Population in China falls for first time in more than 60 years | First Thing

Shift marks start of a long period of population decline as China wrestles with demographic time bomb. Plus, Adidas denies revolutionary plan over Cambodia working conditions

Good morning.

China has entered an “era of negative population growth”, after figures revealed a drop in the number of people for the first time since 1961.

Why are people resistant to having bigger families? Online, some Chinese people were unsurprised by the announcement, saying the social pressures driving the low birthrate remained. “Housing prices, welfare, education, healthcare – reasons why people can’t afford to have children,” said one commenter on Weibo. “Now who dares to have children? Housing prices are so expensive, no one wants to get married and even fall in love, let alone have children,” said another.

What do the Democratic party want to do? Democrats want South Carolina, a more racially diverse state than Iowa and New Hampshire, to have first say in whom the Democratic party should nominate for president. The proposal would mean New Hampshire would vote a week later, along with Nevada, while Georgia – another racially diverse state, and one that was crucial to Biden’s 2020 victory and the Democrats’ successful holding of the Senate in 2022 – would go next.