Chinese carriers have captured an expanding slice of the international air travel market for routes connecting Chinese and overseas cities since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data presented at an industry summit in Beijing on Friday. Local carriers currently held a 66.5 per cent market share compared with 33.5 per cent for foreign airlines, said IBA Group, a UK-based aviation intelligence co...
Chinese carriers have captured an expanding slice of the international air travel market for routes connecting Chinese and overseas cities since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data presented at an industry summit in Beijing on Friday. Local carriers currently held a 66.5 per cent market share compared with 33.5 per cent for foreign airlines, said IBA Group, a UK-based aviation intelligence company, which organised the event. Pre-pandemic, it was a 50:50 split between domestic and foreign...
Weeks before mainland Chinese student Carol Chen graduated from Baptist University in Hong Kong in July, the 22-year-old did the math and weighed the cost of living in the city against returning home. Renting a room in the city would consume around half of the HK$20,000 (US$2,552) starting salary she expected as a junior data analyst. “If I go back to Shanghai, I will only need to worry about dail...
Weeks before mainland Chinese student Carol Chen graduated from Baptist University in Hong Kong in July, the 22-year-old did the math and weighed the cost of living in the city against returning home. Renting a room in the city would consume around half of the HK$20,000 (US$2,552) starting salary she expected as a junior data analyst. “If I go back to Shanghai, I will only need to worry about daily expenses,” said Chen, a maths and statistics graduate. Language barriers compounded the problem....
A kindergarten teacher in China has been suspended from her job and placed under police investigation for using a glue gun to scald a little girl’s lip, causing serious blisters. The incident unfolded on the morning of May 27 in a nursery in Fengxian county, Jiangsu province, eastern China. According to surveillance footage from the classroom, the woman children’s teacher let some children queue u...
A kindergarten teacher in China has been suspended from her job and placed under police investigation for using a glue gun to scald a little girl’s lip, causing serious blisters. The incident unfolded on the morning of May 27 in a nursery in Fengxian county, Jiangsu province, eastern China. According to surveillance footage from the classroom, the woman children’s teacher let some children queue up to receive punishment one by one because she was angry that they were talking during class, the...
Each week we bring you insights into one of Asia’s most dynamic economies. If you haven’t yet, please sign up here . This week, Suvashree Ghosh watches Bitcoin slide as investors reel from Michael Saylor’s broken promise and Philip Heijmans braces for more trade upheaval with the US’s latest salvo. Chanyaporn Chanjaroen manages to enjoy Uptown Nasi Lemak’s fluffy coconut rice and fried chicken bef...
Each week we bring you insights into one of Asia’s most dynamic economies. If you haven’t yet, please sign up here . This week, Suvashree Ghosh watches Bitcoin slide as investors reel from Michael Saylor’s broken promise and Philip Heijmans braces for more trade upheaval with the US’s latest salvo. Chanyaporn Chanjaroen manages to enjoy Uptown Nasi Lemak’s fluffy coconut rice and fried chicken before the stall bids farewell. Crikey, Crypto “Sell a kidney if you must, but keep the Bitcoin,” that was Michael Saylor’s pronouncement in February 2025. This week, Saylor did an about turn and broke his company’s pledge to never sell. That one decision was enough to end Bitcoin’s run as a safe-haven asset during the US war on Iran. Saylor’s Strategy , the largest corporate buyer of the token, announced it sold $2.5 million of Bitcoin , its first disposal in four years. While it’s a puny amount compared with Strategy’s stockpile worth tens of billions of dollars, the sale struck at the core of one of the crypto community’s deepest fears: what happens when Bitcoin’s biggest holders become sellers? Until late May, Bitcoin had been one of the war’s unlikely winners. The token was up about 12% since the war began at the end of February. Gold, long the default refuge during periods of geopolitical turmoil, was down nearly 14% over the same period. By Friday, Bitcoin’s gains and more were wiped out , tumbling below $62,000 at one point, underscoring how quickly sentiment can shift. “This week has been painful in crypto. There is really no other way of putting it,” wrote Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s head of digital asset research. Beyond this week’s pullback, where is Bitcoin headed? If I could gaze into a crystal ball, I’d say the repercussions could extend far beyond the cryptocurrency itself if Strategy were to liquidate a more meaningful portion of its 800,000 tokens. There’s a growing ecosystem of Bitcoin-linked investment vehicles, and the exposure is global. At ho...
The Market Is Starting To Price In Something Most People Still Don't See Authored by Milan Adams , There is a strange disconnect developing between financial markets and the average person. Most people still see the situation with Iran as another distant geopolitical story. It appears on television for a few minutes, disappears behind domestic political news, and then returns a few days later when...
The Market Is Starting To Price In Something Most People Still Don't See Authored by Milan Adams , There is a strange disconnect developing between financial markets and the average person. Most people still see the situation with Iran as another distant geopolitical story. It appears on television for a few minutes, disappears behind domestic political news, and then returns a few days later when another headline emerges. Investors, however, are beginning to treat it very differently. They are not watching the negotiations because they care about diplomatic symbolism. They are watching because a growing number of traders believe the global economy may be far more vulnerable to a prolonged disruption than policymakers are willing to admit. The irony is that the biggest threat is no longer war itself. The biggest threat is uncertainty. For months, markets convinced themselves that a deal between Washington and Tehran was only a matter of time. There would be disagreements, public threats and last-minute complications, but eventually economic reality would force both sides toward some form of compromise. That belief became so widespread that many investors stopped considering what would happen if the opposite occurred. Now that assumption is being tested. Over the last several days, optimism surrounding a diplomatic breakthrough has faded once again. Conflicting reports about the future of the negotiations have pushed oil markets into another period of volatility, and prices remain dramatically higher than they were before the crisis began. Brent crude recently climbed back above $95 per barrel after fresh uncertainty surrounding the talks, while industry executives warned that the market may still be underestimating the risks ahead. What makes this particularly dangerous is that the global economy no longer has the same shock absorbers it once had. Back in 2008, governments could throw enormous amounts of money at a crisis. During the pandemic years, central banks un...
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has clinched the top spot on California's ballot for governor. With millions of ballots still to be counted, his November challenger is unknown. (Image credit: Mario Tama)
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has clinched the top spot on California's ballot for governor. With millions of ballots still to be counted, his November challenger is unknown. (Image credit: Mario Tama)
US forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran towards the Strait of Hormuz, the US military said, in the latest escalation complicating efforts to end the war between the two countries. The US military believed the four Iranian drones were targeting regional maritime traffic, an official said. US Central Command said on social media that the U...
US forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran towards the Strait of Hormuz, the US military said, in the latest escalation complicating efforts to end the war between the two countries. The US military believed the four Iranian drones were targeting regional maritime traffic, an official said. US Central Command said on social media that the US then struck Iran’s surveillance sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, which are both on the Strait of...