Could the world be headed for another recession?Just as the global economy is bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing list of risks is clouding the economic outlook – although most economists still believe a recession this year is relatively unlikely.The war in Ukraine, Russia sanctions, China’s “zero COVID” policies, spiking inflation, and interest hikes by the United States (US) Federal Reserve (Fed) are all set to crimp growth in 2022.The question is whether deteriorating condi

China's President Xi Jinping praised the country's "tested" zero-COVID strategy on Friday, even as Shanghai authorities prepared nearly 130,000 beds for COVID-19 patients amid surging cases and mounting public anger.Until March, China had kept cases low with localised lockdowns, mass testing, and strict restrictions on international travel.But the country has reported thousands of daily cases in recent weeks, with economic hub and outbreak epicentre Shanghai placed under l

Hundreds of Chinese surgeons and medical personnel have been accused of killing death row prisoners by removing their hearts for transplant even before the inmates had been officially declared dead, in a new academic paper.International guidelines on the ethics surrounding organ transplants state that organ removal must not cause the death of the donor, but the new research from the Australian National University published this week in the American Journal of Transplantation suggests Chinese

Some residents under lockdown in Shanghai say they are running out of food, amid the city's biggest-ever COVID outbreak.Residents are confined to their homes, banned from leaving for even essential reasons such as grocery shopping.Nearly 20,000 cases were reported on Thursday in China's biggest city – another near-record high.Officials have admitted the city is facing "difficulties" but say they are trying to improve this.

Jenny Leung, who lost her job as a waitress last month due to Hong Kong's zero-COVID strategy, has one question: "What was it all for?"Her frustration was in response to Hong Kong indicating it could transition towards living with the virus, though the city's leaders have since said it will stick with zero-COVID.Leung, 29, called it a "half-hearted attempt" after more than two years of "a zero-COVID mindset that really hurt all of us".China finds itself

Shares in the Chinese pharmaceutical group Kintor rocketed on Wednesday after it reported that trials had shown its COVID-19 drug to be highly effective, making it potentially China's first homegrown antiviral treatment.Shares closed up more than 100 percent in Hong Kong after the group said its new pill dramatically reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death from COVID-19, particularly among the middle-aged or elderly.The drug, proxalutamide, cut the risk of hospitalisation or deaths

China may portray itself as a neutral party in the war in Ukraine, but the message it communicates to its audience at home tells a different story.State news agency Xinhua calls the war “a special military operation” and “the Russia-Ukraine crisis” but never refers to it as an invasion.

The United States (US) military announced Tuesday a new test of a hypersonic missile, as Pentagon officials seek to match or get ahead of China's and Russia's advances in the cutting-edge strategic weapons technology.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said it had recently completed a free flight test of an aircraft-launched hypersonic missile that maintained a speed of more than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound (at least 3,800 miles per hour, or 6,100 kilo

Even as COVID-19 enters its third year as a pandemic, the world is no closer to knowing the source of the virus that sparked it all.Just six weeks after declaring a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the spread of the new coronavirus a pandemic on 11 March, 2020.

With little notice, officials imposed a lockdown on the city's more than 26 million residents.