Our daily voyage around the world

🇨🇳 China began 15 days of celebrations for the Lunar New Year yesterday. The Lunar New Year is the most important annual holiday in China, per NPR, with many employers taking a full two weeks off. This year’s celebrations bring in the Year of the Rabbit, and mark the first time since before the pandemic in 2019 that China’s strict ‘zero-Covid’ strategy isn’t in place. In contrast to 2022’s Year of the Tiger, which is seen as a period of action in the Chinese zodiac calendar, the Year of the Rabbit is supposed to embody relaxation, quietness, and contemplation.

🇨🇦 Canada agreed to pay $2.9 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by local Indigenous tribes against its former residential school system. From the late 19th century up until the 1970s, some 150,000 Indigenous Canadian children were forcibly taken from their homes and placed in government-run schools, where many suffered emotional, sexual, and/or physical abuse that sometimes proved fatal. In recent years, investigators have uncovered several mass grave sites containing the bodies of Indigenous children who attended these residential schools, with estimates ranging from 3,200 to 6,000 total student deaths. The $2.9 billion settlement still has to be approved by a federal court before it can be disbursed to the plaintiffs.

🇵🇪 Peru indefinitely closed Machu Picchu on Saturday due to growing anti-government protests. Government officials said they closed the country’s most famous tourist attraction “to protect the safety of tourists and the population in general," as demonstrations continue across the country. Protesters are demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, who replaced then-President Pedro Castillo last month after he was impeached and imprisoned for trying to dissolve Congress. At least 55 people have died in the ensuing unrest, per APNews.