Yu, 37, has 136,000 followers – including thousands in the United States

International news via Reuters:

From his kitchen in Beijing, Yu Bo is running a campaign to connect China with America – one slapstick cooking video at a time.

At a time when tensions between Washington and Beijing are high, it might seem like the odds are against him.

Yu, 37, is keeping his day job directing commercial videos. But since January he has spun up an alter-ego as an ambassador for speedy Chinese cooking in short English-language videos posted to RedNote, a social media app and go-to search engine.

He now has 136,000 followers, including thousands in the United States, many of whom send him daily messages and questions about Chinese food and life in China that keep him up late at night.

“All kinds of English messages, so every night I’m improving my English just to be able to communicate better with them,” he said.

When more than half a million Americans downloaded RedNote earlier this year, days before a proposed U.S. ban on the popular Chinese social media app TikTok, Yu saw an opportunity to turn his small kitchen into a studio.

Now, with a Saturday deadline set by the Trump administration for TikTok to find a buyer, Yu’s side hustle could be set for more change.

His online persona mixes the dramatic flourishes of Turkish restaurateur Salt Bae with self-deprecating humour, a wide-eyed look into the camera and an evolving series of heavily accented catchphrases. “So easy!” is a favourite. Another, as he fires up his gas cooker: “Open the fire!”

A fan of rapper Eminem, whose off-camera bookshelf includes Ayn Rand and David Foster Wallace, Yu was worried at first about how his limited spoken English would travel.

“I was a little scared because I thought, will everyone think I’m bad? Will everyone treat me like a joker? But later I found they love me.”

When Yu used five eggs in one dish, an American follower asked if he was rich. “How expensive are eggs in America?” When another asked how to grow rice, he advised against trying.

One single mother told him her daughter with ADHD found his videos soothing. He sent her a private message in which he baked a cake for the girl. “I was just so touched,” he said.

RedNote is sometimes described as China’s answer to Instagram. Its Chinese name Xiaohongshu translates to “Little Red Book” in English, a phrase that traditionally refers to a collection of sayings by Mao Zedong.

Privately owned RedNote, valued at $17 billion in its latest funding round, has probably benefited from the surge of attention whatever happens next for TikTok, said Yaling Jiang, founder of consultancy ApertureChina.

“Global investors, global users know them. They know the potential and how it is different from other Chinese apps,” she said.

Washington officials have said TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government.

For now, Yu continues to cook and post. He started a stir-fry lesson this week by throwing a green pepper at the viewer. Off camera, his sphynx cat and a kitten were watching. The kitten was born when Yu’s channel took off. He named it Xiaohongshu.

Reporting by Kevin Krolicki and Josh Arslan; Editing by Kate Mayberry

Demand for couriers in Russia has surged following the COVID-19 pandemic

International news via Reuters:

Elena and Viktor’s apartment is packed with large, colourful rucksacks and the two bicycles they call their “iron horses”. They have quit their regular jobs, seeking better pay and more flexible hours to work full time as delivery couriers.

Demand for couriers in Russia has surged in the last few years, fuelled partly by booming e-commerce growth in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The market grew 34% in 2024 to 54.4 billion roubles ($645 million), according to Kommersant calculations from Rosstat data.

Elena Kashayedova and Viktor Drovovoz, who started living together in 2023 soon after they started dating, battle cold, snowy winters in the Siberian city of Omsk and face the daily task of hauling their bikes up and down five flights of stairs in their apartment block.

But for Kashayedova, who quit her previous job as a boiler operator in January, the financial upside of being a courier makes it well worth it.

“They tried to talk me out of it for a long time, but now I understand that I made the right decision, because in addition to freedom, no management, no team, you also get a decent income,” she told Reuters.

“In many regions, wages leave much to be desired and … in courier services you can get three to four times more,” she said. “By the standards of our city, this is very good money.”

Russia’s spending on the conflict in Ukraine has boosted some wages and consumer spending; that has exacerbated already high inflation but led more people to use the relative luxury services offered by delivery companies like Samokat, Sberbank-owned Kuper, and those run by tech giant Yandex and major retailers X5 and Magnit.

Yandex Food, the technology company’s delivery arm, has attracted more couriers as the market has grown, said Sergei Dolgov, head of its operational management service, with people enjoying the flexibility and ease of setting up for deliveries.

“It’s not only, as it used to be, just guys working as couriers, but now there is a large number of girls, and, in fact, people with higher education, of course, also use delivery as an opportunity to quickly join in and have an additional income,” Dolgov said.

SIDE HUSTLES

Architecture student Polina Kalinichenko is one such example, earning around 50,000 roubles ($593) in March alongside her studies.

“Questions arise as to why I am not fully engaged in architecture,” Kalinichenko told Reuters in Moscow. “But in principle, this is my decision, so I don’t see anything wrong with it. This does not prevent me from working as an architect and studying.”

For some, the delivery boom has piqued entrepreneurial curiosity.

Roman Kolesnikov pivoted from developing a business and mobile app to running a fleet of delivery drivers in Moscow, realising that he could buy small, cheap cars manufactured by the likes of Daewoo and Suzuki and rent them out to couriers.

“It is better to receive 1% of the income of a hundred people than 100% of your own,” Kolesnikov said. “And today I already have about 30 cars in my fleet.”

When not managing the fleet, which can earn him over 300,000 roubles in a good month, Roman sometimes makes deliveries himself, bringing his young daughter along for the ride while his wife is at work.

“We help each other, we share a budget,” he said. “And this activity brings in the majority of the family income.”

($1 = 84.3000 roubles)

Reporting by Evgenia Novozhenina and Anastasia Bakhur; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Mark Trevelyan

Argues that the new law will prevent bridge blockades

International news via Reuters:

 Hungary’s government is planning a law that would prevent protesters blocking bridges in order to defend the rights of those not protesting, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.

Bridges, particularly in the capital Budapest, which is divided by the Danube river, have become a focal point of anti-government protests over the past years, as demonstrators seek to press their demands.

On Tuesday, thousands of people demonstrated on Elisabeth Bridge in the city as they again protested against a law that aims to ban the annual Pride march by LGBTQ+ groups, and which is seen by critics as part of a wider crackdown on democratic freedoms ahead of a 2026 parliamentary election.

Orban, who faces a strong challenge from a surging opposition party ahead of the vote, has criticised the LGBTQ+ community and pledged to curb foreign funding of independent media and non-governmental organisations in Hungary.

“Freedom of assembly is important … but it is not normal that in the meantime thousands or tens of thousands are stuck in a traffic jam,” Orban said in an interview on state radio.

Orban, in power since 2010, said the new law was needed to prevent bridge blockades as currently a court decision allowed them to take place.

“Judges apply the law passed by the government … We can do one thing, we can change the law in order to prevent the blockage of several bridges based on court decisions,” said Orban, who promotes a Christian-conservative agenda.

Parliament, dominated by Orban’s Fidesz party, passed a law last month to ban the Pride march on the grounds that it could be harmful to children. Festival organisers say it poses no threat to children and plan to hold the event despite the ban.

Previously Orban has said the fact that rallies such as the one on Tuesday can take place means there is no threat to democracy in the country, calling opposition protests against the Pride ban a “provocation”.

Reporting by Anita Komuves and Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Alison Williams