By Simone McCarthy, Rosa de Acosta, Joyce Jiang, CNN

Beijing (CNN) — Welkin Lei has been doing some paper-napkin calculations in his spare time.

As the 30-year-old from Beijing and his wife consider whether to have a second child, they face a question of resources. Caring for their three-year-old son requires hiring childcare while they’re at work, and the couple – both only children – are also looking ahead to when they’ll need to balance parenting with the cost and time of caring for their own aging parents.

While those considerations are not uncommon around the world, they’re also uniquely at the heart of one of the biggest long-term domestic challenges facing China’s leaders: spurring the country’s young people to have more children after decades of stringent, state-enforced birth control that skewed its demographics.

And Lei believes more could to be done, specifically when it comes to the government offering more financial support to families. “If we want to encourage people to have more kids now, we need to put in the same, if not more, effort and commitment to make it happen,” he said.

January 1 marks 10 years since China scrapped its notorious “one-child” policy, after the government realized that a falling birth rate threatened to derail the growth of the world’s second-largest economy.

But the landmark change – and a raft of other measures to encourage couples to have more kids – have failed to boost the population.

China’s headcount shrank in the three years to 2024. A slight uptick in births that year was still not enough to outpace the number of deaths, and is not expected to be a lasting trend.

Over-60s now account for more than 20% of the population of 1.4 billion people and could make up a staggering half the population by 2100, according to United Nations projections – a reality with potentially far-reaching implications, not only for China’s economy but also its ambitions to rival the United States as a military power.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has evoked the need for “population security” and made the “development of a high-quality population” a national priority. Analysts expect more policies or incentives to support births and marriage in the year ahead.

But many in China say boosting birth rates means addressing core issues like high youth unemployment, the high cost of raising children, and what’s seen as an unfair burden of child-raising on women.

And then there’s the direct legacy of the “one-child” policy, which left China with a gender imbalance and a generation of siblingless children now solely responsible for caring for elderly parents in a country where the social safety net remains weak in many places.

That’s why Lei said that – despite a stable job at a financial firm – he’s deeply concerned about the future.

“I know that no matter how much I save for the future, I have to buy the labor of someone else’s children to support (my parents) in their old age,” he said. “Given how society is developing, I doubt I’ll be able to afford that in the future.”

‘A drop in the bucket’

For decades, Beijing quashed “excess” births with a vast and ruthless government apparatus that monitored citizens and pressured them to have fewer children, including by using a deluge of propaganda, harassment and heavy fines, as well as forced abortions and sterilizations.

The goal of the “one-child” policy, officially enacted in 1980, was to rein in China’s runaway population growth, which officials at the time feared could imperil

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By Associated Press

(AP) — Keionte Scott returned an interception 72 yards for a touchdown, Carson Beck threw a scoring pass and No. 10 Miami shocked defending champion Ohio State 24-14 on Wednesday night at the Cotton Bowl in the first College Football Playoff quarterfinal.

The Hurricanes (12-2, CFP No. 10 seed) have won two playoff games to get into football’s final four after needing an at-large berth to make the 12-team field, even without playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. One more win and they will get to play for a national championship in their home stadium.

Next for Miami in coach Mario Cristobal’s fourth season is a CFP semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8 against No. 3 seed Georgia or No. 6 seed Ole Miss, the SEC teams in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday night.

There hasn’t been a national title for “The U” since 2001. The Hurricanes were denied a repeat the following season with a double-overtime loss in the Fiesta Bowl to Ohio State, the only other time the teams met in a bowl game.

Now it’s third-ranked Ohio State (12-2, CFP No. 2 seed), which went into the game as a 9 1/2-point favorite according to BetMGM Sportsbook, that won’t be able to win back-to-back national titles for the first time in program history.

The Buckeyes hadn’t played since a 13-10 loss to now-No. 1 Indiana in a Big Ten championship game matchup of undefeated teams on Dec. 6. They still got a first-round bye, then lost just like all four teams that went directly to the quarterfinal round in the inaugural 12-team playoff last season.

Scott’s second pick-six this season came when he jumped a quick screen pass to the left thrown by Heisman Trophy finalist Julian Sayin, then had a wide-open field to sprint untouched to the end zone for a 14-0 lead with 11:49 left in the first half.

That came only 1:42 after Beck’s quick pass to Mark Fletcher Jr. coming out of the backfield for a 9-yard score.

Beck, who was part of Georgia’s national titles in 2021 and 2022 when Stetson Bennett was the starter, completed 19 of 26 passes for 138 yards. The TD throw to Fletcher, who also ran 19 times for 90 yards, was the seventh of 13 consecutive completions for Beck to set a record in the Cotton Bowl, which was played for the 90th time.

Sayin, a freshman backup behind Will Howard for Ohio State’s championship run last season, was 22 of 35 for 287 yards with two interceptions and a TD to Jeremiah Smith. Sayin was sacked five times.

AP All-America receiver Smith, the Miami native, caught seven of those passes for 157 yards, including a 14-yard TD on a fourth down in the fourth quarter.

Carter Davis added a 49-yard field goal in the third quarter and ChaMar Brown ran for a 5-yard TD in the game’s final minute for the Hurricanes, whose 24 points were the most Ohio State gave up this season.

The takeway

Miami: The Hurricanes have won six games in a row since an overtime loss Nov. 1 at SMU, less than 25 miles from AT&T Stadium, where the Cotton Bowl is played. They also made their CFP debut in the Lone Star State, winning 10-3 at No. 7 Texas A&M in the first round on Dec. 20.

Ohio State: All-America safety Caleb Downs, who started in the CFP for the third season in a row, became the first player to force two fumbles in a CFP game. … The Buckeyes had gone four consecutive quarters — the equivalent of a full game — until Bo Jackson’s 1-yard TD run to cap its opening drive of the second half.

Up next

Miami waits to see who it will play in the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State is schedu

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

West Palm Beach, Florida (CNN) — Champagne and caviar? Anyone can do it.

A massive portrait of Jesus Christ painted rapidly onstage while the president of the United States watches on reverently before auctioning it off to a woman in a top hat for $2,750,000?

That is New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago.

“I want to just do something very special,” President Donald Trump said as the presentation began. “This is very different.”

The scene Wednesday night inside the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom didn’t begin quite so unconventionally. The party seemed, at first glance, like the typical year-end festivities at the president’s Palm Beach resort.

Rudy Giuliani was there, slouched over in a white dinner jacket. White pillar candles flickered on tables. Guests mingled around the pool before filing into the ballroom, which Trump is replicating at the White House.

A cold snap (in South Florida this means temperatures in the mid-fifties) made for a parade of fur coats. Musicians perched atop black cubes played “the Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” on repeat.

Before he stepped onto a black carpet emblazoned with “HAPPY NEW YEAR MAR-A-LAGO,” Trump greeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, who returned to the club after the president invited them to the party on Monday.

Trump has been ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago for north of two decades. Ticket prices spiked during his first term, hit the $1,000 mark a few years ago and now go for $1,450. That buys a prix-fixe meal and the chance of watching the most powerful man in the world eating it from behind a velvet rope.

In the past, the party has attracted high-profile guests like Martha Stewart, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods and Rod Stewart. This year, Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani, Hollywood producer Brett Ratner, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, House Republican Whip Tom Emmer, and former television host turned United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro were among the guests.

Trump was uncharacteristically quiet as he walked past a bank of cameras and into the ballroom alongside the first lady, wearing a metallic silver gown. His resolution? “Peace on earth.”

Earlier in the day, Trump had gone on a social media tear against“scumbag” governors (Colorado’s Jared Polis), “mediocre” movie stars (George Clooney) and cheating Democrats (all). He used part of his speech Wednesday night to bemoan the brewing scandal over alleged fraud at taxpayer-funded child care centers in Minnesota’s Somali community.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of all of it. It was a giant scam,” he said. “Other than that, we’re going to have a great new year.”

But by the time he got to the main event, however, his cup of kindness seemed replenished.

“There’s a young lady named Vanessa who’s one of the greatest artists anywhere in the world,” he said, as the curious crowd grew quiet. “To me, she’s one of the greatest. In fact, she did something last night that was incredible. She can paint, slowly, a beautiful portrait for the White House, or she can paint the most incredible painting in literally 10 minutes.”

“She’s a speed painter, and she’s a great painter, but I think she’s one of the great living artists,” he went on. “And I said, ‘Do you think you’d be able to stay and interrupt the music for a couple of minutes and show them something special? Draw something really special. I don’t know what it is, bu

* WHAT…Dangerous rip currents and breaking waves due to
elevated surf expected. Minor coastal overflows possible due
to abnormally high tides between 6.7 and 7.5 feet and gusty
southerly winds.

* WHERE…Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands, Santa Barbara
County Southwestern Coast, Santa Barbara County Southeastern
Coast, Ventura County Beaches, Malibu Coast and Los Angeles
County Beaches.

* WHEN…From late tonight through Sunday afternoon.

* IMPACTS…Pooling of sea water is possible around high tide at
beach and harbor areas that is uncommon with normal tidal
ranges. Enhanced beach erosion is also possible. No
significant damage is expected. There is an increased risk of
ocean drowning. Rip currents can pull swimmers and surfers out
to sea. Waves can wash people off beaches and rocks, and
capsize small boats nearshore.
Remain out of the water due to hazardous swimming conditions, or
stay near occupied lifeguard towers. Rock jetties can be deadly
in such conditions, stay off the rocks.

The post Beach Hazards Statement issued December 31 at 7:46PM PST until January 4 at 1:00PM PST by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA appeared first on News Channel 3-12.