News

PM praised for not pressuring Xi over his ties with Putin on a trip seen as business ‘taking precedence over politics’
Keir Starmer’s has been cautiously welcomed by Chinese state media as an act of economic pragmatism by a beleaguered British prime minister.
The presence of 50 business and cultural leaders with Starmer, who is the first British prime minister to visit China in eight years, was taken as a sign that the UK was prioritising its ailing economy over political considerations.

Keir Starmer held talks with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week and proclaimed Britain should have a more ‘sophisticated’ relationship with China. Pippa Crerar, who was with the prime minister on the trip, tells Kiran Stacey what all this means

China agrees visa waiver for British citizens as countries sign agreements on closer economic cooperation
The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has said the UK’s relationship with his country has gone through “twists and turns” over the years but that a more “consistent” approach is in both their interests.
Before talks with Keir Starmer during the first visit to China by a British prime minister in eight years, Xi said the two men would “stand the test of history” if they could “rise above differences”.

In today’s newsletter: With China now central to the world’s green tech​ and economic future, the UK faces a ​s​eries of strategic ​discussions it can no longer postpone

Good morning. The Starmer has landed.
Yesterday, Keir Starmer became the first British prime minister to make the trip to China since Theresa May’s in 2018 (meaning a surprisingly large number of PMs didn’t) and has vowed to bring “stability and clarity” to .
Iran | Donald Trump has warned time is running out for Tehran and said towards the country.
Assisted Dying | Supporters of assisted dying will seek to force using an archaic parliamentary procedure if it continues to be blocked by the Lords.
UK politics | Centrist ideas are in the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch has said.
Ofsted | A of a Bristol secondary school criticised for postponing a visit by an MP who is a member of a group that advocates for Israel has found “no evidence of partisan political views”.
BBC | The BBC has named senior executive Rhodri Talfan Davies as its , as the corporation continues the search for a permanent replacement for Tim Davie.

A decision in China not to charge a man who fathered children with a woman with a mental illness has set off a debate about consent and the state’s push for babies.

China executes 11 members of the Ming family that ran scam centres in Myanmar, state media report.

Beijing has stepped up cooperation with south-east Asian nations to crack down on the multibillion-dollar industry
China on Thursday executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” involved in scam operations, state media reported.
have flourished in Myanmar’s lawless borderlands, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry.

“Birth tourism” — where pregnant women have their child on America soil to become citizens — has been happening for decades. But Chinese elites have “weaponized” the practice, says author Peter ...

Guan Heng secretly filmed detention facilitates in Xinjiang before escaping to the US in 2021.

Lawyer for Guan Heng, whose exposed evidence of persecution of Uyghurs, says he is ‘textbook example of why asylum should exist’
A US immigration judge has granted asylum to a Chinese national who he said had a “well founded fear” of persecution if sent back to China after exposing alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs there.
Guan Heng applied for asylum after arriving in the US illegally in 2021. He has been in custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August last year as part of a mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration.

A Chinese team will visit Australia to help search for a man who allegedly randomly attacked a baby with hot coffee before fleeing the country. China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, announced on Wednesday that investigators will travel to Queensland to work with police to investigate the 33-year-old accused attacker. The stranger allegedly dumped a Thermos of coffee on a nine-month-old boy, Luka, at a Brisbane park on 27 August 2024 before fleeing to his home country, China, with which Australia has no extradition arrangement

Mike Hawes casts doubt on Labour’s plan to double production by 2035, as Starmer visits China with carmaker delegation
A target of building 1.3m cars a year is likely to be missed unless a large new UK factory is built in the coming years, an industry group has said, as Keir Starmer prepares to hold trade talks in China.
Labour aims to have 1.3m vehicles rolling off production lines by 2035, a central ambition of its industrial strategy. That would nearly double the 764,715 cars and vans made in 2025, according to new data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).