Somewhere in Zhejiang province, China, a woman is living my dream. She gets up in the morning and then, almost immediately, goes back to bed. She lies prostrate all day long, scrolling, eating some food, opening some packages, showering at 2am, then snoozing again. As a longtime sleep enthusiast – and the mother of a child who thinks that 5am is a good time to start the day, all systems go – I think this sounds like bliss. The woman in Zhejiang is known as @jiawensishi – and also “rat…
Tag: World news
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma implicated in intimidation campaign by Chinese regime
The Chinese regime enlisted Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Alibaba, in an intimidation campaign to press a businessman to help in the purge of a top official, documents seen by the Guardian suggest. The businessman, who can be named only as “H” for fear of reprisals against his family still in China, faced a series of threats from the Chinese state, in an attempt to get him to return home from France, where he was living. They included a barrage of phone calls, the arrest of his sister, and…
Four pro-democracy lawmakers from ‘Hong Kong 47’ group freed after four years in jail
A group of pro-democracy lawmakers jailed in a landmark Hong Kong national security trial have been freed after spending four years in prison. Local media had reported that the group, Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan, would be freed on Tuesday from three separate prisons across Hong Kong. A Reuters witness outside Stanley prison, where Kwok and Tam were held, saw several vehicles leave just before dawn. A police officer told reporters they had left. Vehicles were also seen leaving the more remote Shek Pik prison on…
No recent Xi-Trump call, says China despite US president’s claims – US politics live
<gu-island name="KeyEventsCarousel" priority="feature" deferuntil="visible" props="{"keyEvents":[{"id":"680f4a848f0848f8750655f2","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday directing the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to identify within a month the cities and states that are not complying with federal immigration laws, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. ","elementId":"f04b8b7a-8c00-45f8-ac69-6d131a8fcd7f"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" Last week, a federal judge blocked Trump’s administration from withholding federal funding from more than a dozen so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that have declined to cooperate with Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown. ","elementId":"c671dcab-2006-4f0a-a7f5-401fef012542"}],"attributes":{"pinned":false,"keyEvent":true,"summary":false},"blockCreatedOn":1745834607000,"blockCreatedOnDisplay":"06.03 EDT","blockLastUpdated":1745835317000,"blockLastUpdatedDisplay":"06.15 EDT","blockFirstPublished":1745834948000,"blockFirstPublishedDisplay":"06.09 EDT","blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone":"06.09","title":"Trump to step up crackdown on ‘sanctuary cities’ –…
The missing lynx: how the rise of border walls has split up wildlife populations
The lynxes of the Białowieża forest once freely prowled through 1,420 sq km (548 sq miles) of ancient woodland. Then, in 2022, the habitat was abruptly sliced in two. Poland built a 115-mile (186km) wall across its border with Belarus to stop refugees and migrants entering the EU. About 15 lynxes were left stranded on the Polish side of the forest, forced into a genetic bottleneck. The 5.5-metre high barrier, which is topped with wire and cameras, also dissects the forest’s population of bison, wolves and elk. Researchers monitored 10…
Student rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week
A university student has been rescued from the slopes of Mount Fuji twice in the space of a week – the second time during an attempt to retrieve his mobile phone. The hapless climber, a 27-year-old Chinese national who has not been named, was airlifted from Japan’s highest mountain last week, only to be the subject of a second search four days later. It emerged that he had returned to the scene of his first rescue to retrieve his phone, Japanese media reported. The student, who lives in Japan, was…
Met police ‘maintain concerns’ about China super-embassy plan
China’s proposed “super-embassy” in London would require additional police officers to deal with any large protests involving thousands of people, the Metropolitan police have said before a decision by ministers. Despite having dropped its official objection to the proposals, the Met “maintains concerns” that large protests of more than 500 people outside the embassy would impede traffic and “require additional police resource”, said the deputy assistant commissioner Jon Savell In a letter sent to the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith and to the Home Office earlier this month, Savell…
Boonie Bears: Future Reborn review – kiddie Chinese eco-fable is like Mad Max on mushrooms
When George Michael recorded Careless Whisper, there can be no doubt his ultimate ambition for it would have been to soundtrack a garish animated sequence in which two anthropomorphic bears gambol through a prairie of giant fungus experiencing ecstatic visions as hallucinogenic spores rain down on them. Such is the frantic way of this Chinese cartoon franchise, as relentless and exhausting as ever in its 11th feature-film instalment. Five minutes in, before the credits, it has crammed in a post-apocalyptic prologue, oodles of eco-babble, a time-travelling tyke and an avalanche.…
UK banks brace for first-quarter reports after Trump tariff turmoil
UK banks’ earnings reports will be studied this week for signs of turmoil linked to Donald Trump’s tariff drama, with uncertainty over global growth likely to weigh on lenders with heavy exposure to China, including HSBC. First-quarter profits only reflect the January-to-March period that preceded the US president’s “liberation day” tariff announcements on 2 April. But investors will be concerned about any hints of caution around earnings forecasts, as well as an uptick in money put aside for defaults by tariff-hit borrowers. The issue is expected to divide UK lenders…
Revealed: online campaign urged far right to attack China’s opponents in UK
One morning last August, a troubling message appeared in a social media group for Hongkongers in the UK. It was already a tense time to be an immigrant. Rioters, propelled by false claims online that the man who had murdered children in Southport was an asylum seeker, were descending on hotels housing refugees, trying to burn them alive. The message alerted the Hongkongers to posts on far-right channels suggesting some new targets. “They all help refugees who come to the UK to take resources,” one of them read. When Finn…