Event: China

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Mexico’s most powerful criminal enterprise, suffered another blow on Monday when the Mexican military captured one of its top leaders in the northwest of the country, two months after the cartel’s leader was killed.Audias Flores Silva, also known as “El Jardinero”, or The Gardener, was seen as a possible successor to the killed leader and the United States had a US$5 million reward out for information leading to his arrest.The CJNG regional commander was captured while he was hiding in a roadside ditch near the community of El Mirador in the state of Nayarit, Mexican officials said Monday. No one was killed or injured during his arrest, according to Mexico’s government.Flores Silva was seen as a possible successor to Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho”, who was killed in a dramatic military operation in February.The killing of “El Mencho” led to a surge of cartel violence with a wave of attacks on businesses by cartel gunmen, vehicle burnings and road blockades that killed more than 70 people, including 25 National Guard members.Despite the violence, Oseguera Cervantes’ killing was seen as a victory for Mexico’s government at a time when Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was cracking down on cartels with a heavier hand than her predecessors in an effort to offset threats of intervention by US President Donald Trump.

Japan’s famously conscientious but overburdened baggage handlers will soon be joined by extra staff at Tokyo’s Haneda airport – although their new colleagues will need to take regular recharging breaks.Japan Airlines will introduce humanoid robots on a trial basis from the beginning of May, with a view to deploying them permanently as a solution to the country’s chronic labour shortage.The Chinese-made humanoids will move travellers’ luggage and cargo on the tarmac at Haneda, which handles more than 60 million passengers a year.JAL and its partner in the initiative, Japan Airlines GMO Internet Group, hope the experiment – which ends in 2028 – will lessen the burden on human employees amid a surge in inbound tourism and forecasts of more severe labour shortages.In a demonstration for the media this week, a 130cm-tall robot manufactured by Hangzhou-based Unitree was seen tentatively “pushing” cargo on to a conveyer belt next to a JAL passenger plane and waving to an unseen colleague.The president of JAL Ground Service, Yoshiteru Suzuki, said using robots to perform physically demanding work would “inevitably reduce the burden on workers and provide significant benefits to employees”, according to the Kyodo news agency.Suzuki added, however, that certain key tasks – such as safety management – would continue to be performed by humans.Japan is struggling to cope with a simultaneous surge in tourists from overseas and an ageing, declining population.More than 7 million people visited the country in the first two months of 2026, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation, after a record 42.7 million last year, despite a drop in the number of visitors from China triggered by a diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing.According to one estimate, Japan will need more than 6.5 million foreign workers in 2040 to reach its growth targets as the indigenous workforce continues to…

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.In China, Even Complaining About Property Management Can Be PoliticalResidents signed petitions, organized rallies and held strategy sessions over karaoke, debating how far to push the authorities in their dispute with a developer.Homeowners discussing their negotiation strategy with management at a home at the Lafite Waterfront complex on the outskirts of Beijing.In China, Even Complaining About Property Management Can Be PoliticalResidents signed petitions, organized rallies and held strategy sessions over karaoke, debating how far to push the authorities in their dispute with a developer.Homeowners discussing their negotiation strategy with management at a home at the Lafite Waterfront complex on the outskirts of Beijing.Credit...Vivian WangVisuals by Qilai ShenVivian Wang spent several days in January with a homeowners’ association on the outskirts of Beijing as they tried to eject their property management company.April 27, 2026The drum team arrived late to the rally, its members wearing bright red costumes as they spilled out of a minivan. Other attendees were already dancing to music blaring from a nearby speaker or chanting the name of their favored candidate.It had all the hallmarks of a rollicking election campaign. But the dozens of people who had gathered on a winter morning in January, about two hours northwest of Beijing, were not there to support a politician. This was about their homeowners’ association.In the United States, homeowners’ associations are mostly known as the often reviled organizations that tell homeowners where they can park or how long they can keep up their Christmas lights. But for these Chinese homeowners, their group has become a tiny-scale experiment in grassroots organizing, aimed at winning control over their gated community, Lafite Waterfront.Even organizing around something as mundane as…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The Iran War Is Starting to Expose Cracks in China’s EconomyChina’s strategic reserves of oil and natural gas have insulated it somewhat, but its manufacturing-based economy is beginning to falter.Chinese-made cars waiting to be exported at a port in Suzhou, China, on Monday. China has sought to increase exports as demand has weakened at home.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesApril 27, 2026Rising oil and natural gas prices from the war in Iran are beginning to weigh on the Chinese economy, further slowing already anemic consumer spending and hurting critical export sectors.Car sales fell in March and plunged further in April. Restaurants and hotels are seeing fewer customers as households turn cautious. In southern China, thousands of toy factory workers protested last week after their employer collapsed under rising plastic costs and ongoing tariffs in the United States.The emerging signs of strain underscore how even China, with vast strategic oil reserves and massive investments in renewable energy, is not immune to the forces pressuring economies worldwide.For many weeks, China had appeared to weather the fallout from the war, a view reinforced by fairly strong economic data through March. But with the war in its ninth week with no clear end, cracks are beginning to show.“The economy is decelerating,” said Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, a French financial firm. China may struggle to meet this year’s growth target of 4.5 percent or more, she added.One of the clearest signs of emerging weakness is in car sales and production, often considered early indicators of trouble. Cars are the second-largest purchase for many Chinese households after apartments, and the industry drives demand for steel, glass and…

Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said on Monday that her government told the United States, in a diplomatic note, that the unauthorized presence of US officials at an anti-narcotics operation in the northern state of Chihuahua should not be repeated.The incident came to light after two US officials, along with two Mexican officials, were killed in a car crash on 19 April after the operation. Sheinbaum has said the federal government was not aware of the participation of the US officials, who were widely reported to be CIA officers.“What we told [the US] was that the federal government didn’t know about the involvement of these people [in the operation] and we hope that it’s an exception,” Sheinbaum said in her daily morning press conference.Mexico requested that “from now on, as has been done, our constitution and national security law should be followed”, Sheinbaum added, saying that the US had indicated its agreement.On Saturday, Mexico’s security cabinet said in a statement that the US officials lacked formal accreditation to participate in security activities in Mexico and that one of them had entered the country as a tourist.The deaths of the two Americans rekindled US-Mexico tensions over security cooperation. The presence of US personnel in anti-cartel operations is a deeply sensitive matter in Mexico.Sheinbaum has long maintained that she welcomes intelligence sharing and security cooperation but will not accept US agents or forces participating in operations on Mexican territory.In contrast, Donald Trump has repeatedly called for greater use of US military force to combat Mexican cartels, and has threatened that the US could go it alone if Washington feels Mexico is not doing enough.

22 hours agoOsmond ChiaBusiness reporterGetty ImagesChinese sportswear brand Anta counts Olympic freestyle skier Eileen Gu among its brand ambassadorsChina's economy was just starting to open up in the late 1980s when a determined high school dropout made his way to Beijing with 600 pairs of shoes. Ding Shizhong had them made in a relative's factory and now he was going to sell them. The money he earned paid for his first workshop where he began making footwear for other companies.The 17-year-old was one of China's many newly minted entrepreneurs as capitalism took off under the watchful eye of its Communist Party rulers.But, as it turns out, Ding had much bigger plans.His business has since grown into a sportswear powerhouse called Anta, which has been building a stable of international brands, including Arc'teryx and Salomon. Most recently it bought a stake in Puma.Now it is trying to take on the likes of Nike and Adidas, a goal that Ding spelled out in 2005: "We don't want to be the Nike of China, but the Anta of the world."Anta may not be a household name in the West yet, but it has more than 10,000 shops in China and sponsors top athletes like freestyle skier Eileen Gu.In February, it opened its first US outlet - a flagship store in Los Angeles' upscale Beverly Hills area.The company's global push, which comes as Donald Trump aims to bring factory jobs back to the US with tariffs, highlights just how essential and competitive Chinese supply chains have become for manufacturing.The rise of Anta - which means "safe steps" - is not exactly unique. Decades of being the world's factory have given several ambitious Chinese companies the opportunity to take on the very firms they once counted as customers.From shoe maker to global brandFounded in 1991,…