Computer says no. Are AI interviews making it harder to get a job? Bhuvana Chilukuri has sent more than 100 job applications and is convinced very few have been seen by a human.
Computer says no. Are AI interviews making it harder to get a job? Bhuvana Chilukuri has sent more than 100 job applications and is convinced very few have been seen by a human.
Political donations by companies should be banned to protect UK elections from foreign interference, a thinktank has warned. In the first big overhaul of election funding in 26 years, ministers have pledged to “keep British democracy safe” by closing a loophole that allows individuals not eligible to vote in Britain to donate to political parties through UK-registered companies. The representation...
Political donations by companies should be banned to protect UK elections from foreign interference, a thinktank has warned. In the first big overhaul of election funding in 26 years, ministers have pledged to “keep British democracy safe” by closing a loophole that allows individuals not eligible to vote in Britain to donate to political parties through UK-registered companies. The representation of the people bill, being debated in parliament, will oblige corporate donors to show they are controlled by UK electors or citizens. However, in a report published today, the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) claims the new legislation will not solve the problem. Sebastian Gazmuri-Barker, a senior legal analyst at CenTax, said the bill’s proposed tests “contain loopholes that are easily exploitable”. “Parliament should either ban corporate donations outright or significantly strengthen the approach,” he said. By matching the name of companies declared as donors to ownership records, researchers at the thinktank found that between 2001 and 2024, over 4000 companies had donated £293m, with big surges ahead of general elections. Almost £1 in every £10 came from corporations controlled by individuals who would not have been eligible to donate directly. CenTax found their donations were on average almost twice as large as those from companies with UK-eligible owners. The estimates are likely to be conservative, since the true extent of foreign interference is obscured by opaque corporate structures. The researchers found a quarter of the money was not traceable because the owner of the company could not be identified. “The bill’s reforms are easy to dodge,” the report states. Details of company ownership are kept at Companies House, where data has been criticised as unreliable and incomplete. CenTax is critical of the fact that the new legislation will continue to rely on Companies House data rather than obliging the Electoral Commission to collect the information. ...
The UK is to double tariffs on Chinese and other foreign steel in a bid to save its remaining plants from collapse. The new “steel safeguards” came weeks after bosses at Tata Steel in south Wales warned the government they had just two months to be saved. A target of 50% of steel used in the UK will be made domestically, and 50% of that is to be made in Wales, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, s...
The UK is to double tariffs on Chinese and other foreign steel in a bid to save its remaining plants from collapse. The new “steel safeguards” came weeks after bosses at Tata Steel in south Wales warned the government they had just two months to be saved. A target of 50% of steel used in the UK will be made domestically, and 50% of that is to be made in Wales, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, said during a visit to Tata Steel in Port Talbot. The new £2.5bn strategy aims to increase domestic production by 30%. From July, quotas on imports of many overseas steel products will be slashed by 60%, and duties outside those quotas will be raised to 50%. “This is a very strident set of protections for British [steel] production to equal out the unfair competitive behaviour elsewhere that doesn’t create a level playing field for British steel,” said Kyle. The new strategy would “align with investment for the transition to green steel, but also investments in other areas that make sure our domestic production matches the best in the world,” he added. The measures bring the UK in line with recent moves by the US, EU and Canada in response to a surfeit of steel from China, which is by far the world’s largest producer. Chinese steel exports hit an all-time high in December. The current steel safeguards date back to a time before the UK left the EU and expire on 1 July. The EU has also proposed doubling its tariffs to 50% and halving the quota with third countries in Europe, including the UK. The EU and UK are expected to seek carve-outs with each other featuring lower tariffs as they unite in the fight against cheaper Chinese steel. The latest steel strategy is an attempt to protect what remains of the UK’s steel industry after decades of contraction. The last Port Talbot blast furnace closed in 2024, after Tata was given a £500m rescue package to transition to electric arc furnaces, at a loss of 2,800 jobs. Work has begun on the new, greener furnaces, which melt scrap metal;...
Social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok, which encourage algorithm-driven scrolling, are worse for mental health than platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, which prioritise social connection, according to an annual barometer of global happiness. The World Happiness Report found excessive use of social media was causing unhappiness among young people across the world, although the impact ...
Social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok, which encourage algorithm-driven scrolling, are worse for mental health than platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, which prioritise social connection, according to an annual barometer of global happiness. The World Happiness Report found excessive use of social media was causing unhappiness among young people across the world, although the impact was worse in English-speaking countries and western Europe. Overall happiness levels in the UK were at the lowest level since the report was first published in 2012. The report, led by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, also found the type of social media used and duration of use had a significant impact on user wellbeing. A study across 17 countries in Latin America found frequent use of WhatsApp and Facebook was associated with higher life satisfaction, while use of X, Instagram and TikTok – which are more heavily dictated by algorithms and influencer content – led to lower happiness and mental health problems. Another study in the Middle East and north Africa also found apps that were more passive and visual, often filled with influencer content, were more problematic. “It suggests we need to put the social back into social media, and nudge both the providers of these platforms, as well as the users, to leverage these tools for social purposes and connecting with real people,” said Prof Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the Wellbeing Research Centre and an editor of the report. Research also showed that limited social media use of an hour or less a day led to higher life satisfaction than no social media use at all (excluding people who did not have access to the internet). “There’s a bit of a Goldilocks proposition here – not too much, not too little. Positive moderate use seems to be optimal,” De Neve said. “But the average social media usage time in the data was not an hour or less, it’s more like two-and-a-half hours.” De Neve said these findi...
On the chessboard, black and white pieces are lined up against each other for an unrelenting battle. But in the middle ages, the game was not a metaphor for racial tension – but often a vehicle for equality and mutual respect, research has found. Analysis of medieval manuscripts, paintings and chess sets by University of Cambridge historian Dr Krisztina Ilko has revealed a vision of a “just world”...
On the chessboard, black and white pieces are lined up against each other for an unrelenting battle. But in the middle ages, the game was not a metaphor for racial tension – but often a vehicle for equality and mutual respect, research has found. Analysis of medieval manuscripts, paintings and chess sets by University of Cambridge historian Dr Krisztina Ilko has revealed a vision of a “just world” where intellectual exchange – and not race or religion – mattered most. Libro de axedrez, an illustrated 13th-century treatise on chess produced for King Alfonso X of Castile, features dozens of depictions of players from Africa, the Middle East and Asia that defy preconceptions of medieval social attitudes. In one scene, a Black player is depicted on a finely decorated bench, a bottle of wine close at hand, about to defeat his white opponent in a friendly game. In another image, one of four Mongol men – often depicted as violent warriors in the medieval imagination – leans casually on his sabre, his weapon more ornament than threat, with combat confined to the checkered board. A Muslim and a Jewish player sit down to a game in another scene from Libro de axedrez, just one text that reveals that while political conflict, religious differences and medieval notions of race were a fact of life, chess offered a way of bridging divides. View image in fullscreen A Jewish chess player playing against a Muslim chess player. Chess problem 102 in the Libro de axedrez, dados e tablas (Seville, 1283). Photograph: Patrimonio Nacional In her paper, Ilko writes that rather than projecting “some sort of fictitious image of an egalitarian medieval society which could put aside racial prejudices”, chess was “an imaginary space that did not eradicate preconceived social norms and hierarchies but rather empowered players to challenge them”. Ilko said: “When people with non-white skin colour are depicted in medieval images, scholars have tended to see them in either exalted or subdued position...
The UK has oodles of doodles but a study might offer paws for thought: researchers have found some of these designer crossbreed dogs show more behavioural problems than the pure breeds from which they derive. Crosses between poodles and other dog breeds have become increasingly popular in the UK, with research suggesting the trend is – at least in part – driven by the expectation such dogs will be...
The UK has oodles of doodles but a study might offer paws for thought: researchers have found some of these designer crossbreed dogs show more behavioural problems than the pure breeds from which they derive. Crosses between poodles and other dog breeds have become increasingly popular in the UK, with research suggesting the trend is – at least in part – driven by the expectation such dogs will be hypoallergenic, healthy and good with children. However, the study has found cockapoos, produced by crossing cocker spaniels and poodles, and cavapoos, crosses between cavalier king charles spaniels and poodles, display more undesirable behaviours than their namesake pure breeds. “The results of this study highlight the importance of owners thoroughly exploring the characteristics of any breed or crossbreed during pre-purchase research to avoid misinformed breed selection,” the authors of the study write in the journal Plos One. The team, led by researchers at the Royal Veterinary College, analysed data from 3,424 crossbreed and 5,978 purebred dogs collected via an online questionnaire of owners of cockapoo, labradoodle, cavapoo, cocker spaniel, labrador retriever, cavalier king charles spaniel and poodle dogs. View image in fullscreen Cavapoos scored differently to poodles on three of the scales, and worse than cavalier king charles spaniels on eight of the nine scales on which they differed. Photograph: Steve Clancy Photography/Getty Images The questionnaire asked owners about themselves, their expectations of their dogs, and how they trained them. It also included 73 questions about their dogs’ behaviour that were used to generate ratings on 12 different behaviour scales. Cockapoos scored differently to poodles on six of the scales, showing more undesirable behaviour for owner-directed aggression, stranger-directed aggression, dog rivalry, non-social fear – such as fear of traffic and novel objects – and for separation-related problems and excitability. The same results...
Labubus are Pop Mart's most popular toys. Part of their appeal is that they are sold in blind boxes - buyers don't know which Labubu they are getting until they open the package.
Labubus are Pop Mart's most popular toys. Part of their appeal is that they are sold in blind boxes - buyers don't know which Labubu they are getting until they open the package.
(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has tracked higher in three straight sessions, collecting more than 150 points or 3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 5,000-point plateau although it's due for consolidation on Thursday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets we...
(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has tracked higher in three straight sessions, collecting more than 150 points or 3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 5,000-point plateau although it's due for consolidation on Thursday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion. The STI finished sharply higher on Wednesday with gains across the board, especially among the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues. For the day, the index vaulted 66.20 points or 1.34 percent to finish at 5,002.17 after trading between 4,938.23 and 5,017.00. Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT perked 0.39 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gained 0.84 percent, CapitaLand Investment added 1.05 percent, City Developments rallied 2.67 percent, DBS Group improved 1.19 percent, Hongkong Land was up 0.35 percent, Keppel DC REIT advanced 1.32 percent, Keppel Ltd spiked 3.66 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust rose 0.73 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust gathered 0.50 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation expanded 1.66 percent, SATS vaulted 2.19 percent, Seatrium Limited elevated 1.26 percent, SembCorp Industries surged 4.27 percent, Singapore Airlines climbed 1.52 percent, Singapore Exchange accelerated 3.36 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering strengthened 1.55 percent, SingTel sank 0.77 percent, Thai Beverage jumped 2.27 percent, United Overseas Bank and Frasers Centrepoint Trust both collected 0.89 percent, UOL Group skyrocketed 4.94 percent, Wilmar International increased 0.52 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding soared 3.79 percent and DFI Retail Group, Genting Singapore, Mapletree Logistics Trust and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged. The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and m...
In this article 6758.T-JP SONY 9992-HK HSBC Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Labubu dolls are on display at a Pop Mart store in Shanghai, China. Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images Collectible toy maker and IP powerhouse Pop Mart is teaming up with Sony Pictures to bring its wildly popular Labubu doll to movie theaters. The live-action and CGI hybrid film is in early development...
In this article 6758.T-JP SONY 9992-HK HSBC Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Labubu dolls are on display at a Pop Mart store in Shanghai, China. Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images Collectible toy maker and IP powerhouse Pop Mart is teaming up with Sony Pictures to bring its wildly popular Labubu doll to movie theaters. The live-action and CGI hybrid film is in early development, according to a press release on Thursday. Filmmaker Paul King, best known for 2014's "Paddington" and "Wonka" from 2023, will produce, direct and co-write the script with screenwriter Steven Levenson. The now-iconic Labubu character was created by artist Kasing Lung as part of "The Monsters" toy universe, and later became one of Pop Mart's signature "blind box" hits , gifts packaged in such a way that shoppers don't know exactly what they're buying until after they've completed their purchase. Labubu hit peak popularity in the summer of 2025 as sales on the secondary market skyrocketed. But the hype began to quickly fade as sales from resellers lost steam as Pop Mart — a Chinese company — ramped up toy production to meet consumer demand. At the time, Pop Mart told CNBC the fall in resale prices would benefit the company. According to data supplied to CNBC by Pop Mart, in the first half of 2025, products from "The Monsters" series made up 34.7% of Pop Mart's revenue, followed by the Molly series, a figurine of a wide-eyed, pouty-lipped girl at 9.8% and Skull Panda, a dark, gothic-themed character at 8.8%. Franchise expansion In a February 2026 report, HSBC analysts warned that the Labubu frenzy could lessen and Pop Mart's earnings could fall, writing: "We expect 2026 growth to normalize after dissecting the Labubu growth risk, leading to 11% to 13% cut in 26-27 earnings." Now, as Pop Mart looks for ways to keep the franchise momentum going, the company says the collaboration marks a major step in expanding "The Monsters" from collectibles into a big-screen story. Movies ar...
The UK government said it will hike tariffs on steel imports and cut import quotas, as it seeks to boost the country’s ailing domestic steel industry amid fierce global competition. Quota levels for steel imports will be reduced by 60% compared to current arrangements from July 1, and tariffs on steel imports outside of the quota will increase to 50% from 25%, the Department for Business and Trade...
The UK government said it will hike tariffs on steel imports and cut import quotas, as it seeks to boost the country’s ailing domestic steel industry amid fierce global competition. Quota levels for steel imports will be reduced by 60% compared to current arrangements from July 1, and tariffs on steel imports outside of the quota will increase to 50% from 25%, the Department for Business and Trade said in an e-mailed statement. Britain’s steel sector has been in long-term structural decline, as domestic producers have struggled to compete with cheaper imports, especially from China , while also being hit by headwinds such as US President Donald Trump’s tariff wars. The government took control of British Steel last year when it faced the prospect of closure, a collapse that risked thousands of jobs and would’ve left the UK as the only Group of Seven nation without primary steel-making operations. UK Mulls Options to Retaliate Against European Steel Tariffs (1) EU Sees US Easing Impact of Metals Tariffs in Coming Weeks (1) ArcelorMittal Sees European Steel Tariffs Restoring Profits (2) EU to Propose Doubling Tariff Rate on Steel Imports to 50% (2) “Making steel in the UK is vital for national security, critical infrastructure and the wider economy,” Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said in the statement. “We are closing the decades-long chapter of destructive de-industrialisation and committing instead to strengthening and sustaining Britain as a steel-making nation.” The UK’s move follows similar decisions by the European Union, Canada and the US to raise tariffs on steel imports, which have also been spurred by concerns about subsidized Chinese imports. As part of its wider steel strategy, the UK government said it wanted up to 50% of steel used in Britain to be made in Britain, compared to 30% currently. “With global markets distorted by overcapacity and subsidy, a clear and ambitious domestic strategy is exactly what is required,” said Gareth Stace , direct...
Derek Owusu and Seán Hewitt are among the writers shortlisted for this year’s Swansea University Dylan Thomas prize. Harriet Armstrong, Colwill Brown, Sasha Debevec-McKenney and Suzannah V Evans also made the shortlist for the £20,000 award, which celebrates fiction in any form – including novels, short stories, poetry and drama – by writers aged 39 or under, in honour of the Welsh poet Dylan Thom...
Derek Owusu and Seán Hewitt are among the writers shortlisted for this year’s Swansea University Dylan Thomas prize. Harriet Armstrong, Colwill Brown, Sasha Debevec-McKenney and Suzannah V Evans also made the shortlist for the £20,000 award, which celebrates fiction in any form – including novels, short stories, poetry and drama – by writers aged 39 or under, in honour of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who died at that age. Comprising four novels and two poetry collections, the books on the “galvanising” shortlist “have profound things to say about the ways we live and what it means to be human”, said author and judging panel chair, Irenosen Okojie. Two of the six shortlisted authors have previously been nominated for the award. British-Irish poet and memoirist Hewitt, nominated in 2025 for his poetry collection, Rapture’s Road, has been chosen again for his debut novel, Open, Heaven – a portrait of gay first love, described in the Guardian by Sarah Perry as a “tender, skilled and epiphanic work”. Owusu, a 2023 prize nominee, is shortlisted for Borderline Fiction, which follows a young black man navigating a series of relationships and coming to terms with mental health difficulties. Praised in the Guardian as “disarmingly poignant”, it is his third novel. Armstrong, the youngest shortlisted author at just 25, is in the running with To Rest Our Minds and Bodies, a darkly comic campus novel grappling with gen Z gender relations and mental health, in which Armstrong “expertly adumbrates the emotional intensity and vulnerability of first love”, according to Guardian reviewer Jude Cook. Brown, too, is recognised for her debut novel, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, about three working-class girls growing up in Doncaster, set between the late 90s and 2015. Brown’s novel “feels essential … you will probably read nothing else like it this year”, wrote Catherine Taylor in the Guardian. Both poetry collections on the shortlist come from debut authors: American poet Debevec-McKenney,...
Russia’s defence ministry has released footage of its fighter jets carrying Kinzhal hypersonic missiles conducting exercises over the Sea of Japan , or East Sea, with the move interpreted as a message to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ahead of her talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington. The video shows a MiG-31 with a Kinzhal missile slung beneath its fuselage, with the ministr...
Russia’s defence ministry has released footage of its fighter jets carrying Kinzhal hypersonic missiles conducting exercises over the Sea of Japan , or East Sea, with the move interpreted as a message to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ahead of her talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington. The video shows a MiG-31 with a Kinzhal missile slung beneath its fuselage, with the ministry saying the aircraft was one of several that carried out manoeuvres off Japan’s northern coast. Additional footage shows an aircraft carrying out mid-air refuelling. The ministry said the flights were carried out according to international law, which was understood to mean that none of the aircraft entered Japanese airspace. Advertisement Analysts note that it is unusual for Moscow to highlight its forces’ activities. Tokyo will also not have missed that the Kinzhal can fly at 10 times the speed of sound, has a range exceeding 2,000km and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads. “We have to put this in the context of Russia being frustrated with Japan for supporting the international sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine and, in addition to that, what Moscow sees as Japan building up its military again and getting more and more powerful capabilities,” said James Brown, a professor of international relations specialising in Russian affairs at the Tokyo campus of Temple University. A launch vehicle for the long-range Type 12 Surface-to-Ship Guided Missile is unveiled at the Japan Ground Self-Defence Force’s Kengun Garrison in Kumamoto City on Tuesday. Photo: Jiji Press / AFP According to Brown, Moscow has said it wants to prevent Japan from returning to the military expansionist policies of the 1930s, and remains fiercely opposed to Tokyo revoking the three non-nuclear principles that have guided its defence policy since the end of World War II.
Chinese toymaker Pop Mart and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced on Thursday a feature film starring Labubu , the company’s most popular character. Analysts said the film was a strategic move to extend Labubu’s intellectual property (IP) value and support medium-term growth, following the trajectory of global icons like Barbie and Hello Kitty. The film, still in early development, would be a mi...
Chinese toymaker Pop Mart and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced on Thursday a feature film starring Labubu , the company’s most popular character. Analysts said the film was a strategic move to extend Labubu’s intellectual property (IP) value and support medium-term growth, following the trajectory of global icons like Barbie and Hello Kitty. The film, still in early development, would be a mix of live action and computer-generated imagery, Pop Mart said in a statement. Advertisement Lung Ka-sing , the creator of Labubu, would serve as an executive producer, it said, while Paul King, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts-nominated filmmaker behind Wonka and Paddington, was attached to produce and direct. King would also co-write the script with Tony Award-winner Steven Levenson, the statement said. Lung, born in Hong Kong and raised in the Netherlands, first brought Labubu and The Monsters to life in a picture book series. Advertisement The film project was announced at the Paris stop of a global exhibition tour celebrating The Monsters’ 10th anniversary, according to the company.
"During my treatment, my GP was a lifeline, kind and willing to help. But after the treatment ended it became painfully clear that the system wasn't built to support the complexity of long-term side effects associated with pelvic radiotherapy and I was left to navigate everything alone," Trish said.
"During my treatment, my GP was a lifeline, kind and willing to help. But after the treatment ended it became painfully clear that the system wasn't built to support the complexity of long-term side effects associated with pelvic radiotherapy and I was left to navigate everything alone," Trish said.
A reset in some of emerging Asia’s bond yield curves may be imminent as analysts signal an end to the recent surge in borrowing costs. The faster rise in medium-term yields compared with long-term ones has squeezed the gap between them this month, bear-flattening the bond curve. That’s because investors started pricing in interest-rate hikes to counter the impact of rising oil prices on inflation....
A reset in some of emerging Asia’s bond yield curves may be imminent as analysts signal an end to the recent surge in borrowing costs. The faster rise in medium-term yields compared with long-term ones has squeezed the gap between them this month, bear-flattening the bond curve. That’s because investors started pricing in interest-rate hikes to counter the impact of rising oil prices on inflation. Analysts now forecast those moves to unwind, effectively bull-steepening the yield curve. They expect government fuel subsidies to play a major role in tackling inflation, reducing the need for any hawkish central bank action. “We think Asian rates curves are more likely to bull-steepen or pivotally steepen from here,” Goldman Sachs strategists including Danny Suwanapruti wrote in a note on Saturday. This is supported by the recent bear-flattening of the curve as well as expectations that regional central banks will favor fiscal support over monetary policy, they wrote. Sovereign bond curves in Indonesia, Philippines and South Korea have flattened so far in March. The moves were most pronounced in Indonesia, where the difference in yields between five- and 10-year rupiah government notes have shrunk to the tightest since August. This trend has been driven largely by a quicker rise in mid-dated yields, as investors braced for rate hikes to counter inflation. However, analysts are now forecasting a reversal as regional governments try to rein in the impact of oil prices hovering near $100 a barrel. South Korean authorities have imposed a fuel-price cap for the first time in nearly three decades, while the Philippines announced an allocation of 60 billion pesos ($1 billion) as cash subsidy for public transport drivers. Malaysia ’s government signaled that it will try to hold the subsidized price of the country’s most popular fuel for the next two months. Such fiscal interventions are changing the calculus for traders by moving the focus away from central bank action. “The cur...
Pop Mart International Group Ltd. is bringing Labubu to the big screen, betting that a cinematic storyline can revive interest in the quirky toy as sales growth slows and investor enthusiasm wanes. The Beijing-based toymaker is teaming up with Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. for the project, which will involve director and screenwriter Paul King, according to a statement Thursday. Kasing Lung, th...
Pop Mart International Group Ltd. is bringing Labubu to the big screen, betting that a cinematic storyline can revive interest in the quirky toy as sales growth slows and investor enthusiasm wanes. The Beijing-based toymaker is teaming up with Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. for the project, which will involve director and screenwriter Paul King, according to a statement Thursday. Kasing Lung, the Hong Kong-born artist who created the Labubu character, will serve as executive producer. King — best known for Paddington series and Wonka — will co-write the script with another award-winning screenwriter Steven Levenson. Planned as a hybrid of live-action and computer-generated imagery, the project remains in early development, with financial details and a release timeline yet to be disclosed. The partnership with a major Hollywood studio underscores Pop Mart’s ambition to leverage movies and storytelling to turn the Labubu intellectual property into an enduring franchise while extending its brand beyond toys. Beside selling collectible toys, Pop Mart has opened a themed park in Beijing and launched a jewelry store chain selling pendants and rings engraved with its popular characters. The Labubu doll became a global sensation in 2025, marking a rare instance of Chinese soft power reaching international scale — especially across Western markets including the US and Europe. The runaway popularity of Labubus, embraced by K-pop idols, Hollywood celebrities and ordinary consumers alike, propelled the company’s Hong Kong-listed stocks to an all-time high in August. Yet concerns soon emerged as investors and analysts worried that the Labubu craze might fade, with rising production threatening to dilute the toy’s aura of scarcity. Shares have since retreated more than 30%. In response, Pop Mart has been spotlighting new characters including Twinkle Twinkle and Skullpanda, while founder and Chief Executive Officer Wang Ning pushes to transform the company into a creative platfo...
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