Ai Weiwei says Brexit a “backward” step for Britain

Critics have warned of the damage to biodiversity and local rights, as well as the global climate. But Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is hoping for an economic boom.

Is the United Kingdom better off without Europe? Did the country make a risky choice by leaving the EU one year ago? Our reporters Jonathan Walsh and Clovis Casali crossed the Channel to understand the consequences of Brexit on the daily lives of citizens. From London to Belfast, via Boston – the town with the highest pro-Brexit vote in 2016 – they report on how the UK has changed.

We start with the British papers, which are reporting on "Black Thursday", after four of Boris Johnson's closest aides resigned and the government warned of major price hikes. Also, a US pastor in Tennessee makes headlines by burning Harry Potter and other fantasy books that he says threaten his religious rights. Finally, we take a look at some of the athletes who will be gracing us with their talents in Beijing!

It's a year since Britain's PM, Boris Johnson, confidently led his nation over the precipice for what was popularly dubbed a hard Brexit.

He is the most famous Chinese dissident and one of the best-known contemporary artists in the world. Ai Weiwei was harassed by the Chinese authorities, who bulldozed his Shanghai studio, sent him to jail without charge and drove him out of his country. After the February 2 publication of the French translation of his memoir, "1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows", the artist sat with Eve Jackson to talk about the moment in a Chinese prison when he decided to write his life’s story for his son and what he learned growing up in a labour camp with his persecuted father, the poet Ai Qing.

With more than 700 kilometres of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, Senegal is one of the top fish producers in West Africa. This is one of the richest oceans in the world and that has attracted industrial fishing vessels from China. Aside from their fishing methods having massive repercussions on the environment, local fishermen say their own catch has dramatically dropped.

Stock markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong slumped on Tuesday, as investors fear the impact of the latest Covid-19 lockdowns on China's economy. Nearly 30 million people are now living under restrictions in the country, including in the technology manufacturing hub of Shenzen. Also today, Volkswagen has suspended production of vehicles at some plants in Germany over a shortage of parts that are supplied from Ukraine.

Stock markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong slumped on Tuesday, as investors fear the impact of the latest Covid-19 lockdowns on China's economy. Nearly 30 million people are now living under restrictions in the country, including in the technology manufacturing hub of Shenzen. Also today, Volkswagen has suspended production of vehicles at some plants in Germany over a shortage of parts that are supplied from Ukraine.

Relations between India and China took a nosedive after deadly border clashes in June 2020. The Chinese foreign minister's visit marks the first high-level trip by a Chinese official in nearly two years.

After Shanghai recently reported a new daily record for asymptomatic coronavirus infections, the city is locking down in two stages. It's the biggest step taken in the Chinese metropolis since the Covid-19 pandemic began more than two years ago. But some residents are complaining that the cost of China's strict aggressive zero-Covid strategy has become too great. We take a closer look.

Beating expectations, Chinese economy grows 4.8% in first quarter of 2022. Over the first three months of the year, China's economy expanded at an annual rate of nearly 5 percent when compared to the same stretch last year. But as Covid-19 lockdowns roll on, the country's annual growth target looks hard to reach.

Enter the twilight of the world's longest reign. The 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II missed what is arguably the highlight of any British monarch's calendar: the reading of the government's parliamentary program instead delivered by her son, the crown prince. The importance is mostly symbolic, since the Queen's Speech is written by the prime minister. However the optics of the exercise beget the question: what United Kingdom will Charles inherit?