By Jamie McGeever A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever, financial markets columnist.

I’ve spent 10 years of my life thinking my pain wasn’t enough to justify giving it a label. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia at 16 years old — a disease mostly characterized by chronic pain at the joints and tenderness in specific pressure points — and yet, the diagnosis never felt like enough. Even now at 26, it doesn’t feel like a “good enough excuse,” it doesn’t sound real. Back when I was in high school, I could barely go up stairs or hold my pen. I felt like my teachers didn’t believe me. I didn’t look sick. I was too young to have chronic pain. I was being dramatic. My flare-ups were always convenient. I just hadn’t tried hard enough. Others suffered more, after all. I thought after receiving a diagnosis — an uphill battle of its own — would fix it all. But nothing changed. I couldn’t consider myself disabled because my teachers’ words echoed in my brain. So much so, I confused them with my own thoughts. What I wanted, what I desperately needed, were people willing to help me fight against those thoughts, to build a system around me that encouraged, loved, and accepted me with compassion, instead of invalidating me.

The South African government and the national poultry association say about 7.5 million chickens have been culled in an effort to contain outbreaks of two separate strains of bird flu that have threatened to create a shortage of eggs and meat for consumers

Elon Musk said Friday that his much-hyped cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg would take place in Italy, as authorities there confirmed talks about hosting...

Armenian lawmakers approved a key step towards joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, a move that is expected to escalate tensions with the...

A Bay Area man faces a murder charge after allegedly stabbing a woman to death and posting video of her "last moments" on Facebook, San Mateo Police say.

'Sister Wives' star Robyn Brown took a dig at Christine for spending most time with Kody Brown

It’s been out for more than three weeks, and yet Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is still painting the movie industry pink after smashing several fresh box office records. The new movie, starring Margot Robbie as the iconic doll, has become the highest-grossing movie at the US box office by a female director, solo or otherwise - much to the chagrin of Ben Shapiro. The previous record was held by Jennifer Lee, the director of Frozen 2, after the Disney film banked $477.4m at US box offices. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter But this Barbie just keeps breaking records. The movie hit $492.6m on Thursday 10 August, and it now stands at $526.3m in the US. Barbie also became the highest-grossing live-action movie by a female director after the fourth weekend in cinemas. The pink sensation overtook Captain Marvel, which earned $1.13bn globally in 2019 and was co-directed by Anna Boden. Gerwig's movie has now taken $1.18bn to date. The records keep tumbling despite the fact that Robbie was not even first choice for the role, which she revealed last week. The actor, who was also a producer on the movie, recently told Vogue that both her and director Greta Gerwig initially wanted Gal Gadot for the role but scheduling conflicts got in the way. “Gal Gadot is Barbie energy. Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork,” she said. Barbie was also banned in Kuwait recently, and now faces calls for a ban in Lebanon amid complaints in the Arab nations about the film’s social values. There are currently no plans in the works for a sequel. “At this moment it’s all I’ve got. I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I’ll never have another idea and everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I did," Gerwig said in a recent interview. “I wouldn't want to squash anybody else’s dream, but for me, at this moment, I’m at totally zero." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

When things run amuck, one of the first things astrology lovers do is Google, “Is Mercury in retrograde?” While the answer has been a stern no since May 14, that’s all changing now. We’re sorry to tell you that Mercury will be retrograde in Virgo from August 23 to September 14 this year, causing travel delays, communication mishaps, and exes to resurface for those few weeks. While it’s nice to have something to blame our hardships on, remember that we’ve survived this time and time again — and we’ll definitely be surviving it once more.

Netherlands forward Quincy Promes has been convicted of stabbing his nephew in the leg and has been sentenced to 18 months in prison

Brayden Bowers returned to 'The Bachelorette' Season 20 after the explosive drama

Officials say that Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest atomic power station, has spent hours operating on emergency diesel generators after losing its external power supply for the seventh time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor