Happy New Year, everyone.
Barry.
China
Residents of the Chinese city of Xi'an, which is under a strict Covid lockdown, are using social media to plead with authorities to give them food. Xi'an’s more than 13 million people have been ordered to stay at home and, under China’s tough zero-Covid strategy, are forbidden from leaving home even to buy food. The government insists it is providing essential supplies, but many people say they aren’t getting them.
More from Nikkei Asia here.
Bangladesh
After a social media uproar, Bangladeshi authorities have closed a women-only beach barely a day after opening it. Officials in the Muslim-majority country said they opened the beach after some women requested it, saying they felt unsafe in the area. Opponents, though, said authorities were pandering to people with a conservative interpretation of Islam. According to the BBC, one commentator described the beach as "Talibistan," in reference to the Taliban curbing women’s rights in Afghanistan.
More from BBC here.
Afghanistan
As mentioned in many recent editions of Proximities, the people of Afghanistan are going hungry. As the Taliban took control of Kabul in August, pundits and talking heads lined up to express their concern for the Afghan people and their anger that they were being abandoned. Now, as Afghanistan freefalls, they are silent.
More from Al Jazeera here.