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A long trade war looms. Trump’s scattershot protectionism, chaotic tariffs and belligerence against our natural allies guarantees that US trade policy will remain a hot mess
We are in for a long trade war.
In the months since “Liberation Day” last year, when Donald Trump let loose a volley of tariffs against imports from everywhere, countries have rushed to build new relationships in the hope of maybe circumventing the US to protect the global trading system.

A debt-laden caregiver attempting suicide is the catalyst for him finding new meaning to life from a ward of terminally ill patients in touching ensemble drama
‘You know the law of entropy? Life is a process of constant decay,” ssays a doctor in this Chinese hospital comedy drama – but not that you’d know it from the gabbling, frenetic first half-hour of director Chen Sicheng’s death-fixated film. Being Towards Death kicks off with caregiver Xiaobing (Jiang Long) about to throw himself off the roof because, after a scheme to flog his superiors care robots fails, he’s in hock to triad loan sharks. Thankfully the film later settles into an intermittently touching ensemble drama with a meta tint; albeit one that doesn’t fully grasp the profundities it’s aiming for.
Hauled back from the ledge, Xiaobing is talked by the hospital director into leading a project studying mental health interventions in terminal cancer care. So he finds himself among the “Ward 10 Fearless Squad”, a group of patients whose outlook is as plucky as their diagnoses are grim. Before long, he has co-opted film director Dao (Wang Zichuan) to make a documentary about his roomies, including bullish property mogul Mau (Cai Ming), browbeaten first son Bowen (Huang Yi) and fib-spinning poppet, Xiaobing (Ye Quanxi) – nicknamed Little Bing.

It is taking place weeks after Xi met the leaders of the US and Russia - two countries that loom large over North Korea's foreign policy.

Micro dramas have surged in popularity, but drawn criticism for often sensationalist content.

As Xi Jinping visits Pyongyang, he faces an emboldened North Korean dictator, whose alliance with Russia has reduced his dependence on China.

Weather models project a potentially strong El Niño this year, which could spell disaster for heatwave-hit India, drench China and hurt agriculture across south-east Asia
The UN has that the world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the raised global temperatures and weather extremes it brings.
The powerful natural weather pattern has an 80% chance of forming before September and a 90% chance before November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

New Zealand’s foreign minister was “surprised” to hear about the one-year travel ban, a spokesperson said, given lawmakers have visited Taiwan for years without issues.

Registrations up 7% in the month, with battery EVs recording fastest growth and Tesla jumping 45% as motorists look to cut fuel bills
British car sales rose in May to their strongest level for the month since before the Covid pandemic, driven in part by strong growth from the Chinese manufacturers BYD and Chery.
Car registrations rose by 7% to 160,662 during the month, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group.

Upon their return from Taiwan last month, the lawmakers were told that China had banned them for a year.

Bao Kee Cafe in South El Monte showcases regional Cantonese comfort cuisine. Flavors from the area just west of Macau, such as sweet and sour sauce, informed the Chinese American culinary canon.

Public acts to commemorate the 1989 killings have become increasingly sensitive in Hong Kong
A performance artist in Hong Kong who tried on Wednesday to honour the victims of was quickly stopped by plainclothes police, the latest sign of the city’s shrinking freedom of expression.
Sanmu Chen tried to tie a symbolic red thread to a street signpost in Causeway Bay, a shopping district close to a park that previously hosted an annual candlelight vigil on 4 June to commemorate those who died in the 1989 student-led protests.

Amid growing censorship at home under the rule of Xi Jinping, efforts to document the massacre of 4 June, 1989, are intensifying abroad
Discussions about the bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters that took place around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 4 June, 1989 – and in – often dwell on the risk of forgetting the massacre.
The passage of time, with the world’s eyes soon drawn elsewhere, and suppression by authorities at home mean that the pivotal moment in Chinese history is at risk of fading into grey.