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June 23rd, 2022

Inside Shanghai's lockdown nightmare

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The Big Story

Inside Shanghai's COVID lockdown nightmare

China's zero-COVID policy devastated the commercial capital

Barriers like these sprang up around Shanghai residential areas during a two-month lockdown that ended on June 1. The government's attempt to contain a COVID-19 outbreak cost many residents their mental and physical health. 
Shortages and constraints are reaching into the most obscure corners of the global supply chain for electronic chips. (Source photos by Reuters, TSMC and AP) 
Business Spotlight

From chemicals to gases, chip suppliers reel as materials prices surge

Industry braces for 'more costly future' as shortages haunt supply chains

Shanghai's STAR Market has risen as the world's busiest IPO market. (Source photos by Reuters and Tetsuya Kitayama)
Market Spotlight

Asia takes lead even as global IPO market contracts

Companies shelve listing plans amid Ukraine war and monetary tightening

Thais pay their respects to Buddhist monks after the omicron surge, which pushed daily COVID cases to over 20,000 and sank insurers who had offered cheap coverage against the disease.
Coronavirus

Thai insurers sink into bankruptcy due to COVID claims

Huge payouts and scams weigh on entire non-life insurance sector

BTS members at the Grammy Awards in April at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. (Photo courtesy of Hybe)
Media & Entertainment

BTS hiatus reveals soft underbelly of K-pop industry

South Korea's talent agencies caught off guard by bombshell announcement

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hopes his "new capitalism" initiatives will spur a "second founding period," following Japan's post-World War II period of business startups.
Asia Insight

Japan startups see Kishida's 'new capitalism' as road without map

Plan to increase the sector 10-fold spurs both hope and skepticism

A vendor pushes a cart under a battery-powered LED light during a blackout in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 9.
Economy

Pakistan blackouts choke economy as China power plants go unpaid

CPEC-linked suppliers await $1.5bn dues; industry disruptions hinder exports

The inflation rate in the U.S. hit a 40-year high of 8.6% in May, growing to be a challenge for U.S. President Joe Biden.
Inflation

U.S. inflation: Will scrapping China tariffs be the cure?

Impact likely limited but Trump-era tax better gone for other reasons, economists say

J. P. Singh, joint secretary in India's foreign ministry, meets the Taliban's Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul. (Photo from Taliban spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi's Twitter account)
International relations

India's Taliban outreach offers Afghanistan a China alternative

New Delhi says diplomacy in Kabul only about aid; analysts see deeper reasons

The rising cost of property maintenance in Japan is a new worry for many elderly homeowners.
Datawatch

Japan's elderly homeowners grapple with inflation and prejudice

Home repair costs rise 20% due to labor shortages and higher materials prices

A neon logo of Bitcoin in Buenos Aires on May 5: To use cryptocurrency necessitates intense self-discipline.
Opinion

Bitcoin users should not overlook cryptocurrency's fundamental flaw

Much vaunted blockchain security is more useless than the Maginot Line

A Chinese Coast Guard ship attempts to block a Filipino fishing boat by spraying water off Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea in October 2016: Hybrid threats gain their advantage in Indo-Pacific.
Opinion

Indo-Pacific needs to establish a center for countering hybrid threats

New types of aggression and competition are being used to weaken regional security

Japan's pioneering artisans spend considerable time de-shelling, sorting, roasting, cracking, winnowing, grinding, conching, blocking, tempering and, above all, experimenting with cocoa beans to produce sublime bars of mouth-watering chocolate. (Photo by Sybilla Patrizia)
Life

Five of the best bean-to-bar chocolate makers in Tokyo

Here's where to find chocolate at its purest in the Japanese capital

Su Thit and her husband Htet Myat, an ex-army captain, in happier days. “We were only able to meet three times in three years of marriage." (Courtesy Su Thit)  
Tea Leaves

Hey soldier, mind your missus

Myanmar military wives remind us who commands the household