68 m. ago Young Chinese are trying out the simple life. Am I missing out?

When my friend Lee first lost his job in 2023, he was terrified. From the moment he graduated in 2016, he had been working nonstop. He had changed jobs a couple of times, but always had a choice – he had never been kicked out of the job market like this. Lee worked in the traditional publishing business, editing children’s books. The industry has been tanking, with the rise of digital books, and the post-pandemic slump doesn’t help. He was laid off with half of his colleagues, with a small...

Events

98 m. ago ‘It’s tough, but good luck’: China eatery refunds meal payment to job

A street snack eatery in Shenzhen refunded 13 yuan (US$2) to uplift two young university graduates new to the city, and the gesture moved many people online. The two young women, Liu and Song, hailing from Hunan and Jiangxi provinces respectively, travelled to Guangdong in southern China for better job opportunities on August 15. On August 16, they visited a branch of Shaxian Delicacies, a well-known street snack chain in Longgang District, where they ordered food totalling 13 yuan and discussed...

Politics

3 h. ago Chinese gadget maker Baseus launches premium sound line at IFA Berlin

Chinese consumer electronics maker Baseus launched a premium line of audio products at a global trade fair on Thursday, bolstering its international presence at a time when intense competition at home is pushing more domestic gadget firms to look overseas. Shenzhen-based Baseus unveiled its Inspire line at the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin, also known as the IFA Berlin trade fair, which includes three headphones and earbuds developed in partnership with Bose, the US company known for...

Politics

4 h. ago Interim NASA head tells agency that it will beat China back to the moon

Interim NASA head tells agency that it will beat China back to the moon  NBC News

Technology

4 h. ago China’s biotech industry is gaining on the US. Can tariffs hold them back?

In the summer of 2015, a time when China’s pharmaceutical market was in a phase of rapid expansion, a sudden regulatory change sent tremors through the industry: drug companies would need to audit the clinical trial data for all pending applications. If withdrawn within a month of the announcement, firms could avoid penalties for submitting flawed applications, but hiding or falsifying data would court severe punishments, including multi-year filing bans. The response from the industry indicated...

Economics

5 h. ago Trump suggests India is moving towards ‘deepest, darkest’ China orbit

Trump suggested on Friday that India is drifting towards China’s orbit, even as his assertive tariffs and public rebukes have tested ties with New Delhi. Aides are warning that India could soon regret its stance and even face new curbs. “Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together,” the “America first” president wrote on social media. His remarks were posted alongside a photo of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,...

Politics

8 h. ago Navy Seals killed North Korean civilians in botched 2019 mission: US report

US Navy Seals shot and killed a number of North Korean civilians during a botched covert mission to plant a listening device in the nuclear-armed country during high-stakes diplomatic negotiations in 2019, The New York Times reported on Friday. Citing unidentified sources, including current and former military officials with knowledge of the still-classified details, the newspaper said US President Donald Trump approved the operation during his first administration, as he was involved in...

Events

10 h. ago China Plans To Sideline Lithium Competition. Albemarle Stock Rises.

China Plans To Sideline Lithium Competition. Albemarle Stock Rises.  Barron's

Politics

10 h. ago Google hit with US$3.45 billion EU antitrust fine over adtech practices

Alphabet’s Google was hit with a €2.95 billion (US$3.45 billion) EU antitrust fine on Friday for anticompetitive practices in its lucrative adtech business, marking its fourth penalty in its decade-long fight with EU competition regulators. The move by the European Commission was triggered by a complaint from the European Publishers Council and comes amid a threat by US President Donald Trump to retaliate against the European Union for any push against Big Tech. The EU competition enforcer had...

Economics

10 h. ago EU hits Google with US$3.45 billion fine, drawing tariff threat from Trump

The EU on Friday slapped Google with a massive €2.95 billion (US$3.45 billion) antitrust fine for favouring its own advertising services, drawing a furious rebuke from US President Donald Trump and a threat of fresh tariffs against Europe. Google vowed to appeal the decision by the European Commission, which accused the US firm of distorting competition in the 27-nation bloc. “Google abused its dominant position in adtech, harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers. This behaviour is illegal...

Economics

12 h. ago Wall Street climbs to new highs on hopes of interest rate cuts

US stocks are rising to more records on expectations that the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates soon to help the economy. The S&P 500 climbed 0.4 per cent on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 93 points, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.7 per cent. The action was much stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields tumbled following the latest weaker-than-expected update on the US job market. That raised expectations for a cut to rates by the Fed later this month....

Politics

12 h. ago US stocks wobble as Wall Street wrangles with whether job market is too weak

US stocks wobbled lower on Friday as Wall Street questioned whether the US job market has slowed by just enough to get the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to help the economy, or by so much that a downturn may be on the way. After rising to an early gain, the S&P 500 erased it and fell 0.3 per cent below the all-time high it set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 220 points, or 0.5 per cent, after swinging between an early gain of nearly 150 points and a loss of 400....

Politics

12 h. ago Hiring stalls as US firms hold back expansion amid economic uncertainty

US employers added just 22,000 jobs last month as the labour market continued to cool under uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies. The Labor Department said on Friday that hiring decelerated from 79,000 in July and came in below the roughly 80,000 economists had expected for August. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3 per cent, also worse than expected and the highest level since 2021, the Labor Department reported on Friday. When the department put out a disappointing...

Economics

15 h. ago Analysts mixed on outlook for Sun Hung Kai Properties’ shares

Analysts said they had mixed views about Sun Hung Kai Properties’ (SHKP) shares after Hong Kong’s largest property developer by market capitalisation reported a slight increase in its full-year earnings. On Friday, Morningstar cut its price target for SHKP to HK$105 from HK$115, but said the company was trading at a good discount. UOB Kay Hian and Morgan Stanley said the earnings were largely in line with expectations. The US investment bank had an overweight recommendation and expected earnings...

Politics

16 h. ago China's Xi flexes diplomatic clout with Putin, Kim at Beijing parade | Daily Sabah

China's Xi flexes diplomatic clout with Putin, Kim at Beijing parade | Daily Sabah  Daily Sabah

Politics

16 h. ago Kim Jong Un's trip to China marks transformation from shunned pariah to confident diplomat

Kim Jong Un's trip to China marks transformation from shunned pariah to confident diplomat  Beaumont Enterprise

Politics

17 h. ago China never targets any third party in developing diplomatic relations with any country: FM

China never targets any third party in developing diplomatic relations with any country: FM  ecns.cn

Politics

18 h. ago Kenya’s plan to switch debt payments from US dollars to yuan is a ‘win

Kenya’s plan to convert its US dollar-denominated Chinese debt to yuan is a “win-win”, as it is expected to reduce interest payments for the African nation while advancing China’s goal of increasing the global use of its currency, according to analysts. The deal would be precedent-setting and could establish a new rule book for future debt restructuring and possibly cut reliance on the US dollar. In late August, Kenya’s Treasury announced that talks with the Export-Import Bank of China were at...

Economics

20 h. ago Putin says planned gas pipeline to China will be mutually beneficial, use market price formula

Putin says planned gas pipeline to China will be mutually beneficial, use market price formula  Reuters

Politics

20 h. ago Europe’s summer from hell bleeds into autumn as Trump and Xi turn the screws

If Brussels bureaucrats returning from their long summer breaks this week were wondering what they missed, the local press had them covered. Unbecoming scenes at June’s Nato summit, the “hopelessly one-sided” trade deal with the United States in July, as well as President Xi Jinping’s refusal to travel to Belgium for that month’s summit with EU leaders, were all cited by the Brussels media outlet Euractiv. “Now talk of a European moment has given way to fears of a European ‘century of...

Politics