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Hard numbers: China raises retirement age, Cocaine found in sharks, Russia and Belarusian athletes accused of supporting Ukraine war, Deadly Ethiopian mudslides

​Chinese retirement home.

Chinese retirement home.

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65: China is beginning to gradually raise its retirement age over the next five years to cope with its aging population and overburdened pension system. China’s current retirement age is one of the lowest in the world: 60 for men and between 50-55 for women. Meanwhile, the country’s life expectancy has risen above that of the US, to 78 years. At the end of the adjustment, China’s retirement age is expected to be 65.

13: In the real-life sequel to “Cocaine Bear,” 13 sharks have tested positive for cocaine off of the coast of Brazil – at a level 100 times higher than other aquatic life. Experts believe cocaine is getting into the water via illegal labs illegally manufacturing the drug, or through excrement of drug users.

17: A human rights law firm has accused the International Olympic Committee of negligence for allowing 17 Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in the Summer Games in Paris even though the competitors have shown support for the war in Ukraine in breach of Olympic rules. Russia and Belarus have been banned from sending official teams to Paris. Still, some sports allow athletes to compete as individuals if they have passed a special IOC test of neutrality – which the law firm’s suit alleges they violated.

229: At least 229 people have died in mudslides this week following heavy rains in southwestern Ethiopia in the deadliest such disaster recorded in the Horn of Africa country. Most of the victims were rescue workers who were buried in a mudslide on Monday as they searched the steep terrain for survivors of another mudslide the previous day.

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