This is a collection of my favorite photographs from 2020 - a year that was a challenge to say the least. Most photos were done outside, and always masked.

The charismatic god-king Sukarno has brought Indonesia to the edge of chaos - to an abortive revolution that will leave half a million dead. For the Western correspondents here, this gathering apocalypse is their story and their drug, while the sufferings of the Indonesian people are scarcely real: a shadow play.Working at the eye of the storm are television correspondent Guy Hamilton and his eccentric dwarf cameraman Billy Kwan. In Kwan's secret fantasy life, both Sukarno and Hamilton are heroes. But his heroes betray him, and Billy is driven to desperate action. As the Indonesian shadow play erupts into terrible reality, a complex personal tragedy of love, obsession and betrayal comes to its climax.

ICCoLLIC is an international conference hosted by the English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sebelas Maret. This conference is arranged to become an annual conference making room for scholars and practitioners in the area of communication, language, literature, and culture to share their thoughts, knowledge, and recent researches in the field of study.

Is it over? Are we safe yet? What the hell happened? Or, rather, more aptly: What didn't happen? In 2020, we were deceived and misled. Each day offered a new challenge, revealed some new horror, and there was no relief in being told it was simply the nature of the world, the nature of our society. 2020 was the kind of thing that happens to people in textbooks, except it was happening in real time to all of us. We probably need group therapy to make sense of it all, to address our individual and collective wounds. This book is in pursuit of doing just that: Offer some kind of catharsis to the whole ordeal. “2020 is shaping up to be one of the most garbage years in American history. What statement do you want to make about it?” This was the prompt advanced to writers of the essays in this collection, capturing experiences raw and personal, and attempting to make sense of the extraordinary situation we found ourselves in. Very few walked away unscathed. Such a confluence of issues: COVID, Trump, racism, poverty, health under siege, sexism, police brutality, Black Lives Matter, protests, federal troops occupying American cities and beating on citizens, masks and social distancing, businesses shuttered, entire industries closed, schools moved online, major sports halted, and more. As the effects of 2020 continue rippling, the future already begs to know, “What the hell happened that year?” We hope this collection will clarify, or perhaps at least de-fog a bit. Essays as testimony provide an intimate lens, a snapshot in time. And perhaps a way to make sense of some of the chaos, so we can move forward with fresh eyes. Contributors: Rashaun J. Allen, Jason Arment, Rabb Asad, Joe Austin, DeMisty D. Bellinger, John S. Blake, Shannon Brazil, Tracy Burkholder, Suzanne Burns, Brendan Canty, Adrian Ernesto Cepeda, Stacey Y. Clark, Eve Connell, Zaji Cox, Alex Dang, Leah Noble Davidson, Sean Davis, Chris Dupuy, James Jay Edwards, Brian S. Ellis, Jenny Forrester, Kenning JP García, Lauren Gilmore, Dian Greenwood, Joseph Edwin Haeger, Ally Henny, Jackie Shannon Hollis, Gabino Iglesias, Ashley James, Tim Mays, Wryly T. McCutchen, Travis Laurence Naught, Dang Nguyen, Isobel O'Hare, Florencia Orlandoni, Linda Rand, Skyler Reed, Christine Maul Rice, Kate Ristau, Leyna Rynearson, Liz Scott, Kimberly Sheridan, Corie Skolnick, Amoja Sumler, Ben Tanzer, Nancy Townsley, Chris Valle, Ran Walker, Eric Witchey, Ellen Yaffa, Jason Zenobia

A war between China and the US would be catastrophic, deadly, and destructive. Unfortunately, it is no longer unthinkable. The relationship between the US and China, the world's two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. It rests on a seismic fault of cultural misunderstanding, historical grievance, and ideological incompatibility. No other nations are so quick to offend and be offended. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer real insight into the mindsets of the leadership whose judgement will determine if a war will be fought. The Avoidable War demystifies the actions of both sides, explaining and translating them for the benefit of the other. Geopolitical disaster is still avoidable, but only if these two giants can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through what Rudd calls "managed strategic competition". Should they fail, down that path lies the possibility of a war that could rewrite the future of both countries, and the world. "A lifelong student of China, Kevin Rudd has become one of today's most thoughtful analysts of China's development. The Avoidable War focuses on the signal challenge posed by China's evolution to America and to world order. Can the US and China avoid sleepwalking into a conflict? Rudd offers constructive steps for the two powers to stabilize their relations." HENRY A. KISSINGER

“[A] fanciful, endearing account of his experiences tackling classic works of fiction. . . . There is plenty of hilarity in [this] intimate literary memoir.” —Publishers Weekly Nearing his fortieth birthday, author and critic Andy Miller realized he’s not nearly as well read as he’d like to be. A devout book lover who somehow fell out of the habit of reading, he began to ponder the power of books to change an individual life—including his own—and to the define the sort of person he would like to be. Beginning with a copy of Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, he embarks on a literary odyssey of mindful reading and wry introspection. From Middlemarch to Anna Karenina to A Confederacy of Dunces, these are books Miller felt he should read; books he’d always wanted to read; books he’d previously started but hadn’t finished; and books he’d lied about having read to impress people. Combining memoir and literary criticism, The Year of Reading Dangerously is Miller’s heartfelt, humorous examination of what it means to be a reader. Passionately believing that books deserve to be read, enjoyed, and debated in the real world, Miller documents his reading experiences and how they resonated in his daily life and ultimately his very sense of self. The result is a witty and insightful journey of discovery and soul-searching that celebrates the abiding miracle of the power of reading. “An affecting tale of the rediscovery of great books . . . [by] a friendly, funny Brit.” —Boston Globe “Funny and engaging.” —Kirkus Reviews “Amiable, circumstantial, amusing, charming. . . . [Miller’s] style owes something . . . to Joe Brainard and David Foster Wallace.” —The Times (London)

The resurgence of Russian power in the Arctic and High North will be a key consideration for NATO planners. The Alliance’s northern flank represents both a potential vulnerability due to its relative isolation and an area in which NATO enjoys options for horizontal escalation in a conflict. Moreover, as the effects of climate change create opportunities for both navigation and resource extraction, peacetime control over the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and a contest to establish effective administrative control in this area are likely. Disagreements regarding the degree of Russia’s jurisdiction over the NSR could, for example, simmer into a form of sub-threshold competition. The purpose of this Whitehall Paper will be to examine the balance of power between NATO and Russia in this critical region in order to establish the level of ambition that the capabilities being developed by Russia can support.