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Analysis
China relations
After murder of Japanese boy in China, Xi Jinping’s nationalism faces reckoning
With unrest mounting over China’s economic slowdown, the government is now grappling with online hatred spilling over into real life violence.
Latest
‘Seditious T-shirt’ enough to send Chu to jail for up to 10 years
In Hong Kong, where almost 300 people including Australian Gordon Ng have been arrested on national security grounds since the introduction of draconian security laws in 2020, wearing the wrong T-shirt can land you in jail.
- by Lisa Visentin
Updated
Extreme weather
After Vietnam, Typhoon Yagi came for war-ravaged Myanmar
Even before the typhoon, the UN estimated 18.6 million people out of a total population of 55 million needed humanitarian assistance.
- by Zach Hope
Women banned from raising their voices, looking at other men in Taliban crackdown
Religious police are roaming bus stops and shopping centres searching for dress code violations or any women who might laugh or raise their voices.
- by Rick Noack
Adorable baby hippo goes viral, but some zoo visitors are unkind to little Moo Deng
The director of Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Pattaya urged people to be kind after videos emerged online of visitors harassing the baby hippo.
- by Sarah Newey
Bibi was given $4 a day to survive. Now that allowance has been cut to zero
As humanitarian crises unfold around the globe, the United Nations is looking at its books.
- by Zach Hope and Karuni Rompies
China’s censors are letting Kanye West perform there. His fans are amazed
Why would the notoriously prickly Chinese government let in the notoriously provocative Ye? The answer may lie in China’s struggling economy.
- by Vivian Wang
Missing for months, China’s axed top diplomat has turned up. Or has he?
A veil of murkiness continues to hang over the fate of China’s ex-foreign minister Qin Gang, who has not been seen in public since June 2023, even amid fresh reports this week that he had been demoted to a low-level publishing job.
- by Lisa Visentin
China delays retirement age by up to five years, infuriating millions
It is the first retirement age hike since 1978. Previous efforts were delayed due to public discontent.
Updated
Scams
US punishes Cambodian tycoon over slave-driven global scam centres
Ly Yong Phat is a senator from the ruling party, an adviser to former prime minister Hun Sen and the owner of a hotel implicated in a major scam call centre.
- by Zach Hope
Analysis
World elections
An election promise of free food may end up with fish milk on the menu
It is a rather unpleasant sounding beverage but, we are assured, tasty substitute for the real deal.
- by Zach Hope and Karuni Rompies