COVID-19 restrictions have damaged children developmentally in ways that might be irreparable, teachers say. From early childhood to high school, children rely on facial expressions, social interaction, conversation with new people, and friendships to develop mentally. Children denied social interaction don’t grow mentally in the same way. When governments closed in-person schooling for months, cracked…

The legalization of cannabis and the COVID-19 lockdowns are likely to have contributed to increased cannabis use, according to a United Nations report. “Cannabis legalization appears to have accelerated the upwards trends in reported daily use of the drug,” said the UN’s World Drug Report for 2022 (pdf), released on June 27. Places that legalized…

TOKYO—The mood among Japan’s big manufacturers’ soured for a second straight quarter in the three months to June, a central bank survey showed on Friday, hit by rising input costs and supply disruptions caused by China’s strict COVID-19 lockdowns. But confidence among big non-manufacturers improved in the quarter, the “tankan” quarterly survey showed, suggesting service-sector…

Steven VanLeeuwen, who was relieved of his position as deputy mayor of an Ontario township after speaking out against COVID-19 lockdowns earlier this year, told panelists at an independent inquiry into Canada’s pandemic response that the country is experiencing a breakdown of communication between the public and government at all levels. He also called for…

Canada’s public health agency made a “tragic error” by grounding its COVID-19 response policies on coercion rather than persuasion, which was a key medical principle that had been thrown away during the pandemic, according to Dr. Richard Schabas. Schabas, Ontario’s former chief medical officer of health, said on June 24 that the public health principle that…

Canada’s public health agency made a “tragic error” by grounding its COVID-19 response policies on coercion rather than persuasion, which was a key medical principle that had been thrown away during the pandemic, according to Dr. Richard Schabas, Ontario’s former chief medical officer of health. Schabas said on June 24 that the public health principle that he…

Canada’s public health agency made a “tragic error” by grounding its COVID-19 response policies on coercion rather than persuasion, which was a key medical principle that had been thrown away during the pandemic, according to Dr. Richard Schabas, a former Ontario chief medical officer of health. Schabas said on June 24 that the public health principle…

In the first four months of this year, China’s foreign exchange reserves continued to decline by more than $100 billion. The decline in April was the biggest drop since November 2016 nearly five and a half years ago. According to the China Administration of Foreign Exchange, from the end of December last year to the…

Commentary In Charles Dickens’s much-loved story “A Christmas Carol,” the crotchety protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, is visited by three spirits. The third visitor, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, gave Scrooge a sneak preview of how bleak and tragic his life would be if he stayed on the same course. Our country is on a…

This episode will premiere on Saturday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m. ET.    “How come HHS [Health and Human Services] released its lockdown blueprint on March 13 when Trump hadn’t even given his approval to anything remotely resembling lockdowns until two days later? There’s a lot that we need to know.” Why did the United…