Zach Wener-Fligner, Annabelle Timsit

When Beijing won its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics almost six years ago, it was a joyous moment for China. The city became the first in the world to be selected to host both the Summer and Winter Games, in what seemed like a recognition of the success of the 2008 Summer Games. It was also the third time in a row that the Games went to an Asian country, a record for an event typically dominated by Europe and North America.

Take your age and multiply it by 0.9. That’s your indoor age, or the number of years that you’ve spent inside your home or office, according to Joseph G. Allen, director of the healthy buildings program at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health. For most people, it’s equal to about 90% of their life.

Britain’s Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and consort of Queen Elizabeth II, died today (April 9) at the age of 99. He had been sick for a long time, and stayed in the hospital for a month earlier this year, after which he underwent heart surgery. A statement from Buckingham Palace said that “His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.”

China has imposed retaliatory sanctions on a handful of UK politicians and researchers, as well as think tanks, advocacy groups, and a law firm. It’s a move that was widely expected after the UK, EU, US, and Canada imposed coordinated sanctions on Chinese officials this week for their role in alleged human rights abuses committed against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Europeans have had a very tough time with the coronavirus—physically, economically, but also psychologically.

It was obvious that China would retaliate when the European Union blacklisted Chinese Communist Party officials that they accuse of violating the rights of Uyghur Muslims.

On Monday (March 22), the EU, UK, US, and Canada announced coordinated sanctions against individuals and an entity they accuse of perpetrating human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, a northwestern region of China.

When I received a text from England’s National Health Service (NHS) informing me that I could sign up to get a Covid-19 vaccine, I clicked on the link and found an available slot just one hour later that same day. All that was left was to pick one of three possible vaccination centers close to where I live. The second option caught my eye: Westminster Abbey, where every British monarch since 1066 has been crowned and where Queen Elizabeth II got married in 1947. It made getting the vaccine feel all the more special that it happened under the massive Gothic arches and colorful stained glass of a church that has witnessed so much of British history.

Name a region that most people probably can’t identify on a map, but that European leaders think is the center of gravity of the world.

The UK just released a roadmap, known as the Integrated Review, for its post-Brexit future.

Europe’s rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has been plagued with problems. Initial delays in deliveries caused a very public brawl between EU authorities and the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker. And misinformation about the jab’s effectiveness among older people, propagated not just on social media but also by German media and French president Emmanuel Macron, has scared some people off, and convinced them to wait for another vaccine as millions of doses sit unused.

When the UK officially left the European Union on Jan. 31, 2020 it put a lot of people out of a job—including Nigel Farage, the bombastic former leader of the Brexit Party.

For all the talk of Covid-19 vaccine supply issues in the European Union, official data show that close to 13 million doses distributed to member states have not even been administered. Most of those are from AstraZeneca, with many Europeans apparently unwilling to accept that particular jab.

The CFO of Chinese technology giant Huawei is suing HSBC in Hong Kong to obtain documents that she believes will help her fight a US extradition request, just days after losing a similar case before the UK High Court of Justice.

London’s Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world, lost £2 billion ($2.83 billion) in 2020 as the aviation industry collapsed under the strain of the pandemic. Now, it’s calling for more support from the UK government in order to survive.

Today at the Munich Security Conference, a gathering of world leaders launched during the Cold War and held virtually this year, US president Joe Biden laid out a roadmap for how democracies could approach China.

According to new economic data (pdf), China dethroned the US as Europe’s top trade partner for goods in 2020, likely buoyed by strong demand in China for European products, and Chinese medical gear in Europe.

China’s National Radio and Television Administration announced on Friday (Feb. 12) that it would pull the BBC World News off air, following critical reports from the British broadcaster and the ban of a Chinese channel in the UK. Observers could be forgiven for shrugging their shoulders; after all, the BBC is not available in most Chinese households.

It’s been a rough month for HSBC in the UK.

In a global industry dominated by Hollywood (pdf), French cinema has long punched above its weight.

The leaders of the European Union are on the defensive.

Almost 10 months to the day after the UK first imposed a national lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, British prime minister Boris Johnson is tightening the rules governing who is allowed in and out of the country, and where they must quarantine while there.

In Europe, concerns are growing about human rights violations in Chinese supply chains. In response, parliaments are forcing their governments to reevaluate their trade and business relationships with Beijing.

Four years ago, at Davos in Switzerland, Chinese president Xi Jinping defended globalization and anointed himself its leader and protector.