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Lionel Laurent
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2021
Marine Le Pen doubles Macron's pandemic pressure
Emmanuel Macron's voter base of affluent urban white-collar workers still supports him, but his push for economic reform and European integration no longer resonates.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2021
Vaccine techno-populism is how Europe loses
Even with four vaccines approved by EU regulators, governments are fumbling the logistics of getting needles in arms.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2021
Vaccine comparison shopping hurts everyone
Medical professionals are holding out for some vaccines over others which are seen to have lower efficacy rates, risking delaying vaccination programs.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2021
Israel’s vaccine data has lessons for all
Tiny Israel is set to immunize its population months before far bigger and richer countries, partly by ordering early but also by sharing patient information after vaccination.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2021
GameStop's ‘French Revolution’ is a crypto-farce
If WallStreetBets is checkmate for old-school finance, then surely they'd want to win fair and square.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2020
Mark Zuckerberg has another answer to Bitcoin
As German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz put it, referring to Libra's name change, 'a wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2020
Emmanuel Macron has the same problem as King Louis XVI
French orders of the Pfizer vaccine run to about 45 million, which means around 22 million people can receive the two-shot course.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2020
Sweden’s second wave offers hard reality check
The country has highlighted the danger of thinking any government has found out how to beat the coronavirus.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2020
All aboard the billionaires’ Bitcoin bandwagon?
A surge of 1,000% in 2017 took Bitcoin's value to $19,000. A year later, it had dropped to less than $3,500.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2020
How to vaccinate a nation of skeptics against COVID-19
How to convince people to actually take the shot. Achieving herd immunity may mean at least 80% of people will need the vaccine.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2020
What Bitcoin's new record means for Wall Street
Bitcoin won't be viewed as an existential threat to the banking system just because its price is soaring. But it won't be ignored either.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2020
French billionaires seize pandemic opportunities
France is the land of what writer Pascal Bruckner calls 'Bolshevism-lite,” where wealth is publicly hated but privately hoarded.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2020
Are hospitals ready For COVID’s second wave?
If ever there was a time to view health care as a benefit to society and the economy, rather than a drag on public finances, it's now.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2020
The race to replace the city of London begins
Nobody's saying that Paris or Frankfurt will suddenly replace London. But we're in a decentralizing phase where many centers can happily coexist.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2020
COVID-19 disobedience goes deeper than we think
While respect for mask-wearing and personal hygiene is broadly high, according to surveys of European countries, support for quarantine and self-isolation is wavering.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2020
The agonizing wait for better COVID-19 treatment
It's time to put renewed and coordinated emphasis on finding treatments for the novel coronavirus.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2020
Rich royals face a millennial COVID-19 reckoning
Former King Juan Carlos's self-exile from Spain is a warning to monarchs everywhere as the virus ramps up social tensions.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2020
What Spain is telling us about the coronavirus' second wave
Europe's new COVID-19 flare-ups are a serious test of governments' pandemic strategies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2020
For the EU, banning American tourists is the easy part
It's the thorny challenges to reopening the European Union's internal borders that show just how tricky living with COVID-19 really is.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine farce has tragic consequences
A rush to publish studies based on flawed science gets us no closer to a cure, and hurts public trust.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?