China's youth jobless rate drops in April to 15.8%
BEIJING, May 20 (Reuters) - The jobless rate for 16-to-24-year-olds in Chinese cities dropped in April to 15.8% from 16.5% in March, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
No more leprechaun economics: Ireland's tax swindle is finally ending
Donald Trump has sent Ireland to the naughty step. Once the altar boy of American commerce, Dublin now finds itself blacklisted alongside China, Germany and Vietnam, each a prime candidate for tariffs and sanctions. The offence? Running a surplus with the United States. On the face of it, the complaint seems petty. One country sells more than it buys. So what? But Ireland's problem, like the others on Trump's list, is that its surplus rests on a creed that has fallen out of favour. As offshoring hollowed out Middle America, the old Clinton mantra 'It's the economy, stupid' has begun to sound rather less clever than it once did. That, at least, is the mood in Trump's Washington. And judging by his campaign-trail fixation with the word tariff, many Americans agree: a reckoning is overdue. Ireland offers a particularly inviting target. Its surplus owes less to tangible exports than to tax gymnastics. A pill is made in Ireland for 50 cents, sold to a sister company (also in Ireland) for €10, and then shipped to the global market at the same price. The profit is booked in Dublin, while tax collectors elsewhere are left out of pocket. The trick doesn't stop there. Intellectual property is shifted to Irish subsidiaries, global sales are routed through Irish entities, and profits vanish into low or no-tax jurisdictions. Together, these sleights of hand form what we're invited to call the Irish economic miracle – a miracle that, by one estimate, deprives other countries of nearly $20 billion a year in tax revenue. The question being asked in Washington is: who benefits? Ireland, clearly. One in every eight euros of its tax revenue now comes from US firms. That's a fivefold increase since 2010, driven by Ireland's famously 'competitive' tax regime. It accounts for a large slice of a €150 billion bilateral surplus. When Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited the Oval Office in March, Trump put it plainly: 'We do have a massive deficit with Ireland, because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away.' It's hard to argue with the logic. Ireland has been undeniably clever at attracting American capital. Spending it is another matter. Much of the money sits on Irish books without generating the economic activity one might expect. The state's coffers may be overflowing, but the windfall is narrowly concentrated. Public spending, as ever, has been handled with something shy of brilliance. From roads and hospitals to housing and energy, the services most visible to the public have seen little improvement, despite years of surging revenues. Meanwhile, resources have been channelled into more headline-friendly ventures: a €350,000 bike shed outside parliament; a vast new hospital project already among Europe's most expensive; and billions annually to accommodate asylum applicants – most of whom, the government has conceded, are economic migrants. The miracle, it seems, left little room for prudence. As every lottery winner learns, easy money tends to breed excess. But with full coffers, Ireland could afford to paper over the cracks. Meanwhile, American tech and pharma giants have flourished. Apple, Microsoft, Pfizer and others have routed billions through Ireland, to the delight of shareholders and pension funds. If Trump moves to close loopholes or impose tariffs, these are the interests he'll have to console ahead of the midterms. The losers, predictably, are the American workers left behind by the long, slow flight of industry and tax revenue. Worse off still are the countries quietly drained by Ireland's magic act. The sums involved are vast. The structures that move them are so complex they can feel impossibly abstract. But the consequences are not. According to modelling by the Universities of St Andrews and Leicester, this tax loss has deprived more than 100,000 children of school attendance and some 1.1 million people of access to basic sanitation. Quibble with the methods if you like, but the core truth is hard to deny: when profits are rerouted, people are short-changed. Not that Dublin seems overly troubled. Only last month, Ireland's Taoiseach declared: 'Ireland earns its living from an open and fair approach to world trade.' The most pious nations often turn out to be the most artful. Ireland rarely misses a chance to sermonise on Gaza, climate justice, or whichever cause currently allows it to cast itself as Europe's moral compass. But as La Rochefoucauld noted, hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. And by that measure, Ireland has paid handsomely.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
I jetted to China to furnish my UK house – for £1k I got a king-sized bed, mattress, tables, chairs and MORE
A YOUNG woman has jetted off to China to furnish her UK house. Shirley Bekker took to social media to share her experience, leaving people stunned by just how affordable it was. 2 She decided to spend six days in Foshan, China, to find furniture for her new house. And it seems to have worked in her favour; not only does she cut out the middleman by going to the manufacturers directly, but she was also able to get her furniture customised to her liking. Shirley spent the day looking for furniture for her bedroom and managed to kit it out for just £1,000. First, she looked for the ideal mattress to take home along with a bedframe. She ended up finding both and was able to customise the colour of the bedframe. In total, the two pieces cost her just £350. Next, she spotted a large chair and foot stool for her bedroom to match her new bed frame. "Shirley almost choked on her own saliva when the man said £185 for the set. But she quickly calmed down," the video read. "After reverse search imaging the chair, it revealed that the chair alone costs thousands of pounds in the UK. Eventually, she shook hands at £165." Next, she found a dressing table and chair that she was also able to customise for £170. Shoppers urged 'not to blink' and get their hands on Home Bargains garden essential that sold out fast last time and it makes your garden extra cute - TikTok homebargainsofficialuk While she was meant to be shopping for her bedroom, Shirley got distracted with the outside furniture and picked up an egg chair for just £45. She also bought a table and chair set for outside as well as a TV stand. "I spent £1000 today and managed to buy: king-sized custom bed, perfect mattress for my back, egg chair, Bistro table and chair, TV table, 6 handmade ceramic pots, dressing mirror, Japanese style chair and pouffe," added Shirley. The clip went viral on her TikTok account @ shirley_bekker with 319k views and 47k likes. People were quick to share their thoughts and were eager to try it for themselves. One person wrote: "Ok I've seen enough… anyone wanna go China and go halves on a shipping container to the UK???" Another commented: 'How much to ship to the UK? Cos I'm gonna need to book a flight to China." "Oh so we're being ripped off real bad here in the UK," penned a third. Meanwhile a fourth said: "This is crazy. I might make a trip too." "I have never been so influenced to go to China,' claimed a fifth. Someone else added: '£350 for the whole bed is insane."
Auto Blog
4 hours ago
- Auto Blog
Mazda's Revolutionary SKYACTIV-Z Engine Promises Unheard-Of Efficiency & Power
Mazda's SKYACTIV-Z tech could change the way automakers and drivers look at gas-powered engines amid today's significant EV investment push. Mazda isn't giving up on gas-powered engines Mazda's SKYACTIV-Z project has highlighted the automaker's desire to continue innovating gas-powered engines while other legacy manufacturers accelerate investments into electric powertrain development. As a result, Mazda is establishing a portfolio balancing internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid, and all-electric models, adapting to market demand. Mazda's current SKYACTIV-Z initiative aims to create a gas-powered engine that can combust with leaner fuel mixtures, resulting in better fuel economy, lower emissions, heightened performance, greater reliability, and simplified maintenance. SKYACTIV-Z tech also converts heat normally escaping from an engine into power for improved thermal (engine) efficiency. Expert engineer Masahisa Yamakawa at Mazda said that heat insulation was the only unexplored area among the seven controlled factors that improve thermal efficiency. SKYACTIV-Z strives to offer high thermal efficiency at any RPM or speed range, achieving better fuel efficiency when an engine is running on its own while supplying greater synergistic benefits when combined with electric motors. These synergistic effects include even higher fuel economy, lower emissions, and enhanced driving performance. Mazda CX-5 Skyactiv Engine — Source: Mazda Carbon neutrality in an ICE vehicle? While carbon negativity is often linked with all-electric vehicles, Mazda is working toward carbon negativity with gas-powered engines. More specifically, the automaker is exploring SKYACTIV-Z's potential to be used with carbon-neutral fuels and testing carbon capture tech using a substance called zeolite in the exhaust pipe to absorb CO2. Combined, these two strategies could facilitate carbon neutrality in an ICE vehicle. Mazda is also working toward fulfilling the potential of internal combustion engines to release air with less CO2 than they take in, thus cleaning the environment. Michiharu Kawano, another leading ICE developer at Mazda, said: 'As things stand, it's unlikely that all cars will be replaced by battery EVs. Which is why I believe we were right to persevere with the internal combustion engine. Whether generating electricity with an engine to turn the wheels or using a motor to complement the engine's power, hybrid systems require an internal combustion engine. Even with electrification, with the exception of battery EVs, we'll still be considering solutions based on internal combustion engines. With highly efficient internal combustion engines, we can make motors smaller, which should also help control electrification costs.' Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. Mazda Motors President Takashi Yamanouchi stands among the company's next-generation gasoline and diesel engines, SKYACTIVE-G — Source:If SKYACTIV-Z comes to fruition, it won't be the first time the public has experienced benefits from SKYACTIV tech. In 2010, the SKYACTIV-G debuted in the Mazda 2 and achieved a hybrid-level fuel efficiency of about 70 mpg based on the Japanese 10-15 test cycle using only internal combustion, without relying on motor assistance. Research efforts for the SKYACTIV-G began in 2005, and the tech's breakthrough followed Mazda's confirmation that compression ratio significantly impacts thermal efficiency. The seven control factors related to ideal combustion were thus identified as compression ratio, air-fuel ratio, combustion period, combustion timing, wall surface heat transfer, pumping loss, and mechanical loss. SKYACTIV tech made its debut in the Mazda2 Final thoughts Mazda's SKYACTIV-Z is a 2.5L inline 4-cylinder engine that is currently being tested and meets stringent European and North American emissions standards, while boasting strong performance. If actualized in production, SKYACTIV-Z will simultaneously elevate fuel efficiency and performance while keeping costs affordable. SKYACTIV-Z is scheduled to debut in the Mazda CX-5's next generation in 2027. About the Author Cody Carlson View Profile
