea toward a wooden fishing boat painted in cerulean blue and flying the red flag of Vietnam.The veteran fishing captain cranked up the engine to flee, but the approaching ship dropped two motorized dinghies into the sea with uniformed officers aboard. The rubber crafts raced along either side of the fishing boat, squeezing it like a pincer.As the captain slowed to avoid a collision, the large ship was soon upon them. The large letters across...WW…

Copyright © 2020, Los Angeles Times | | | |For months, Bui Van Thuan, a chemistry teacher turned crusading blogger in Vietnam, published one scathing Facebook post after another on a land dispute between villagers and the communist government.In a country with no independent media, Facebook provides the only platform where Vietnamese can read about contentious topics such as Dong Tam, a village outside Hanoi where residents were fighting authorities’ plans to seize farmland to build a factory.Believing a confrontation was inevitable, the 40-year-old Thuan condemned the country’s leaders in...…Copyright © 2020, Los Angeles Times | | | |For months, Bui Van Thuan, a chemistry teacher turned crusading blogger in Vietnam, published one scathing Facebook post after another on a land dispute between villagers and the communist government.In a country with no independent media, Facebook provides the only platform where Vietnamese can read about contentious topics such as Dong Tam, a village outside Hanoi where residents were fighting authorities’ plans to seize farmland to build a factory.Believing a confrontation was inevitable, the 40-year-old Thuan condemned the country’s leaders in...WW…