🌏 People In China Are Sharing Photos Of "White People Meals", Japan Finally Raises Age Of Sexual Consent From 13 To 16 And More

Hello and welcome to the Almost newsletter, a weekly email to help you stay updated and make sense of important stories happening around the world including:

• 🌏 This Week’s Top Stories
• 👩 Women To Know
• 🙌 Good News For Your Week

Chinese people are sharing photos of “white people meals” on social media and it’s going viral for being hilariously accurate.

The trend was initially started by Chinese people working or studying overseas who were stunned by their Western peers’ simple lunches that only contained a few carrots, raw spinach, cheese and crackers.

People are now sharing photos of what they call “white people meals” – cold, raw food that requires minimal preparation, on the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu.

In Chinese culture, lunch is a relatively important meal that aims to meet the energy requirement for work or study in the afternoon.

People are accustomed to preparing and having meals with a staple food such as rice or noodles, along with vegetables and meat cooked with different seasonings and methods.

The dietary differences have brought culture shock to people in China.

“Have they evolved to produce their own energy without eating?” a person commented on the posts.

Now, people in China have even turned “white people meals” into a diet that they are following to lose weight.

Other Chinese people are praising “white people meals” as a solution to their hectic work schedules because they don’t have enough time to prepare lunch.

The trend has also gone viral on Western social media, with people finding it hilarious and accurate.

Also Happening Around The World

🇨🇴 After 40 days of intense search operations, four Indigenous children were finally found alive after their plane crashed in the Colombian jungle, but a rescue dog is still missing.

🇨🇳🇦🇷 Argentine football star Lionel Messi went to China, was allegedly detained at the airport and then caused a huge fan craze.

🇸🇪 A whale that was a Russian spy has been spotted off the coast of Sweden and people have questions.

🇧🇷 This Brazilian man ran on stage and smashed a pageant winner’s crown after his wife came second place

🇯🇵 Japanese students were caught eating straight from an ice cream machine and caused a controversy.

🇫🇷 France has banned short domestic flights to cut emissions.

More than a dozen of women in Taiwan have come forward with stories of sexual harassment, sparking the country’s first #MeToo movement.

Here’s what you need to know.

More Women You Should Know About

🇵🇱 Women in Poland are protesting after a woman died after she was denied an abortion.

🇲🇹 Women in Malta are also demanding justice after a woman was convicted for having an abortion.

🇬🇧 And in the UK, women took to the streets to demand the UK reform its laws after a woman was jailed for having an abortion.

🇸🇪 After 251 weeks, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has done her last “school climate strike”.

Japan finally raised the country’s age of sexual consent from 13 to 16 as part of a wider reform of the country’s laws on sex crimes.

The law was proposed after the acquittal of several accused rapists in 2019, which sparked public outrage.

In one case, a court acquitted a father who had repeatedly raped his teenage daughter even after it recognized the girl had not consented.

The court said there was no definitive proof that the girl was unable to resist psychologically – as in she could have if she wanted to.

The acquittal was later overturned by a higher court.

Under Japan’s previous law, victims needed to prove that there was violence and intimidation and that they had been unable to physically resist in order to secure a conviction.

The new law, which was passed unanimously on Friday June 16, now expands the definition of rape from “forcible sexual intercourse” to “non-consensual sexual intercourse”.

It also clearly outlines eight situations that are considered rape, including when the victim is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or if the perpetrator frightens them or takes advantage of their social status.

The new law also makes grooming minors and voyeurism, such as when people take upskirt photos or videos or secretly film sexual acts, a crime.

Previously, Japan had the lowest age of sexual consent among developed countries.

More Good News For Your Week

🇮🇸 Iceland has officially banned LGBTQ conversion therapy.

Thanks so much for opening this email. If you think a friend would like this, you can forward it to them! You can also follow Almost on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. We also have a Chinese version.

Let us know your thoughts about this week’s news in the comments or by replying directly to this email ✨