CHINA - For President Xi, Taiwan is the one issue that could lead to trouble between the US and China if it isn't handled "correctly." While meeting with Trump in Beijing, Xi Jinping warned the US leader that the US and China could “come into conflict” if the Taiwan issue isn't handled correctly, Chinese state media have reported. For the Chinese leader, Taiwan was described as the most important issue in US-China relations, and he appears adamant that it be handled correctly to avoid problems... His sharp tone contrasts with Trump's, who has already praised Xi, saying, "It's an honor to be your friend." This shows just how far apart the leaders remain on difficult issues, including the war in Iran, trade disputes, and Taiwan, and suggests that Trump's three-day visit to China is likely to be longer on pageantry and symbolism than major bilateral breakthroughs.

CHINA - George Orwell’s “Big Brother” is alive and well in Communist China, and Fox News host Bret Baier’s crew got an up-close experience with it on Wednesday during President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing. “Big Brother is watching. There are literally cameras everywhere… I can count at least 20 on this corner. In fact, in Beijing, they’ve added 1,500 cameras just this year alone. They see everything,” Baier said during a segment about China’s surveillance system. “There’s nobody jaywalking here, because they could get a ticket right away,” he continued. “In fact, our driver parked illegally for two minutes, and he got a message on his phone that he got a ticket for about $40 US, because they saw it,” the Fox News anchor recounted. Baier concluded, “Now, there are real questions what the CCP’s goal is about citizen tracking and social scoring. They say it’s to make everybody feel safe. These cameras are watching every minute. They’re everywhere.”

CHINA - In early May, thousands of angry Chinese workers lined the streets of the southern city of Yulin. Demonstrators blocked the roads, climbed onto rooftops and draped banners which read “Give me back my hard-earned money”. They were protesting about unpaid wages, offering a rare glimpse into unrest in a country where all forms of protest are strictly prohibited and those who speak out are swiftly, and often violently, punished. The demonstration, which lasted at least four days, and came barely two weeks before Donald Trump’s visit, is one of a growing number erupting across China as citizens grow exasperated with the country’s sluggish economy, strangled wages and corrupt practices. Xi Jinping came to power offering a “Chinese Dream” of growth, and this year he told the country in a New Year’s address that its strength had “reached new heights” as part of his vision of “national rejuvenation”. But economic headwinds and a pursuit of military and technological supremacy over the US has led to growing dissent sweeping through China’s vast workforce.

UK - According to a survey by the ATM operator Link this week, 15 per cent of people have an emergency stash of cash at home. They are not loopy doomsday preppers, or at least not all of them are. If anything, they are in line with sensible, western European governments, who have decided that holding on to some hard currency might be quite useful. The Dutch central bank strongly advises citizens to store €70 per adult and €30 per child as part of an emergency preparedness campaign to ensure households can last 72 hours without ATMs, internet banking or digital payment terminals. I am not nostalgic for cash — I find the polymer notes a slippery menace. Money is a philosophical construct based on trust. It doesn’t really matter what we use, but we do need a backup if — or almost certainly when — a malicious force decides to disable our digital payment networks. It may only be for a morning or a day, but I’d like to be able to pop to the corner shop and buy a pint of milk. If we stop using cash entirely, we may find an outage becomes much more than an inconvenience.

IRAN - Unfortunately, there is still no serious political will inside Washington for regime change in Iran. Yet Israel’s long-term survival is inseparable from regime change in Tehran. As long as these Islamist fanatics remain in power, there will be no meaningful change in the Islamic Republic’s hostility toward Israel, the United States, or the West itself. The regime’s ideology is built not on coexistence, but on permanent confrontation, antisemitism, revolutionary expansionism, and the export of instability across the Middle East. At the same time, the central demand of the Iranian people continues to be ignored. Millions of Iranians did not rise up, sacrifice, suffer imprisonment, torture, and death merely to replace one dictator with another extremist from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). They rose up for the end of the Islamic Republic itself. The ceasefire may survive temporarily. But without addressing the ideological structure of the IRGC, the unresolved nuclear threat, and the demands of the Iranian people themselves, this is not peace. It is merely the intermission before the next phase of the conflict.

CHINA - President Trump told businesses he wanted 'only the top' execs to come with him on his state visit to Beijing in his first remarks to President Xi Jinping. Speaking to the Chinese President inside the Great Hall of the People in the nation's capital, Trump revealed he approached the top 30 companies in the world and asked them to send only their best. He said: 'We have the greatest businessmen, the biggest and, I guess, the best in the world. We have amazing people, and they're all with me. Every single one of them. We asked the top 30 in the world. Every single one of them said yes.'

USA - The projection of a 55 year low in the national wheat harvest is the final confirmation that America is entering a period of genuine food insecurity. While the government blames climate cycles the reality is that a toxic combination of record high fertilizer prices and a catastrophic drought has made it economically impossible for many farmers to even attempt a harvest. This disconnect stems from a decade of ignoring agricultural infrastructure while prioritizing global trade over domestic stability. Wheat is the foundation of the global food supply and a massive domestic shortfall means that bread, pasta, and cereal prices are about to undergo a secondary inflation wave that will make the 2022 spike look like a minor adjustment. We are watching a perfect storm where the war in the Middle East has already disrupted global shipping and now our own breadbasket is failing to produce enough to meet domestic demand. When the USDA makes a cut this aggressive in May it typically signals that even worse numbers are coming as the heat of summer sets in.

UK - Britain has become the country it once mocked. For years we looked at Italy with a mix of amusement and superiority as it churned through prime ministers with dizzying speed. But now the joke’s on us. When Keir Starmer falls, we will have had seven occupants of Number 10 in a decade. Margaret Thatcher governed for over 11 years, Tony Blair 10. Even hapless John Major, battered by Black Wednesday and the Maastricht mutiny, survived for over six years. Investors now regard us warily, with justified caution rather than confidence as they try to read the political runes. That’s why gilt yields climbed this week to levels not seen in a generation. We’re on the brink of a fiscal crisis: no money, no growth, and the national debt is still close to 100 per cent of GDP. We’re not ungovernable, we’re just governed by a political generation which believes the answer is more spending when the taps have run dry.

MIDDLE EAST - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been secretly carrying out attacks against Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal. The attacks included a strike on an oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island in early April, triggering a major fire and knocking much of the facility offline for months. Iran acknowledged at the time that the refinery had been struck in what it described as an enemy attack. Tehran later responded with missile and drone strikes against the UAE and Kuwait. Iran launched more than 2,800 missiles and drones at the UAE during the war, more than against any other country besides Israel.

USA - A growing shortage of large power transformers is delaying grid expansion projects across the United States, according to a report. Lead times for these critical components have increased to years-long periods, slowing upgrades to the nation’s aging power infrastructure. The surge in electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centers is cited as a key driver. The International Energy Agency projects that data center electricity consumption could more than double by 2030. Industry officials said the shortage could undermine grid reliability and renewable energy targets. In an interview, David Tice noted that the scarcity of transformers poses a significant risk to national security and called for a strategic transformer reserve. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned that 37 states face elevated blackout risks.