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Two editors and an opinion writer from Jimmy Lai’s now-shuttered newspaper were each sentenced to 10 years in prison, a significant escalation in media prosecution in the once freewheeling city.

He has been jailed, tracked and threatened by China’s government. What was it like pay a visit home? As he publishes a polemic about surveillance and state control, the artist relives a momentous trip to see his mother
Ai Weiwei is talking me through the decision-making process before his first visit to China in over a decade. The artist, known around the world as the most famous critic of the Chinese communist regime, had to do some fraught arithmetic before deciding to head back home.
Before boarding a flight with his son, who had never met the artist’s elderly mother, Ai thought back to his time in detention when his captors told him he would spend the next : “They said, ‘When you come out, your son won’t recognise you.’ That was very heavy and really the only moment that touched me.”

The heavy sentence for the Hong Kong publisher aligns with mainland cases where influential critics of the Communist Party have been sent to prison for many years.

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Following Jimmy Lai’s sentencing, the 78-year old former media mogul smiled and waved at the public gallery, the New York Times
According to the outlet, Lai’s wife, Teresa, sat expressionless and had her arms folded. Others weeped in the courtroom.

Sue Miller suggests that there are diplomatic and practical steps that could make us all much safer
Simon Tisdall is absolutely right (). From our prime minister to the person in the street, no one is talking about nuclear weapons, yet nuclear weapons states are busy modernising their arsenals and, in China’s case, increasing the numbers. Treaties supposed to limit nuclear proliferation have failed or are failing. Concern about this in civil society is minimal, and in parliament only a few of us address it as a matter of urgency. I can understand that climate change, AI, Gaza and Ukraine are all issues of pressing and immense concern.
In recent decades, the incidence of false alarms has brought the world to the brink of nuclear war more than once. The nuclear-non proliferation treaty will take place in April this year. The last two NPTs have largely failed; this time world leaders, including our prime minister, must ensure that at the very least the trajectory is changed from the current one.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s handling of bilateral relations has become a campaign issue. Her earlier comments on Taiwan brought reprisals from Beijing.

Sanae Takaichi, who has proved popular as the first woman to lead Japan as prime minister, was on course for a sweeping mandate after a snap election on Sunday.

Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before Canada-China ties nosedived in 2018
China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as prime minister seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing.
Schellenberg’s lawyer Zhang Dongshuo, reached in Beijing on Saturday, confirmed the decision was announced on Friday by highest court.

The ruling by China’s highest court followed a recent meeting between China and Canada’s top leaders that led to a thaw in the two countries’ relations.

Beijing, Moscow and shaken American allies are seeking new warheads as President Trump ends more than a half century of nuclear arms control with Russia.

Researchers say blood sample strip, which can be used at home, can pick up virus that causes cervical cancer
A pioneering test of period blood for signs of cervical cancer could be a convenient, non-invasive and accurate way of screening for the disease, researchers have said.
A regular sanitary pad topped with a blood sample strip can pick up human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes most cases of cervical cancer, and could be used by women at home, the results of a study indicate.

The move against the men, who wrote an article that was critical of a local official, demonstrates how the space for independent voices has shrunk in China.