The actor and comedian, posting on X, said that ‘unlike in today’s universities’ the military would teach young people ‘how truly great their country is’ The actor and comedian Rob Schneider has urged the US to “restore the military draft for our nation’s young people” amid the ongoing war with Iran. Posting on X, Schneider, 62, who has not served in the military, wrote : Continue reading...
The actor and comedian, posting on X, said that ‘unlike in today’s universities’ the military would teach young people ‘how truly great their country is’ The actor and comedian Rob Schneider has urged the US to “restore the military draft for our nation’s young people” amid the ongoing war with Iran. Posting on X, Schneider, 62, who has not served in the military, wrote : Continue reading...
Photo: IC Photo China’s deposit insurance fund spent the least in six years on bank risk resolution in 2025, even as efforts to deal with troubled smaller lenders continued. The fund spent 13.6 billion yuan ($2 billion) on risk resolution last year, according to data released Friday by the People’s Bank of China. That marked a sharp drop from 103.1 billion yuan in 2020 and 91.1 billion yuan in 202...
Photo: IC Photo China’s deposit insurance fund spent the least in six years on bank risk resolution in 2025, even as efforts to deal with troubled smaller lenders continued. The fund spent 13.6 billion yuan ($2 billion) on risk resolution last year, according to data released Friday by the People’s Bank of China. That marked a sharp drop from 103.1 billion yuan in 2020 and 91.1 billion yuan in 2022. The fund was deployed in major risk cases in those years, including Baoshang Bank Co. Ltd. and Liaoyang Rural Commercial Bank Co. Ltd.
China’s young city dwellers have embraced a quirky new dating trend known as “city work,” where couples enhance their romantic evenings by riding e-bikes and delivering takeaways. This innovative approach allows them to combat burnout while earning a little extra cash. Departing from the traditional “Beijing drifter” dating style characterised by lavish dinners, couples are now opting for a fun tw...
China’s young city dwellers have embraced a quirky new dating trend known as “city work,” where couples enhance their romantic evenings by riding e-bikes and delivering takeaways. This innovative approach allows them to combat burnout while earning a little extra cash. Departing from the traditional “Beijing drifter” dating style characterised by lavish dinners, couples are now opting for a fun twist: delivering meals together after a long workday. For many, life has morphed into a monotonous...
Aarti Holla-Maini, of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs, is primed and ready should a planetary strike occur – and just over 12 months ago, she thought it might The UN official had trained for this moment. She had run drills and table-top exercises at her offices in Vienna, housed inside a grey and unassuming 1970s concrete tower complex next to the Danube River. Aarti Holla-Maini, a British...
Aarti Holla-Maini, of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs, is primed and ready should a planetary strike occur – and just over 12 months ago, she thought it might The UN official had trained for this moment. She had run drills and table-top exercises at her offices in Vienna, housed inside a grey and unassuming 1970s concrete tower complex next to the Danube River. Aarti Holla-Maini, a British lawyer with a background in the satellite business, needed to have at least played out the scenario step by step. As the director of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), she was required to know exactly what she was expected to do if – and it was a big if – she were informed that a significantly large asteroid was on a possible collision course with Earth. Or, as she says with a laugh: “Armageddon.” Continue reading...
Inside a mock control tower next to Hong Kong International Airport, a virtual near-miss plays out on multi-panel screens. A passenger jet descends in the computer-generated sky, seconds away from landing when suddenly, a barely visible object trundles along the edge of the runway and onto the aircraft’s path. The simulation bears an uncanny and coincidental resemblance to a tragedy that unfolded ...
Inside a mock control tower next to Hong Kong International Airport, a virtual near-miss plays out on multi-panel screens. A passenger jet descends in the computer-generated sky, seconds away from landing when suddenly, a barely visible object trundles along the edge of the runway and onto the aircraft’s path. The simulation bears an uncanny and coincidental resemblance to a tragedy that unfolded at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, where an Air Canada Express jet with 76 people on board smashed into a fire truck shortly after landing on March 22. The force of that crash obliterated the cockpit, killing the two pilots and demolishing the emergency services vehicle trying to cross the runway. On the virtual runway in Hong Kong, well before the trajectories of the passenger jet and ground object intersect, artificial intelligence steps in. A computerized interface instantly identifies and tags the aircraft with its flight number and marks the unexpected object on the tarmac as an airport vehicle, flashing a warning to a human controller. The simulation is part of a training program for an AI-powered system actively deployed at Hong Kong’s airport. Combining advanced software with data from hardware inputs like high-resolution cameras, it’s designed to prevent incidents like the fatal collision in New York. “Imagine how difficult it is for someone to spot a vehicle on the runway,” said Wesley Yung , chief air traffic control officer at Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department, as he points out the moving objects on the screen. “You may not be able to see it, but the system will tell you: Don’t land anyone there.” The disaster at LaGuardia, the third major commercial aviation accident in the US in 15 months, has exposed the shortcomings of an industry under tremendous strain. The aviation business has lurched from one crisis to the next over the past few years, from the pandemic and mangled supply chains to a new war in the Persian Gulf that has upended air travel. At one...
Slumped on the pavement, she wasn’t breathing – and I wouldn’t have realised if I’d been listening to music as usual. Time to stop blotting out the world … For years I walked the streets of London wearing noise-cancelling headphones, absorbed in playlists, politics podcasts or long voice notes from friends, and a million miles away from wherever I was. One damp January evening last year, I was wal...
Slumped on the pavement, she wasn’t breathing – and I wouldn’t have realised if I’d been listening to music as usual. Time to stop blotting out the world … For years I walked the streets of London wearing noise-cancelling headphones, absorbed in playlists, politics podcasts or long voice notes from friends, and a million miles away from wherever I was. One damp January evening last year, I was walking home from my parents’ house, headphones dead in my bag, when I noticed a small figure slumped on the pavement with her eyes closed . I might not have noticed her had I been in my own world, fixated on what was playing in my ears. I asked for her name. “Can you hear me?” I tried several times, my voice tightening. She didn’t respond, and worse, she didn’t seem to be breathing. My mind raced back to the one first aid class I took in school, but drawing a blank and worried that I might get it wrong, I dialled 999 and frantically tried to figure out if I could feel her pulse. Continue reading...
The government’s plan was clear and effective, and communities have eagerly followed its guidance – with young people leading the way Roughly six years ago, the UK went into its first lockdown as an emergency response to Covid-19. Since then, the government’s many Covid policies, from severe restrictions on our movement to the test-and-trace debacle, have been picked apart. One of the questions I ...
The government’s plan was clear and effective, and communities have eagerly followed its guidance – with young people leading the way Roughly six years ago, the UK went into its first lockdown as an emergency response to Covid-19. Since then, the government’s many Covid policies, from severe restrictions on our movement to the test-and-trace debacle, have been picked apart. One of the questions I am most often asked is whether we’re better prepared for the next pandemic. It’s been tricky to answer. Although we learned much from the experience that should mean we’re better placed next time around, the stringent measures taken from 2020 to early 2022 have contributed to a backlash against public-health interventions, scientific research and vaccines, which coincides with declining trust in government after various political scandals. Colleagues and I have often wondered: if we did face another disease spreading in Britain, would anyone listen to experts? Or is the public too far gone in its fatigue and distrust? So when the health alarm bells started ringing about an outbreak of meningitis in Kent , there was concern about what this would mean in terms of the public response. Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...
If you’re the glass-half-full type, you should be overjoyed at the news coming out of Yale School of Public Health. But pessimists like me? We’re stuffed There’s bad news for me and my fellow Eeyores (there always is): a positive mindset could help you age better. Research led by Prof Becca Levy of the Yale School of Public Health interrogated over-65s on their attitudes to ageing , following them...
If you’re the glass-half-full type, you should be overjoyed at the news coming out of Yale School of Public Health. But pessimists like me? We’re stuffed There’s bad news for me and my fellow Eeyores (there always is): a positive mindset could help you age better. Research led by Prof Becca Levy of the Yale School of Public Health interrogated over-65s on their attitudes to ageing , following them for up to 12 years, and found that those with positive beliefs about ageing were more likely to be in the 45% whose physical or cognitive function improved over the study period. If you’re a glass-half-full type, you’re probably thinking that nearly half of the over-65s studied upping their physical or cognitive performance over a period of years seems like great news. As the research says: “If this finding was extrapolated to the entire US population, it would suggest that more than 26 million older persons are experiencing an improvement in functioning.” And yes, even I have to admit that this is a heartening and stereotype-busting surprise. Continue reading...
A New York congressional primary is exposing the gap between Democrats who want to fight Trump and Democrats who want to fight for something The Democratic party seems more united than it has been in years, thanks to one man: Donald Trump. Opposition to his presidency has papered over what would otherwise be serious disagreements about economic policy, civil liberties, foreign affairs, and the rol...
A New York congressional primary is exposing the gap between Democrats who want to fight Trump and Democrats who want to fight for something The Democratic party seems more united than it has been in years, thanks to one man: Donald Trump. Opposition to his presidency has papered over what would otherwise be serious disagreements about economic policy, civil liberties, foreign affairs, and the role of corporate money in politics. As long as Democrats can point to Trump as the common enemy, their coalition holds, and the ideological conflicts that once defined the party during the 2016 primary or the battles over the Gaza genocide during the Joe Biden years now feel like a thing of the past. But those divisions haven’t disappeared – and in New York’s 10th congressional district, they’re beginning to surface again. Continue reading...