Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Japan has accepted some 2,300 Ukrainians under the status of evacuees. This is an unprecedented number for a country that in 2021 accepted 74 refugees from around the world. Iuliia Iarmolenko tells the story of one Ukrainian family in Japan. (Videographer: Susumu Miyazu, Justyna Feicht; Produced by Oleksii Osyka, Anna Rice) Voice of America
Receive free Global Economy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Global Economy news every morning. Sri Lanka’s cabinet has approved a proposal to restructure the bankrupt country’s domestic debts of $42bn, a controversial decision that the government says is necessary to comply with the terms of its IMF bailout. Sri Lanka, which defaulted on its foreign debt last year, secured a $3bn, four-year lending programme with the fund in March and is in negotiations with creditors including China, India and Japan to restructure…
As deadly heatwaves sweep through cities in India, China, the US and Europe amid the climate crisis, new research has found that rising temperatures are associated with a substantial rise in domestic violence against women. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday found a 1C increase in average annual temperature was connected to a rise of more than 6.3% in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence across three south Asian countries. The study tracked 194,871 girls and women aged 15-49 from India, Pakistan and Nepal between 2010 and…
Myanmar’s junta claims that it has completed a census that accounts for nearly 90% of the population ahead of planned elections, but critics and political analysts say that’s impossible given the turmoil and fighting wracking the country. The military regime, which overthrew the democratically-elected government in February 2021, has said it will hold elections this year, but no date has been set. Western governments and international rights groups say that any election held under the junta is unlikely to be free or fair. Last week, pro-junta media outlets reported that…
Li’s invitation for foreign companies’ participation in tech and science sectors came as Beijing faces a major bottleneck in the development in these areas, including telecommunications, semiconductors and aircraft, as it deals with debilitating restrictions in an intense tech rivalry with Washington. Li, who has been driving China’s economic policy since March, has also been repeating rhetoric to lure foreign investment to China as the country attempts to recover from its years-long zero-Covid policy. Advertisement Yet, foreign business representatives in the meeting with Li said they hoped to see further…
Advertisement China declared in 2021 that it had stamped out extreme poverty. While critics question the self-proclaimed triumph, the central government’s strategy of adjusting cadre appraisals to focus on anti-poverty achievements did have considerable success. Rural incomes improved as local officials were spurred by potential promotions if they hit their targets. At the same time, economic growth – long a mainstay on Chinese cadres’ report cards – has largely taken a backseat. Growth slowed for some counties during the anti-poverty campaign as local officials diverted manpower and financial resources into…
Will the U.S. tighten a cordon around A.I. chips? Shares in high-flying chipmakers like Nvidia and AMD were down in premarket trading today, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration is weighing new restrictions on exporting artificial intelligence-related semiconductors to China. The deliberations underscore the White House’s worries about falling behind in the race to dominate A.I. and the potential for Beijing to use the technology in military applications — and they show that it is willing to tighten the screws on trade to stay ahead. Any…
Seoul — South Korea has for the first time placed sanctions on a former South Korean national for setting up business entities to bypass United Nations Security Council resolutions against North Korea and its nuclear weapons program. Choi Chon Gon is suspected of engaging in illicit financial deals on behalf of Pyongyang, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Wednesday, including co-investing in a Russia-based trade company, Epsilon, with a North Korean. Choi fled South Korea while under investigation by local authorities, Yonhap reports, and is now based in Vladivostok, having acquired Russian…
A joint statement signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in March stated that both countries “expressed concern over the United States’ acceleration of the construction of the global anti-missile system and deployment of anti-missile systems around the world”. Since 2016, Beijing and Moscow have conducted several rounds of computer-simulated anti-missile drills, which China’s defence ministry said “achieved new breakthroughs” in anti-missile cooperation. Advertisement Wu Riqiang, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said though the statement revealed few details, the consultations probably focused on…
Advertising for online gambling should be banned in Australia within three years, a parliamentary inquiry recommended Wednesday, citing serious harm caused by an inescapable “torrent” that is “grooming children”. The inquiry said that partial bans do not work and called for a “phased, comprehensive” ban that “leaves no room for circumvention”. Australians spend more on online gambling than citizens of any other country, the report said, adding that almost half of those surveyed last year had placed a bet on sports or racing. “Online gambling has been deliberately and strategically…