Monsters and memes: Labubu dolls ride China soft-power wave

A woman poses with Labubu and Mokoko characters in an exhibition hall as they visit Pop Mart theme park Pop Land in Beijing, China on June 18, 2025. — AFP

Small, fuzzy and baring sharp teeth, Chinese toymaker Pop Mart's Labubu monster dolls have taken over the world, drawing...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ukraine denies the fall of Solidar in the grip of Russia: the fighting is still going on

 Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Ukraine denied, on Friday, what Russian forces announced that they had taken control of the Ukrainian city of Solidar, and confirmed that fighting was still going on in the city. The spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Serhiy Sherevaty, told the Ukrainian news agency RBC Ukraine that Russia's claim of control of Solidar is "incorrect," adding that "fighting continues in the city." At the same time, the CNN team, which is located about 4 kilometers from the city of Solidar, monitored the continuation of shooting and shelling in the city. The CNN team also monitored the Ukrainian army's transfer of its forces in what appeared to be a somewhat orderly retreat, but without a sense of panic among the Ukrainian forces. On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the "liberation" of Solidar in eastern Ukraine, hours after the statements of the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, who ...
Read more

After the statements of Bashar al-Assad and Erdogan.. America clarifies its position on countries normalizing their relations with the Syrian regime

  (CNN) -- US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Thursday described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as having "committed atrocities against his own people, and his forces have committed war crimes," and said Washington "will continue to discourage our partners around the world from normalizing relations with Syria." or improve the Assad regime. "We will continue to adopt the principles of Security Council Resolution 2254, and we continue to believe that it constitutes the most appropriate basis for ending the civil war in a lasting way that respects and promotes the aspirations of the Syrian people," Price added, during a press conference. He continued, "We, of course, do not know what the Assad regime could have done had it not been for the accountability measures that were imposed on it. We do not know what it would have done had it not been for the actions of the United States and the countries of the world to confiscate and destroy Syria...
Read more

Al-Assad's first comment about the Syrian-Turkish meetings "so that they are fruitful"

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed, on Thursday, in the first comment on the Syrian-Turkish meetings, the importance of "ending the occupation" and "stopping support for terrorism", in reference to the Turkish military presence in Syria as well as the support Turki for the Syrian opposition. The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted al-Assad as saying, "In order for these meetings to be fruitful, they must be based on prior coordination and planning between Syria and Russia in order to reach the tangible goals and results that Syria wants from these meetings, based on the state's national constants and principles." And the people are based on ending the occupation and stopping support for terrorism.” Al-Assad’s statements came during his meeting with Alexander Lavrentiev, the special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his accompanying delegation, where the two sides discussed bilateral relati...
Read more