THE NEW YORK TIMES (USA): Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken cheered on the sidelines at a basketball game in Shanghai on Wednesday night, and spent Thursday chatting with students at New York University’s Shanghai campus and meeting American business owners. It all went to emphasize the kind of economic, educational and cultural ties that the United States is pointedly holding up as beneficial for both countries. But hanging over those pleasantries during his visit to China this week are several steps the U.S. is taking to sever economic ties in areas where the Biden administration says they threaten American interests. And those will be the focus of greater attention from Chinese officials, as well. Even as the Biden administration tries to stabilize the relationship with China, it is advancing several economic measures that would curb China’s access to the U.S. economy and technology. It is poised to raise tariffs on Chinese steel, solar panels and other crucial products to try to protect American factories from cheap imports. It is weighing further restrictions on China’s access to advanced semiconductors to try to keep Beijing from developing sophisticated artificial intelligence that could be used on the battlefield.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (HONG KONG, CHINA): Head of US space command warns that China’s space development is making its terrestrial forces “more precise, more lethal and more far ranging”. PLA has just announced structural reorganisation of space forces to strengthen capacity, enhance “crisis management”. China’s “breathtakingly fast” development in space is a “cause for concern” for the United States Space Force, the country’s space commander has warned. At a press briefing, General Stephen Whiting, head of the US Space Command, said China had tripled its number of intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance satellites in Earth orbit over the past six years, while also improving the lethality, precision and range of the country’s terrestrial forces.
THE STRAITS TIMES (SINGAPORE): The US Senate voted by a wide margin on April 23 in favor of legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States if its owner, the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, fails to divest the popular short video app over the next nine months to a year. The four-year battle over TikTok, which is used by 170 million people in the US, is just one front in a war over the internet and technology between Washington and Beijing. The American Civil Liberties Union said banning or requiring divestiture of TikTok would “set an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms... If the US now bans a foreign-owned platform that will invite copycat measures by other countries.”
GLOBAL TIMES (CHINA): The US and some countries, from the perspective of protecting their own industries and suppressing Chinese advantageous industries, attempt to stifle the development of China’s clean energy industry with the so-called “overcapacity” narrative. However, from a global perspective, especially from the standpoint of many developing countries and the “Global South,” this undermines the goal of a faster, fairer and more widespread energy transition. Faced with the common challenge of climate change, promoting energy transition should uphold an open and cooperative attitude, rather than getting bogged down in futile trade disputes and blame games, otherwise it will only hinder the pace of global energy transition
LE MONDE (FRANCE): Chine-Europe: Bruxelles ouvre un nouveau front dans son combat contre le protectionnisme chinois. La tension monte entre la Chine et l’Union européenne (UE). Bruxelles a annoncé, mercredi 24 avril, l’ouverture d’une enquête sur les pratiques discriminatoires de la Chine dans ses marchés publics de dispositifs médicaux, à quelques jours seulement de la visite du président chinois, Xi Jinping, en France, en Hongrie et en Serbie, prévue début mai. “Le marché chinois des dispositifs médicaux s’est progressivement fermé aux entreprises européennes et étrangères, ainsi qu’aux produits fabriqués dans l’UE”, s’est justifiée la Commission européenne dans un communiqué publié mercredi.
NIKKEI (JAPAN): Taiwan president-elect picks team of security, diplomatic heavyweights. Lai prioritizes cabinet stability amid China pressure, U.S. election uncertainty. Taiwan's President-elect Lai Ching-te will reshuffle but retain his predecessor's cabinet members in key defense, foreign affairs and security positions when he takes office next month, tapping into their experience to maintain stability amid growing pressure from China. Lai announced his latest picks on Thursday, less than a month before he takes over from President Tsai Ing-wen on May 20, beginning an unprecedented third successive term for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after it won in the January presidential election.
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN (JAPAN): A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North’s official media said on Wednesday in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties. The minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, left Pyongyang on Tuesday by air leading a ministry delegation to visit Iran. North Korea and Iran have long been suspected of cooperating on ballistic missile programs, possibly exchanging technical expertise and components that went into their manufacture.
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: IDF ready to conquer Gaza’s Rafah, awaiting government okay, says senior official. Israeli generals said to meet Egyptian counterparts to coordinate evacuation of civilians from southern city, seen as last major Hamas redoubt in Strip. Multiple Israeli reports indicated that top Israeli security officials visited Egypt Wednesday to coordinate the planned offensive in Rafah. Egypt, which Rafah abuts, has said it warned Israel against pushing into the city. Such a move, Egypt’s State Information Service said, “would lead to massive human massacres, losses [and] widespread destruction.” The Israel Defense Forces has conducted all necessary preparations to take Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah and can launch an operation the moment it gets government approval, a senior Israeli defense official said Wednesday.
AL-AHRAM (EGYPT): Any Israeli occupation army’s presence at the border will constitute a breach of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, an Egyptian-informed source said on Wednesday as Cairo reaffirmed its categorical rejection of any Israeli invasion of the Palestinian city of Rafah. The source affirmed that any Israeli breach of the peace treaty and its security annexes would be met with a decisive response from Cairo. The source also denied reports by some American media outlets about coordination between Cairo and Tel Aviv regarding an operation to invade Rafah in southern Gaza.
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA (RUSSIA): Война в секторе Газа мобилизовала джихадистов на Западе. Европейским спецслужбам удалось в прошлом году предотвратить как минимум 10 нападений со стороны джихадистов. Служба общей разведки и безопасности Нидерландов (AIVD) предупредила, что угроза терактов достаточно серьезна. С подобными предостережениями, но по поводу ситуации в США, выступило и ФБР, которое видит большую вероятность скоординированного теракта в общественных местах. Важным фактором, отмечают представители разведсообщества, стала продолжающаяся война в секторе Газа, которая дала идеологам глобального джихада мобилизационный ресурс.
THE GUARDIAN (GB): At least 34 protesters, including a member of the media from a local news station, were arrested during protests at University of Texas in Austin and at least 50 more were detained by police at University of Southern California (USC). The arrests come amid a wave of demonstrations at campuses across the US, which began last week after students at New York’s Columbia University set up encampments calling for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel. The protests have led to mass suspensions and arrests of hundreds students in New York and other cities. House speaker, Mike Johnson, jumped into the fray on Wednesday with a visit to Columbia’s campus, where he faced jeers from the pro-Palestinian protesters and called for the resignation of the university’s president.
POLITICO (USA): Life after Ursula von der Leyen? Alternatives for next Commission president. Brussels is rife with speculation on who might be chosen as the EU executive’s next chief. The European Commission president is indeed still the clear front-runner to get a second term atop the EU executive, but she is no longer a shoo-in for another five years. That means an exciting new game is being played in town (chiefly by politicians, diplomats and officials who are critical of the Commission chief, but you’re free to join in too) of who could get the job, if not von der Leyen?
LE FIGARO (FRANCE): Espagne: son épouse visée par une enquête, le premier ministre Pedro Sánchez dit réfléchir à une démission. “J'ai besoin de m’arrêter et de réfléchir” afin de décider “si je dois continuer à être à la tête du gouvernement ou si je dois renoncer à cet honneur”, a-t-il écrit, en indiquant qu’il annoncerait sa décision lundi devant la presse et suspendait ses activités d’ici là.
INDEPENDENT (GB): Rishi Sunak has challenged Britain’s European allies to meet his £75bn pledge to increase defence spending as US president Joe Biden signed a $61bn package of aid for Ukraine. The prime minister warned the world is “more dangerous now than at any moment since the Cold War” and faces “an axis of authoritarian states”. He also defended what he called "entirely reasonable” calls from US counterparts for greater European defence spending. His words will be seen as a message to Donald Trump not to quit Nato should he win the US election later this year.
IZVESTIA (RUSSIA): Лондон включился в схватку за Центральную Азию. Глава МИД Британии Дэвид Кэмерон совершает турне по странам региона, стремясь оторвать их от Москвы и Пекина. Его цель — снизить влияние России на государства региона. Вначале он отправился в Таджикистан, потом в Киргизию, Узбекистан, Казахстан и Туркменистан. В течение следующих трех лет Лондон собирается выделить государствам £50 млн “на поддержку независимости и суверенитета”.
DAWN (PAKISTAN): As Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sat down with the business community to find ways to uplift the economy through exports, his resolve was met with apprehensions from industry leaders who said it was “almost impossible” to do business under the current circumstances, particularly with high energy costs and inconsistent government policies. Posing tough questions during an hour-long meeting, Karachi’s business community appreciated the PM’s “determination”, but advised him to focus on bringing about political stability to “turn around” the economy.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES (USA): Biden sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent border wall money. The government’s top watchdog ruled that President Biden has not broken the law by slow-walking construction of the border wall, but did say he has left hundreds of millions of dollars still unspent.
THE WASHINGTON POST (USA): With global attention focused on Iran’s escalating conflict with Israel, Tehran has intensified its domestic crackdown on women, giving police expanded powers to enforce conservative dress codes. The new wave of repression appears to be one of the most significant efforts to roll back perceived social gains in the aftermath of the 2022 protest movement — a months-long uprising that challenged gender segregation and clerical rule. Some Iranians suspect the government is using fears of regional war as cover to tighten its grip at home; others say it’s just the latest salvo in a long-running campaign aimed at extinguishing all forms of dissent.
THE TIMES (GB): England is worst in the world for under-age drinking. Children in England are more likely to drink alcohol compared with other children around the world as middle-class parents have “normalised” harmful under-age drinking, a study has found. One in three 11-year-olds and half of 13-year-olds in England have had alcohol.