BEIJING — Police in central China imposed traffic curbs at the weekend to halt a viral craze in which thousands of university students borrowed shared bikes to ride overnight to the city of Kaifeng in search of breakfast. The "Night Riding Army," as some participants described it, clogged a highway on Friday, pictures posted on social media showed, a surge in turnout for a rolling flash mob that had been gathering riders for months. "Last night's 'Night Riding Army' was spectacular!" one rider posted. "Two lanes were opened, but that simply was not enough: The cycling army accounted for four!" The event was part of a trend of young Chinese traveling on the cheap - "like special forces" - and spending as little as possible at a time of scarce job prospects, when wages are under pressure. The riders traveled on a straight road more than 60 km (37 miles) long beside the Yellow River that links Zhengzhou, the largest city in Henan province, with Kaifeng, an ancient capital famed for its soup dumplings. The trend was set off in June, Chinese media said, after four women college students chronicled their ride on social media to eat dumplings in the morning. "The Night Ride to Kaifeng: Youth is priceless, enjoy it in time," was the hashtag on social media for the ride, which state broadcaster CMG said tens of thousands of students had completed by the weekend. Key to its success was a glut of shared bikes, which can be rented for as little as $1.95 a month. Pictures posted by riders showed thousands of the bikes had overrun downtown Kaifeng by Saturday. In addition to the traffic controls, the largest bike-sharing platforms, Hellobike, DiDi Bike, and Mobile, said their vehicles would lock down if ridden out of a designated zone, while media told the students to grow up. "Youthful freedom does not mean following the trend and indulging oneself," one news outlet admonished in a comment. "Kaifeng is worth arriving slowly and savoring carefully," read the headline of another. Chinese authorities have cracked down on other spontaneous gatherings. Last month, police turned out in force in the commercial hub of Shanghai to deter a repeat of 2023 Halloween celebrations in which some revelers wore costumes poking fun at issues such as the stock market, youth unemployment and tough COVID-19 curbs.

HONG KONG — Merchants and consumers alike found the Singles' Day shopping festival Monday less shiny than in years past as e-commerce firms look abroad for growth. The annual event named by the numeric form of its Nov. 11 date was started by e-commerce platform Alibaba, which offered attractive discounts to entice shoppers to spend big. The extravaganza has since expanded to other platforms like JD.com and Pinduoduo in China as well as abroad. While Singles’ Day was previously a one-day event, shopping platforms in China now kickstart the festival weeks ahead to drum up sales volume. The festival has also traditionally been regarded as a barometer of consumer sentiment. But amid China’s lagging domestic economy, dragged down by a real estate crisis and deflationary pressures, consumers no longer go all out on purchases during the shopping extravaganza. “I only spent a few hundred yuan on daily necessities,” said Wang Haihua, who owns a fitness center in Beijing. Wang said that the prices offered on e-commerce platforms during Singles’ Day are not necessarily cheaper than usual. “They’re all tricks and we’ve seen through it over the years,” she said. Zhang Jiewei, a 34-year-old who runs a barber shop in Xi’an city, echoed Wang’s sentiments, saying that he no longer trust Singles’ Day promotions as some merchants tend to raise the usual price of a product before offering a discount, giving consumers the illusion they are getting a deal. “I used to buy a lot two or three years ago and I even purchased a mobile phone (during Singles’ Day),” he said. “I stopped doing that following the pandemic because of less income. I am not going to buy anything this year,” Zhang added. Some experts say that Beijing’s recent stimulus measures have had little impact to boost consumer confidence. “People are not interested in spending and are cutting back on big-ticket items,” said Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai. “Since October 2022, the weak economy means that everything has been on discount year-round, 11.11 is not going to bring in more discounts that the month before.” Rein said he expects low growth for the Singles’ Day shopping festival as consumers tighten their spending in anticipation of difficult economic times ahead. Categories such as sportswear and fitness, however, have been doing well as customers “trade down a Gucci bag for Lululemon sportswear,” he said. Platforms like JD.com and Alibaba, which operates e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, previously used to publish the value of transactions made during the festival, but have since stopped revealing the total figure. While yearly growth used to be in the double digits, estimates of recent figures have dwindled to low single-digit growth. Syntun, a data provider, estimated that last year’s gross merchandising volume sales across major e-commerce platforms grew just 2% to $156.40 billion, a far cry from double-digit growth before COVID-19. Merchants who typically take part in the Singles’ Day shopping festivals say the costs of participation no longer pay off, amid high advertising fees and unsatisfactory sales. Zhao Gao, who owns a garment factory in eastern Zhejiang province, said that after paying advertising costs to e-commerce platforms he would only break even after sales. “The platforms have so many rules for promotions and customers have become more skeptical,” he said. “As a merchant, I no longer participate in the Singles’ Day promotions.” Another merchant, Du Baonian who runs a food company processing mutton in Inner Mongolia, said that overall sales in the past year have fallen 15% as consumers downgraded and reduced consumption. Du said that while he still takes part in the Singles’ Day promotions, the higher expenses do not typically generate returns because of sluggish sales. “We are seeing shrinking revenue, but advertisement on the platform can help us to maintain our leading sales position,” he said, adding that he was considering advertising on more e-commerce platforms to target more consumers. Meanwhile, e-commerce platforms grappling with a slowing domestic market have also turned to overseas markets to seek new growth, offering promotions like global free shipping and allowing merchants to sell globally with ease. Alibaba, for example, said in a blog post on its Alizila site that some 70,000 merchants saw sales double with global free shipping. In markets like Singapore and Hong Kong, new customers also doubled, Alibaba said.

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan on Monday said it had closed a probe into pagers that exploded in Lebanon in September and caused a deadly blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved. Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed responsibility for the attack during a cabinet meeting, telling ministers that senior defense officials and political figures were opposed to the detonation of the pagers but that he went ahead with the operation. Security sources have previously said the pagers carried the name of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, a company which has asserted that it did not make them. Taiwan's government has also said the pagers were not made in Taiwan. Taipei prosecutors, who were investigating the case, said in a statement the AR-924 pager model that exploded in Lebanon was manufactured, traded, and shipped by a firm called Frontier Group Entity, and made outside of Taiwan. They added, however, that Gold Apollo had authorized the company to use the Apollo trademark. "There is no evidence indicating that any domestic manufacturers or individuals were accomplices in the relevant explosions, violating the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or engaging in other illegal activities," the prosecutors said in a statement. "No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been discovered in this case, nor have any specific individuals been implicated in any criminal activity, following a comprehensive investigation." Prosecutors have previously confirmed that they questioned Gold Apollo's president and founder Hsu Ching-kuang and a woman called Teresa Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo Systems Ltd. In their statement, the prosecutors said Wu acted as a liaison with Frontier, but there was no evidence she "had prior knowledge or participated in any conspiracy or collaboration related to the explosion incidents." The prosecutors said there was some information they did not know, including the exact identities of the Frontier employees Wu communicated with. It said one person was called "T" and was presumably the head of Frontier, while another was called "M" and was presumably the sales director. Gold Apollo told Reuters it had also just seen the prosecutor’s statement, and that it was not immediately able to comment further.

MELBOURNE, Australia — An emperor penguin found malnourished far from its Antarctic home on the Australian south coast is being cared for by a wildlife expert, a government department said Monday.  The adult male was found on November 1 on a popular tourist beach in the town of Denmark in temperate southwest Australia — about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) north of the icy waters off the Antarctic coast, according to a statement from the Western Australia state’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.  The largest penguin species has never been reported in Australia before, University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell said, though some had reached New Zealand, nearly all of which is farther south than Western Australia.  Cannell said she had no idea why the penguin traveled to Denmark.  Cannell is advising seabird rehabilitator Carol Biddulph, who is caring for the penguin, spraying him with a chilled water mist to help him cope with his alien climate. The penguin is 1 meter (39 inches) tall and initially weighed 23 kilograms (51 pounds).  A healthy male can weigh more than 45 kilograms (100 pounds).  The department said its efforts were focused on rehabilitating the penguin. Asked if the penguin could potentially be returned to Antarctica, the department replied that “options are still being worked through.”

In Somalia’s complex political landscape, the tenure of Prime Minister Hamse Abdi Barre presents a compelling…

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Ukraine abandoned its constitutional neutrality to pursue EU and NATO membership only in 2019, years after Russia annexed Crimea and backed pro-Russia separatists in Donbas. NATO considered Ukraine’s membership after Moscow invaded Georgia, starting a war in Europe.

President Joe Biden and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto met Tuesday at the White House to strengthen U.S.–Indonesia ties. The meeting came days after Jakarta signed a maritime agreement with Beijing that critics say could lend credibility to China’s “nine-dash line” that reflects its expansive claims in the South China Sea. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report

Diplomacy is in full swing as U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israel's president, and President-elect Donald Trump speaks with Israel's prime minister. Fast-rising methane emissions could undermine efforts to limit global warming by mid-century, prompting scientists and policymakers to urge aggressive action to curb the output of the potent greenhouse gas. An election in Somaliland, and the fight against Boko Haram in Chad. Plus, Trump’s foreign policy.

Not less than 13 persons have reportedly died after a mining site collapsed in Bassa local government area of Plateau State. Chairman of the local government, Joshua Riti, who confirmed ths incident, said it occurred on November 10. He added that seven of the deceased hail from Bassa LGA, NAN reports. “This is an unfortunate […]

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Dutch coach, Eric Ten Hag was eventually booted out of Manchester United 30 months after his appointment in May 2022. The former Ajax gaffer didn’t quite succeed with the Red Devils in terms of quality, squad depth and results but he was able to deliver two trophies( Carabao, FA Cup) in his two years in […]

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… Seek targeted relief measures to save media, nation’s economy The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), arising from the three-day All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Capital, has called on the federal government to urgently mitigate the negative impact of fuel subsidy removal and the exchange rate volatility on the economy. […]

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To drive the enforcement of the compulsory insurance of public buildings across the country, The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) in Abuja has inaugurated a technical committee. The committee was inaugurated by NAICOM’s Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Mohammed Kari, and it has membership drawn from NAICOM, the Federal Fire Service (FFS) from all the zones and […]

NAICOM moves to enforce compulsory insurance of public buildings