57 m. ago China actress loses brand partners for saying ‘hundreds of thousands’ a month is not enough

A Chinese actress has apologised for making comments in which she flaunted her wealth, sparking a public backlash. Yan Xuejing made the controversial comments during a live-streaming session at the end of December when she said a couple should earn at least 800,000 yuan (US$115,000) a year to “maintain a family’s operation”, China Newsweek reported. Yan, 53, complained to her audience that her son earns little. “He is 32 years old. He and his wife both have a very low income,” said Yan. She...

Politics

10 h. ago Forget the Great Wall: Xiaomi factory becomes one of China’s hottest tourist attractions

Forget the Great Wall: Xiaomi factory becomes one of China’s hottest tourist attractions  Ynetnews

Politics

15 h. ago Indonesian plane with 11 people missing, search and rescue under way

A regional passenger aircraft carrying 11 people lost contact with ground control on Saturday while approaching a mountainous region between Indonesia’s main island of Java and Sulawesi island, officials said. A search and rescue operation is under way. The turboprop ATR 42-500 operated by Indonesia Air Transport was on the way from Yogyakarta to the capital city of South Sulawesi when it vanished from radar, said Endah Purnama Sari, a spokesperson for the transportation ministry. The plane was...

Events

42 h. ago As families shrink, our primary relationship is increasingly with ourselves

More than 2,300 years ago, Aristotle mused in Politics that to live alone, a man must be a god or a beast, or words to that effect. I wonder what he would have thought of the popularity of China’s “Are You Dead?” app. For Aristotle, we are social animals, thriving in the “polis” in the company of family, friends and fellow citizens. The average mother had at least five children. Many homes housed three, even four, generations. Family life was noisy and crowded, full of companionship, contest and...

Politics

55 h. ago Brazil’s Bolsonaro sent to new prison with roomier cell, more perks

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro was on Thursday transferred to prison, where he will serve his sentence for orchestrating a failed coup in “more favourable” conditions, according to a court order. The 70-year-old former leader was sentenced to 27 years in prison last year for his attempts to cling to power following his narrow 2022 re-election loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro’s family has repeatedly complained on podcasts and social media about the conditions in which he was...

Events

55 h. ago Brazil’s Bolsonaro sent to prison with roomier cell, more perks

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro was on Thursday transferred to prison, where he will serve his sentence for orchestrating a failed coup in “more favourable” conditions, according to a court order. The 70-year-old former leader was sentenced to 27 years in prison last year for his attempts to cling to power following his narrow 2022 re-election loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro’s family has repeatedly complained on podcasts and social media about the conditions in which he was...

Events

66 h. ago Hong Kong police shoot and kill man wielding 30cm knife in Tuen Mun

Hong Kong police have shot and killed a man who brandished a 30cm knife at a shopping centre in Tuen Mun, with the force saying the officers involved had no choice but to open fire to save a passer-by. The tragedy unfolded around 7pm on Thursday near Tuen Mun Town Hall on Tuen Wui Road. Police said the 34-year-old man killed was a Hong Kong identity card holder. They said preliminary information from his family pointed to a history of mental illness, although authorities were still seeking to...

Events

3 d. ago FBI raids home of US journalist who reported on Trump firings

FBI agents searched a Washington Post reporter’s home on Wednesday as part of an investigation into sharing secret government information, officials said, in a move that press advocates said threatened journalistic freedom. The reporter, Hannah Natanson, has covered US President Donald Trump’s campaign to fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers and shift remaining workers to implementing his agenda. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said federal agents had executed the search at the request...

Politics

3 d. ago China Online Travel Leader Trip.com Stock Sinks On Antitrust Probe

China Online Travel Leader Trip.com Stock Sinks On Antitrust Probe  Investor's Business Daily

Politics

3 d. ago Indonesian comic hit with blasphemy complaints over Netflix jokes

A police complaint against one of Indonesia’s best-known comedians has reignited debate over satire, blasphemy and free expression in the world’s third-largest democracy. The case involves 46-year-old stand-up comic and actor Pandji Pragiwaksono, whose Netflix special Mens Rea – an unfiltered performance touching on politics, law and democracy – was recorded in Jakarta before an audience of around 10,000 people on December 30. Pandji’s routine pokes fun at Indonesia’s political elite, taking aim...

Events

3 d. ago Why are Chinese tourists spending less overseas than before?

Chinese tourist numbers are recovering across Asia after a pandemic-era contraction, buoyed by the expansion of visa-free policies and a stronger yuan. But one thing has not returned: the spending sprees that used to boost duty-free retailers around the world. The trend can be clearly seen in South Korea, which relied on Chinese travellers for 70 per cent of its duty-free sales before Covid-19. Around 5 million visitors from China arrived in the country during the first 11 months of 2025, a...

Politics

3 d. ago ‘Structurally hurt’: why are Chinese tourists spending less overseas than before?

Chinese tourist numbers are recovering across Asia after a pandemic-era contraction, buoyed by the expansion of visa-free policies and a stronger yuan. But one thing has not returned: the spending sprees that used to boost duty-free retailers around the world. The trend can be clearly seen in South Korea, which relied on Chinese travellers for 70 per cent of its duty-free sales before Covid-19. Around 5 million visitors from China arrived in the country during the first 11 months of 2025, a...

Politics

3 d. ago PH boat ‘ignores’ China radio challenge at Scarborough – Beijing

PH boat ‘ignores’ China radio challenge at Scarborough – Beijing  Inquirer.net

Politics

4 d. ago Crane collapses on moving train in Thailand, killing at least 22

A crane at a China-backed high-speed railway project in Thailand collapsed onto and derailed a passenger train on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people and injuring scores, local authorities said. Footage from the scene showed the crane’s broken structure resting on giant concrete pillars, with smoke rising from the wreckage of the train below. Rescuers worked to extract passengers from the tilted carriages in Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeast of the capital, Bangkok. “At around 9am, I heard...

Events

4 d. ago Singapore urged to expand Johor SEZ to Indonesia to deepen Asean integration

A special economic zone between Singapore and the Malaysian state of Johor (JS-SEZ) should include Indonesia’s Riau Islands to ramp up the region’s allure to global investors, an apex business chamber and leading accounting firm have said, ahead of the city state’s budget address next month. As part of its 18 top recommendations, the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), which has more than 32,000 members, and PwC Singapore on Monday said expanding the zone to include the Indonesian islands of...

Politics

4 d. ago I travelled to Beijing in search of the enigmatic city my great

I travelled to Beijing in search of the enigmatic city my great-grandparents knew  The Telegraph

Politics

5 d. ago Indonesia’s Prabowo quells US$32 billion capital doubts with first Nusantara stay

Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto reiterated his commitment to a US$32 billion project to build the country’s new capital city as he made his first overnight stay there as president, the government said. Questions about the fate of the Nusantara capital city project have lingered since Prabowo took office in October 2024. The project is a legacy of his predecessor, Joko Widodo, who first announced his plan to move the capital 1,200km (745 miles) away from overcrowded and sinking Jakarta on Java...

Economics

5 d. ago The US has played its hand in Latin America. Will China’s firms there cash out?

With domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter. In the days since Washington’s ousting and abduction of former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro – an event that sent shock waves through global markets – some...

Economics

5 d. ago Ant International teams up with Google on use of Universal Commerce Protocol

Ant International, the Singapore-based spin-off of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, has teamed up with Google on standards for artificial intelligence agents that complete online shopping tasks for users, as AI continues to transform the e-commerce sector. Ant International said in a statement on Monday it would endorse the US search and AI giant’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that powers agentic commerce. “By leveraging our leading payment capabilities, Ant International...

Politics

5 d. ago Alibaba’s Qwen family hits 700 million downloads to lead global open

Alibaba Cloud’s flagship Qwen family of artificial intelligence models surpassed 700 million downloads as of January on the developer platform Hugging Face, which made it the world’s most widely used open-source AI system. According to research published on Friday by consultancy AIBase, citing data from Hugging Face, estimated Qwen downloads as of December alone exceeded the combined total of the next eight most popular models on the platform globally, including those from Meta Platforms and...

Events