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Everyone seems to agree candy-flavored vapes are bad for kids. So why can’t lawmakers find a way to block their sale?

Diplomatic frenzy and rattled nerves in republic as officials and former president reject US president’s comments

From a modern control room high above the canal expansion – overlooking the Cocolí locks, then lakes, rainforest canopy and, eventually, the Atlantic ocean – it barely registers that the era of gunboat diplomacy is returning to the .
But four days into Donald Trump’s second administration, here we are. Trump has declared that he is “” the Panama canal, sending TV crews from Washington to Beijing scrambling here to cover a crisis that has led to frenzied diplomatic efforts and elicited fears of a repeat of the 1989 US military invasion.

Everyone seems to agree candy-flavored vapes are bad for kids. So why can’t lawmakers find a way to block their sale?

The small port city of Gwadar has a huge new airport funded by China, but local suspicion of Beijing’s true intentions threatens to wreck the project
As the first flight touched down on the fresh tarmac at Gwadar, it was hailed by Pakistan’s government as a step towards “progress and prosperity”. The newly opened airport – now the largest in the country – built in Pakistan’s troubled Balochistan province was “a symbol of the cooperation between Pakistan and China”, according to defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
Yet the optics of the event told another story. As it unfolded on 20 January, the surrounding city of Gwadar was put under a draconian security lockdown. And while several senior Pakistan government and military figures were present, their Chinese government counterparts were noticeably absent – even though it was China footing the $230m bill for the airport.

When refugees from the app showed up on an alternative called RedNote, understanding was fostered.

The wooden house on the hill is haunted, and those who once endured its wrath are now the ones holding the doors wide open. Come inside, and you can almost hear the echoes of the suffering and smell ...

With Chinese New Year coming up, one of the most important holidays in the Chinese culture, the Topeka Chinese American Associations' celebrated early with a gala. “Only a few hundred of us are from ...

Detainees fear their return could be imminent despite UN experts urging Bangkok to halt possible transfer
Relatives of Uyghurs detained in Thailand for more than a decade have begged the Thai authorities not to deport the 48 men back to China, after the detainees suggested their return appeared imminent.
A UN panel of experts this week urged Thailand to “immediately halt the possible transfer”, saying the men were at “real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment if they are returned”.

Whatever deal the US president is eyeing over the app, it is further proof some digital giants wield disproportionate clout
Late on Saturday 18 January, TikTok, the short-video app beloved of millions of users mostly aged between 18 and 24, . This was not because of a power outage, but because its owner switched it off. For an explanation of why it did so, though, we have to spool back a bit. For years, TikTok has been a thorn in the sides of US legislators and national security officials for two reasons. First, it’s owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, which doubtless does whatever Xi Jinping tells it to do. Second, TikTok hoovers up phenomenally detailed data about its young users. The average session lasts 11 minutes and the video length is about 25 seconds. “That’s 26 ‘episodes’ per session,” , “with each episode generating multiple microsignals: whether you scrolled past a video, paused it, rewatched it, liked it, commented on it, shared it, and followed the creator, plus how long you watched before moving on. That’s hundreds of signals. Sweet crude like the world has never seen, ready to be algorithmically refined into rocket fuel.” The thought of personal data with this granularity falling into Chinese hands seemingly drove the American deep state, not to mention Meta, Google and co wild. And Congress got the message.
In April last year, Joe Biden signed into law the , a statute that had attracted unprecedented bipartisan support on its path through a divided Congress. The act basically mandated that TikTok’s owner would have to sell it to an American company or be banned in the US. It was scheduled to come into force on Sunday 19 January 2025.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with his Chinese counterpart over Taiwan, with Donald Trump's top diplomat denouncing Beijing's "coercive" moves.

The US president has issued a blizzard of edicts and announcements. Determining where to focus the fightback will be difficult but essential
Waiting for on Monday was like watching a tsunami gather force. Everyone could see the threat approaching. But its scale was still shocking as it hit land, and what damage it wreaks will ultimately take months and years to determine.
The deluge is intentional. For supporters, there is a sense of unleashed macho, almost messianic energy – setting the US on a path to national destiny which might take in Greenland, Panama and ultimately Mars. This time Mr Trump has an electoral mandate, a compliant team with a ready agenda, the obsequiousness of billionaires who , and a compliant supreme court which has already granted the president . He aspires to the rule of a monarch. The flood of , pardons and pronouncements is intended to overwhelm and intimidate, but also to disorientate opponents.

Three-year-old bears Qing Bao and Bao Li can be seen on the zoo’s ‘giant panda cam’ after arriving in US in October
Two new giant pandas made their public debut at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington DC on Friday morning amid growing excitement about newcomers to the nation’s capital, quickly dubbed by some media outlets as “pandamonium”.
The three-year-old pandas, Qing Bao, whose “green treasure” in Mandarin, and Bao Li, whose name means “active and vital power”, arrived in the US from China last October, making them the first pandas to come to DC from China in 24 years, but have been in quarantine since.