China

For months, investors and C.E.O.s waited anxiously for China to ease up on its Covid restrictions, which burdened the economy and were out of sync with the rest of the world. Stock markets rallied on mere rumors of policy changes. Companies warned that “zero Covid” was hurting business. Now that China has finally started rolling back its strict mix of mass testing, lockdowns and quarantines, its economy is entering a delicate period when it will face a set of challenges that do not fit neatly with other countries’ experiences during the pandemic. Spending by consumers is unlikely to reawaken swiftly after being smothered for so long, analysts say. China faces a severe downturn in housing and must race to vaccinate more of its population, especially seniors. China’s factories, the motor of the country’s commerce with the world, confront weakening demand from key trading partners like the United States and Europe, both of which are staring down possible recessions. The … [Read more...] about How Will China Turn Its Economy Back On? The World Is About to Find Out.

A Fox News medical contributor blamed China for the ongoing national drug shortage Wednesday, adding that the Food and Drug Administration is “sitting limply by” and not working to address the crisis. “Don’t think the FDA is actually doing anything about this, they’re sitting limply by. The story begins and ends in China tonight because those lock downs, those ridiculous lock downs, COVID-zero policies, cut off the supply chains,” Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical professor at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Tucker Carlson. “And we get, according to U.S. census, we get 95% of our imported ibuprofen from China and 74% of our Tylenol and almost all of our antibiotics. So now, what has happened? They relieve the lockdowns and in China, people are scrambling to the pharmacies trying to find Tylenol, trying to find Motrin. We’re not going to get it because they’re hoarding it over there.” (RELATED: US Must Take Back Pharma Production From China) Siegel noted that part of the problem was … [Read more...] about Medical Expert Blames China For National Drug Shortage, Tells Tucker Carlson The FDA Is ‘Sitting Limply By’

BERLIN (AP) — The former chief executive of financial services company Wirecard and two other ex-managers went on trial Thursday over the firm's collapse in what has been described as the biggest case of fraud in post-war Germany. Wirecard was long the darling of Germany's fintech scene until it filed insolvency proceedings in 2020, saying 1.9 billion euros that had been on its balance sheet could not be found. The case exposed flaws in Germany's financial oversight bodies and embarrassed then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had lobbied on behalf of the company during a visit to China. Prosecutors in Munich allege that ex-CEO Markus Braun signed off on financial reports he knew were false. The firm allegedly booked nonexistent revenue it attributed to multiple partnerships in other countries and used fake documents to show it had funds that it did not, they said. The firm’s former head of accounting and the managing director of a Dubai-based subsidiary are also on trial. The … [Read more...] about Ex-Wirecard boss on trial in fraud case that shamed Germany

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails The US state of Maryland has banned its agencies from using TikTok and other Chinese and Russian platforms, after reports that China ’s state-backed hackers allegedly stole millions of Covid relief funds in the US. Maryland’s governor Larry Hogan issued an emergency directive on Tuesday prohibiting the use of Chinese and Russian products and platforms including the social media app TikTok, the message app WeChat, as well as Russia ’s Kaspersky cybersecurity software. The governor’s office noted that these products and platforms “present an unacceptable level of cybersecurity risk” to the state, adding that they may be involved in cyber-espionage, and surveillance of government entities, or in the inappropriate collection of sensitive personal information. “There may be no greater threat to our personal … [Read more...] about The US state where TikTok has been banned — but only for certain users

Chinese citizens rejoiced on Wednesday after Beijing scrapped its most restrictive COVID-19 testing and quarantine rules, Reuters reported, citing social media posts. Among the changes announced Wednesday, city officials will no longer have the power to shut down parts of the city, most testing requirements will be rescinded and patients with mild symptoms will be allowed to isolate at home, according to The Wall Street Journal. The sweeping roll-back of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Zero-Covid policy is the most extensive yet since thousands of Chinese demonstrated against the lockdowns and shouted for Xi to step down. “It’s time for our lives to return to normal, and for China to return to the world,” wrote one user on Chinese social media platform Weibo, according to Reuters. (RELATED: Nearly Half Of Americans Say Biden Should Support China’s Protesters, Condemn CCP’s ‘Authoritarian Regime’: POLL) The government has not formally tied a loosening in pandemic … [Read more...] about Chinese People Rejoice After Xi Backs Down, Eases COVID Lockdowns

The “revelation” that former President Donald Trump supports the “ termination ” of the U.S. Constitution—if that’s what it takes to make him president again—is hardly worthy of the name. Trump’s comment —which he posted to Truth Social on Saturday and vehemently denied on Monday—is a slightly more explicit rejection of constitutional constraints than he’s ventured in the past. But it’s perfectly in line with his longstanding opposition to any inviolable limits on state power when that power is in his own hands, or at least wielded for his benefit. That Trump has never cared about the Constitution is the most obvious thing in the world. This apathy was evident well before Trump formally entered politics. One early indicator was his disturbing affection for eminent domain, the government’s authority to take private property for public use provided it makes “just compensation” to the owner. Eminent domain is grounded in the Fifth Amendment, so the bare concept … [Read more...] about Donald Trump Doesn’t Respect (or Even Understand) the Constitution

Nikenike Vurobaravu presides over a tiny country with a large hand in climate diplomacy. Rising sea levels threaten the very existence of his Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu and its population of just over 300,000 people. Its best defense, he says, it to raise its voice creatively in international diplomatic talks. From Vanuatu in 1991 came the idea that industrialized countries should pay for the irreversible climate-induced damage faced by developing countries like his. Last month at the United Nations climate talks in Egypt, an agreement was reached — after 30 years of negotiations — to establish a fund that would help poor countries cope with climate loss and damage. Earlier this year Mr. Vurobaravu used the United Nations General Assembly podium to demand, for the first time, a fossil fuel “nonproliferation treaty .” Now, he is dangling Vanuatu’s most provocative suggestion yet. He wants the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest judicial body, based in The … [Read more...] about Tiny Vanuatu Uses Its ‘Unimportance’ to Launch Big Climate Ideas

Even as the Mexican police jet started its descent into Long Island, Joaquín Guzmán Loera had no idea where he was going. All he knew was that hours earlier, he had been whisked from a prison in Ciudad Juárez and put aboard the plane. But as an airport glimmered on the ground outside his window, Mr. Guzmán — shackled, handcuffed and in the care of two American law enforcement agents — anxiously asked where he was being taken, according to a person briefed on the trip. One of the Americans answered him in Spanish. “Bienvenido á New York,” he said. It was nearly two years ago that Mr. Guzmán, the infamous drug lord known as El Chapo, was extradited from Mexico and flown across the border, ending one of the century’s most notorious criminal careers. As the longtime leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, he wore many guises: the savvy smuggler who packed cocaine in cans of jalapeños , the brutal killer said to have shot up a Puerto Vallarta nightclub and the folklore hero who … [Read more...] about Jailbreaks, Submarines, a Gold-Plated AK-47: El Chapo’s Trial Will Tell an Epic Tale

To have a crack at an international kingpin, undercover officers from Boston and New Hampshire went from the mountains of northern Mexico through the Caribbean to Spain, where they discovered operatives of the powerful Sinaloa cartel setting up new routes and new markets. When it finally ended last year, Operation Dark Water, as the investigation was known, was heralded as a milestone in the fight against the global drug trade. Police officers seized 750 pounds of cocaine and caught four cartel members, including a first cousin to its infamous kingpin, Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán Loera. But for the Sinaloa cartel, a criminal multinational corporation handling billions of dollars, the arrests proved only a minor setback, authorities acknowledged. The cartel has established channels of cooperation with so many European criminal groups, including Sicily’s Cosa Nostra and street gangs in Budapest, that business there continues to boom. On Saturday, Mexican and American authorities … [Read more...] about El Chapo’s Arrest Unlikely to Break Mexican Cartel

SRINAGAR, Kashmir — They come for the biggest tulip garden on the continent. They come for the snow-capped Himalayas. They come for the lakes. They come for the natural beauty that over time has enchanted Hindu kings, Mughal emperors, British colonialists and millions of regular people. Tourists have returned in droves to Jammu and Kashmir, in what India calls a sign of how it has turned things around in the disputed region, where violent separatists have been active for decades. Three years ago, in a stunning move , India’s Hindu nationalist government cemented control of the Muslim-majority area, saying that would finally bring peace. “The region was a terrorist hot spot,” Amit Shah, India’s powerful home minister and a key lieutenant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said recently. “Now it has become a tourist hot spot.” But what lures visitors to the area offers only a brief escape for many residents, who remain stuck in an old cycle of fear, desperation and uncertainty. … [Read more...] about A Surge in Tourists in Restive Kashmir, but ‘No Mental Peace’ for Residents