1. China is literally building islands from almost nothing to tighten control over the South China Sea.
By Sui-Lee Wee and Ben Blanchard at Reuters
By Brad Wieners in Bloomberg Business
By Meenakshi Sharma and Krishna N. Das in Voice of America
4. Bangkok’s insane malls consume as much power as entire Thai provinces.
By Adam Pasick in Quartz
By Kate Brannen in Foreign Policy

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C.
More Must-Reads From TIME
- What a Photographer Saw in the West Bank
- Accenture’s Chief AI Officer on Why This Is a Defining Moment
- Inside COP28's Big 'Experiment'
- U.S. Doctors Can't Be Silent About Gaza: Column
- The Movie Wives Would Like a Word
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2023
- The Top 100 Photos of 2023
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time