内容摘要：One of those attending the demonstration was Majdi Awwad from Tulkarm in the West Bank who is now living in Edinburgh.

One of those attending the demonstration was Majdi Awwad from Tulkarm in the West Bank who is now living in Edinburgh.

At 19, he must have been petrified.“Honestly,” he said, “I would rather have been anywhere else.”

Yet his modesty was humbling.“We did what we had to do,” he told me. “I don’t feel like a hero, I’m glad we were able to help. I feel good about that.”France feels conflicted about its own wartime history. The country was split after it signed an armistice agreement with Nazi Germany in 1940. The Germans occupied northern France and all along the Atlantic coast, to the Spanish border. The south was managed by France’s Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis.

Yet D-Day events marking the contribution of French men and women who worked for the French Resistance seem somewhat muted, compared to the boisterous array of events commemorating Allied soldiers.“I don’t forget them. Please don’t forget them,” urged Catherine Nivromont, looking at me intently with her clear blue eyes.

Catherine’s brother, Pierre, was just 17 in 1944. He worked with other Resistance members, gathering intelligence on German positions along the Normandy coast, to help Allied forces plan their June assault.

Pierre was in touch with locals who did German soldiers’ laundry. Their clothing was marked with battalion details, revealing the quantity and location of troops.But two new pieces of research offer some insight. The first, a survey of Chinese attitudes towards the economy, found that people were growing pessimistic and disillusioned about their prospects. The second is a record of protests, both physical and online, that noted a rise in incidents driven by economic grievances.

Although far from complete, the picture nevertheless provides a rare glimpse into the current economic climate, and how Chinese people feel about their future.Beyond the crisis in real estate, steep public debt and rising unemployment have hit savings and spending. The world’s second-largest economy may miss its own growth target - 5% - this year.

That is sobering for the Chinese Communist Party. Explosive growth turned China into a global power, and stable prosperity was the carrot offered by a repressive regime that would never loosen its grip on the stick.The slowdown hit as the pandemic ended, partly driven by three years of sudden and complete lockdowns, which strangled economic activity.