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China announced a 7 percent increase in military spending and a five-year plan to try to reduce its military and industry’s reliance on Western technology.

Iran maintains ties with a range of countries, including Turkey, India, Russia and China. Yet in this war, their support is mostly rhetoric.

‘High-quality growth’ target of 4.5-5% outlined at Two Sessions as Chinese premier talks of complex situations at home and abroad

China has set its target for GDP growth to a record low of 4.5-5%, the first time since 1991 that the figure has dropped below 5%, reflecting an economic strategy that is shifting away from export-led growth to a model that leaders hope will be more resilient to external shocks.
Li Qiang, China’s premier, announced the target for 2026 in the (NPC), China’s annual parliamentary gathering, which began on Thursday.

The conflict in the Middle East has sent energy prices soaring, and for countries that import a high proportion of their fuel, it’s a reminder of the perils of energy dependence. As the recipient of almost 90% of Iran’s crude oil, China knows this only too well. Which partly explains why the country spent the last decade heavily investing in clean power.
To find out what else could be driving the strategy, Madeleine Finlay speaks to senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins.
And energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose reflects on how China’s ambitions could affect the rest of the world
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If we want things to be ‘Made in Europe’ again, we need to be realistic about how grimy and grey our centres of commerce once were
“Bitterfeld, Bitterfeld, where dirt falls from the sky,” went a popular saying. Located in the intensely industrialised of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in the 1980s Bitterfeld became known as the dirtiest town in Europe. Its chemical industry and lignite mines dumped toxic waste in waterways, and the air carried a concentrate of sulphur dioxide some .
Europe would soon be rattled out of its postwar reliance on heavy industry, in favour of cheap imports from abroad. In the last days of the GDR, environmental activism brought the coup de grâce. The 1988 release of the undercover film shed light on the appalling living conditions in the Chemical Triangle, and the city’s chemical plants were soon decommissioned.
Hans Larsson is an architect at OMA/AMO

It is also the first time the target has been lowered since it was cut to "around 5%" in 2023.

Among the 3,000 delegates is former athlete who sits as an independent on the National People’s Congress


Among the generally drab lineup of mostly middle-aged men in suits who make up the nearly 3,000 delegates to the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament, a few stand out.
There are delegates from China’s 55 official ethnic minority groups, who often arrive dressed in traditional outfits rather than western-style suits. There are military members, identifiable by their uniforms. And then there is Yao Ming, the 7ft and 6in tall retired basketball player who, towering over every other person in the Great Hall of the People, is hard to miss.

The Met Police suspect three men of assisting Chinese intelligence services in the UK.

As Americans embrace ‘alternative’ remedies, people online joke that they’re ‘Chinamaxxing’ their wellness routines
Did you drink ice water today? If you did, that was “not very Chinese of you”, according to Sherry Zhu, a 23-year-old Chinese American creator based in . If you were really serious about “becoming Chinese”, you would be sipping hot water every day, she warned in a video with millions of views. “I really do feel like, digestion-wise, a lot better when I’m drinking hot water,” she later explained to .
Zhu’s guidance is taken from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a health system that dates back 5,000 years and offers a holistic approach to treating symptoms – physically, emotionally and spiritually. Other creators of Chinese descent have their own TCM hacks: keep your and your periods will be more bearable. Drink , jujubes and ginger as a cure-all. Move your body every day to promote the flow of qi, or internal energy. “Do my Chinese baddie routine with me,” they caption their videos in half-authoritative, half-joking tones. “Advice from your Chinese big sister.”

The carefully choreographed annual meetings signal the priorities of the world's second-largest economy.

Chinese policymakers and the public have expressed high levels of optimism about A.I., even as many in the West worry about the technology’s effects on employment or humanity in general.

China tensions simmer, people online are joking about wanting to ‘become Chinese’ – starting with their wellness routines ...