Zohran Mamdani becomes first Southasian New York mayor, Rana Ayyub faces death threats, Dhaka protests around July charter and more in our weekly regional newsletter
Two new books look at how Johnson & Johnson for decades put profits ahead of patients – including with contaminated baby power and faulty hip implants – and expose the failures of pharmaceutical regulation in India and the United States
A fellow Tamil-descent immigrant writer reflects on the Sri Lankan-British poet Vidyan Ravinthiran’s memoir ‘Asian/Other’, exploring the porousness of identity in the Southasian diaspora and the challenges of writing beyond Western expectations
This week in Himal
Hugo Ribadeau Dumas delves into India’s language politics, revealing how pride and shame shapes language fluency in Bihar, amid the continued domination of Hindi and
This week in Himal
As the US imposes tariffs on dozens of countries’ exports, Joshua Yang writes that China now sees an opportunity to modify, if not supplant, the current
‘The Belt and Road City’ argues China is wielding the BRI to reshape the global cities around its own ideals – but good luck pinning down what those are
The economist discusses the impact of proposed US tariffs on exports, balance of payments and debt in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other Southasian countries
This week in Himal
This week, as part of our “Pills, Perils, Profits” investigative series on Southasian pharma, health reporter Vidya Krishnan writes that US aid cuts have exposed the
US and Western aid cuts expose global health’s rotten core and leave millions facing preventable deaths from HIV, TB, malaria and more – but the past and the present offer lessons in how to fight back
This week in Himal
This week, Salman Rafi Sheikh writes about the warm reception Pakistan’s army chief received in Washington DC, as the US courts Pakistan as a potential
The United States and Donald Trump are courting the Pakistan military as an ally in a war against Iran, but Pakistan’s present problems and hard lessons from the US-led invasion of Afghanistan should offer grave warnings
