HO CHI MINH CITY -- Some families in Vietnam woke up last week to find blue vouchers on their doorsteps notifying them when they could go to the supermarket. Almost instantly, grocery orders shot up at MarketOi, a delivery startup based in Ho Chi Minh City.

With Vietnam's toughest COVID wave yet closing many offices, doing business has become a roller coaster even for delivery services, one of the few commercial activities still permitted in lockdown.

MarketOi had a windfall of customers stuck at home and limited to two shopping

SANYA, China -- Eagerly snapping up bargains, Zhang is typical of the crowds of shoppers who have made the Chinese island of Hainan a key hub for global duty-free retail amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's cheap," said the housewife from Guangzhou, who did not give her full name but spent 13,000 yuan ($2,012) on two Burberry bags and cosmetics -- enjoying discounts of up to 40% -- during a visit to the

DALIAN, China/HONG KONG -- After-school tutoring and test-prep companies in China are racing to reassess their operations and change their focuses after Beijing sent shock waves through the sector with new regulatory restrictions last month.

The clampdown is also unsettling investors that have poured billions of dollars into both listed and IPO-headed companies that until recently looked like golden opportunities.

TAL Education Group, an operator of about 1,100 tutoring sites, said last month it would strengthen its existing operations of foreign languages

TOKYO -- The Tokyo Olympics are well underway after a long journey filled with controversy, and an unprecedented one-year postponement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proceedings officially began with the opening ceremony at the National Stadium , a mostly subdued affair mixed with joyous moments like a high-tech drone show, and capped by tennis star Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic cauldron.

We're tracking the latest medal count .

Read our breakdown of the events to watch .

Here are the latest developments:

Tuesday,

TAIPEI -- Lithuania's shift away from China began with a series of small diplomatic incidents.

During a rally for Hong Kong protesters in the capital Vilnius in the summer of 2019, Beijing's ambassador to Lithuania organized Chinese nationals in the country to stage a counter-demonstration. A few months later, a Chinese tourist removed a memorial to Hong Kong protesters at Lithuania's Hill of Crosses, a national symbol of resistance to Soviet rule.

The Chinese ambassador further angered Lithuanians in April 20

SEOUL -- After cutting communication lines with Seoul and blowing up the inter-Korean liaison office last year, North Korea is talking to its southern neighbor again.

The hotline was restored on July 27, 13 months after it was cut off by Pyongyang. The two Koreas held their first call on Wednesday, and are supposed to hold regular phone calls twice a day, at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. "The top leaders agreed to make a big stride in recovering mutual trust and

TOKYO -- The Tokyo Olympics are well underway after a long journey filled with controversy, and an unprecedented one-year postponement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proceedings officially began with the opening ceremony at the National Stadium , a mostly subdued affair mixed with joyous moments like a high-tech drone show, and capped by tennis star Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic cauldron.

We're tracking the latest medal count .

Read our breakdown of the events to watch .

Here are the latest developments:

Tuesday,

TOKYO -- U.S. investment bank Houlihan Lokey said on Tuesday it will acquire Tokyo-based mergers and acquisitions consultancy GCA for 68 billion yen ($622 million). Houlihan said it will launch a tender offer to make GCA a wholly owned subsidiary, with an offer price of 1,380 yen per share -- a 31% premium to Tokyo-listed GCA's share price on Monday.

Nikkei reported about the deal on Monday.

The investment bank looks to tap

Boonsithi Chokwatana is the Chairman of Saha Group, Thailand's leading consumer products conglomerate. This is part 12 of a 30-part series.

Our business of selling Pias cosmetics took off after a shaky start. I already had an idea about the next move for I.C.C. International, the company I started from scratch for the Pias business.

Since our Pias business was selling "price-maintained" cosmetics through "beauty advisers" who demonstrated the products and counseled consumers, I thought we