As China carried out live-fire drills and rehearsed a military blockade in the waters surrounding Taiwan this week, 70-year-old Liao said she wasn’t worried about war. She was enjoying life as a retiree, playing mahjong with her friends and keeping an eye on the stock market. “Everyday life hasn’t been impacted,” Liao told Al Jazeera…
Should people be afraid of artificial intelligence and its potential to take over our daily lives, or embrace it as the next technological evolution that can be as transformative to society as the internet was in the 1990s? The answer is both, said Doug Kelly, CEO of the American Edge Project, a privately funded tech…
Emergency services at Hong Kong’s public hospitals have operated smoothly on the first day of the new year despite raising fees for non-urgent cases, but some patients from minority groups said they were unaware of the changes. Starting on Thursday, New Year’s Day of 2026, patients visiting accident and emergency rooms at Hong Kong public…
President Xi Jinping has sent a new warning to Chinese cadres – “no one should harbour any illusions” that they can get away with corruption as there will be no let-up in the long-running anti-graft campaign. He told officials at a key political meeting in October there would be no place for the corrupt to…
On the first day on 2026, the rupee opened on a negative note. | Photo Credit: Getty Images The rupee started the new year on a negative note and depreciated 11 paise to 89.99 against the U.S. dollar in early trade on Thursday (January 1, 2026) weighed down by persistent foreign fund outflows. Forex traders…
If the number of films, documentaries, and podcasts is any indication, our culture is obsessed with true crime. From white-collar scandals and political conspiracies to murders, heists, and criminal empires, there’s no shortage of movies drawn from real life. With so many true crime films to choose from, we narrowed the field down to a…
The Emerging Markets (EM) MSCI stock price index may outperform both the US MSCI stock price index and the Developed Countries ex-US MSCI stock price index in 2026. It outperformed the former in 2025 but underperformed the latter and many of its constituents. The broader EM outperformance we expect in 2026 might last for a few years. That’s because advanced economies have, on average, stagnated…
The coffee shop is the perfect space to start off 2026, whether you are in dire need of a post-party dose of caffeine or you are looking for a calm spot to write down your new year goals over a cappuccino. Here are five new coffee spots to add to your list for the month….
1 La Liga giants Barcelona have made first contact over a potential reunion with a former member of the club’s backline. That’s according to market insider Fabrizio Romano, who highlights João Cancelo as the player in question. Full-back Cancelo is for his part widely expected to be on the move following the turn of the year….
California Governor Gavin Newsom ended the year how he spent it: trolling President Donald Trump. The governor couldn’t let the year end without getting in a few final swipes at Trump, opting to highlight his tendency to fall asleep in public. In the first post, Newsom responded to a post from Trump’s War Room account…