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The US's seizure of Nicolás Maduro carries uncertainty for China, which is no fan of chaos.

Louis Koo is the modern-day cop still trapped in the Qin dynasty in this cinematic reprise of the hit 2001 Hong Kong TV series

Time-travel stories were briefly in the crosshairs of the Chinese censors in the early 2010s, because of how they potentially subverted “official” history. It’s not clear if the – about a modern-day cop transported to the third-century BC “warring states” period – was seen as an offender. But it is evidently all go for Chinese time-travel movies now, and hence this glossy cinematic reprise of A Step Into the Past that picks up the main characters 20 years on.
Louis Koo returns as former policeman Hong Siu Lung, still trapped in the Qin dynasty and lying low with his family after putting his disciple Chiu Poon (Raymond Lam) on the throne. Back in the present, the time machine’s inventor Ken (Michael Miu Kiu-wai) has just been released from a prison stretch for botching the technology and marooning Hong. He maintains it is unfair, but he doesn’t muck about with a grievance procedure; he goes full Vader and resolves to head back and become Qin emperor himself.

Our reporters on the ground tell us what they’re watching in Ukraine, the Middle East and China.

Policies meant to lure importers to Hainan, a resort island off China’s coast, signal an opening up, Beijing says. One expert calls it a “bait and switch.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was said to have listed the Trump administration’s demands to Venezuela’s new leader, Delcy Rodríguez, in a classified meeting Monday with senior congressional leaders.

The U.S. assault on Venezuela points to a world where big powers seek to call the shots in their regions, an idea Beijing knows well.

Military experts and diplomats agree new strategies and tactics – drone-based or otherwise – playing out in Ukraine’s theatre of war may be replicated closer to home

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It’s early morning at the sprawling 32nd Tactical airbase in Łask, a couple of hours outside the Polish capital of Warsaw, and the late autumn wind is sharp. Nearby, a crew of Australians are wrapping up the deployment of an E-7 Wedgetail surveillance plane, sent to the country to help Nato’s response to .
“You’ll feel it here,” our chaperone says, tapping his chest as a cluster of F16 fighter planes prepare to take off. Their roar reverberates through the atmosphere, each charging into the low-hanging clouds.

The US president has been quite clear that Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Greenland are in his sights. We must believe him
As Venezuela’s skyline lit up under , we were watching the morbid symptoms of a declining empire. That may sound counterintuitive. After all, the US has kidnapped a foreign leader, and Donald Trump has announced that he will “run” Venezuela. Surely this looks less like decay than intoxication: a superpower high on its own force.
But Trump’s great virtue, if it can be called that, is candour. Previous US presidents draped naked self-interest in the language of “democracy” and “human rights”. Trump dispenses with the costume. , he boasted: “When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over, we would have gotten all that oil, it would have been right next door.” And this was no off-the-cuff remark. The logic of an oil grab, and much more besides, is laid out plainly in Trump’s recently published .

Every year a Chinese-dominated flotilla big enough to be seen from space pillages the rich marine life on Mile 201, a largely ungoverned part of the South Atlantic off Argentina
In a monitoring room in Buenos Aires, a dozen members of the Argentinian coast guard watch giant industrial-fishing ships moving in real time across a set of screens. “Every year, for five or six months, the foreign fleet comes from across the Indian Ocean, from Asian countries, and from the North Atlantic,” says Cdr Mauricio López, of the monitoring department. “It’s creating a serious environmental problem.”
Just beyond Argentina’s maritime frontier, hundreds of foreign vessels – known as the – are descending on Mile 201, a largely ungoverned strip of the high seas in the South Atlantic, to plunder its rich marine life. The fleet regularly becomes so big it can be seen from space, looking like a city floating on the sea.

While both countries were allied with Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. attack could give them justification to use force in other spheres, analysts said.

South Korea's Lee Jae Myung snapped selfies with China's Xi Jinping as he pursues better ties with China in a four-day visit.

Perception that Chinese-made weapons could not stop a ‘decapitation strike’ may give Beijing pause for thought
The sight of a hostile regional superpower launching an overnight raid to depose the leader of a smaller neighbouring country could easily have sent pulses in Taiwan racing.
The US on Saturday revealed the details of a surprise raid to capture Venezuela’s leader, , who was whisked away to the US, where he was frogmarched into .