• Reuters

    Japan to compile record $734 billion budget for next fiscal year, draft plan shows

    Japan's government is set to compile a record $734 billion budget for the fiscal year from April due to larger social security and debt-servicing costs, adding to the industrial world's heaviest debt, a draft plan seen by Reuters showed. The record 115.5 trillion yen budget comes as the Bank of Japan shifts away from its decade-long stimulus programme, which means that the government can no longer rely on ultra-low borrowing costs and on the central bank to effectively bankroll debt.

  • Reuters

    Chinese tricksters take cue from Squid Game to prey on the indebted

    In China's take on Squid Game, fraudsters are preying on the financially distressed in a slumping economy with promises of prize money, debt restructuring and other schemes that are not always what is promised. Unlike the dystopian South Korean TV series, which returns to the small screen for a second season on Thursday, Chinese players taking on "self-discipline" challenges do not risk their lives if they lose. But courts have found some participants in isolation challenges - who pay hundreds of dollars to stay in a room for days, following prescribed rules in the hopes of winning as much as 1 million yuan ($140,000) - are being scammed.

  • Sky News

    A&E departments 'absolutely full to bursting' with flu blamed for making 'bad situation even worse', top medic says

    Around half of accident and emergency departments, polled by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, have said they are "full to bursting" this Christmas. Dr Ian Higginson, its vice-president, told Sky News' Gareth Barlow on Christmas Eve that the situation for the NHS in the UK is "pretty grim" at the moment. Dr Higginson said half responded and "all but two of them said that the emergency departments were absolutely full to bursting".