People in Tel Aviv, Israel, react as they watch a live broadcast of the first two of six hostages to be released by Hamas being handed over to the Red Cross on Saturday. Israeli authorities have delayed the release of over 600 Palestinian prisoners, which was scheduled for Saturday. Oded Balilty/Ap
Xi prioritizes people's well-being
Global attention will turn to Beijing next week with the start of the two sessions, China's biggest annual political event, through which the people's voices will be heard by policymakers, while the country's development priorities will be discussed.
Policy to boost foreign equity investment
Foreign equity investment in China may recover this year, as Chinese assets attract growing global interest and the country further opens up to foreign investors, experts and industry observers said.
Consumers warned over AI courses
While the rapid rise of China's homegrown artificial intelligence reasoning model DeepSeek has sparked a host of enterprises seeking to cash in by offering training courses on how to use it, experts have warned consumers to be wary of wasting their money on courses that provide guidance that is already freely available.
US stance on Ukraine sees dramatic shift
Editor's note: As the Russia-Ukraine conflict marks its third anniversary on Monday, this page looks at the current situation as well as the shifting US stance and EU commitments that may affect the conflict's outcome.
Innovation reshapes China's digital landscape
As China recently rang in the Year of the Snake, three unexpected stars dominated the headlines both at home and abroad.
New Trump tariff policies are ill-conceived
Keeping his campaign promise, United States President Donald Trump unleashed his tariff agenda almost immediately after assuming office. For imports from China, an extra 10 percent tariff was introduced on top of the existing ones, and the de minimis exemption for Chinese products was revoked, only to be restored. However, these new measures are neither well-founded, nor will they prove to be any good for the US.
Weaponizing of investment policy is not going to 'make America great again'
Although the White House claims the so-called National Security Presidential Memorandum signed by US President Donald Trump on Friday is aimed at promoting foreign investment while protecting the United States' national security interests, its true purpose is to direct the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to restrict Chinese investments in strategic areas, and to obstruct US investment flowing to key sectors of the Chinese economy.
Alternative reality
For the best part of the last three or four decades, US bigtech has in effect been global bigtech. US companies have stamped their leadership in hardware, software and applications delivering and controlling operating systems, platforms and services that have by and large fulfilled the role of a global technological ecology. The United States-based research labs have cornered the market for global talent, enabling the perspectives of US companies to dominate the mechanisms by which global technology standards have been set.
Quietly redefining the ink tradition
Peng Wei is one of those artists who do not speak a lot. When the ink painter sits down for a talk, the range of her interests contributes greatly to the quality of time spent, and is a pleasure, both for herself and for her listeners.
Wearing their love of natural world
One can glide through the Yangtze River alongside finless porpoises, soar thousands of miles with migratory birds, or dash across expansive grasslands with foxes — all with a single bracelet.
