Proximities is a newsletter that - every day - briefly draws your attention to three non-Western news stories. All too often, media that brands itself as international is nothing of the sort. News from just a handful of Western nations dominates even as much more important, more consequential, stories are developing elsewhere. Outlets with a pretense of being global would rather spend all day talking about a tweet than an explosion in Mogadishu. Our social feeds are dominated by rancor rather than discussion. Controversy drowns out facts. "Content" drowns out insight. The rich drown out the poor. And the West drowns out everywhere else.
This is a (very small) attempt to break through that noise, a jumping off point for you to dig into some of the things happening around the world on any given day.
Subscribe now ahead of the first edition - coming soon.
My name is Barry Malone and I’m a journalist. I’ve reported from Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Somalia, Libya and Iraq - mainly for Reuters news agency and Al Jazeera. Right now, I run a TV show focused on international news and culture. You can follow me on Twitter here: malonebarry