WORLD

Chinese nationals have previously made up as much as 35% of the international students studying in the US. For a while, the US was the top place that Chinese students...

Feeling tired after using a lot of mental power isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, but now scientists can actually explain why it happens. One previous theory suggested fatigue was an...

More than two years from the onset of the COVID pandemic, we're already seeing another widespread health concern with monkeypox. And with its first case in 2018, a new virus...

North Korea has been expanding its nuclear program for a while, and, to counter it, the US has been rolling out something called the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile...

From Musk's Tesla stock sale to thousands of beagles saved in the US – Here's your August 11 news briefing

On Tuesday, a jury convicted Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter employee, of spying for the government of Saudi Arabia by collecting personal information of dissidents and critics of the royal family in...

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya is leaving office, leaving the presidential race between two newcomers. The two frontrunners are Deputy President William Ruto and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga. So...

Last October, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took office. He's a member of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, replacing former LDP Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In July, Abe was assassinated...

Elon Musk has been in a pretty hairy court battle with Twitter after trying to pull out of the deal to buy the social media platform unless it proved that...

From the FBI raid on Trump's Florida home to Serena Williams' retirement announcement – Here's your August 10 news briefing

Issey Miyake, the revolutionary Japanese fashion designer known for combining modern and traditional fashion techniques, died on Friday.

In the bigger picture, though, Coinbase is still suffering. In the second quarter, it lost over US$1 billion, or about US$5 a share, compared to the about US$1.6 billion net...

Last week, China began military drills in the waters near Taiwan, even reportedly inching past the unofficial boundary line of Taiwanese territory in the Taiwan Strait.

Over the past few months, Former US President Donald Trump has been the focus of an investigation by a select congressional committee into the Jan. 6 riot on the US...

From an English museum returning pillaged art to Africa to Apple helping you focus – Here's your August 9 news briefing

When iOS 15 came out, Apple released a new mode called Focus, designed so you can customize your phone setup for different contexts.

Back in March, pretty early into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia took control of a city called Zaporizhzhya, which is also home to a nuclear power plant.

Along with mainland China, Hong Kong is one of the few places still requiring a COVID quarantine for new arrivals.

At the height of their colonial reign, the British invaded Nigeria. During a violent military campaign in 1897, British forces looted the famous brass plaques known as Benin Bronzes from...

From Putin and Erdoğan’s private meeting to Amazon's purchase of iRobot – Here's your August 8 news briefing

On Friday, Amazon announced it was buying iRobot Corp for US$1.7 billion. You probably know iRobot from their signature autonomous vacuum, the Roomba. Experts say that Amazon can probably reduce...

For a while now, Democrats in the US Senate have been wrangling with Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrstin Sinema, two relatively moderate Democrats who have been negotiating versions of legislation...

In 2005, the Israeli military left the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip and then launched a string of raids on the region. Over 2 million people live on the...

Three weeks ago, Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Putin met in Tehran to discuss re-opening grain shipments from Ukraine through the Black Sea. Turkey and the UN mediated an...

From Brittney Griner's Russian prison sentence to Jeff Bezos' billionaire blunder – Here's your August 5 news briefing

When a star reaches the end of its life, it turns into a neutron star, collapsing in on itself and crushing the atoms that made it emit light before.

Brittney Griner, the American WNBA star detained in Russia at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was found guilty in a Russian court of bringing drugs illegally into...

Yesterday, the US Senate almost unanimously approved Sweden's and Finland's membership to NATO. The vote won 95 to 1.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Putin has spoken to Chinese President Xi at least twice. Allegedly, Xi expressed respect for Russia's actions.

From tensions in Kosovo to potentially life-saving pig zombies – Here's your August 4 news briefing

For a while now, scientists have thought that when an animal (or a human) dies, cells in all the various organs of the body also start dying rapidly. A recent...

As of Wednesday’s close, a Hong Kong-based software company called AMTD Digital was worth more than US$203 billion, a pretty giant leap ahead considering it only brought in US$25 million...

Kosovo, which is in southeastern Europe and used to be part of Yugoslavia, declared independence in 2008 after a violent conflict which ended with NATO bombing Serbia in 1999.

With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arriving in Taiwan on Tuesday, tensions were high. Beijing warned against her and the US "playing with fire" by visiting the breakaway region, which China...

From a US drone strike in Kabul to Aussie airport detection dogs snitching on smuggled breakfasts – Here's your August 3 news briefing

For a while now, Uber has been facing a driver shortage. See, during the pandemic, people weren't really catching rides all over the place, so demand for drivers was down.

A crucial shipping route between Asia and the West is the Taiwan Strait, the waterway that separates Taiwan from mainland Asia.

It's been 21 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, arranged by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed under President Obama's administration in 2011. A...

Back in June, the US Supreme Court made a ruling that got rid of a federal constitutional right to an abortion and essentially sent the right to govern abortion back...

From Pelosi heading to Taiwan to Tesla-branded cocaine in Mexico – Here's your August 2 news briefing

Back in April, Elon Musk posted a tweet saying that he was buying Coca-Cola so that he could put the cocaine back into it. Of course, most everyone considered this...

For a long time now, North Korea has been heavily sanctioned. To fund all the different things its government wants to do (such as weapons development programs), the country has...

Although the US doesn't have official diplomatic ties to Taiwan, the country believes in Taipei's right to self-defense and has sent weapons there to support this stance. Still, no US...

In 2018, Donald Trump's administration rejected the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, again laying sanctions on the country. When that happened, Iran also dropped the agreement, violating the terms set out.

From the attack on a POW facility in Donbas to Taylor Swift's carbon footprint – Here's your August 1 news briefing

When TikTok came on the social media scene, its rise was meteoric. It changed the game as far as social media content is concerned, and now several platforms have implemented...

On July 24, China launched a rocket with a new capsule for Tiangong, the country's space station currently under construction.

Since the US withdrew from Afghanistan last summer, the Taliban has had control over the country and its borders. This has meant that there have been some disputes between Afghanistan...

Last Thursday, a detention camp in Olenivka in the Russian-held territory of Donetsk, Ukraine, was attacked via a missile strike, killing at least 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war and injuring...

From the WHO's monkeypox recommendations to aggressive Japanese dolphins – Here's your July 29 news briefing

Last October, Iraq held its parliamentary elections, leading to the country's current political confusion. It has been unable to form a viable government since the election.

Tensions between the US and China have been higher than average in the past few months. The big thing going on is that China refuses to join the American-led attack...

Imagine this scenario – you just signed a big client at work, and though you can’t be in the same room to celebrate it, a text thread or a Slack...

Over the weekend, the WHO declared monkeypox a health emergency of international concern. The disease has been circulating in remote parts of Africa (where animals and rodents carry the virus)...

From Credit Suisse's new CEO to a loophole in the UK's prime minister election – Here's your July 28 news briefing

So you might have heard that Boris Johnson resigned, but how is his replacement chosen? Well, it turns out, it isn’t the most straightforward process. First, all the members of...

Back at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brittney Griner, a professional basketball player who had been playing in Russia, was arrested at a Moscow airport on drug...

At COP26 last year, whereby activists poured onto the streets to urge governments to do more about our climate crisis, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi signed a US$500 million deal to...

Credit Suisse has been in the middle of some pretty big scandals. Between being fined after authorities accused it of helping clients dodge taxes and being handed money laundering penalties,...

From Russia possibly pulling out of the ISS to Joe Biden's sweet Zoom setup – Here's your July 27 news briefing

What does your video-call setup look like right now? Maybe it’s just your laptop, propped up by a couple of books. Maybe you splurged at some point and bought a...

Japan is one of the few developed nations left that still have the death penalty in place. Last year, the country hanged three people, and there are currently a little...

Last year, Russia supplied 40% of the EU’s total gas, but with the war raging on between Russia and Ukraine, Ukraine is now saying that Russia is waging a “gas...

Once upon a time, having the tech to be in space was a competition between Russia and the US. But in the 70s, as the race to the moon was...

From rumors of Hong Kong cutting hotel quarantine to more Musk drama – Here's your July 26 news briefing

In February 2021, General Min Aung Hlaing and his junta, or group of military leaders, ousted the democratically elected government in Myanmar. Since then, General Hlaing has been condemned by...

For more than a century and running to the late 20th century, Canada separated more than 150,000 Indigenous children from their parents and forced them to go to residential schools,...

Shocker: there’s new drama surrounding Elon Musk. See, it just came out that he reportedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Hong Kong is currently seeing around 4,000 new COVID cases daily, with nearly 200 of them being imported as the city tries to stamp out any trace of the virus...

From monkeypox being declared an international emergency to adding insects to our daily menu – Here's your July 25 news briefing

You’ve probably heard of brands like Impossible and Beyond Meat making alternative plant-based “meats” for those of us looking for a more climate-friendly protein. But it turns out that, for...

Last month, the US Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, which meant it got rid of constitutional protection for people to get abortions. For the antiabortion movement, this was a...

Monkeypox is the cousin of smallpox and was first detected in Africa in the 1950s. For years, it's been spreading in developing countries, but recently, cases of it have been...

Despite China’s strict lockdown policies in line with its zero-COVID stance, the country can’t quite squash out the highly contagious and transmissible coronavirus.

From insider trading on the blockchain to HSBC's new CCP committee – Here's your July 22 news briefing

You might have heard of a recent trend of people moving all their work online and, instead of living in big cities or near where their job is headquartered, living...

Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska has recently taken on a more public role and visited the US this week to appeal for more weapons and air-defense systems.

For the first time ever, federal prosecutors in the US have officially brought charges against business executives for insider trading of cryptocurrency. Usually, these charges are leveled for using insider...

HSBC is headquartered in London but makes most of its money in Hong Kong and has aggressive expansion plans in mainland China.

From Sri Lanka's new president to the challenges of being multilingual – Here's your July 21 news briefing

If you speak more than one language, you probably already know that juggling a whole different set of vocabulary, grammar and social cues isn’t the easiest thing in the world.

In case you haven’t heard, crypto isn’t doing so hot right now. So far this year, Bitcoin has lost around half of its value; Celsius Network, a crypto lender, just...

There was a period of time when all anyone could talk about was Evergrande and how much trouble China’s real estate sector was in. Since then, the noise has died...

Sri Lanka's economy has been in major trouble for quite some time, with the country's residents unable to afford fuel, medicine and other basic necessities. Its inflation rate is also...

From Japan's Shinzo Abe's seconds-long security lapse to grinding away in the early years of your career – Here's your July 20 news briefing

If there’s one thing we learned from the pandemic, it’s that we sometimes have to clearly create boundaries between our work and personal lives. When people were working from home,...

European and Chinese leaders are engaging in high-level economic and trade dialogues on Tuesday. The same officials will lead the talks – EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and Chinese...

As many of you know, in Japan's western city of Nara earlier this month, Shinzo Abe – Japan's longest-serving leader – was fatally shot. The shooter, a 41-year-old man called...

With Western sanctions piled on Russia's economy, the country is looking for other ways to protect itself and continue doing business with countries that haven't yet condemned the Ukraine war,...

From ESPRIT making a comeback to brain-computer implants – Here's your July 19 news briefing

You've probably heard about Neuralink – Elon Musk's venture to basically link people's brains to computers so that we can talk with machines more efficiently. But Neuralink isn't alone in...

For months now, experts have been predicting that there will be an economic recession, particularly in the US. JP Morgan Chase has said there's a decent chance of a recession,...

Much of England could be seeing its hottest day on record this week at temperatures forecast to reach up to 41 degrees Celsius. Right now, the highest temperature ever recorded...

You may remember the once popular household fashion brand ESPRIT. It was started in the 1960s by couple Susie and Doug Tompkins (also founders of The North Face).

From what's next for Sri Lanka to overqualified job applicants –Here's your July 18 news briefing

Even though the debt-laden Evergrande hasn't been as widely mentioned in the headlines lately, the industry's woes and struggles are still very much ongoing. A boycott around China has been...

Protests and demonstrations have been rocking the South Asian island of Sri Lanka for weeks, with the residents blaming the government's mismanagement for the country's economic collapse.

President Biden has been in the Middle East for the past few days trying to strengthen ties in places like Israel and Palestinian-occupied territories while also trying to repair them...

It turns out that being overqualified for a job doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re more appealing to a company. In fact, it can be a bit of a red flag...

From Italy's president rejecting the prime minister's resignation to hundreds of women suing Uber – Here's your July 15 news briefing

One day, an elephant and its baby were walking down a path when the baby fell into a hole. No, that’s not a setup for a bad joke, nor the...

Mario Draghi, Italy's prime minister and chief executive, tendered his resignation to the Italian president on Thursday. But, it was declined, with President Sergio Mattarella saying that it was up...

Sri Lanka has been widely reported on this week as President Rajapaksa said he'd resign and then fled the country after protestors stormed government buildings two times this week demanding...

Earlier this week, The Guardian published the Uber files, which contained over 124,000 confidential documents, which outlined how Uber broke the law, tricked law enforcement, secretly lobbied governments around the...

From Biden's trip to the Middle East to Musk's tweets coming back to bite him – Here's your July 14 news briefing

Joe Biden started a trip to the Middle East on Wednesday. The trip started in Israel, where he pledged to deepen relations between the US and Israel and with other...

After Boris Johnson announced his resignation, it became the job of the UK's conservative party to find and vote on his replacement since they hold the majority in Parliament. The...

Elon Musk’s tweets have been used against him by Twitter, with the platform slapping Musk with a 62-page lawsuit that includes over 10 of his tweets – tweets that the...

Hong Kong has some exciting events coming up at the end of the year – events that, pre-COVID, drummed up a heap of hype within the city and around the...

From the group behind Sri Lanka's protest to Twitter officially suing Elon Musk – Here's your July 13 news briefing

NASA just released the most detailed photos we've ever seen of the universe taken from its newly in-use James Webb Space Telescope (or JWST for short). The pictures released so...

New omicron sub-variants of COVID-19 are spreading quickly throughout the world. In the US, a little more than 100,000 people have tested positive for COVID each day, with experts saying...

Up to now, the West has supplied billions of dollars worth of military weapons to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia, with countries like the US remaining committed to...

A lot of attention has been paid to how Sri Lanka's president caved to public pressure and stepped down from his position after the economy plunged into crisis and bankruptcy....

From China and Australia's ongoing relationship struggles to India's growing population – Here's your July 12 news briefing

In just four short months, by November, the earth will be home to 8 billion people, the highest global population yet. The UN says this growth hasn’t been going as...

Since the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion for Americans, a number of states now have laws on the books that consider a fetus a legal...

On Monday, Chinese tech stocks fell sharply, driven by Alibaba and Tencent, which alongside several other companies were fined by China's Market Regulation agency for not reporting properly on previous...

Australia and China have been at odds for quite some time now. When COVID hit in 2020, Australia's previous leader Morrison called for an investigation into the origins of the...

From more drama in the Musk-Twitter saga to the leaked Uber files – Here's your July 11 news briefing

Since the dawn of the internet, anonymity has allowed users to experiment with who they are online, most notably when those online personas are different from how a person behaves...

According to more than 124,000 confidential documents leaked to The Guardian – known as the Uber files – tech giant Uber broke the law, tricked law enforcement, secretly lobbied governments...

Twitter was already struggling to meet lofty growth targets before Elon Musk arrived at its front door with a US$44 billion offer. After months of back and forth that divided...

Sri Lanka's economy is in serious trouble, with inflation soaring and officials struggling to import fuel, food and medicine. The country is in the middle of negotiations with the IMF...

Dear Hong Kong is made up of 200 pages of photos featuring multicultural, inspirational people living in Hong Kong. Each subject hails from another country and has contributed to the...

From Elon Musk's 9 children to Japan stamping out online bullying – Here's your July 8 news briefing

Cyberbullying, hate, trolling; whatever you want to call it, we can probably all agree it isn’t the best thing to have come from the internet. And in plenty of places,...

Since November of last year, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has endured challenge after challenge to his political wellbeing. He survived some hearings, police penalties and a vote of no...

Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink founder and CEO Elon Musk has been a big advocate for increasing the world population, saying that the dwindling global headcount is a threat to humanity....

Hong Kong had a circuit breaker mechanism that essentially banned individual flights if they carried someone with COVID on the plane because it caused the city too much "unnecessary trouble."...

From understanding a recession to a poll showing that Arabs are moving toward authoritarianism – Here's your July 7 news briefing

As tensions were escalating between Russia and Ukraine in February, a WNBA basketball player named Brittney Griner was arrested in a Russian airport for charges of carrying vape cartridges containing...

A recent poll shows that Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa are losing faith in democracy and are leaning more toward authoritarian kinds of government.

In recent months, the Chinese government has shifted its tone when it comes to its regulatory campaigns, especially in the tech industry.

The recession calls are loud, with financial firms going up and down Wall Street saying it will hit most major economies soon and that we should all brace ourselves. But,...

From US-China economy talks to TikTok's #Gentleminions trend – Here's your July 6 news briefing

Just imagine this – you're all excited to go to the movies again, and you make your way to the theater to see a new animated film about a bunch...

Less than a month ago, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson narrowly survived a vote of no confidence held by his own party. The vote was held in response to a...

Sri Lanka is in the middle of an economic crisis with eye-watering high levels of inflation and usable foreign reserves at a low. This comes after the country failed to...

Official statements from both China and the US have revealed that China's Vice Premier Liu and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had a call on Tuesday that was described as...

From Iran cutting oil prices to a close call at Formula One – Here's your July 5 news briefing

On Sunday, the British Grand Prix opened in true F1 fashion with a dramatic multi-car crash in the first lap. Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu's car spun out of control and...

Six people were killed and more than two dozen hospitalized after a shooting during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

You may remember when Oracle and TikTok struck a deal in 2020 to store all of Americans' TikTok data by default in Oracle's cloud after US regulators and lawmakers cited...

After Western sanctions piled onto Russia’s economy because of the Ukraine invasion, the country slashed its oil prices, leading to increased buying interest from nations like China and India.

From the Russian oil price cap to a shooting in Copenhagen – Here's your July 4 news briefing

A gunman killed and wounded several people at a shooting at the Field’s shopping center in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sunday.

For some, returning to the office (even if it’s only part-time) has been dreadful. For others, it’s been a welcome return to normalcy. But for almost everyone, returning to the...

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, meaning US states could make abortion laws as strict as they want, several large companies, including Google, Bumble, Buzzfeed, JP Morgan, Goldman...

During the G7 summit, Western leaders came together and, among other things, agreed to cap the price of Russian oil and pipeline gas.

From Xi landing in Hong Kong to Putin's response to Finland and Sweden's NATO entry – Here's your July 1 news briefing

In Iceland, Climeworks, a Swiss climate tech company, just broke ground on its largest facility for sucking carbon dioxide from the air. The new plant, named Mammoth, is one of...

The US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday to limit the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate carbon emissions coming from power plants.

On Wednesday, in a historic move, NATO officially invited Sweden and Finland to join the Western security alliance, expanding the bloc further east.

After nearly 900 days in mainland China, President Xi has left for the neighboring semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong to celebrate the city's 25th anniversary of Chinese rule.

From China's real estate sector bottoming out to people deleting period tracking apps – Here's your June 30 news briefing

After the Supreme Court in the US overturned the constitutional right for women to get an abortion, many Americans found themselves deleting apps designed to help them keep track of...

It's been some time since we've spoken about the struggling Chinese real estate sector. Just a quick recap: a lot of Chinese developers expanded rapidly over the past few decades...

Since the early 2000s, allegations of sexual abuse have swirled around R&B singer R. Kelly, alleging that he had abused both women and children. A trial in 2008 saw him...

There's this index that ranks the most expensive cities in the world to help companies and governments figure out how much to pay expats. It sorts rankings based on things...

From Sri Lanka's gas crisis to dating app burnout – Here's your June 29 news briefing

Sri Lanka decided Monday to temporarily restrict fuel supply and halt gasoline sales to non-essential vehicles, essentially forcing people to stay home and go virtual for the next two weeks....

Have you ever found yourself swiping and swiping through dating apps like Tinder or Bumble just to feel burned out from the same old, same old and never getting into...

Ghislaine Maxwell is a name synonymous with Jeffrey Epstein – an American financier and convicted sex offender accused of running a “vast network” of underage girls for sex.

Without the agreement of all NATO members, new countries can't join the security group. With that, Turkey, a key NATO member, has previously said that if Sweden and Finland sought...

From Australia and France making nice again to Russia's debt default – Here's your June 28 news briefing

You’ve probably heard the story about the old lady who lives in a shoe, and you may know about the Hobbits who live in the sides of hills. But did...

On Sunday, Russia defaulted on its nation's foreign-currency debt for the first time in a century because of Western sanctions that essentially made it impossible for the country to pay...

On Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the bloc would increase the number of troops at high readiness from around 40,000 to more than 300,000 troops, citing an increased...

In September last year, Australia finalized a deal called AUKUS with the US and the UK, which would help the Aussies develop nuclear submarines. While this is all fine and...

From the first day of the G7 Summit to Hong Kong's Jumbo Kingdom mystery – Here's your June 27 news briefing

Jumbo Kingdom, a historic Hong Kong boat restaurant that had been host to everyone from Queen Elizabeth and Jimmy Carter to Tom Cruise and Bruce Lee, sank in the sea...

The price of precious metals, most notably copper, is on the downhill slide right now, and experts are saying it’s just going to get worse.

On Friday, the US Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade court decision recognizing women's constitutional right to an abortion, essentially giving states the power to make abortion laws...

Last year, the G7 committed to ending direct international financing of fossil fuel projects by the end of this year to try and fight climate change. But, since then, the...

From John Lee's comments on Hong Kong travel to the FDA banning Juul vapes – here's your June 24 news briefing

Have you ever BS’d your way through a conversation so well that 10 minutes in, you realize you’re still talking and have no idea what you’re talking about? Well, according...

A report released on Thursday by the government of Western Australia has brought to light some horrific and dark corners of the nation’s multibillion-dollar mining industry, where workers are often...

Throughout the pandemic, Hong Kong has kept some of the strictest COVID rules in the world as it keeps to its dynamic zero COVID strategy. This stance has led to...

The FDA in the US is cracking down on vaping companies, with Juul being the most visibly in the regulatory arm’s crosshairs. Most recently, it ordered all of Juul’s e-cigarettes...

From Afghanistan's deadly earthquake to the BRICS summit – Here's your June 23 news briefing

Be real: how many times have you been on a Zoom call with a button-up shirt or a nice blouse (and, of course, sweatpants or gym shorts off-camera) so that...

Putin is set to join a meeting Thursday with members of BRICS, a group including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that sees itself as a voice for developing...

After a horrific bout of mass shootings in New York, Texas, California and Oklahoma, the US Senate is fast-tracking a bill that, if passed, will be the most significant gun...

An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 has hit Afghanistan and killed over 1000 people, injuring an estimated 1500 more, with officials saying that the death toll is expected to rise. The...

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