Hong Kong CNN — Three years of strict pandemic controls in China and a real estate crash have drained local government coffers, leaving authorities across the country struggling with mountains of debt. The problem has gotten so extreme that some cities are now unable to provide basic services, and the risk of default is rising. […]
Johannesburg, South Africa CNN — Car crashes, opportunistic criminals, rotting food, decomposing bodies, bankrupt businesses, and water shortages. Welcome to life under South Africa’s power blackouts. Last week the grim extent of the outages was laid bare when South Africans were advised to bury dead loved ones within four days. In a public statement, the […]
Hong Kong CNN — Economic activity in China has expanded for the first time in four months as disruptions caused by the abrupt end of its zero-Covid policy appears to be fading. The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturing, which measures activity at factories, jumped to 50.1 in January from 47 in December, according […]
Korean star Song Joong-ki announces marriage to Katy Louise Saunders, says they are expecting a baby
CNN — South Korean actor Song Joong-ki married British actress Katy Louise Saunders Monday and the two are expecting a child, Song’s agency, HighZium Studio, told CNN. On an online site for his fans, Song wrote “today we just came back from registering our marriage to start our life as a couple based on deep […]
New York CNN — Trader Joe’s asked its customers a simple question: If you were to spend the rest of your life on a deserted island, which nine Trader Joe’s products would you take with you? More than 18,000 customers responded to its 14th annual survey ranking the grocery store’s most popular items in nine […]
CNN — China saw 226 million domestic trips during the Lunar New Year holiday, state media reported, a 74% surge from last year after the government lifted all travel curbs under its now-abandoned zero-Covid policy. For the first time in three years, Chinese people were free to travel without the hassle of quarantine or fear […]
CNN — “If something happens to me, don’t cry,” Leonardo Hancco told his wife, Ruth Barcena, the morning of December 15 in Peru’s southern city of Ayacucho. The 32-year-old taxi driver and father of a seven-year-old girl had decided to join Peru’s nationwide political protests at the last minute. “If I have decided to join […]
CNN — When one by one, the friends of a young woman living in Beijing began disappearing — detained by the police after attending a vigil together weeks earlier — she felt sure that her time was nearing. “As I record this video, four of my friends have already been taken away,” the woman, age […]
London CNN — Most winters, headlines warn that Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is at “breaking point.” The alarms sound over and over and over again. But the current crisis has set warning bells ringing louder than before. “This time feels different,” said Peter Neville, a doctor who has worked in the NHS since 1989. […]
CNN — Peru is seeing some of its worst political violence in recent decades, but the grievances of protesters are all but new; they reflect a system that has failed to deliver for over twenty years. Sparked by the ousting of former President Pedro Castillo last month, some of Peru’s most intense protests have taken […]