From Hong Kongers hooked on smartphones to an mpox emergency — here's your weekly round-up

Hong Kong is addicted to smartphones, and people in the city know it.

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🤔What’s going on?

Hong Kong is addicted to smartphones, and people in the city know it. A recent survey of 1,000 Hong Kongers by Preply, an online language learning service, found that over 63% of respondents said that they were addicted to their phones.

But those people are also trying to fix the issue, as 76.5% of respondents said they are actively trying to cut down on screen time on their phones.

While this is a recent update, the survey isn’t really telling us anything we didn’t already know. Study after study in recent years has revealed that more and more people are hooked on their smartphones – in Hong Kong, in Greater China and all over the world.

“Seeing that over 60% of respondents declared being addicted was not such a surprise to us, but more than 76% willing to cut back was as it shows a sense of awareness. But with the city being more and more connected, cutting back might be harder than people think,” Sylvia Johnson, the Head of Learning Design at Preply, told TMS.

👦👧Does gender come into play?

The Preply study also touched on an interesting trend that has shown up in a few recent studies: women may be more addicted to their phones than men. Of the people who took the survey, 68.8% of women said they were addicted to their smartphones compared to 59.3% of men.

“The survey shows that women are more likely to engage in activities such as social media, video streaming, and online gaming (which surprisingly is the same rate as for males), which are known to be particularly engaging and habit-forming,” said Johnson. “These activities often involve continuous content consumption, social interactions and gamification elements that can lead to more prolonged usage and higher chances of addiction.”

📱So, what can we do?

Smartphones aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so it’s really up to us to build a healthy relationship with our phones.

Seth Eisenberg, the president and CEO at PAIRS Foundation, a non-profit that aims to strengthen relationships, told TMS that phone addiction “reflects a deeper need for connection, one that is perhaps misdirected or insufficiently fulfilled through these digital devices.”

“We hope readers take away a deeper understanding of the impact of smartphone addiction and the importance of finding a healthier balance between digital and real-life activities.”

– Sylvia Johnson, the Head of Learning Design at Preply

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Some of the biggest Headlines this week

📰Russia/Ukraine update: It’s been over two years now since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the fighting is still ongoing. But most recently, Ukraine launched an offensive in the Kursk region of Russia, which has been going surprisingly well. So far, Ukraine has said it’s captured over 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory, and CNN reported that US officials said it looks like Russia is moving thousands of troops from occupied lands in Ukraine toward Kursk. Kyiv has said it doesn’t want to take the territory, but the move is part of its strategy for getting leverage to negotiate an end to the war.

📢India protests: Last week, a trainee doctor was raped and murdered in Kolkata, India, and now thousands of people are protesting in Indian cities and calling for stricter punishments for crimes against women. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday: “As a society, we have to think about the atrocities being committed against our mothers, daughters and sisters. There is outrage against this in the country. I can feel this outrage.”

🗺️Korea update: North and South Korea have seen rising tensions over the last year, but South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday that the country is willing to resume economic cooperation and make steps to improve relations if North Korea makes a move toward denuclearization. He also discussed the potential for unification under the right conditions. Meanwhile, North Korea has said it will officially open one of its cities to foreign tourists in December. This comes after the borders have been closed for nearly five years.

🥼Mpox emergency: Mpox, an infectious viral disease, is seeing a surge of a new strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it’s been spreading to nearby countries. With that, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox an international emergency on Wednesday, meaning they’ve determined it has the potential to spread further across Africa and outside of the continent. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there needs to be a coordinated response internationally to prevent more outbreaks. On Thursday, the WHO confirmed the first case of the mpox strain outside of Africa in Sweden.

🌀Hurricane Ernesto: It’s hurricane season in the Western Hemisphere, and Hurricane Ernesto is currently traveling across waters near Puerto Rico toward Bermuda. So far, Puerto Rico has experienced flash flooding, power outages all over and storm damage. The forecast says it may grow even stronger, anywhere from a Category 1 to a Category 3 hurricane as it travels north along the eastern coast of the US and Canada.

📩Thailand’s political shuffle: A Thai court removed Srettha Thavisin, the country’s now-former prime minister, on Wednesday after finding he’d appointed a cabinet minister with a criminal conviction. Now, to step into his place, the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, has been nominated. She’ll be up for a parliamentary vote on Friday.

👋Japan’s Kishida bows out: An election is on the books for September in Japan, but current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said he won’t seek re-election as his party’s leader, meaning he’ll step down as prime minister when a new leader is chosen. After scandals and resignations have been swirling during his time in office, his approval rating has been down the tubes. Kishida said the party needs to show it can change, so he has to step down for that to happen.

✂️Google chop?: Last week, Google lost a huge antitrust case in the US, and now things are looking potentially troublesome for the tech giant. Reportedly, the Justice Department is looking into ways to fix the company’s “dominance” over internet searches, and insiders have said one option being considered is severing parts of the company like the Chrome browser or the Android operating system. Nothing has been decided yet, but we should know more about what will happen in early September.

😲Meth candies: In what could definitely be described as a major “oops,” a charity in New Zealand accidentally distributed what it thought were sweets when they were actually methamphetamine. Each “candy” had up to 300 doses of meth, and they were apparently donated to the charity by someone from the public (an investigation is underway). At least eight families said they’d tried them, but they tasted terrible and spat them out. Three people did need to see doctors, but overall, everyone is OK. Now, police in New Zealand are trying to recover all the meth that was distributed.

💼Hong Kong tourism rebound: Visitors are back in Hong Kong, with tourism numbers up by 52% since last year to more than 25 million. The number of visitors from outside mainland China was up over 70% alone. The Hong Kong Tourism Board has said it will stay steady on its path of ramping up festivals, shows and events to draw in travelers.

🍵New Starbs CEO: There's a new coffee chief in town over at Starbucks. Brian Niccol, formerly the head of Chipotle, will take the helm in September and be allowed to work remotely from his home in California rather than relocating to the company's headquarters in Seattle. But that hasn't put a dent in his estimated whopping US$113 million pay package. The company's share price has fallen about 20% in the last five years, so the hopes are that Niccol can turn the ship around. After the announcement, Starbucks stock rallied by 24%.

🍫Mars merger: Candy giant Mars, known for the beloved Snickers and Twix bars (among other brands), is about to buy snack company Kellanova (maker of Pringles) for an all-cash deal of US$35.9 billion. That means Mars will also get its hands on popular names like Eggo, Cheez-Its and Pop-Tarts. The deal should be done sometime in the first half of next year, and it's the largest deal in the food industry in years.

🕺Leave Raygun alone: Chances are you’ve heard about the now-viral breakdancing performance at the Olympics of Australia’s Rachael “Raygun” Gunn. People all over have been coming for her after she scored zero in every breaking battle. Raygun said she didn’t think her strong suit was power moves, so she relied on creativity and originality to compete. Now, Raygun has asked the press to “stop harassing my family, my friends, the Australian breaking community and the broader street dance community," in a post online. Meanwhile, a petition with over 50,000 signatures has been circulating online demanding an investigation into how she was selected for the Olympics. Matt Carroll, chief executive of the Australian Olympic Committee said the criticism has essentially amounted to bullying. C’mon, let’s leave the poor B-girl alone.

🐼Panda news!: Two pandas are officially headed to Hong Kong from Beijing in late September. Although they’ll be in quarantine for about a month, Hong Kongers will get to see them at their new home at Ocean Park once they’re cleared. In more exciting panda developments, Ying Ying and Le Le, another panda couple at Ocean Park, are officially parents! They’ve been trying to have a baby for over a decade with no luck. But on Thursday, Ying Ying gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.