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Japan study finds women more likely to get skin rash from Moderna shot

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A study in Japan found that women were significantly more likely than men to develop rash-like side effects after a first dose of Moderna Inc’s (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccine, reported by Reuters.

The study of 5,893 participants between May and November last year showed that 22.4% of women developed delayed skin reactions after the first shot, compared to 5.1% of men.

Moderna representatives in the United States and Japan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The symptoms were mild and not considered a contraindication of the mRNA-based vaccine, according to the June 1 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Delayed skin reactions, happening on or after six days from the shot, have been also reported as a rare adverse event in the United States and Europe, according to the authors from Tokyo’s Self-Defense Forces Central Hospital.

But the incidences appear to be higher in Japan, they wrote, perhaps because of a higher awareness of such symptoms in the country. The greater likelihood among women may be due to differences in weight as well as hormonal and environmental factors, they said.

WHO believes COVID getting worse, not better in N. Korea

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A top official at the World Health Organization said the U.N. health agency assumes the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea is “getting worse, not better,” despite the secretive country’s recent claims that COVID-19 is slowing there.

According to AP, at a briefing on Wednesday, WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan appealed to North Korean authorities for more information about the COVID-19 outbreak there, saying “we have real issues in getting access to the raw data and to the actual situation on the ground.” He said WHO has not received any privileged information about the epidemic — unlike in typical outbreaks when countries may share more sensitive data with the organization so it can evaluate the public health risks for the global community.

WHO’s criticism of North Korea’s failure to provide more information about its COVID-19 outbreak stands in contrast to the U.N. health agency’s failure to publicly fault China in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

In early 2020, WHO’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus repeatedly praised China publicly for its speedy response to the emergence of the coronavirus, even as WHO scientists privately grumbled about China’s delayed information-sharing and stalled sharing the genetic sequence of COVID-19.

“It is very, very difficult to provide a proper analysis to the world when we don’t have access to the necessary data,” he said. WHO has previously voiced concerns about the impact of COVID-19 in North Korea’s population, which is believed to be largely unvaccinated and whose fragile health systems could struggle to deal with a surge of cases prompted by the super-infectious omicron and its subvariants.

Ryan said WHO had offered technical assistance and supplies to North Korean officials multiple times, including offering COVID-19 vaccines on at least three separate occasions.

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials discussed revising stringent anti-epidemic restrictions, state media reported, as they maintained a widely disputed claim that the country’s first COVID-19 outbreak is slowing.

The discussion at the North’s Politburo meeting on Sunday suggested it would soon relax a set of draconian curbs imposed after it announced the outbreak in early May out of concern about its food and economic situations.

North Korea’s claims to have controlled COVID-19 without widespread vaccination, lockdowns or drugs have been met with widespread disbelief, particularly its insistence that only dozens have died among many millions infected — a far lower death rate than seen anywhere else in the world.

The North Korean government has said there are about 3.7 million people with fever or suspected COVID-19. But it disclosed few details about the severity of illness or how many people have recovered, frustrating public health experts’ attempt to understand the extent of the outbreak.

“We really would appeal for for a more open approach so we can come to the assistance of the people of (North Korea), because right now we are not in a position to make an adequate risk assessment of the situation on the ground,” Ryan said. He said WHO was working with neighboring countries like China and South Korea to ascertain more about what might be happening in North Korea, saying that the epidemic there could potentially have global implications.

China demands US stop trade talks with Taiwan

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 China’s government on Thursday accused Washington of jeopardizing peace after U.S. envoys began trade talks with Taiwan aimed at deepening relations with the self-ruled island democracy claimed by Beijing.

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and expressed support for the island during her second visit in a year to Taiwan.

According to AP, on Monday, China sent 30 military aircraft toward Taiwan in the latest of a series of flights aimed at intimidating the island’s democratically elected government. Taiwan’s defense ministry said it sent up fighter planes and put air defense missile systems on alert.

Talks that started Wednesday cover trade, regulation and other areas based on “shared values” as market-oriented economies, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It did not mention China but the talks add to gestures that show U.S. support for Taiwan amid menacing behavior by Beijing, which threatens to invade.

Trade dialogues “disrupt peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian. He called on Washington to “stop negotiating agreements with Taiwan that have sovereign connotations and official nature.”

Taiwan and China split in 1949 after a civil war that ended with the ruling Communist Party’s victory on the mainland. They have multibillion-dollar trade and investment ties but no official relations. Beijing says Taiwan has no right to conduct foreign relations.

The United States has diplomatic relations only with Beijing but extensive informal ties with Taiwan. The U.S. government is committed by federal law to see that the island has the means to defend itself.

Zhao accused Washington of encouraging sentiment in Taiwan in favor of declaring formal independence, a step Beijing has said previously would be grounds for an invasion.

The trade initiative is “intended to develop concrete ways to deepen the economic and trade relationship” and “advance mutual trade priorities based on shared values,” said a statement by the office of USTR Katherine Tai.

Taiwan is the ninth-largest U.S. trading partner and an important manufacturing center for computer chips and other high-tech products.

President Joe Biden said May 23 while visiting Tokyo that the United States would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan. He said the U.S. commitment to help the island defend itself was “even stronger” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hinckley to get full freedom 41 years after shooting President Reagan

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John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, is “no longer a danger to himself or others” and will be freed from court oversight this month as planned, a federal judge said Wednesday, capping Hinckley’s four-decade journey through the legal and mental health systems, reported by AP.

In the 2000s, Hinckley began, with the judge’s approval, making visits to his parents’ home in Williamsburg, Virginia. His father died in 2008, but in 2016 he was given permission to live with his mother full-time. Still, he was required to attend individual and group therapy sessions, was barred from talking to the media and could only travel within a limited area. Secret Service would also periodically follow him.

Hinckley’s mother died in 2021. He has since moved out of her home. In recent years, Hinckley has made money by selling items at an antique mall and by selling books online.

Hinckley has said on his YouTube channel that he has started a record label, Emporia Records, and that his first release will be a 14-song CD of his music. He also promotes his music on Twitter.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman had freed Hinckley in September from all remaining restrictions but said his order wouldn’t take effect until June 15. Wednesday’s final hearing was scheduled to ensure Hinckley was continuing to do well in the community in Virginia where he has lived for years.

Hinckley did not attend the final hearing, and the judge made no changes to his plans to give Hinckley full freedom from court oversight.

“He’s been scrutinized. He’s passed every test. He’s no longer a danger to himself or others,” Friedman said at a hearing that lasted about an hour. Friedman devoted much of the hearing to talking about the “long road” of the case, which he was randomly assigned two decades ago, the third judge to be involved in the case.

He noted that Hinckley, who turned 67 on Sunday, was profoundly troubled when tried to kill the president, coming “very close to doing so.” But Hinckley has shown no signs of active mental illness since the mid-1980s, the judge repeated Wednesday, and has exhibited no violent behavior or interest in weapons.

“I am confident that Mr. Hinckley will do well in the years remaining to him,” the judge said. He noted that lawyers for the government and Hinckley have fought for years over whether Hinckley should be given increasing amounts of freedom. “It took us a long time to get here,” he said, adding there is now unanimous agreement: “This is the time to let John Hinckley move on with his life, so we will.”

Hinckley was confined to a mental hospital in Washington for more than two decades after a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity in shooting Reagan. The shooting was fueled by his obsession with the movie “Taxi Driver” and its star, Jodie Foster. In the movie, the main character at one point attempts to kill a presidential candidate.

Starting in 2003 Friedman began allowing Hinckley to spend longer and longer stretches in the community with requirements like attending therapy and restrictions on where he can travel. He’s been living full-time in Virginia since 2016, though still under restrictions.

Some of those include: allowing officials access to his electronic devices, email and online accounts; being barred from traveling to places where he knows there will be someone protected by the Secret Service; and giving three days’ notice if he wants to travel more than 75 miles (120 kilometers) from his home in Virginia.

Prosecutors had previously opposed ending restrictions, but they changed their position last year. Prosecutor Kacie Weston said in court Wednesday that the government believes the case “has demonstrated the success that can come from a wraparound mental health system.” She noted Hinckley has expressed a desire to continue receiving mental health services even after he is no longer required to do so, and said the government wishes “him success for both his sake as well as the safety of the community.”

Hinckley’s longtime lawyer, Barry Levine, said the case had “started with a troubled young man who inflicted great harm” and but that, in the end, “I think we have salvaged a life.”

“John worked hard. He wanted to correct something that he was unable to erase, and this is the best outcome that one could imagine,” Levine said after the hearing, adding, “His regrets will always be with him with respect to the families of those he injured.”

Levine said his client hopes to pursue a career in music and has “real talent.” In July, Hinckley — who plays guitar and sings and has shared his music on a YouTube channel — plans to give a concert in Brooklyn, New York. Appearances in Connecticut and Chicago for what he has called the “John Hinckley Redemption Tour” have been canceled.

Reagan recovered from the March 30, 1981, shooting, but his press secretary, James Brady, who died in 2014, was partially paralyzed as a result. Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded. Reagan died in 2004.

On Wednesday, Reagan’s foundation issued a statement opposing the lifting of restrictions.

“The Reagan Foundation and Institute is both saddened and concerned that John Hinckley Jr. will soon be unconditionally released and intends to pursue a music career for profit,” the statement read. It concluded, “We strongly oppose his release into society where he apparently seeks to make a profit from his infamy.”

China declared victory over Covid Again in Front-Page Editorial

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China declared victory over Shanghai’s coronavirus outbreak as the nation reported its fewest new cases in more than three months, vindicating Covid Zero in the eyes of Beijing despite the policy’s rising economic and social toll. 

A report on the front page of the People’s Daily newspaper Thursday headlined “Great Achievements Have Been Made in the Defense of Shanghai” claimed victory in the fight against the virus in the city of 25 million. In a separate commentary, the chief mouthpiece of the Communist Party said it proved yet again that Covid Zero is the strategy most suited for China because of the country’s aging population, relatively low vaccination rate among the elderly and children, and inadequate medical resources, according to Bloomberg.

And with China committed to its Covid Zero policy — at least through to the Communist Party congress — the possibility that more lockdowns will be swiftly reimposed in the event of any further virus outbreaks still hangs over the nation. 

Just a day after Shanghai reopened, some residential compounds have been put into lockdown again after new infections were found.

New infections fell to 61 across China on Wednesday, from 68 on Tuesday and the lowest since Feb. 17. It’s a marked turnaround from the tens of thousands of cases reported daily in the first half of April, when Shanghai’s outbreak appeared to be spiraling out of authorities’ control, triggering a city-wide lockdown that disrupted business and upended people’s lives. 

The city reported just 13 cases for Wednesday, when movement restrictions were eased to allow about 90% of Shanghai’s residents to move about freely for the first time in more than two months. It added 7 cases on Thursday.

The dramatic drop in nationwide infections from a peak of almost 30,000 in mid-April will be seen as justification President Xi Jinping is charting the right course. China’s leader has made zero tolerance for Covid a cornerstone of his rule as he seeks an unprecedented third term at the Party congress due later this year. The original epicenter of Covid, China has trumpeted what it sees as its triumph over the pathogen, with its zealous approach leading to one of the lowest death tolls in the world, especially compared to the U.S. with its more than 1 million fatalities. 

But keeping the virus out — especially in the face of more contagious and immune-evasive variants — is exacting a hefty price, with the country shut off from the rest of the world and most economists predicting the country will fail to meet its economic growth target for this year. Factories have been shuttered for months in some cases, and supply chains snarled as China deploys a playbook of movement restrictions, mass testing and mandatory isolation of all Covid cases and their close contacts.

The capital, Beijing, only averted a lockdown through aggressive curbs such as asking its 22 million residents to work from home and get tested every day. 

The outbreak there is now effectively under control, municipal officials said Wednesday, though the risk of a flareup remains. Authorities are mulling measures to stimulate consumer spending after shopping malls and other entertainment venues were shut last month and only recently started to reopen with capacity limits. Beijing reported 14 cases for Wednesday. 

But while Covid seems to be contained for now, there are signs China is girding for the next incursion. 

Beijing municipal officials said Thursday they’ll start using 12 out of a planned 14 ‘transition hubs’ to test and disinfect all imported frozen food before goods can be distributed across the city. The move targets cold-chain transmission, which China has frequently blamed for spreading coronavirus even as experts outside of the country dismiss the idea as posing minimal risk at best. 

To keep the virus at bay, a network of tens of thousands of testing booths is being set up across China’s largest and most economically vital cities, with the goal of having residents always just a 15 minute walk away from a swabbing point. The infrastructure will allow cities like Beijing, Shanghai and tech hub Shenzhen to require tests as often as every 48 hours, with negative results needed to get on the subway, go to a tourist attraction, or even enter a store. 

UN anounces to change Turkey’s official name to ‘Türkiye’

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The United Nations has changed the Republic of Turkey’s country name at the organisation from “Turkey” to  “Türkiye”, following a request from Ankara for the change.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that a letter had been received on Wednesday from the Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu addressed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, requesting the use of “Türkiye” instead of “Turkey” for all affairs.

The spokesman said the country name change became effective from the moment the letter was received.

Turkey began the move to change its internationally recognised official name in English to Türkiye in December after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan released a memorandum and asked the public to use Türkiye to describe the country in every language.

“Türkiye is accepted as an umbrella brand for our country in national and international venues,” Erdogan said at the time. “Türkiye is the best representation and expression of the Turkish people’s culture, civilization and values.”

Erdogan also advised companies to use “made in Türkiye” for their exported goods, and instructed state agencies to use Türkiye in their correspondence.

Cavusoglu announced the letter’s official submission to the UN and other international organisations on Tuesday.

“Together with our Directorate of Communications, we have been successful in preparing a good ground for this,” said the letter.

“We have made it possible for the UN and other international organisations, countries to see this change to using ‘Türkiye’,” Cavusoglu told Anadolu Agency.

Depp awarded $10M, Heard $2M in split libel lawsuit verdict

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A jury awarded Johnny Depp more than $10 million on Wednesday in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Depp before and during their brief marriage, according to AP.

The jury also found Heard was defamed by a lawyer for Depp who accused her of creating a detailed hoax that included roughing up their apartment to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million in damages.

Depp, a three-time best actor Oscar nominee, had until recent years been a bankable star. His turn as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film helped turn it into a global franchise, but he’s lost that role. He was also replaced as the title character in the third “Fantastic Beasts” spin-off film, “The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

Despite testimony at the trial that he could be violent, abusive and out of control, Depp received a standing ovation Tuesday night in London after performing for about 40 minutes with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall.

Heard’s acting career has been more modest, and her only two upcoming roles are in a small film and the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel due out next year.

Depp’s lawyers fought to keep the case in Virginia, in part because state law provided some legal advantages compared with California, where the two reside. A judge ruled that Virginia was an acceptable forum for the case because The Washington Post’s printing presses and online servers are in the county.

The verdicts bring an end to a televised trial that Depp had hoped would help restore his reputation, though it turned into a spectacle of a vicious marriage. Throughout the trial, fans — overwhelmingly on Depp’s side — lined up overnight for coveted courtroom seats. Spectators who couldn’t get in gathered on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever they appeared outside.

Heard, who was stoic in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said she was heartbroken.

“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously,” she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account.

Depp, who was not in court Wednesday, said “the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”

“I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up,” he said in a statement posted to Instagram.

Depp had sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

The jury found in Depp’s favor on all three of his claims relating to specific statements in the 2018 piece.

In evaluating Heard’s counterclaims, jurors considered three statements by a lawyer for Depp who called her allegations a hoax. They found she was defamed by one of them, in which the lawyer claimed that she and friends “spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight,” and called police.

The jury found Depp should receive $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the judge said state law caps punitive damages at $350,000, meaning Depp was awarded $10.35 million.

While the case was ostensibly about libel, most of the testimony focused on whether Heard had been physically and sexually abused, as she claimed. Heard enumerated more than a dozen alleged assaults, including a fight in Australia — where Depp was shooting a “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel — in which Depp lost the tip of his middle finger and Heard said she was sexually assaulted with a liquor bottle.

Depp said he never hit Heard and that she was the abuser, though Heard’s attorneys highlighted years-old text messages Depp sent apologizing to Heard for his behavior as well as profane texts he sent to a friend in which Depp said he wanted to kill Heard and defile her dead body.

In some ways, the trial was a replay of a lawsuit Depp filed in the United Kingdom against a British tabloid after he was described as a “wife beater.” The judge in that case ruled in the newspaper’s favor after finding that Heard was telling the truth in her descriptions of abuse.

In the Virginia case, Depp had to prove not only that he never assaulted Heard, but that Heard’s article — which focused primarily on public policy related to domestic violence — defamed him. He also had to prove that Heard wrote the article with actual malice. And to claim damages he had to prove that her article caused the damage to his reputation as opposed to any number of articles before and after Heard’s piece that detailed the allegations against him.

The case captivated millions through its gavel-to-gavel television coverage and impassioned followers on social media who dissected everything from the actors’ mannerisms to the possible symbolism of what they were wearing. Both performers emerge from the trial with reputations in tatters with unclear prospects for their careers.

Eric Rose, a crisis management and communications expert in Los Angeles, called the trial a “classic murder-suicide.”

“From a reputation management perspective, there can be no winners,” he said. “They’ve bloodied each other up. It becomes more difficult now for studios to hire either actor because you’re potentially alienating a large segment of your audience who may not like the fact that you have retained either Johnny or Amber for a specific project because feelings are so strong now.”

Shanghai Coronavirus Lockdown Ends After 65 Days

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Residents of China’s largest city emerged blinking into the sunshine Wednesday, crowding local parks after the lifting of a 65-day lockdown in Shanghai. With the government sticking with its unpopular zero-COVID policy, however, few are confident that is the end of restrictions.

Just 15 new COVID cases were reported in Shanghai on Wednesday, down from a daily peak of around 20,000 in April after the Omicron variant began spreading in the Chinese commercial capital.

Only 650,000 residents from a population of around 25 million are still locked down, the rest now allowed to leave their homes as long as they can show a green health code on a smartphone app. Cinemas, gyms, and museums remain closed but restaurants are open again for takeout.

World’s largest living plant discovered in Australia

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The world’s largest living plant has been identified in the shallow waters off the coast of Western Australia, according to scientists.

According to CNN, the sprawling seagrass, a marine flowering plant known as Posidonia australis, stretches for more than 112 miles (180 kilometers) in Shark Bay, a wilderness area protected as a World Heritage site, said Elizabeth Sinclair, a senior research fellow at the School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia.

That’s about the distance between San Diego and Los Angeles.

The plant is so large because it clones itself, creating genetically identical offshoots. This process is a way of reproducing that is rare in the animal kingdom although it happens in certain environmental conditions and occurs more often among some plants, fungi and bacteria.

“We often get asked how many different plants are growing in a seagrass meadow. Here we used genetic tools to answer it,” said Sinclair, the author of a study on the seagrass that published late Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“The answer definitely surprised us — just ONE! That’s it, just one plant has expanded over 180 km in Shark Bay, making it the largest known plant on Earth,” she said via email.

Sinclair and her colleagues took samples from 10 locations across the range of the seagrass meadow in Shark Bay in 2012 and 2019. The research team also measured the environmental conditions including depth, water temperature and salinity.

At about 4,500 years old, the Shark Bay seagrass is ancient, but its age isn’t record-breaking, the researchers said. A Posidonia oceanica plant discovered in the western Mediterranean that spans up to 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) may be greater than 100,000 years old.

“Individual seagrass clones may persist almost indefinitely if left undisturbed, as they rely on vegetative, horizontal rhizome expansion, rather than sexual reproduction,” Sinclair said.

“What was even more interesting was that it has double the number of chromosomes than in other populations we had been studying. It has 40, not the usual 20,” she added.

Seagrasses inhabit marine coastlines and estuaries globally.

The study suggested that reproducing via cloning helped the seagrass meadow adapt to habitat conditions that were more extreme than where seagrass is usually found — saltier water, high levels of light and wide temperature fluctuations.

“We have been studying cool water seagrasses in southern Australia for a while, to understand how much genetic diversity is in them and how connected the meadows are,” Sinclair said.

The scientists were able to sequence DNA from the seagrass samples, which revealed that it was a single plant.

“The plant has been able to continue growing through vegetative growth — extending its rhizomes (rootstalks) outwards — the way a buffalo grass would in your back garden, extending runners outwards. The only difference is that the seagrass rhizomes are under a sandy seafloor so you don’t see them, just the shoots within the water column,” she said.

The seagrass meadow covered almost 200 square kilometers (77 square miles or 49,000 acres), Sinclair said — bigger than Brooklyn. That’s a much larger area than the Pando quaking Aspen trees in Utah, which are often described as the world’s largest plant. The clone spreads over 106 acres, consisting of over 40,000 individual trees, according to the USDA Forest Service.

Global factory growth stunted by war, China’s COVID curbs

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Global growth in factory activity slowed in May as China’s strict coronavirus curbs and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted supply chains and dampened demand, adding to woes for businesses already struggling with surging raw material prices, reported by Reuters.

Manufacturing growth slowed last month in economies as diverse as France, Japan to Malaysia, business surveys showed on Wednesday, illustrating the challenge policymakers face in trying to combat inflation while not stifling anaemic economic activity.

S&P Global’s final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the euro zone fell to 54.6 in May from April’s 55.5, its lowest since November 2020 though just ahead of a preliminary reading of 54.4. Anything above 50 indicates growth.

In a glimmer of hope, South Korea’s exports grew at a faster pace in May than a month earlier, separate data showed on Wednesday, as a rise in shipments to Europe and the United States more than offset fallout from China. 

The monthly trade data, the first to be released among major exporting economies, is considered a bellwether for global trade.

India’s factory activity expanded at a higher-than-expected pace in May, with demand resilient despite persistently high inflation. 

In Britain, manufacturing activity expanded last month at the weakest rate since January 2021 as producers of consumer goods struggled against a worsening cost-of-living crunch.

“Inflation is driving up the cost of doing business and dampening some consumer demand,” said Simon Jonsson at KPMG.

“The conflict in Ukraine has caused new and worsened supply shortages, while COVID-19 restrictions in China, and border friction closer to home, have also adversely impacted UK manufacturing.”

China’s Caixin/Markit Manufacturing PMI showed a further contraction there, standing at 48.1 in May although improving slightly from April’s 46.0, a private survey showed.. That was in line with official factory activity data released on Tuesday.

While COVID curbs are being rolled back in some cities, suggesting China’s manufacturing slump has bottomed out, analysts do not expect a rapid rebound like in early 2020, saying fears of fresh outbreaks will continue to weigh on confidence and demand.

“Disruptions to supply chains and goods distribution may gradually ease as Shanghai’s lockdown ends. But we’re not out of the woods as China hasn’t abandoned its zero-COVID policy altogether,” said Toru Nishihama, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo.

“Rising inflation is forcing some Asian central banks to tighten monetary policy. There’s also the risk of market volatility from U.S. interest rate hikes. Given such layers of risks, Asia’s economy may remain weak for most of this year.”

Lockdowns in China have snarled global logistics and supply chains, with both Japan and South Korea reporting sharp declines in output. 

Japan’s manufacturing activity grew at the weakest pace in three months in May, and manufacturers reported a renewed rise in input costs, the PMI survey showed, as the knock-on effects of China’s lockdowns and the Ukraine conflict pressured the economy.

The final au Jibun Bank Japan PMI fell to a seasonally adjusted 53.3 in May from 53.5, marking its slowest pace since February.