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The announcement came after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) traded jabs with the White House over the live-fire exercise Vice President JD Vance is attending in the area.
FSU’s Micahi Danzy leads the ACC in plays of 20+, 30+, 40+, 50+ & 60+ yards
Joe Shymanski, a, well-known Washington D.C. photographer, was murdered and dismembered in 2023. His ex-wife's former boyfriend, Brandon Holbrook, was convicted in the case. Shymanski's family still wonders if anyone else was involved.
Until recently, Lin Lo commuted daily to her nine-to-five office job in Melbourne, Australia. Any big travel plans often consisted of visiting her home in Taiwan every two to three years. The digital marketer’s company, however, has now ditched its office in favour of a co-working space. “Once they said we were allowed to work remotely, the first thing I thought was, ‘Where could I go?’” Lo said. “Outside Melbourne, outside Australia.” She decided on a two-week “workcation” in Tokyo, Japan, allowing herself a slower pace of travel compared to her typical hectic schedule as a tourist. “I get to do sneaky lunch breaks that allow me to explore the city a bit more, try different restaurants, do a little shopping,” she said. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, remote work has grown exponentially. The World Economic Forum predicts a roughly 25 per cent surge in the number of remote jobs to 92 million by 2030. According to Lo, “workcationers” – people who work while on holiday – tend to spend more time in a foreign city than traditional tourists thanks to work obligations, and they have different travel priorities. “If I were a traditional tourist, I’d be going out to those landmarks, going up Tokyo Tower,” she said. “But if I’m working here, I’d find practical information like good coffee, good happy hour bars. So you feel like you’re living like a local for a little bit.” Lo said she could next see herself spending up to a month at a time working somewhere new. Others – digital nomads – have already made “workcations” a lifestyle, and hotels around the world have increasingly adapted to the trend by catering to their needs. In a co-working space at the heart of Tokyo, Swedish programmer Linus Swahn plugs away at his computer. Swahn has been working remotely for years, but exclusively in the form of workcations in Japan, having gained basic proficiency in Japanese over multiple trips. “I can’t work from the hotel [room]. You become too isolated and go crazy,” he said. “So, I started researching co-working spaces.” In doing so, Swahn found Andwork, part of the lounge space of a capsule hotel known as The Millennials Shibuya. With the rise of remote work blurring the line between work and play, co-working spaces attached to hotels are tailored to optimise both aspects through artsy space design and by fostering communities of creatives. “That’s how we operate – the concept of ‘work between life’, and actually moving between work and private life to provide an environment where you can work more creatively,” Andwork’s assistant manager Kota Okuyama said. Okuyama added that typical co-working spaces look like Japanese offices. They lack colour and are mostly used by locals. “This is a space where all kinds of people gather,” he said of Andwork. “There are hotel guests, local freelancers and nomadic workers from overseas, creating a space where new inspiration can emerge.” Swahn said he was able to draw from the hotel’s ethos. “I just like hanging around other people working, even if they’re not like your real colleagues,” he said. “It gives you your social energy.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by .andwork | ホテルハイブリッド型コワーキングスペース (@_andwork_) Across Japan, local governments have stepped up efforts to attract more digital nomads. That is despite the fact that several of its major cities have been plagued with overtourism since the pandemic. Earlier in 2025, the national government even proposed an increased tourist tax to fund counter-initiatives. “More local governments want digital nomads because they can stay longer than normal tourists,” said Ryo Osera, an executive member of the Japan Digital Nomad Association (JDNA). “They can also spend lots of money because they [tend to] have high-skilled, professional careers.” The JDNA was established in 2022 to make Japan more welcoming for digital nomads. One way is by improving the existing digital nomad visa, which currently grants a stay of up to six months. “Many other countries have better visas, which offer digital nomads one or two years’ stay,” Osera said. “So we are sharing cases with the government to make it longer.” The JDNA is also building a digital nomad community across Japan. Osera is also the co-founder of Colive Fukuoka, a networking retreat for digital nomads and entrepreneurs on Japan’s southernmost main island, Kyushu. He said one incentive drawing digital nomads to the less touristy parts of Japan is cost. “Accommodation is really expensive, thanks to the massive number of tourists,” Osera said. “If you are really into Tokyo or Osaka, you’re going to have some difficulties staying in Japan [in the long term].” Osera became a digital nomad nine years ago. He said that while “baby nomads” tend to want to go everywhere, the constant moving eventually gets tiring. He said their focus eventually shifts to finding a place to settle. “Everybody has a kind of destiny to find the best location where they’re meant to be,” Osera said. “So digital nomadism, this kind of life design, is to find the best location to make yourself most comfortable.” Swedish entrepreneur Willy Ericsson has fully embraced the nomadic lifestyle, having spent years living in Spain, Dubai and the US, and is now exploring East Asia. “I don’t plan my trips at all,” he said. “I usually book flights the same day, pack my things and go to the next city. So it’s quite cool having that complete freedom of location.” Ericsson, who makes neon signs for companies, heard Tokyo was a capital of neon lights. While he came to meet local manufacturers, he also wanted a real taste of the city. “I want to experience everyday life,” he said. “I’m not in a rush to see everything. I just want to take it day by day, kind of feel the people, talk with some locals.” A guest at The Millennials Shibuya, Ericsson can be found working on the Andwork floor during the day. At night, he lets himself enjoy the city’s vibrant nightlife with the hotel’s other guests. Comparing Tokyo to his hometown, Ericsson said the two were worlds apart. “I come from a small town in Sweden where the winters are very dark, a lot of snow and very cold. It can become very isolated,” he said. “I’ve lived there the majority of my life, and it’s great to go home and meet old friends. But I do feel limited by what it has to offer.” Asked if he had any plans of going back home to Sweden, the reply was prompt. “I don’t have a return date,” he said. “I’m going to go across the whole globe on an around-the-world trip. My next destination is going to be LA. And then I’m going to Mexico, perhaps, and then Spain again. And maybe after that, I’ll go to Sweden.”
Terassa's city council said there had been no record of cruelty towards black cats in the town, however there have been incidents in other areas and the decision was taken after warnings from animal welfare groups. "We try to prevent people from adopting because it's trendy or impulsively. And in cases like these, which we know exist, to prevent any macabre practices," Duque said. Terrassa is home to more than 9,800 cats, according to local authorities, and the town's adoption centre houses around 100 felines, 12 of which are black, the Catalan News Agency reported. The city council emphasised that the measure is "temporary and exceptional" and represents an extra precaution for animal welfare, but did not rule out repeating the ban in the future. Exceptions during the ban period will be assessed individually by the adoption centre and normal fostering requests will resume after Halloween.
The camel took Ayish and his grandmother seven miles south from Barbara, to an area held by Egypt that would become known as the Gaza Strip. It was just 25 miles long and a few miles wide, and had just become occupied by Egyptian forces. In all an estimated 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes and became refugees as a result of the war of 1948-49; around 200,000 are believed to have crowded into that tiny coastal corridor. "We had bits of wood which we propped against the walls of a building to make a shelter," Ayish says. Later, they moved into one of the huge tented camps established by the United Nations. Today, aged 89, Ayish is again living in a tent in Al-Mawasi near Khan Younis. In May last year, seven months into the two-year war between Israel and Hamas, Ayish was forced to leave his home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah after an evacuation order from the Israeli military. The four-storey house, divided into several apartments, that he had shared with his children and their families, was destroyed by what he believes may have been Israeli tank-fire. Now, home is a small white canvas tent just a few metres across.
Piastri leads Verstappen by 55 points heading into the grand prix, with Norris 22 behind the Australian. Verstappen, who topped every session of qualifying, said: "It was good, every segment the car was very strong, just trying to put the lap together around here is very tricky. "The first run in Q3 was good. Just managed to improve a little bit on Q2. I didn't manage to do my final run, it was a bit messy with the out laps but fortunately we didn't need it." Norris said: "It was a bit more of a struggle today for whatever reason, yesterday was quite comfortable. "I don't know whether others have improved or whether the wind has changed. And it was a bit more of a struggle to keep up with this guy. There was no chance we could have got pole today. "I look forward to hopefully have a good race with Max. We've had some good ones in the past." Leclerc had a spin out of the last corner on his first run in qualifying and did not expect such a strong lap at his final attempt. "It was quite big surprise, especially considering the weekend has been very difficult," he said. "There are still things we need to understand from this car, there is too much of a swing without changing much the car."
Prince Andrew's removal from the last vestiges of royal life has not only reshaped his future - it's sending ripples through his family too. His ex-wife has now lost her duchess title and will simply be known as Sarah Ferguson. Their daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, will continue to have the title of princess as scandal surrounds their parents. Prince Andrew lost use of his Duke of York title over his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. So, what does life after the royal shake up look like for the women of the York Family? For Ferguson, 66, the change will be the most visible. For all these years, she has kept the courtesy royal divorcee title Sarah, Duchess of York. Now, she reverts to her maiden name of Ferguson. And while arguably we've always referred to her as "Fergie", royal commentator Richard Palmer said that will "no doubt" have an impact. "She will have lost a bit of cachet over this," he said. "She certainly does use the title – even her Twitter bio is @SarahTheDuchess." But the loss of her title may impact her much less than the scandal she's facing separately about her own links with Epstein. Accuser's brother urges King to strip Andrew of prince titleSarah Ferguson dropped from multiple charities over Epstein emailAfter all those scandals, why did Andrew quit his titles now? Last month, several charities dropped her as patron or ambassador after an email from 2011 revealed that she called Epstein her "supreme friend" and seemed to apologise for her public criticism of him. "I think as far as Sarah is concerned, her own recent controversy involving the email she is said to have sent Epstein is what has had the biggest impact for her of late," said royal commentator Victoria Murphy. "Prior to that, she had sidestepped the firing line of the controversy around Epstein and I think may have continued to do so, albeit without calling herself Duchess of York, had that not happened." Away from her philanthropy, Ferguson also has various business ventures. And these, too, are more likely to be affected by the Epstein controversy than any change in title, says Murphy. "I would say it's likely they will be impacted by the revaluations of her own contact with Epstein, in the same way her charity work was and the fact that charities didn't want to be associated with her." But Ferguson has been a great survivor in royal circles. She's kept bouncing back. Even though she split from Prince Andrew more than three decades ago, she has remained his strong supporter and still lives in his Windsor estate. The Christmas before last, she was back in the royal fold, joining a royal Christmas gathering in Sandringham for the first time in decades, despite the fact that she and her ex-husband were not working royals or allowed to be part of official royal events. That ability to bounce back may help her this time too. "She's the ultimate survivor and master of reinvention," said royal author Katie Nicholls. "Not only has she been reaccepted by the public, but the late Queen Elizabeth II brought her back into the fold, and Charles is also very fond of her." Nicholls argues that over the years Ferguson has been through "much worse" and won't be too impacted by the loss of her title. "Having been a royal outcast for all these decades, she's learnt not to attach too much weight to things like that."
Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 67-60 loss against No. 12 UCLA in a preseason exhibition on Friday night at Viejas Arena: 1. A win in a loss? The Aztecs typically would have an off day after playing, especially without another game for 12 days. But there they were Saturday, gathered in the film room to watch clips from Friday night in meticulous detail. The point of these exhibitions are to provide teachable moments, and there were plenty after trailing 17-0 and committing 10 turnovers in the opening seven minutes. Sloppy passes, stagnant offense, blown defensive assignments, poor decisions. “That’s why we play against UCLA every year, because we know what each program is capable of,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “Both teams guard at a high level, so points are hard to score. If you get points against San Diego State, or if you get points against UCLA, you’ve found something that works, instead of scoring at will against some other opponents. That makes no sense. “We’re going to learn a lot of lessons when we watch the tape.” UCLA coach Mick Cronin agreed. “It was great,” he said. “We got paid ($90,000) to come here. I wanted the toughest game we could get without getting on an airplane. That without question, you know who it’s going to be. It’s always going to be San Diego State in California. … We got everything we wanted out of it.” The Bruins also got something the Aztecs didn’t: the win. But that might not be the worst thing in the world for the Aztecs, if history is a guide. These games, previously played as closed-door scrimmages without media, cheerleaders or fans, have often served as an inverse predictor of the coming season. Last year: Won 72-67 at preseason No. 22 UCLA with only eight healthy scholarship players, six of which were freshmen and sophomores. Barely made the NCAA Tournament and got blown out in the First Four. 2023: Trailed Arizona State 40-20 at the half at Viejas Arena, came back and lost 72-68. Went to the Sweet 16. 2022: Trailed No. 8 UCLA 18-2, came back, lost 89-87 (sound familiar?). Went to the Final Four and played in the national championship game. 2018: Beat USC 80-64 at the Galen Center. Didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. 2017: Blew out preseason No. 11 USC 98-76. Needed to win nine straight to close the season to make the tournament, then lost in the first round. It’s a small sample size, but there might be something to it. Preseason practice is a certifiable slog, especially since the NCAA went from a start date of Oct. 15 to six weeks of endless workouts that begin in September. The Aztecs have three weeks to go before the Nov. 4 opener, but they’ll also have the sting and motivation from a loss to push them through. Uninspired day at practice? Coaches will utter two numbers: “17-0.” “Had we scrimmaged someone and won by 40 points, we’d all be in there having this false sense of pride that, oh, we’re way better than we are,” Dutcher said. “It was exactly what I wanted out of this scrimmage. I would have liked to win it, but that’s not the purpose of why we did it.” 2. Taking and making Reese Dixon-Waters played his first college game in 568 days, healthy once again after missing all last season due to a pesky fracture in his right foot that didn’t heal as quickly as hoped or expected. He finished with game-high 19 points in an efficient 28 minutes, shooting 7 of 11 (3 of 5 on 3s) after missing his first two. “It was a lot of fun to play, to finally be back,” he said. “The game is easier for me because I had to sit out and watch last year.” The scoring was welcome, certainly, on a team that didn’t tickle the net until nearly eight minutes. But it was how the sixth-year senior guard scored that was the most promising development of the night. He was taking, and making, tough shots. That’s something the Aztecs have had on their best teams, and something that was conspicuously absent at times last season. Look at the last three SDSU teams to win 30 games. In 2013-14, it was Xavier Thames. In 2019-20, Malachi Flynn. In 2022-23, Matt Bradley. Dixon-Waters doesn’t create off the dribble like they did, but he is elite when it comes to rubbing off screens and shooting over defenders. “He’s an extremely talented player and the reason he was picked a preseason all-conference player a year ago,” Dutcher said. “The thing is, I thought he didn’t press his game too hard. I thought he let it come to him. He played his game. Reese is at his best when he lets the game come to him. “Reese is a shotmaker, and it’s good to have (that) in the lineup.” Cronin noticed it immediately. “Obviously,” he said, “Reese, having him back, is the key to me.” 3. Stand down The mid-October game exposed deficiencies in both teams. It also exposed an idiotic tradition inside Viejas Arena: Standing and rhythmically clapping at the start of the game until the Aztecs (finally) score. Friday night, fans did it for 7:45, or 665 seconds, through one media timeout and nearly a second, through 16 miserable possessions, through nine missed shots and 10 turnovers, through an increasing sense of panic and desperation, through a 17-0 deficit. “You could tell we were a little nervous at the start,” Dutcher said. The clapping served as an audible reminder of the Aztecs’ offensive inadequacies, and players visibly tightened as the clanked shots and errant passes mounted. What is purportedly an act of support became a symbol of frustration. No one is quite sure when or why it started at SDSU, only that it’s been around at least 25 years. New Mexico has been doing it for decades, at least since 1977, when cheerleaders from Syracuse saw it during a nonconference tournament at The Pit and introduced it to the Northeast. It’s still a regular part of the Orange fan culture at the 35,000-seat JMA Wireless Dome, despite the pleas of some to unceremoniously retire it. New Mexico fans still do it, although when Dave Bliss took over as coach in 1988, he complained that it put undue pressure on the Lobos’ offense and suggested they do the opposite by standing and clapping until the visiting team scored. Fans compromised by doing it until BOTH teams score their first points … in BOTH halves, a practice that endures today. In 2016, they stood and clapped for more than 11 minutes and through two media timeouts as Arkansas-Pine Bluff flailed away, trailing 16-0 before finally making the net dance. They got a taste of their medicine three seasons later, when SDSU came to The Pit and fans had to keep clapping while SDSU amassed a big early lead. The score: 17-0.
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From the Sun Yat-sen republican era to the internationally renowned 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, democratic ideals have run deep in China’s modern history. The possibility of China becoming a democracy has been a recurring question in international journalism and public discourse, captivating generations of social scientists. On the other hand, even the Chinese government has embraced the term democracy through its promotion of the so-called “whole-process people’s democracy” in recent years. Shitong Qiao, the Ken Young-Gak Yun and Jinah Park Yun Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke University, turns his attention to democracy in the neighborhood, examining how hundreds of millions of Chinese homeowners practice democracy at the community level, in order to understand the intriguing relationship between authoritarianism and democratic practices. In his new book, The Authoritarian Commons: Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China (Cambridge University Press, 2025), Qiao investigates homeowners’ associations in China. Dr. Qiao is also Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong and a core faculty member of the Asia/Pacific Studies Institute at Duke University. Chinese HOAs merit close attention because they reveal a distinctive way of engaging with democracy — what Qiao calls “democracy without liberal commitments.” By comparing HOAs across cities, Qiao extrapolates the conditions under which democratic initiatives can succeed in China. Aliceliu speaks with Dr. Qiao to learn more about democracy in China, and how homeowners’ conditions reflect the possibility of collective action, the role of law, as well as the nuanced nature of democratic practice in the Chinese context. Alice Liu: Earlier this year, you published a book titled , which examines the tense relationship between the Chinese party-state and democratic homeowners’ associations (HOAs). Could you briefly introduce this book? How did you conduct your research, and what were some of your most important findings? Shitong Qiao: I started my fieldwork in late 2017 on neighborhood governance in China, focusing particularly on the democratic homeowners’ associations (业主委员会) in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. I heard from my former classmates at Peking University Law School that quite a few of them were actively establishing HOAs. That led me to wonder why these middle- to high-income professionals in Beijing were willing to engage in such voluntary work. My findings can be summarized in three main aspects. The first is that there has been a homeowner self-governance movement ongoing from the early 2000s until today; it is a lasting democratization movement involving a shift of power—a shift of control of neighborhoods from management companies in alliance with the government to the empowerment of homeowners’ self-government organizations, which the government both relies upon and has tried to bring under control. HOAs are not merely instruments of government control. They have their own resources, agenda, and autonomy, and the representatives are elected. Homeowners also get a chance to practice democracy, deciding matters based on voting. The second part of my findings is that there is a great divergence in the level of neighborhood democratization across China. Shanghai has the most successful democratization, with 94% of the neighborhoods having established HOAs. Beijing is the worst—it’s only 12%—and Shenzhen is in between, about 41%. Lastly, I have identified conditions for successful neighborhood democratization. Not all the neighborhoods in China achieve successful democratization; rather, certain conditions are necessary: a strong state, a strong society, and the rule of law. AL: Can you elaborate on the three conditions for neighborhood democratization? SQ: The first condition is what I call a strong state, which could come off as a bit counterintuitive to conventional ideas of democratization. But what I found in this research is that democracy is much more complex in that it requires institutional infrastructure. What I mean by a strong state is that the state government has the administrative capacity to build institutional infrastructure to support HOAs, and to ensure that frontline government officials are following the law and not corrupt or colluding with management companies to repress homeowners. This is the first condition — a strong state. The second condition is a strong society, meaning civic capacity to mobilize and to negotiate with the state government. The third element is the rule of law, which I found particularly interesting as a law professor. The process of neighborhood democratization teems with conflicts, both between homeowners themselves and between homeowners and the government, about how to interpret the law. The Shanghai homeowners know how to engage with the government through legal channels to advance their self-governance. The judges in Shanghai have also interpreted the law in a proper way to support HOAs. AL: How does law play a role in this dynamic? You devoted an entire chapter to discussing the judicial capacity of the HOAs and argue that “local courts in Shanghai are more capable than national authorities and other branches of the Shanghai government in supporting neighborhood democracy”. Can you elaborate on this point? SQ: China’s civil code, which was passed in 2020, stipulates that for an HOA to pass any resolution, at least two-thirds of all the members of the HOA must participate. Even the participation rate for U.S. elections is only about two-thirds, or even lower in some years. You can see how requiring two-thirds of some random neighborhood in Beijing to participate is a stringent requirement. It goes without saying that promoting participation carries significant value. For example, if you have 100 members in the neighborhood, 97 of them didn’t participate and three did. Two voted on the matter, and one voted against it. Then two versus one, the resolution gets passed. But what’s the value of that resolution if 97% of the people didn’t participate? The 2020 civil code indeed has a rationale to require two-thirds participation. In the meantime, however, it has not taken into consideration the extreme difficulty of getting two-thirds of the homeowners to engage. Many people are simply too busy to participate in the HOAs. While this legislative intent has its own considerations, it has dramatically increased the cost of decision-making for homeowners. There’s a trade-off between requiring a high participation rate and the functioning of the HOA. In many cases, the HOA participation rate was only one-half or a little bit more than one-half. Following the Civil Code strictly would mean many of the HOAs in Shanghai simply wouldn’t be able to pass any resolutions. The Civil Code significantly undermines the effectiveness of HOAs. AL: How did the homeowners overcome this challenge then? SQ: What happens in Shanghai is that the HOAs found a middle-ground solution. Each HOA has a charter, a foundational document that I call the “mini constitution” of the neighborhood. For that charter or constitution, they have to satisfy the requirement of two-thirds participation. But in the charter, homeowners put forth a strikingly different definition of participation. Once the ballots are distributed to each household and acknowledged, even if residents do not cast their votes, this is still counted as participation. Even if they don’t vote, that wouldn’t inhibit the HOA from making any decisions. The controversy is, naturally, whether HOAs can define the term “participation” differently from the Civil Code. There was a dispute exactly about the validity of such an HOA resolution. Then the Shanghai judicial system found a way to interpret the Civil Code in conjunction with the HOAs’ new interpretation, by referring to articles in the Civil Code about private autonomy and implicit consent. I managed to interview the judge who issued the decision. The Shanghai judicial decision said that if all the homeowners had agreed upon this definition of participation at the beginning, at the founding of the HOA, then that’s consistent with the Civil Code’s requirement and the spirit of private autonomy. It was judicial craftsmanship, an elaborate approach in overcoming the tension between the new Civil Code and the local HOAs’ autonomy. That success was essential because otherwise most HOAs in Shanghai would be rendered dysfunctional. In the meantime, the Shanghai court also made it clear that the new definition of participation needed to be passed by the majority of the homeowners first, not just by a small portion of the homeowners. And secondly, homeowners also need to protect minority rights so as to avoid the “tyranny of the majority”. That’s how the rule of law, particularly the judicial branch in Shanghai, has played a crucial role in supporting neighborhood democracy, but without sacrificing the protection of individual rights, particularly minority groups. AL: That was fascinating. According to your findings, what are the benefits HOAs have for the party-state? SQ: The benefits are clear. Managing neighborhood affairs can be a very complicated and tedious job, covering everything from parking to trash collection, to security. And yet it is crucial. There’s data about what urban residents in China complain about the most in the past two decades, and when people complain or petition to the government, neighborhood management issues tend to top the list. So the state needs to make sure that neighborhoods are governed well. Hiring people to do it in each neighborhood would necessitate a huge budget, financially almost impossible. If the homeowners can govern the neighborhoods by themselves, it gets the job done and wouldn’t cost the government a penny. In the early 2000s, the Shanghai city government articulated this approach, called “co-governance,” to grant autonomy to people to manage their neighborhood affairs. It relieves the government of the burden of governance and increases governance legitimacy and effectiveness. So that’s the benefit. AL: Conversely, what risks do HOAs pose to the party-state? SQ: The risk lies in the fact that HOAs are democratic organizations. Homeowners have their own independent agenda and independent decision-making process. The interests of the HOAs and the government overlap in effective neighborhood governance. But there are multiple challenges to this goal. Firstly, if the HOAs take complete control over neighborhood territories, then the state’s authority is weakened. With the advent of HOAs, the state loses control over neighborhoods in the heart of major cities, and the government strongly disfavors this. I analyzed the legislative history in my book. In 2003, the State Council, which is the central government in China, promulgated the first property management regulation. And in this regulation, for the first time, it recognized the legitimacy of HOAs. But back in the process of discussing the draft of this regulation, the Ministry of Civil Affairs objected to the idea of HOAs. This is because the Ministry of Civil Affairs was in charge of the residents committees (居民委员会). AL: What is the difference between the residents committees (居民委员会) and the homeowners associations（业主委员会）? SQ: Simply put, residents committees are organizations sanctioned in the Chinese constitution and also the Organic Law of the Residents Committees. Residents committees, composed mostly of state employees rather than elected members, are strictly controlled by the party-state. The HOAs, by contrast, are purely private organizations based on property law and the civil code. HOAs are truly autonomous and independent. Residents committees are affiliated with the party-state, constituting the lowest level of the party-state bureaucratic structure. Going back to my discussion about the legislative history, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which was in charge of the residents committees, objected to the idea of HOAs, seeing it as something that would eventually replace the residents committees. Back then, in 2003, the Chinese real estate sector was just taking off. The government was eager to make people buy apartments. When people pay astronomical figures for apartments, they expect property management as part of the service. As the interest in supporting real estate development came first at the time, the State Council was on the side of the Department of Housing and Construction. That’s why the HOAs were legalized in China in 2003. But that legislative history shows us that the government was deeply aware from the very beginning of the HOAs’ potential threat to state power. So that’s the first challenge, which is fundamental. The second question is whether if homeowners take control over their own neighborhoods, once they have had a taste of democracy, they will inevitably think about issues beyond their neighborhoods. That’s a phenomenon in the U.S. but also in China, called “not in my backyard” (NIMBY). Say if the government wants to build a railroad or a chemical plant near their neighborhood. These homeowners, united and organized now, have the capacity to protest these public construction projects. HOAs can also challenge the government on issues extending beyond neighborhood governance. I have discovered in my book that there are now a lot of inter-neighborhood associations, citywide, and even nationwide networks of HOAs, something that the party-state is probably very cautious about. The government’s third worry is the possibility of homeowners extending activism into other arenas. The deal between the HOAs and the government is to say HOAs are going to focus on property management, a very narrow and apolitical issue. But when homeowners get united, they can also potentially move on to protest or to challenge government policies in other areas—areas that can be very far removed from the issue of property management. AL: Could you share any examples of this? SQ: In the last chapter of my book I discussed a group of lawyers from the Beijing Bar Association who specialized in organizing homeowners and were inspired by HOAs. They gambled that they, too, could succeed in pushing the government to implement and respect the rights on paper. This group of lawyers sought to mobilize lawyers in Beijing and tried to have a democratic election in the Beijing Bar Association. That effort was eventually stopped by the Chinese government, as the CCP found mobilization of tens of thousands of lawyers in Beijing intolerable. But this suggests that the homeowners’ situation can have a spillover effect not only from neighborhoods to beyond neighborhoods, but also from property management to more politically sensitive issues. AL: Building off that, how does the party-state counter these challenges and reduce the risks presented by HOAs? SQ: Before 2017, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council didn’t really have a well-formulated policy. But in 2017, for the first time since the market-oriented reforms, a document was jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council. It addressed neighborhood governance, including how to respond to the challenges and the opportunities brought up by the HOAs. The approach, put simply, is to “have the cake and eat it too.” The government officials seek to enjoy HOAs’ benefits, but they also want to control the HOAs and contain the spillover effect. One control mechanism I talked about in my book is very intuitive: a requirement of a certain percentage of CCP members on the HOA board. A party majority in the HOA, or an established party branch in the HOA, appeared to the CCP government as a plausible way to exercise its leadership within the HOAs. AL: Were they successful in doing that? SQ: I don’t have comprehensive data, but I did find that in both big cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen—and in smaller cities like Yinchuan in Ningxia Province or Huizhou in Guangdong Province (next to Shenzhen), there are homeowners challenging such a requirement, both publicly and legally. Yet these dissenters don’t see themselves as opposing the party’s leadership but are acting out of practical concerns. The overall percentage of Party members in the entire population is less than 10%. Furthermore, many party members have busy jobs either in the government or in market entities, and running neighborhood governance affairs doesn’t appear extremely enticing. These homeowners argue that the party member percentage requirement is, in most cases, impossible to satisfy, which would again make many HOAs, if not all, dysfunctional. More importantly, they challenge the legality of local regulations both in courts and through legality review. In China, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and local people’s congress standing committees oversee reviewing the legality of local government documents. So in Huizhou, a homeowner initiated this legality review with the people’s congress system, on the legal basis that the right to self-governance of HOAs is a private right protected by the Civil Code, which makes no mention of party membership. The party membership requirement is, he contended, a political demand and has no legal basis. It is an encroachment upon individual private rights and ought to be invalidated. The Huizhou city government was forced to abolish this requirement eventually. I found his legal argument compelling. AL: That’s very powerful. You mentioned work for the HOA is unpaid. What incentivizes homeowners to do this? SQ: For most Chinese households, the most important asset is their house. I believe that homeowners’ primary motivation is first and foremost not political, but rather about the value of their property. In my interviews, I was told multiple times that the establishment of HOAs is instrumental in keeping property values. That material consideration gives people a very direct incentive to invest in neighborhood management. And to uphold proper management, collective entities are necessary, without which individual residents can’t hold management companies accountable. So one could say that they are compelled to associate. AL: You mentioned how the rate of HOA establishment varies significantly across Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing. How do you account for these differing degrees of local empowerment, and what do the stories of these cities have to teach us? SQ: This very much relates back to what I identified as the three conditions of successful neighborhood democratization: strong state, strong society, and rule of law. Firstly, the approach of the government is very different. In the early 2000s, the Shanghai city government formulated an approach to discipline and incentivize frontline government officials to support HOAs. In Beijing, the city government didn’t have a strategy, so the Beijing frontline officials were quite corrupt, often in collusion with property management companies. Or they just disliked the idea of homeowners getting mobilized and changing the status quo, viewing them as troublemakers. They were very suppressive against HOA mobilization. Shenzhen exhibits what I call a case of “fragmented authoritarianism.” Some departments are in support of HOAs, while others are against neighborhood democratization. It’s kind of fragmented mostly because Shenzhen was developing so fast. I have a table in the book talking about the density of government, namely a measurement of each residents committee, the size of the governing territory, and the population. Shanghai has the highest density of government among the three cities, which I took as evidence of state capacity. The second lesson has to do with whether homeowners are capable of mobilization and formulating a proper strategy of expanding their power. The Shanghai homeowners adopted a very legalistic approach because they believe the law is what the government and the people can agree upon and can use to make a deal. But in Beijing, the homeowners got highly politicized. Many of the activists I interviewed took the neighborhood as the basis for regime-level democratization. It went a bit too far. That made the government in Beijing very cautious and very hostile toward these people because they did not only want to change neighborhood governance—they wanted large-scale change, which would not be tolerated by the city government in Beijing. AL: You repeatedly used the phrase that the government wants to “have their cake and eat it too.” My question is: has it succeeded? SQ: The government has been quite successful in containing the spillover effect from property management to more politically sensitive issues. There are still some very active political activists who want to use neighborhoods as a foundation for state-level democratization, but they have been marginalized. Most homeowners’ activists I’ve talked to are very cautious. They frame their agenda as being beneficial not only for themselves but also for the government: “We are doing this to serve both our interests and those of the state.” In that sense, the government has been successful. On the other hand, the state’s efforts to take direct control—for example, by establishing Party branches—have been far less effective than those in private enterprises or Chinese multinationals. Homeowners’ successful resistance to Party branch establishment is quite remarkable. The party-state has not succeeded in turning homeowners’ associations (HOAs) into a tool of social control. HOAs have managed to preserve their independence, status, and agenda. And lastly, I think the government is not able to stop that, and Chinese citizens get a chance to practice democracy in their daily lives, which is hard to come by. But that’s the point again: in the long run, I do think that the practice of democracy is going to promote and nurture the consciousness of law and the consciousness of democracy among a large group of Chinese citizens. That impact is not immediate, but in the long run, it can be extremely meaningful. AL: Thank you so much. Lastly, how does your research contribute to our understanding of democracy in China? SQ: First, we need a more subtle, realistic, and pragmatic understanding of democracy under the Chinese regime. One key lesson is that there is a real demand for democracy—not only from citizens but also from the government. This is a form of “democracy without committing to liberal values.” People come together to make decisions on common affairs through democratic procedures. This doesn’t mean they are committed to separation of powers or human rights—those liberal ideologies play little role in neighborhood-level democracy. So, if one is interested in promoting democratic reforms in China, these pragmatic realities must be taken into account. Think again about the three conditions for successful democratization: a strong state, a strong society, and the rule of law. These conditions point toward possible national democratization in China, which the book has not yet explored. Democratization is not simply about taking power away from the government and giving it to the people. In places like Taiwan and South Korea, it emerged from the backdrop of strong and successful authoritarian leadership—for example, under Chiang Ching-kuo. This aligns with my emphasis on strong state as a condition for successful democratization. The rule of law, particularly the role of courts in mediating between state and society, also helps avoid direct clashes. Right now, the political atmosphere is far from ideal for reforms. But we must take the long-term view. What this book tells us is the importance of cultivating democratic citizens—shaping their minds and hearts. Politics has its highs and lows, but preparing citizens to practice democracy in their everyday lives is essential for an orderly transition to a more inclusive society.
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What was attributed two weeks ago to the strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has continued to linger. Since the market disruption by PENGASSAN, the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly known as cooking gas, has soared across many states, squeezing households and small businesses. Officials attributed the sudden spike to two major disruptions, the recent PENGASSAN strike over dispute with the Dangote Refinery and the maintenance work at the Nigeria LNG Train 4 facility, both of which significantly reduced gas supply to the domestic market. Bayo Ojulari, the group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), had said that the industrial action disrupted distribution of products, but promised that the crisis would end in a matter of days. Read also: FG warns cooking gas distributors against hoarding, exploitative prices Ekperikpe Ekpo, minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Louis Ibah, directed relevant regulatory agencies to take “immediate enforcement action” against marketers found hoarding products or inflating prices. “This situation is unacceptable. The government will not allow a few operators to exploit citizens,” Ekpo said, adding that normal supply is expected to resume within a week. However, weeks after the industrial action was called off, families are still going through difficulty buying the product in many parts of the country. Although the scarcity seems to be easing off, prices have only trended down minimally in many places. In August 2025, the average retail price for a 12.5kg cylinder fell by 21.42 percent to N16, 195.07, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) before the recent surge in price. However, that gain was wiped out by the recent surge resulting in an upward price trend. In many parts of the country, a kg of LPG sold between N2, 000 and N2, 500, indicating a steep increase from about N1, 200 per kg recorded in August by NBS. The price differential for many Lagos residents shows the cost-per-kg each customer pays to access cooking gas between official price at the filling station and what obtains on the streets, which is digging holes in their family finances. Across Lagos, a kg of LPG average between N1, 700 and N2, 500 depending on the distance between the gas station and the ‘middle-man’ helping to bridge supply gap while LPG per kg at the gas station average N1, 200. Read also: Soaring cooking gas prices strain household budgets In areas like Amuwo-Odofin, Alimosho, and Ajeromi-Ifelodun, the cost of refilling a 12.5kg cylinder has climbed to over N25, 000; averaging N2, 000 according to market checks. Ayotunde Poroye, a Lagos resident, told BusinessDay that he paid N2, 000 per kg to refill his cylinder. Poroye, who stays around Baruwa in the Alimosho local government area, said cost per kg of cooking gas at the filling station is N1, 200 However, another resident within Alimosho told BusinessDay that prices vary depending on location. A resident who wants to be identified simply as ‘Iya Gbenga’ said a kg of cooking gas in Ikotun is sold for between N2000 and N2, 500, while the filling station within her community sells at N1, 700. Another Lagos resident in the Ajegunle area of the state said he pays N1, 700 per kg, while another resident in the Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos said she paid N1, 500 per kg – but, disclosed that the price is trending downward compared to what it cost her about two weeks ago. The story appears the same in other parts of the country. For instance, Owerri-based Ukamaka Ayozie, told BusinessDay that she last refilled her gas cylinder in August at N1,500 per kg. “Since I came back to the village…. Omo, gas no dey even reach one month again. Most times, we cook with firewood,” she said, disclosing it helps to save her gas for emergency situations. However, Aba-based Onyinye Godspower, said she paid N2,500 per kg in September. While the surge in price has been attributed to the supply gap and market disruption by PENGASSAN, a Lagos-based Olajide Ikujenyo thinks otherwise. He believes the recent spike in price may be responsible. He thinks the spike in price is a result of market monopoly in the oil and gas market. “I marvel at the thought-process of the majority of Nigerians. “How in your right sense will you believe that a 3-day strike by PENGASSAN is responsible for the current scarcity of LPG (gas)? Why is PMS (petrol) and AGO (diesel) not also scarce like LPG (gas)? “I hope we all know why LPG (Gas) has been scarce? This is what happens when you allow a sector to be monopolised,” Ikujenyo posted on his official Facebook page.
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Joseph Ojo, the presiding Archbishop of Calvary Kingdom Church (CKC), recently led the congregation in a celebratory mode at the Zion mega convention 2025, themed, ‘The Culture of the Kingdom’; held between Sunday October 5 and Sunday October 12, 2025. In this interview with JOHN SALAU, Ojo spoke about what people need to do within the kingdom; saying “the revelation of God to people and to humanity is progressive.” Excerpts: Could you tell us more about the theme for this year’s convention; Culture of the Kingdom? According to our theme and the scripture, Culture of the Kingdom talks about how to behave oneself in the household. Every kingdom, ethnic kingdom I mean, has their behavioural pattern. You can see an Igbo man can hardly behave like a Yoruba man. The differences are glaring. An Edo man can hardly behave like a Hausa man. He may have lived in the Hausa land for 20, 30 years; but he can hardly behave like a Hausa man. Also in the kingdom of God, when we become born again, there are values; there are things that a child of God should know that is permissible or not permissible in this kingdom. How to behave ourselves in the house of God and many other things. So that’s what we’re talking about. What influenced the theme or was there something you’ve noticed in the ministry or in the church at large? Not necessarily. It comes by inspiration. You know, you get inspiration from scriptures. Politicians get their inspiration from maybe philosophy or from the general occurrences in the country. They are motivated to know and see what they are going to pursue. But in our own case, the kingdom of God, we get our instructions from the word of God. Now, the word of God stands out, as the main push for us to know what the gospel says about certain things; and that’s what influences our choice of the theme. You know, in the kingdom of God, there are so many things – in Timothy where we took our key theme from. It says to know how to conduct ourselves, in the house of God. First Timothy 3, verses 14 and 15. I’m writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon. So that if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the house of God. We’re not trying to run people down. I don’t want to do that. But there are very many ministries today whose ministers are not tutored or don’t have the knowledge of how people can conduct themselves in the house of God. Even how to conduct on the pulpit when preaching, many don’t know it. If we don’t teach, they won’t know. Jesus Christ said, go and teach all nations what I have commanded you. So, we are emphasizing on people’s conduct in the house of God. That’s what the theme is about. Read also: Lagos PFN to strengthen media visibility for greater impact You have been in PFN leadership for a while; don’t you think it is now an assignment for the elders of faith in PFN to take up this challenge and do the teachings? Yes, it’s a challenge. But you know the problem we have in PFN is a very big one. What I mean by this; PFN is a body of several denominations, and many of them have their doctrinal dogmas. The head of a camel can go through the hole of the needle than the possibility of trying to straighten some of them. Some have anointing that you can’t control. Some have money that you can’t control. So, like I was saying, in the kingdom of God, I was sharing with my people. Every kingdom has their rules and regulations. We are in the kingdom of God, but we have different tribes. These different tribes have their culture; but it doesn’t make us not to be Nigerians. That’s the same thing with PFN – big body. At times when you are trying to correct or direct somebody, he thinks he knows more than you. So all we have in common is prayer. All we have in common is fellowship. In the early days of the ‘Church Movement’ you can easily spot who a Christian is: don’t you think there is an incursion of strange culture within the church in the recent past? Yes. When you were in those days, where evangelism was important – holy living was important. Those things are still part and parcel of the church. Both evangelism, holiness, all those things are there. But the only difference is the way people define holiness. Those things are quite different now. The way people define evangelism. The time you are referring to – we have no phone. So, you can’t even evangelize by sending text messages or this thing. You know, those days, if you write a letter, it will take maybe two weeks before you get it, depending on the distance. But things have changed. I can just stay here now and be talking with you. If you want to see my face, I just put it on Zoom or something like that. We can chat, we can hold meetings; but it wasn’t like that those days. The revelation of God to people and to humanity is progressive. God is the author of all these things to make the gospel being preached. Those days you are referring to, there was no television. Idahosa was the first person to preach on television. NTA Benin in 1975, I was there. But today, people even have their own TV station and they are disseminating the gospel, preaching it on the various media – so things are improving. The definition of holiness then is based purely on the way you look. The way you dress. If you just go to dress shabbily, you wear bedroom slippers; you are the holiest person. If your shoe is polished, you are godly; but it has changed. Read also: CAN, PFN say defending Christians’ right is priority What advice do you have for the leaders? That was one of the strengths and the culture of the New Testament. When I say that we are here together, my worry these days is, there are things I can settle with you if I have advice over the phone. Don’t go and use social media or mass media to be criticizing – It’s not of God. You didn’t preach well, you didn’t pray well, you didn’t do this. No, it’s not of God. English people say they are washing their dirty linen in public, even though it’s not dirty. Once you are washing it outside, people say it’s dirty. But how can we address this issue because it seems PFN is now a toothless body in this context? Many of the things happening is because of what they call – Facebook or YouTube, and hunger. People don’t have jobs. They are getting something from how many people can view or respond to views. They have one million people. So they are getting subscription money from it – even lies. People are purchasing products that don’t even work. When they paint it, you want to buy it or try it, it won’t work. I’ve been foolish enough to use one or two. It didn’t work. One day I said, look, this was the trick they used on Adam. So they are getting their money from this. What is the solution to it? The solution is, only God; that’s true. There cannot be a time that we just have everything clean. Take my word for it. Jesus said; a farmer went to sow seed in his field. And as the seed was growing, they saw also tares growing with it. And the sower said to the master, we planted good seed here, but how come that what we didn’t plant is growing? Let’s go and uproot them. And Jesus said, no, leave them. Let them grow together until harvest time. The angels will come, take the good ones, put them back, and the bad ones, go and burn them. Finally, is there genocide in Nigeria? I think I cannot be categorical because I don’t know the statistics that they use. I would be biased if I just say anything because I’m a Christian leader, I say it’s true. Unless I’m able to lay hands on the data – if I don’t have the data, I’ll be a false prophet to say things that I have not verified. Look, the things we have handled, the things we have touched, that’s what we are saying: that’s my view.
There are many troubled people, troubled marriages, dysfunctional families, broken homes, wayward children, grandparents in anguish because their grandchildren are growing up estranged from them and in Godless, secular homes. Friends, the only answer to all these things is humble repentance and turning once again — or for some, for the very first time — to God our Father and Creator, and Jesus His Son.
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