News

Exclusive: Force, which had dropped objection to plan, says protests of more than 500 people would impede traffic and require extra resources
China’s proposed “super-embassy” in London would require additional police officers to deal with any large protests involving thousands of people, the Metropolitan police have said before a decision by ministers.
Despite having dropped its official objection to the proposals, the Met “maintains concerns” that outside the embassy would impede traffic and “require additional police resource”, said the deputy assistant commissioner Jon Savell

The ursine protagonists are largely relegated to fart-gag sidekicks in this phoned-in attempt at a dystopian sci-fi
When George Michael recorded Careless Whisper, there can be no doubt his ultimate ambition for it would have been to soundtrack a garish animated sequence in which two anthropomorphic bears gambol through a prairie of giant fungus experiencing ecstatic visions as hallucinogenic spores rain down on them. Such is the frantic way of this Chinese cartoon franchise, as relentless and exhausting as ever in its 11th feature-film instalment. Five minutes in, before the credits, it has crammed in a post-apocalyptic prologue, oodles of eco-babble, a time-travelling tyke and an avalanche.
This latest one jumps on the fungal-panic bandwagon: Saylor (voiced by Nicola Vincent in the English-language version) has nipped back 100 years to locate the original spores at the root of a pestilence that has eradicated most of life on Earth. It turns out that hapless nature guide Vick (Chris Boike), seen polluting the forest with his tourists, was responsible for spreading them After Saylor fails to kill the mushroom in the cradle, the pair – along with Vick’s forest buddies, the bears Bramble (Joseph S Lambert) and Briar (Patrick Freeman) – are whisked back to the future. They discover a fungus-carpeted nightmare of a planet, overshadowed by a giant skyscraping toadstool.

Beijing and Manila accuse each other of illegal activities around Sandy Cay near the Spratly Isles, as joint US-Filipino military drills get under way in region
China and the Philippines have displayed their national flags in competing photo opportunities on a disputed sandbank in the South China sea, ratcheting up longstanding regional tensions between the two countries.
The dispute played out at Sandy Cay, which is part of the disputed Spratly Islands, and comes days after the US and the Philippines launched their annual joint military drills called “Balikatan”, or “shoulder to shoulder”, which this year will include an integrated air and missile defence simulation for the first time.

Twenty years ago, the metro Phoenix suburb of Mesa didn't have an Asian District. Then, the transformation of an abandoned Target changed everything.

Lenders expected to split into two camps: those focused on domestic customers and those with large operations in the US, China and the EU
UK banks’ earnings reports will be studied this week for signs of turmoil linked to Donald Trump’s tariff drama, with likely to weigh on lenders with heavy exposure to China, including HSBC.
First-quarter profits only reflect the January-to-March period that preceded the US president’s . But investors will be concerned about any hints of caution around earnings forecasts, as well as an uptick in money put aside for defaults by tariff-hit borrowers.

We got a bunch of native Chinese speakers on the streets of NYC to react to American and/or Western celebrities’ Mandarin Chinese, as spoken in Hollywood movies or in real life. We got clips of Keanu ...

Social media incitement following last summer’s riots appears to be new tactic against Hong Kong exiles
One morning last August, a troubling message appeared in a social media group for Hongkongers in the UK. It was already a tense time to be an immigrant. Rioters, propelled by false claims online that the man who had murdered children in Southport was an asylum seeker, were descending on hotels housing refugees, trying to burn them alive.
The message alerted the Hongkongers to posts on far-right channels suggesting some new targets. “They all help refugees who come to the UK to take resources,” one of them read.

The Chinese-American boy was seen clutching his blanket and sobbing as the young tormentors meted out ethnic slurs at him in Loudoun County, Virginia.

The Philippines, which disputes China's claim to the sandbank, responds by releasing a photo of its own forces on another.

Mark Carney, who is running to win a full term as prime minister, has years of experience dealing with Chinese businesses and leadership. It’s become fodder for his opponents.

‘The Chinese will see this high tariff level is unsustainable for their business,’ says Scott Bessent
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said “there is a path” to an agreement with over after he had interactions with his Chinese counterparts last week in Washington.
“I had interaction with my Chinese counterparts, but it was more on the traditional things like financial stability, global economic early warnings,” Bessent told ABC News’s This Week on Sunday, explaining that he had spoken to the Chinese during International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington. “I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi,” he added.

The U.S. economy depends on Chinese tools needed to make everything from cars to electronics in American factories.