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1. China Gen Z nurtures stuffed toys like real babies, celebrates birthdays, shows affection

   A new “parenting” trend in China is seeing young women embrace “painless motherhood” by raising cotton dolls as their own children. The toy-caring fad even extends to celebrating their “children’s” birthdays at hotpot restaurants, buying expensive clothes and even taking them on holidays. The trend gained attention in October 2023, when a woman took her cotton dolls to the popular hotpot chain...

2. Suspected illegal cleaning services targeting Hongkongers still listed online

   Advertisements for potentially illegal mainland Chinese cleaning services targeting Hong Kong households ahead of Lunar New Year remain available on social media platform RedNote despite recent arrests by the city’s immigration authorities, the South China Morning Post has found. Checks by the SCMP on RedNote found several suspected illegal posts promoting domestic cleaning services in the city,...

3. CATL’s new innovation expands EV battery horizons in untapped cold regions

   Contemporary Amperex Technology’s (CATL) new batteries are ready to be used in extreme cold areas like Antarctica, according to a top engineer, as the Chinese giant eyes untapped markets amid keen electric vehicle (EV) competition. CATL’s Naxtra sodium-ion battery, which will be applied in mass-produced passenger cars for the first time globally this year, is undergoing winter testing in...

4. Before the factory floor, the dance floor: humanoids find a path to market at US$145

   Before humanoid robots realise their longer-term potential as efficient industrial workers, a more immediate role is emerging in China: on-demand entertainment. For 999 yuan (US$145), customers can now rent a humanoid robot to dance, perform and pose to order. That proposition is being trialled by Botshare – known in Chinese as Qingtianzu, or “Optimus rent” – which last weekend rolled out a “999...

5. North Korea’s Kim signals party congress will focus on ‘exceptional’ military build-up

   North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has signalled that the country’s armed forces will play an even more “outstanding” role over the next five years – an indication that the coming party congress will map out a new defence build-up, including advances in nuclear and missile capabilities, analysts say. “The next five years will be a period when our army’s exceptional role, which no one can replace,...

6. ‘Tracked and hunted’: US forces board oil tanker in Indian Ocean after pursuit

   US military forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the ship from the Caribbean Sea as part of an oil quarantine meant to squeeze Venezuela, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday. Venezuela had faced US sanctions on its oil and relied on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. Following the US raid to...

7. China, Japan dispute: what next for businesses after Takaichi’s election sweep?

   Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's landslide election victory has dimmed hopes that ties between Tokyo and Beijing will significantly improve in the near term, analysts and businesspeople said, though some expect tensions to stabilise over time. Her ruling coalition secured the win on Sunday, strengthening the hand of a leader who infuriated Beijing by outlining how Tokyo might respond to...

8. US to fund free speech initiatives in Europe, State Department says

   The Trump administration will ‌fund efforts to promote free speech within Western countries allied with Washington, a senior State Department official said ‍on Monday during a visit to Europe focused on pushing back against European regulations that US officials have branded censorship. US officials have forcefully opposed online rules such as the EU’s Digital Services Act and Britain’s Online...

9. US TV host makes new video plea as missing mother’s ransom deadline nears

   Savannah Guthrie’s family is “at an hour of desperation” in the search for her missing mother, the Today show host said in a video released on Monday ahead of a looming ransom deadline apparently set by Nancy Guthrie’s abductors. Savannah Guthrie did not mention the deadline in the video, saying her family still believes their 84-year-old mum is out there and hearing everyone’s prayers. “She was...

10. China becomes Brazil’s biggest vehicle exporter in January, surpassing Argentina

    China surpassed Argentina in January to become Brazil’s largest exporter of vehicles, solidifying Chinese brands’ dominance in the region’s biggest car market and undercutting a long-standing Argentine trade advantage within Mercosur. According to industry figures reported by Autoweb on Monday, Chinese vehicles sent to Brazil reached 16,800 units in January, versus 13,400 from Argentina. It...