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Mica is the mineral that gives a sparkle to an array of products, from eye shadow to lip gloss. But what consumers do not see is a deadly trade involving even children. The programme Undercover Asia investigates. JHARKHAND, INDIA: It sounds like an innocuous ingredient, a word among many hidden on the back of the packaging of your eye shadow palette. Mica: A mineral that can be ground down to make sparkly powders, and found in everything from eye shadow to lip gloss to foundation. Cosmetic companies value mica for its properties: Refractive, superfine and naturally occurring in different colours. It can be found all over the world, including India, which is known for having some of the world’s largest and finest deposits. But in India, there is a heavy price to pay for it, the progr...

Israel and Hamas have taken to open warfare yet again. The sense of deja vu, as the militant group’s rocket attacks on Israeli territory are met by retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza, is compounded by Western politicians repeating an old formula: “Israel has the right to defend itself.” That’s undoubtedly true. And yet it’s equally clear that Israeli actions are unlikely to deter Hamas. Nor will re-establishing military superiority over a technologically primitive enemy obscure Israel’s new and acute vulnerabilities. The shocking images of lynch mobs and street fighting between Arabs and Jews within Israel underscore the fact that the most formidable threat to the country’s present and future stability is now internal. About one in five Israelis are Arabs, the descendants of Palestinians who...

Getty Images Covid-19 vaccinations are on the rise. Mask mandates are being stripped away. Businesses are reopening. What should you do to get on track with your money during the economic recovery? The U.S. economy is showing signs of life as the country reopens and returns to a new normal following the coronavirus pandemic. Weekly jobless claims dipped to a new pandemic low of 406,000, and the economy added 266,00 jobs in April, a positive gain, though below expectations. More from Invest In You: How to get monthly child tax credit without a permanent address Lack of workers hurts small business ability to keep up with demand How this 26-year-old TikTok creator makes over $100,000 per month "What we've seen is some really bright spots, some very encouraging news. It gives me hope, and...

A court in Amsterdam on Thursday ordered fugitive former car executive Carlos Ghosn to repay Nissan and Mitsubishi almost 5 million euros (US$6.1 million) in wages he received from their Dutch registered joint venture Nissan-Mitsubishi BV in 2018. AMSTERDAM -Fugitive former car executive Carlos Ghosn suffered a setback on Thursday when a Dutch court ordered him to repay 5 million euros (US$6.1 million) in wages to Nissan and Mitsubishi in a case he had brought. The case, one of a series of legal battles involving one of the best known figures in the auto industry, centres around the Dutch-registered joint venture Nissan-Mitsubishi BV (NMBV), where Ghosn was ousted as chairman in 2019. Ghosn claimed the Japanese companies violated Dutch labour laws when they dismissed him and had dem...

JAKARTA: Just a few hours after using a mobile app to order some dishwashing liquid, Jakarta resident Juweriah opens the door to a motorcycle courier who provides a direct refill in her kitchen. Juweriah, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, is taking advantage of a rise in environmentally friendly businesses in a country that is the second-largest ocean plastic polluter in the world. The 38-year-old homemaker orders products through Siklus, a start-up that provides cleaning and sanitary products minus plastic packaging to homes and businesses in the Indonesian capital. "We can refill (the bottles) and reduce the amount of detergent plastic waste," Juweriah said. "Neighbours here have followed suit." A worker prepares to top-up dispensers with cleaning liquid at a Siklus off...

Working long hours is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year in a worsening trend that may accelerate further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Monday. In the first global study of the loss of life associated with longer working hours, the paper in the journal Environment International showed that 745,000 people died from stroke and heart disease associated with long working hours in 2016. That was an increase of nearly 30% from 2000. "Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard," said Maria Neira, director of the WHO's Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health. "What we want to do with this information is promote more action, more protection of workers," she said. The joint study, produced by the WHO and the Intern...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We may receive a commission when you click on links for products from our affiliate partners. In an effort to help younger generations learn how to be debt-free and combat money taboo among the Latinx community, Sofia Bastida, a 24-year-old first-generation Mexican American, created @savingwithsofie. Through this platform, she shares her experience paying off $120,000 in student loans within the span of 26 months on an income below six figures. Like many college students, Bastida wasn't aware of many of the basics of finance until she got into student loan debt and felt obligated to pay it off on her own. Without a college fund, Bastida took out federal studen...

BANGKOK: From the moment he was dragged into a car in broad daylight on the streets of Phnom Penh on Jun 4 last year, nothing has been seen or heard of Thai activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit. Thai and Cambodian police insist they are investigating, but with the probe into his apparent abduction going nowhere, his sister Sitanun has vowed to pursue the truth "to the last". Rights campaigners say the case sends a chilling signal of Thailand's willingness to pursue political dissidents beyond its borders. Wanchalearm, aged 37 at the time of his disappearance, was wanted by Thai police for running an acerbic anti-government Facebook page and for posting satirical videos criticising Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Sitanun's frustration at the lack of help she has had from the Thai author...

During much of the first year of COVID-19, Southeast Asia seemed one of the few bright spots in the world. Vietnam, a lower-middle income country that had learned from its experience with SARS, had one of the lowest case and death rates in the world. Thailand, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and even poorer countries in the region such as Laos and Cambodia mostly kept the virus at bay, even as wealthier states in Europe, North America and Latin America suffered millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths. To be sure, Indonesia and the Philippines struggled, but the region’s overall low rates even made some scientists question whether people in mainland Southeast Asia enjoyed some natural immunity to the novel coronavirus. More recently, many Southeast Asian states have experienced ...

Hong Kong has announced its representative office in Taiwan will “temporarily suspend operations” but both sides have been winding down interactions in recent years, says Bo Zhiyue. WELLINGTON: A strange development took place this week regarding cross-strait relations. On Tuesday (May 18), the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced that its representative office in Taiwan, the Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office in Taiwan (HKETCO), will suspend operations effective immediately. The HKETCO had a good 10-year run. Established in December 2011, the HKETCO is responsible for the economic, trade and cultural relations between Hong Kong and Taiwan. Hong Kong has over 20 such offices across China and in other parts of...