Sheep: Rustling is on the rise. More than 60,000 were stolen last year — sparking a 250 percent rise in insurance claims from bereft farmers. In September last year, rustlers stole 1,400 sheep from a farm in Lincolnshire — the largest livestock theft for a quarter of a century. The National Farmers’ Union puts the spike down to an increase in the price of lamb. Between July 2008 and July last year, the cost of a kilo of lamb chops rose from £10.39 (US$16.37) to £14.24.
Copper: Theft of the metal reached an all-time high last year, after its price doubled to £5,000 per tonne. Much of it is stolen from railway lines in well-rehearsed operations, according to Network Rail’s Robin Gisby.
“It goes in a container to Hull docks and ends up in China. We [inadvertently] buy it back and then it’s back on the railway again,” Gisby says.
The damage to railway lines is said to have delayed British trains by more than 16,000 hours over the past three years.
Gasoline: Astronomical fuel prices have sparked a hike in its theft. More than 1,500 incidents were reported last year — a year-on-year increase of about 17 percent. The perpetrators will often siphon thousands of liters from gas stations (one Hull garage has even reported a 4,000 liter hit), but individual cars have also been targeted. Breakdown recovery firms have reported an increase in call-outs to cars with broken fuel leads.
CDs and DVDs: Once a bread-and-butter quarry for burglars, these are now stolen during only 7 percent of burglaries — down from 20 percent in 2004. The fall is linked to the £3 drop in album prices over the past decade and the rise in online media consumption
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long been a cornerstone of US foreign policy, advancing not only humanitarian aid but also the US’ strategic interests worldwide. The abrupt dismantling of USAID under US President Donald Trump ‘s administration represents a profound miscalculation with dire consequences for global influence, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. By withdrawing USAID’s presence, Washington is creating a vacuum that China is eager to fill, a shift that will directly weaken Taiwan’s international position while emboldening Beijing’s efforts to isolate Taipei. USAID has been a crucial player in countering China’s global expansion, particularly in regions where
With the manipulations of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), it is no surprise that this year’s budget plan would make government operations difficult. The KMT and the TPP passing malicious legislation in the past year has caused public ire to accumulate, with the pressure about to erupt like a volcano. Civic groups have successively backed recall petition drives and public consensus has reached a fever-pitch, with no let up during the long Lunar New Year holiday. The ire has even breached the mindsets of former staunch KMT and TPP supporters. Most Taiwanese have vowed to use
Despite the steady modernization of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the international community is skeptical of its warfare capabilities. Late last month, US think tank RAND Corp published two reports revealing the PLA’s two greatest hurdles: personnel challenges and structural difficulties. The first RAND report, by Jennie W. Wenger, titled Factors Shaping the Future of China’s Military, analyzes the PLA’s obstacles with recruitment, stating that China has long been committed to attracting young talent from top universities to augment the PLA’s modernization needs. However, the plan has two major constraints: demographic changes and the adaptability of the PLA’s military culture.
About 6.1 million couples tied the knot last year, down from 7.28 million in 2023 — a drop of more than 20 percent, data from the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs showed. That is more serious than the precipitous drop of 12.2 percent in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the saying goes, a single leaf reveals an entire autumn. The decline in marriages reveals problems in China’s economic development, painting a dismal picture of the nation’s future. A giant question mark hangs over economic data that Beijing releases due to a lack of clarity, freedom of the press