Trendy News Update

Here is what you need to know. Things are looking up for China’s manufacturing sector . “China’s manufacturing sector finished the opening quarter of 2019 on a positive note, with operating conditions improving for the first time since last November,” IHS Markit said in a report released Monday. “Firms signalled slightly quicker rises in output and overall new work, while employment increased for the first time in over five years.” China is using debt to control the South China Sea .  China’s One Belt One Road project and the massive infrastructure loans associated with it are helping to weaken opposition to its claims in the South China Sea. Japan announces the name of the era under the new emperor .  Naruhito will become the Japanese emperor on May 1, beginning the “Reiwa” era. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a fan of MMT — here’s what it is . Modern Monetary Theory says governments who create their own money can spend freely because they can always print more money to ...

The storm is here. The Kingdom is barren as snow begins to fall on the once thriving settlement. The fair is over, but the promised trade didn’t bring what many hoped. Their pipes still burst, the rot still spread, and this home, this beacon for so many who sought shelter from the cold apocalyptic wasteland, became untenable. So now, the King and Queen, still carrying the grief of losing their son, must now carry their people to Hilltop as a harsh blizzard descends upon them and the Whisperers still lurk in their periphery. But, once the storm passes and their friends on the hill open up their gates, it all seems like a blip on the timeline. We’re left with both hope and a promise of much bigger things to come. In the final moments before the credits roll, that radio Eugene, Rosita, and Gabriel have been tinkering with since the time jump, their initial mission that first put everyone on the warpath with the Whisperers, finally fulfilled its purpose. When the blizzard came, the p...

TOKYO (AP) — The name of the era of Japan’s soon-to-be-emperor Naruhito will be “Reiwa,” the government announced Monday. Emperor Akihito is stepping down on April 30, in the first abdication in 200 years, bringing his era of “Heisei” to an end. The new era takes effect May 1. The name draws from the 7th century poetry collection “Manyoshu,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said after the announcement by the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga. Abe said the name means that culture is born and nurtured as the people “beautifully care about each other.” “With this selection of a new era name, I renew my commitment to pioneer a new era that will be filled with hope,” Abe said. The Manyoshu is Japan’s oldest poetry collection and symbolizes Japan’s rich culture and long tradition, he said. The choice was a break from more than 1,300 years of drawing era names, or “gengo” from using Chinese classics. It was kept strictly secret ahead of Monday’s announcement. “We hope (the era name) wi...

Editor’s note: Business Insider surveyed 1,884 young Americans about their buying attitudes and beliefs. This is part of a series of stories that will be rolled out over the next several weeks. Donald Trump Jr. tried to woo the youth during a rally in February, encouraging young conservatives not to let themselves “be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth.” But, according to Business Insider’s recent survey of 1,884 young people, much of Generation Z isn’t having it. In fact, many of the respondents listed US President Donald Trump when asked to identify “the most important issue facing the country right now.” Participants in the survey were all Americans between the age of 13 and 21. The national poll was conducted with SurveyMonkey Audience partner Cint on behalf of Business Insider. It ran from January 11 through January 14. Out of those participants, 1,559 young people answered the question about the biggest issue facing the ...

SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Sunday’s season 9 finale of The Walking Dead. There’s no business like snow business, and that’s the business The Walking Dead was in for its season 9 finale as it showed two different groups of survivors — one at Alexandria, and another making its way from the Kingdom to the Hilltop — trying to brave blizzard conditions to get to safety. The epic storm was an epic undertaking for the crew to recreate a winter wonderland while filming in decidedly non-snowy Georgia. So how did they do it? We spoke with the man in charge of executing the plan — director and executive producer Greg Nicotero — to get answers. Not only does Nicotero explain how they pulled it off (including partnering with a company actually called “Snow Business”), but the director also reveals the pop-culture inspirations for many scenes as well as a few Easter eggs and homages you may have missed along the way. Bundle up and read on! (Also check o...

Abuja, Nigeria – On February 3, Khadijah Adamu, a 24-year-old pharmacist in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, told her Twitter followers about a harrowing case of physical abuse, detailing claims of how an ex-boyfriend almost killed her. “ It was a burden that I was carrying around for two years,” Adamu told Al Jazeera. “Talking to people didn’t work, praying didn’t work, nothing worked, and to make matters worse my abuser refused to leave me alone.” Fakhriyyah Hashim, an entrepreneur and development worker in the Nigerian capital Abuja, noticed Adamu’s tweet and replied with empathy, adding the hashtag #ArewaMeToo.   Arewa is the general term used to refer to northern Nigeria , which has a majority Muslim population and a conservative society where issues surrounding sex and sexuality are rarely discussed in public. Soon, young women and men from the north started sharing experiences of rape and abuse on Twitter, using the hashtag. Some tweets even named the alleged abu...

Lucy Flores, a Democratic politician from Nevada, pushed back on former Vice President Joe Biden’s response to her claims he touched her inappropriately while calling for acknowledgment in her f irst television interview since taking her story public. Flores detailed the incident in a New York Magazine piece published Friday, where she wrote that Biden grasped her shoulders from behind and kissed the back of her head without her consent during a campaign event in 2014. In a statement released Sunday, Biden denied that there was an inappropriate tone to the encounter, saying he didn’t believe he acted inappropriately and making Flores uncomfortable was “never my intention.” Flores pushed back on the statement, saying on CNN’s “State of the Union” she wanted the former vice president to acknowledge his alleged actions and “change his behavior.” “If he is saying that he never believed that that was inappropriate, then frankly I think that’s a little bit of a disconnect,” she said. ...

Pope Francis  has joined  Morocco ‘s King Mohammed VI in saying  Jerusalem  should be a “symbol of peaceful coexistence” for Christians, Jews and Muslims on the first day of a visit to the North African country. The spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics was invited by King Mohammed VI for the sake of “interreligious dialogue”, according to Moroccan authorities. He is expected to celebrate mass at a Rabat stadium with an estimated 10,000 people attending as well as visiting a church-run social services centre and meeting with Catholic priests and other Christian representatives on Sunday. In a joint statement on Saturday, the two leaders said Jerusalem was “common patrimony of humanity and especially the followers of the three monotheistic religions”. “The specific multi-religious character, the spiritual dimension and the particular cultural identity of Jerusalem… must be protected and promoted,” they said in the declaration released by the ...

CLOSE Rapper Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed outside of his store in Los Angeles. Wochit, USA TODAY News of the shooting death of rapper Nipsey Hussle is sending shock waves through the music community, sparking tributes from fellow artists and fans alike.  The Grammy-nominated rapper, 33, whose real name is Ermias Asghedom, was one of three people shot Sunday outside the storefront for his clothing company, called The Marathon Clothing , in South Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti confirmed his death on Twitter.  John Legend said he’d been with Hussle on Thursday “filming a video for a beautiful new song we created with Khaled.” He added, “He was so gifted, so proud of his home, so invested in his community. Utterly stunned that he’s gone so soon.” RIP Nipsey. I just spent Thursday with him filming a video for a beautiful new song we created with Khaled. We filmed in Inglewood, close to where he grew up. He was so gifted,...

This… is American Idol ‘s top 20. Judges Katy Perry , Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie narrowed the search for their eponymous star on Sunday’s episode of ABC’s reality singing competition. After picking the top 40 during Hollywood Week , the show went to Hawaii for the showcase round performances from Disney’s Aulani Resort & Spa, where the list was cut in half. They now head back to Los Angeles and will perform in front of a live audience from the famed The Wiltern starting Monday. Home audiences will get to start voting with the show’s April 15 broadcast. Watch a first look video of the top 20 above, and see the full list below: Madison Vandenburg – Cohoes, N.Y. Shawn Robinson – Atlanta, Ga. Eddie Island – Nashville, Tenn. Evelyn Cormier – Claremont, N.H. Alyssa Raghu – Orlando, Fla. Ryan Hammond – Modesto, Calif. Raquel Trinidad – Tampa, Fla. Logan Johnson – Boise, Idaho Dimitrius Graham – Baltimore, Md. Riley Thompson – Mabank, Tex. Walker Burroughs – Birming...

A $1 billion Israeli intelligence startup accused of helping Saudi Arabia track its adversaries could be the key to new assertions from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ security consultant Gavin de Becker. In an op-ed published in The Daily Beast on Saturday , de Becker said his team concluded that Saudi Arabia “had access to Bezos’ phone and gained private information,” following its investigation into how Bezos’ texts with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez ended up in the hands of The National Enquirer. A foreign government surveilling a powerful American CEO using advanced technologies? It sounds like the stuff of a spy novel. But as it turns out, tracking people’s cell phones is a well-established practice, and the technology behind it — known as “lawful intercept spyware” — is a $12 billion industry. Software can track texts, emails and apps While De Becker stopped short of asserting how Saudi Arabia accessed Bezos’ phone, his op-ed linked out to a New York Times article on “internet mercena...

CLOSE SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports’ Jeff Zillgitt tells us what’s in store for Zion Williamson as he makes his transition from college star to likely first pick in the NBA draft. USA TODAY On Sunday night the clock hit zeroes, Duke’s championship dream evaporated, and a few million more brackets were set ablaze. Within moments of the buzzer sounding and as Michigan State celebrated wildly, Adam Silver emerged from the tunnel, strode onto the court, enveloped Zion Williamson in a big hug, grinned, and whispered, “You’re ours now.” OK, the NBA commissioner didn’t do that of course, but he might as well have. Because in that moment, Williamson essentially became the property of the NBA universe and its global fanbase, a player to be cherished and lauded and scrutinized and debated. Forget about the formalities, Williamson is now an NBA player, and one of the most famous ones on the planet. There is no drama, no maybes, no wait-and-see moments to be had over the next...

SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Sunday’s season 9 finale of The Walking Dead. Those that survived last week’s stealth ambush of the multi-community fair that left 10 zombified heads on pikes had to survive a winter blizzard on Sunday’s season finale of The Walking Dead . We saw King Ezekiel lead his followers out of a now-decrepit Kingdom for good — having to cross through Whisperers territory to reach the Hilltop. We also saw the Alexandria contingent struggling against snow and wind to get to safety, which included Negan rescuing Judith and Dog. How did the show stage these epic snowstorms? We asked showrunner Angela Kang how they pulled it off. And that’s not all we asked her. What about that mystery voice on the radio at the end of the episode? Why did they choose to say goodbye to the Kingdom? What are we to make of Carol breaking up with Ezekiel and what the future holds for those two? And what’s Alpha having Beta whip her arm all about? We inquired...