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Chinese consumers buy surprisingly few garments per year — about 21 — a rate lower than Mexico’s despite China’s status as the world’s second-largest apparel market by revenue. The gap reflects income and consumption patterns, high shares of spending on necessities, regional differences, and an emerging consumer preference for value and durability over volume.

A wave of Chinese celebrities and influencers are launching video podcasts as platforms such as Bilibili and Xiaohongshu weaponise creator funds and tools to win high‑value audiences. The format boosts engagement and brand opportunities but faces hurdles: high production costs, uneven on‑camera talent, and a concentration of success among established personalities.

Jinan completed a rapid metro expansion that added 121.2 km last year, bringing its network to 217.9 km and placing it among China’s top 20. The buildout, constrained for decades by fragile underground springs, now forms a more coherent H-shaped network and crosses the Yellow River, but low ridership intensity and the need for supportive land-use policies mean the economic payoff is not assured.

EU leaders convened an emergency summit in Brussels on January 22 to coordinate a response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks about Greenland made at Davos and related statements. The meeting underlines growing European sensitivity to unilateral U.S. rhetoric on geopolitically sensitive issues and could accelerate EU measures to bolster Arctic policy, regional partnerships, and transatlantic diplomacy.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker told Turkey that nationwide calm has been restored after recent unrest, blaming the disturbances on Israeli and U.S. backing for ‘‘terrorists.’’ Turkey urged continued stability, while Washington’s warnings of possible intervention and Tehran’s external-conspiracy narrative deepen polarization and raise the risk of further escalation.

President Trump withdrew planned tariffs on eight European countries after saying he and Western partners had sketched a framework on Greenland that covers defence and mining. European leaders welcomed the de‑escalation but remain alarmed: the episode raises fundamental questions about Greenlandic sovereignty, NATO’s role, and the resilience of the transatlantic alliance.

Chongqing has expanded a cross‑provincial “immediate” VAT refund scheme to Yunnan, Shaanxi and Gansu, following a 2025 agreement with Sichuan, allowing foreign visitors to claim tax rebates when departing from a different province than where they purchased goods. The move is designed to make multi‑stop itineraries across western China more convenient, boosting inbound consumption and aiding regional economic coordination amid broader visa‑free transit liberalisation.

James Muldoon’s reporting reframes generative AI as a large‑scale extraction system that depends on low‑paid labour, unconsented creative material and vast energy and water resources. The phenomenon deepens global labour competition, concentrates managerial control, and risks reproducing Western cultural biases unless regulated.

At Davos, Elon Musk announced that Tesla plans to sell its Optimus humanoid robot next year and predicted widespread Robotaxi usage in the U.S., alongside broader claims that AI may surpass human intelligence and that humanity will eventually reverse ageing. The announcements compress ambitious technological roadmaps into near-term timelines, raising questions about feasibility, regulation and societal impact.

Alibaba’s Qianwen AI has been upgraded into a transactional agent, enabling one-sentence food orders by routing natural-language intent to Taobao Flash Purchase agents. The feature marks a strategic pivot from chat to commerce, testing whether AI can become a reliable front door to instant retail within Alibaba’s ecosystem.

More than fifty Chinese consumer-tech brands, led by Honor, Baseus and Nubia, have joined AliExpress’s “Super Brand Going Overseas” programme to accelerate international sales. The move bolsters Alibaba’s cross-border marketplace while reflecting a wider trend of Chinese firms using platform partnerships to globalise amid domestic slowdown and intensifying competition.

Intel CEO Chen Liwu admitted on the Q4 2025 earnings call that the company has not fully met skyrocketing AI-driven demand because product yields are below his expectations. Intel has pledged to make yield improvements a top priority in 2026, but the admission triggered a sharp market reaction and raises competitive and supply-chain risks.

Alibaba is preparing to spin off its Pingtouge AI‑chip unit and explore an IPO after years of quiet development, a move that lifted Alibaba’s share price sharply. The reorganisation—creating a partly employee‑owned entity—would strengthen Alibaba’s AI stack and feed investor appetite for China’s domestic alternatives to Western accelerators, though production scale, valuations and regulatory risks remain key uncertainties.

At Davos, Elon Musk argued that electricity — not chips — will be the binding constraint on large-scale AI and robot deployment, praising China’s massive solar build-out as the practical remedy. He set aggressive timelines for RoboTaxis, FSD regulatory approvals in Europe and China, Optimus humanoid sales by late 2027, and space-based AI data centres enabled by fully reusable Starship launches.

Apple has broadened John Ternus’s remit to include design oversight, enhancing his standing as a frontrunner to succeed Tim Cook. The move underscores Apple’s emphasis on product design while exposing potential succession trade-offs around chip leadership and governance timing.

TikTok has set up a US data‑security joint venture and preserved its core algorithm IP by licensing it, while ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake in the new entity and full ownership of US commercial operations. The deal secures the app’s presence in America, attracts major American and global investors, and establishes a template for managing tech‑national security tensions without dismantling the business.

At Davos, President Trump demanded immediate talks to purchase Greenland, calling it a U.S. "core national security interest" while insisting he would not use force. His remarks, including a disputed claim that the U.S. once owned Greenland, heightened tensions with Denmark and Europe and raised fresh questions about NATO cohesion and Arctic geopolitics.

The PLA Navy’s first 054B frigate, Luohe (545), has completed its first year of service after commissioning in January 2025, conducting repeated live-fire drills and routine at-sea training. The class is intended to enhance early warning, information processing and integrated combat functions, making it a force-multiplier within fleet networks rather than a standalone game-changer.

The US Army has again failed to meet its schedule for fielding the LRHW "Dark Eagle" hypersonic system, highlighting technical hurdles and cost pressures in a program that has already consumed over $12 billion across services. With the first battery’s deployment cost estimated at roughly $2.7 billion, the delay raises questions about deterrence timelines, congressional oversight, and potential shifts in Pentagon priorities.

At Davos President Trump said he would not use force to seize Greenland but pressed to negotiate a purchase and suspended planned tariffs on several European countries after talks about an Arctic framework. Denmark and the EU reacted with alarm: Copenhagen rejects the idea of transferring Greenland, Greenland issued civil‑defense guidance, and Brussels convened an emergency summit to consider a unified response.