Global Pulse

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  • US, South Korea cut drills short after Trump criticism

    US, South Korea cut drills short after Trump criticism

    In a sudden, high-profile shift to long-planned regional military planning, the United States and South Korea have announced an early end to their annual joint defense exercises, cutting the training schedule by roughly one week following direct intervention from former US President Donald Trump. Trump’s order to scale back the drills, which he called “inappropriate and hostile,” has reshaped diplomatic dynamics on the Korean Peninsula just weeks before key US elections, and drawn mixed reactions from regional analysts and North Korean officials.

    Trump first made his intervention public on social media platform Truth Social this past Sunday, just one day before the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were set to kick off. The former president argued that the drills were an unnecessary provocation of North Korea, noting that he maintains a positive, constructive personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In his comments, Trump framed the curtailment as a step that makes the entire region “much safer” through diplomatic outreach, rather than military posturing.

    Even before the early end was announced, Pyongyang’s state-controlled media released a sharp condemnation of the drills on Wednesday, framing the annual exercises as the “most immediate and open threat” to both North Korean sovereignty and broader regional security. Notably, the commentary made no mention of Trump’s order to scale back the training, or his stated interest in restarting bilateral talks with Kim Jong Un — a choice that regional experts say is a deliberate diplomatic tactic.

    Shortly after North Korea’s statement was released, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that the drills would conclude this Friday, rather than the originally scheduled end date of August 27. In an official statement, the Joint Chiefs said, “We have decided to adjust the UFS exercise period to run from the 17th to the 21st,” adding that the change came “at the suggestion of the US side.”

    The US Pentagon clarified in its own response that the revised drills are “substantially reduced” in scope, but maintained that the truncated schedule still preserves essential combat readiness for both US and South Korean forces, with “no degradation to US training objectives.” The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which have been held for decades, are designed to prepare allied forces for a potential offensive from North Korea, and were originally structured in two phases. The first phase, focused on defensive operations against potential North Korean incursions, was already scheduled to end Friday. The second phase, which centered on planning for allied counteroffensive operations, was set to run from August 24 to 27, and has now been fully scrapped.

    A senior South Korean military official told Agence France-Presse that the sudden change to the long-planned exercise schedule is viewed as “unusual” by Seoul’s defense establishment. North Korea, which has developed an operational nuclear weapons program, has repeatedly decried the joint drills for decades, framing them as a covert rehearsal for a full-scale invasion of the North.

    Regional experts say North Korea’s choice to ignore Trump’s order in its official statement is a calculated strategic move. Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, explained to AFP that Pyongyang is deliberately acting “as if completely unaware of” Trump’s comments. Hong noted that acknowledging the US move would imply a degree of mutual understanding between the two sides, while feigning ignorance allows North Korea to keep the issue of joint exercises as a key bargaining chip for any future negotiations with Trump.

    Seoul’s presidential office attempted to ease tensions earlier this week, releasing a statement affirming that the drills do not reflect “any intention to attack North Korea or escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula.” Trump has repeatedly claimed that his personal rapport with Kim Jong Un has made the region more stable, and confirmed earlier this month that Kim has responded to his outreach for new talks, describing the initial exchanges as “very positive” — though he has offered no further details on the content of the communications.

    Many regional foreign policy analysts speculate that the push to cut drills and restart talks is tied to upcoming November US elections, with Trump seeking a high-profile foreign policy win to burnish his diplomatic legacy. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unnamed senior US officials, that Trump has directed his aides to arrange a new meeting with Kim Jong Un as early as this autumn.

    Park Won-gon, a professor of international relations at Ewha Womans University, told AFP that scaling back the joint exercises improves the odds of successful US-North Korea dialogue. “The suspension of joint exercises has always been a prerequisite for North Korea to engage in dialogue with the US,” he explained.

    Trump and Kim held three historic in-person summits during Trump’s first term in the White House, but no formal talks have been held since Trump began his second term. The US currently stations roughly 28,500 troops in South Korea, a security commitment that dates back to the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically divided. Trump has repeatedly criticized longstanding US alliance commitments in the region, raising repeated doubts about Washington’s commitment to East Asian security and causing unease among regional US partners.

  • ‘Bring Lily home’: Desperate search for missing teen hiker in NSW Southern Highlands enters seventh day

    ‘Bring Lily home’: Desperate search for missing teen hiker in NSW Southern Highlands enters seventh day

    A massive coordinated search operation, now entering its seventh day, is underway across the rugged Nattai National Park in Australia’s Southern Highlands for 18-year-old experienced hiker Lily Hooper, who vanished during a solo day trip last week.

    According to official records, Hooper left her family home in Oakdale around 8 a.m. last Wednesday, informing her relatives that she planned to hike the popular trails at Nattai National Park. When she failed to return by 10 p.m. that same day, her family raised the alarm, prompting an immediate search response. By 11 p.m., search teams located Hooper’s parked car on Wanganderry Road, just near the trailhead of the Bonnum Pic Walking Trail, confirming she had entered the wilderness as planned.

    What began as a local search effort has rapidly expanded into one of the largest regional search operations in recent memory, bringing together multiple specialist agencies to tackle the harsh terrain. On the seventh day of the search, close to 100 Australian Defence Force personnel joined the effort, bringing the total number of active on-site search and rescue professionals and defence personnel to 200. An additional 260 volunteers from the State Emergency Service (SES) are also supporting ground operations. The search force includes specialist units from NSW Police ranging from Polair aviation, dog squad, mounted units, trail bike teams and rescue divisions, alongside the Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue NSW, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NSW Ambulance, and the Westpac Lifesaver Rescue Helicopter service with additional airborne search assets.

    Search commanders have warned that the operation faces significant geographic challenges. In a public statement, the NSW SES Wollondilly Unit noted that search crews are forced to navigate through thick, overgrown tree canopies, sharp cliff drops, and some of the most exceptionally rugged terrain in the region. A unified forward command post has been established at High Range to coordinate persistent, around-the-clock search efforts across both ground and air, with the single core goal of bringing Hooper home safely.

    For Hooper’s family, the week-long wait has been an overwhelming ordeal. In a heartfelt public statement, the family described themselves as absolutely devastated by their daughter’s disappearance. “We desperately want to bring Lily home safe and we ask as the search continues, to keep our family and Lily in your thoughts,” they said, adding that they were deeply grateful for the tireless work of all emergency personnel and volunteers. The family also requested that well-meaning community members refrain from joining search efforts directly, asking that only trained professional teams operate in the hazardous terrain to avoid additional risk.

    Emergency officials have echoed that request, while urging local residents and travelers to remain alert for any signs of the missing hiker. Authorities are asking anyone who lives in or traveled through the High Range, Southern Highlands, or Bonnum Pic trail areas in the past week to review private dashcam footage, home CCTV recordings, and check the boundaries of rural properties and isolated outbuildings for any unusual activity. At the same time, they stressed that untrained members of the public should not enter the backcountry to search, due to the high risk of injury in the unforgiving landscape.

    The head of the state’s peak bushwalking body has pushed back against online speculation that has labeled Hooper reckless for hiking solo as a young woman. Jessie Burke, president of Bushwalking NSW, noted that there is still no public information about what circumstances led to Hooper’s disappearance, or how well she was equipped for the conditions. “It’s important for people not to assume things. We don’t know the circumstances, we don’t know how well equipped Lily was – we just don’t have those answers,” she said.

    Burke added that negative commentary about solo female hiking is unfounded, pointing out that the majority of Bushwalking NSW’s 11,000 members are women who regularly hike solo, and that the activity is not inherently dangerous. “She’s gone out to have a good day walking, and whatever has happened has happened,” Burke said, rejecting claims that Hooper acted recklessly on her trip. As of Thursday, the search operation remains active, with crews continuing to comb the remote wilderness for any trace of the missing teen.

  • Trump pauses new tariffs on Canada and says countries close to a deal

    Trump pauses new tariffs on Canada and says countries close to a deal

    U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a last-minute three-day delay to 50% tariffs on nearly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, revealing that the two North American neighbors have reached a tentative trade agreement pending final document formalization. The tariff pause was unveiled in a social media post less than two hours before the levies were scheduled to take effect on August 19, averting immediate economic disruption for cross-border businesses on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

    Negotiators from both countries have engaged in months of intensive talks since July, when Trump set the August 19 deadline for new tariffs amid a long-running trade impasse. The core sticking points in negotiations have included existing U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, lumber and automobiles, as well as retaliatory bans on American alcohol sales implemented by most Canadian provinces last year in response to Trump’s earlier tariff measures. President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney held two direct discussions this week to break the deadlock in negotiations.

    Alongside the tariff delay announcement, Trump confirmed that a finalized trade deal could clear the way for the revival of the long-blocked Keystone XL oil pipeline project. The 830,000-barrel-per-day pipeline, which would transport crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries and distribution networks in the United States, was previously blocked by both the Obama and Biden administrations. Trump drew sharp contrast to his predecessor in his post on Truth Social, writing that the “great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!” The project has faced sustained opposition from environmental advocacy groups and Indigenous communities over concerns about carbon emissions and ecological harm, but Trump has repeatedly pledged to restart development since taking office.

    Business groups on both sides of the border have welcomed the temporary tariff extension and breakthrough in talks, having repeatedly warned that the proposed 50% levies would inflict widespread economic damage on both nations. The tariffs were set to apply to a broad range of Canadian goods, including wine, dairy products, cement, clothing and even hockey equipment, and would have come on top of existing U.S. tariffs already in place for key Canadian exports.

    Trade tensions have escalated dramatically between the two top trading partners since Trump returned to the White House in January last year, when he launched a global agenda of sweeping tariffs that upended decades of established integrated free trade between Canada and the United States. Canada has centered its negotiation demands on getting the U.S. to roll back or eliminate existing tariffs on its key industrial and agricultural sectors, while the U.S. has pushed for Canadian concessions including the removal of remaining retaliatory tariffs on American automobiles, expanded access for U.S. cheese producers to Canada’s dairy market, and an end to the Canadian provincial ban on U.S. alcohol sales.

    According to a Reuters report citing anonymous sources familiar with the negotiations, negotiators were closing in on a deal in the final hours before the original deadline that would cut U.S. tariffs on Canadian automobiles from 25% to 15%. However, the two sides remained at an impasse over eligibility criteria, with U.S. negotiators pushing to limit the reduced tariff rate only to vehicles with a high proportion of American-manufactured components.

    A key hurdle to finalizing any agreement remains the need for Canadian Prime Minister Carney to secure approval from provincial premiers to lift the U.S. alcohol ban, as liquor regulation and sales fall under provincial rather than federal jurisdiction in Canada. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province bears the brunt of U.S. auto tariffs, has stated he is only willing to lift the ban if the final agreement delivers fair terms for Canada. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest business advocacy group, issued a statement Tuesday urging negotiators to finalize a deal, warning that higher tariffs would harm both economies, raise household costs for American consumers, disrupt critical cross-border supply chains, and put the 13 million American jobs tied to USMCA trade at risk.

  • Iranian-American comedian Max Amini sparks backlash over ‘species’ remarks on Iranian people

    Iranian-American comedian Max Amini sparks backlash over ‘species’ remarks on Iranian people

    A controversial public appearance on Bill Maher’s popular podcast *Club Random* has landed Iranian-American comedian Max Amini at the center of a heated online firestorm, after his dehumanizing comments about groups fighting the United States and Israel sparked widespread outrage across social media platforms.

    In the episode, which was released to the public on August 17, Amini attempted to draw a sharp line between Iran’s ruling government and the country’s general population, claiming that ordinary Iranian citizens bear no connection to the leadership’s policies. “We are not our government. Those are not our people… because the people that are fighting today against the US and Israel are not the Iranians. They are this species that have no sense of morals,” Amini stated during the conversation. He also echoed former U.S. President Donald Trump’s framing of the ongoing conflict, asserting that Washington’s military campaign targets only Iran’s governing establishment, not its civilian population.

    Clips of Amini’s remarks spread virally across major social media platforms within hours of the episode’s release, drawing angry pushback from Iranian users and other commentators across the globe. Many critics accused the comedian of dehumanizing Iranians and implicitly legitimizing U.S. and Israeli military strikes that have killed thousands of civilians in Iran. Online critics have labeled Amini a “sellout” to Western interests, with many calling for widespread boycotts of his work. Some commentators also pointed out that Amini has barely maintained proficiency in Farsi, the official language of Iran, and has not visited the country for decades, questioning his credibility to speak on behalf of Iranian people.

    The controversy also renewed scrutiny of the podcast host, Bill Maher, who has a long track record of making inflammatory and controversial statements about Islam and Muslim communities. Maher has repeatedly argued that core Islamic beliefs are fundamentally incompatible with modern liberal values, a position that has sparked major public confrontations for years. One of the most high-profile clashes occurred during a 2014 episode of Maher’s HBO show *Real Time*, when Maher and author Sam Harris faced pushback from guest Ben Affleck after they claimed Western liberals were overly hesitant to criticize Islam over topics including women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and freedom of expression. Affleck publicly denounced the pair’s comments as “gross” and “racist” overarching generalizations about Muslims. Maher has continued to defend his views over the years, claiming his criticism targets only religious doctrine rather than Muslims as an ethnic or cultural group. Even so, his repeated remarks have drawn consistent condemnation for promoting broad, harmful stereotypes about Muslim people and majority-Muslim nations.

    The backlash to Amini’s comments comes against the backdrop of an ongoing active conflict that has roiled the Middle East. The United States and Israel launched a joint military campaign against Iran on February 28, carrying out extensive airstrikes across Iranian territory, which prompted retaliatory strikes from Iran against Israeli targets and U.S. military positions across the region. While Trump has repeatedly framed the military operation as targeting only Iran’s government and military forces, not civilian populations, the assault has already caused massive civilian casualties, contradicting that framing.

    By March 23, just under a month after the war began, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency recorded that at least 1,407 Iranian civilians had been killed in the strikes. Iranian authorities later released an overall death toll of 3,468 people across all categories since the start of the conflict on February 28. Civilian infrastructure and public spaces have been repeatedly hit in strikes, with one of the deadliest incidents being the bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab on the first day of the war. Middle East Eye originally reported that at least 175 people, the vast majority of them children, were killed in that attack, which has been investigated by both the United Nations and the U.S. military. U.S. investigators reportedly concluded that an American strike was most likely responsible for the bombing, and Iranian authorities later revised the official death toll from the attack to 155.

    The heavy civilian death toll has undermined repeated claims from U.S. and Israeli officials that the military campaign is limited exclusively to Iranian leadership and military assets, as ordinary Iranians continue to account for a large share of those killed and injured in strikes across the country.

  • US mulls shrinking military footprint in Gulf as a result of war on Iran: Report

    US mulls shrinking military footprint in Gulf as a result of war on Iran: Report

    In the wake of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, the Trump administration is conducting a high-stakes review of whether to withdraw a substantial portion of American military forces from the Persian Gulf, as the Pentagon assesses growing security risks to large U.S. military installations that have come under repeated drone and missile strikes from Iranian forces, according to a recent exclusive report from The Washington Post.

    The policy review is being spearheaded by the Department of Defense’s policy office, with senior defense officials framing the current conflict as a generational turning point that creates an unprecedented opportunity to overhaul the United States’ decades-long military posture in the Middle East, the Post reported Tuesday. Early signals from the administration already indicate the U.S. may not reconstruct Iranian-attacked bases to their pre-war operational capacity, the outlet added.

    The Post’s new reporting corroborates an exclusive investigation published by Middle East Eye (MEE) in June, which quoted multiple current and former senior U.S. officials confirming that the conflict would prompt a fundamental reckoning with the outdated Cold War-era basing structure that has anchored American military presence in the region for decades. Discussion of a significant drawdown has been circulating among former national security leaders for months, with multiple retired top officials publicly calling for a major shift in deployment strategy.

    David Petraeus, who previously led U.S. Central Command (Centcom) — the military combatant command that oversees all American forces in the Middle East — and later served as CIA director, told Bloomberg in May that the persistent threat of long-range Iranian drone and missile attacks has fundamentally undermined the case for maintaining large, static bases in the Gulf. “The truth is that we are not as inclined to occupy these bases now that we have seen what the Iranians can throw at them,” Petraeus said, noting that the current threat landscape is far more severe than when he led Centcom decades earlier.

    Another former Centcom commander, retired General Frank McKenzie, doubled down on that assessment in July, arguing that the U.S. should relocate core Gulf-based military assets to Israel and other western neighboring countries to shield critical infrastructure from Iranian strikes. McKenzie pointed to al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar — which currently hosts Centcom’s forward headquarters just 100 miles from Iranian territory — as a major strategic vulnerability, saying, “No one in their right mind would ever put the Centcom forward headquarters […] yet that’s where it is.”

    McKenzie characterized the current U.S. basing network in the Middle East as a Cold War-era relic, designed initially to deter Soviet expansion into the oil-rich Gulf and later adapted for counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, a mission that no longer matches the current threat environment dominated by Iranian long-range strike capabilities. “[The U.S.] strategy does not match the reality on the ground,” he added.

    Notably, even the current top Centcom leader, U.S. Admiral Bradley Cooper, has thrown his support behind discussions of shifting American military forces westward away from the Gulf, the Post reported. So far, shifting threat dynamics have already pushed a partial U.S. repositioning: Iran has systematically targeted key U.S. installations across the Gulf, including Bahrain (home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet), Qatar (Centcom headquarters), and major air bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

    Smaller Gulf states positioned close to Iran, such as Kuwait and Bahrain, have proven to be the most exposed to Iranian attacks, prompting the U.S. to begin gradual repositioning westward since the outbreak of the current conflict. MEE was the first outlet to report that the U.S. secured access to Taif Air Base in Saudi Arabia back in March, after Iranian strikes heavily damaged Prince Sultan Air Base located southeast of Riyadh.

  • Chinese robotics giant Unitree soars in stock market debut

    Chinese robotics giant Unitree soars in stock market debut

    On Wednesday, Unitree Robotics, the world’s largest manufacturer of humanoid robots, made history as the first publicly listed humanoid robot developer on mainland China’s stock exchange, capping a landmark day with shares skyrocketing more than 600% above their initial offering price. Trading on Shanghai’s tech-focused Star Market, often dubbed China’s answer to Nasdaq, the Chinese firm opened at 1,100 yuan ($163.12) per share, a massive jump from the 150.8 yuan initial public offering (IPO) price. The milestone debut comes amid an intensifying global race between the United States and China to dominate the fast-emerging market for humanoid robots and the artificial intelligence systems that power these machines, aligning directly with Beijing’s long-term strategic goal to establish global leadership in advanced robotics technology.

    Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Hangzhou, a city at the heart of eastern China’s government-backed robotics industry cluster, Unitree Robotics (officially registered as Yushu Technology Co Ltd) has grown from a startup to a global industry leader in less than a decade. The company offers a diverse product line spanning robotic sensors, automated industrial arms, quadruped robot dogs, and fully functional humanoid machines, and it shipped more than 5,500 humanoid units in 2025 alone amid surging global demand for the technology. Unlike many early-stage robotics firms that operate at a loss, Unitree has already achieved profitability, posting a net profit of 278 million yuan in 2025. A key competitive advantage for the firm is its ability to deliver robots with comparable capabilities to leading U.S. developers at a fraction of the price: Unitree’s entry-level quadruped robot dog starts at just $2,700, while Boston Dynamics’ comparable Spot robot carries a $70,000 price tag. While researchers note the models differ in size and capability, the cost gap remains a major market differentiator. Unitree launched commercial sales of humanoid robots in 2023, releasing its $13,500 child-sized G1 model in 2024 – a milestone that puts it years ahead of major U.S. rivals like Tesla, which has yet to begin commercial deliveries of its own Optimus humanoid robot.

    The successful IPO follows a high-profile global marketing push for Unitree’s technology that has cemented its reputation as a trailblazer in the sector. Earlier this year, the company’s G1 robots went viral after performing a coordinated martial arts routine live on China’s national Spring Festival Gala, a display that impressed researchers with the robots’ fluid range of motion and real-time performance. This week, Unitree robots are competing in the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, where hundreds of teams test capabilities across athletic challenges like running and football, as well as practical everyday tasks such as opening boxes and sorting library books.

    Industry analysts frame Unitree’s public listing as a pivotal moment for the global humanoid robotics sector, as it gives retail and institutional investors their first widespread opportunity to invest in the fast-growing emerging industry, and will likely set a valuation benchmark for future robotics IPOs. China has seen explosive growth in its robotics sector over the past five years, with government investment driving a more than threefold increase in the number of domestic robotics firms between 2020 and 2024, according to state-run media China Daily. Beyond technological ambition, Chinese policymakers see robotics as a key solution to demographic challenges, particularly the shrinking workforce caused by the country’s ageing population. Fei Qin, an associate professor at the University of Bath, notes that Beijing has designated the robotics sector a “strategic priority,” arguing that “robots are where AI leaves the screen and enters the economy” across factories, healthcare settings, and eventually residential homes. Unitree’s listing paves the way for a wave of other Chinese robotics firms going public in the coming months; smaller rival UBTech Robotics already listed in Hong Kong nearly three years ago, and drew global attention earlier this year when it unveiled a hyper-realistic humanoid companion robot, with other developers including Leju Robotics and AgiBot expected to launch IPOs soon.

    Despite widespread investor optimism, some industry researchers have sounded notes of caution about the timeline for widespread consumer adoption of humanoid robots. Harold Soh, a robotics researcher at the National University of Singapore, points out that practical humanoid robots for home use are still years away from commercial viability, as developers still need to solve key challenges including extending battery life, improving reliability, and building robust privacy safeguards. For the near future, most demand is expected to come from industrial and commercial settings including factories, warehouses, and healthcare facilities.

    The growth of China’s robotics industry has become the latest flashpoint in U.S.-China technological rivalry, with the Trump administration announcing a ban on new imports of Chinese-made humanoid and quadruped robots in July, citing unsubstantiated national security concerns and a goal to protect domestic U.S. manufacturing. Beijing has rejected the claims, accusing Washington of politicizing ordinary trade issues, and the ban is part of broader U.S. restrictions on a range of Chinese advanced technology including AI models, electric vehicles, semiconductors, and drones. Christine Wan, an analyst at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, notes that Chinese robotics firms have become deeply integrated into global supply chains, meaning many countries are reluctant to cut ties with Chinese suppliers out of fear of major domestic manufacturing disruptions. So far, Western robotics firms have failed to match China’s impact on both industrial and consumer markets: U.S. developers including Boston Dynamics, Tesla, and Amazon are still in the testing or early production phase for humanoid robots, with full commercial rollouts not expected for years. Many industry analysts agree that China has overtaken the U.S. to become the global leader in commercial robotics development. “We no longer hear about American robotics companies in the news. It’s the Chinese robot companies that are making news today,” said robotics researcher David Hsu. “They have replaced America as the cool kids on the block.”

  • Once shaped by court rituals, China’s imperial cuisine lives on today

    Once shaped by court rituals, China’s imperial cuisine lives on today

    Nearly a century after its founding, a historic Beijing restaurant remains one of the last guardians of China’s imperial culinary legacy, keeping alive dishes, rituals and handcrafting techniques that trace their roots directly to the palaces of the Qing Dynasty.

    One of its most beloved delicacies carries a story that stretches back to the final years of imperial rule. Legend holds that Empress Dowager Cixi once dreamed of a savory pancake late in her reign, and when the identical treat was served to her for breakfast the next morning, she was so delighted that she rewarded her head chef with a silver ingot. Originally named minced pork pancake, the dish was renamed “dream pastry” to honor its connection to Cixi’s vision, explains Zhou Tong, a veteran pastry chef at Beijing’s iconic Fangshan Restaurant.

    Founded in 1925 by former Qing Dynasty court chefs inside Beihai Park, a centuries-old imperial garden where dynastic royals once relaxed, conducted state affairs and held sacred rituals, Fangshan’s core mission is written directly into its name: Fangshan translates literally to “imitating imperial cuisine.” While a small number of other Beijing establishments also offer their own interpretations of imperial court dining, and the Palace Museum preserves Qing-era dining artifacts ranging from ornate pastry molds to serving vessels, Fangshan stands out for its commitment to passing down original recipes and techniques from generation to generation of chefs.

    Imperial cuisine is far more than a collection of fancy dishes: it encompasses the strict rituals that structured every meal, from the emperor’s daily breakfast to grand state banquets and sacred ceremonial feasts. For example, drinking milk tea was always the formal opening step at Qing Dynasty banquets, notes Teng Deyong, a researcher specializing in court culture at the Palace Museum. During grand events, the emperor would bestow portions of wine and food to assembled princes and high officials, and recipients were required to perform full formal rites of respect before they could partake.

    Sacrificial ceremonies, a core part of imperial court life, followed their own separate set of culinary rules. One of the most important Qing rituals, held at the Palace of Earthly Tranquillity inside the Forbidden City, centered on unseasoned boiled fatty pork. After the ceremony concluded, the pork was distributed to attendees, and receiving this sacrificial meat was considered a high honor. This tradition of unseasoned ritual food stretches back even further in Chinese cultural history: Wandi Wang, a professor of Chinese studies at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, points to the *Book of Rites*, an ancient Confucian text detailing ceremonial customs, which describes an unseasoned meat broth called “grand stew” served during sacrificial rituals.

    “The absence of added flavoring was itself meaningful: the unseasoned dish evoked an earlier and simpler way of cooking and thus expressed a ritual ideal of honoring antiquity and remembering cultural origins,” Wang explained.

    Pastries held a special place in imperial dining, with a dedicated palace institution solely responsible for crafting sweet and savory treats for the court. At Fangshan, Zhou still makes the original imperial versions of dream pastry and small steamed corn buns following century-old recipes, and servers share the dishes’ rich histories with every table. “People enjoy them even more because they carry such meaningful history,” Zhou said.

    His craft is passed down through an unbroken line of master-to-apprentice training, and traditional methods strictly require all work to be done by hand — no modern blenders or food processors are permitted. Beans are pulverized by hand using fine sieves, and specialty flours are mixed and aged in custom-made copper pots. “A machine may be more convenient, but the texture is completely different,” Zhou explained. “You lose the delicate graininess and sandy mouthfeel that handcrafted pastries are supposed to have.” That commitment to craft has paid off: pea flour cakes and red bean rolls, two of Fangshan’s most popular pastries, sell more than 200 orders per day during peak tourist seasons.

    For Fan Liangliang, Fangshan’s current executive chef, adapting to the restaurant’s traditional standards required unlearning everything he had been taught in modern culinary school. Instead of prioritizing speed and efficiency, he had to master slow, labor-intensive techniques unique to imperial cuisine, such as “Nizihuo” — a method that involves mincing ingredients like fish, shrimp or chicken into a smooth paste, then reshaping the paste into intricate decorative forms like frogs, birds or flowers.

    “This is one of the hallmarks of imperial cuisine,” Fan said. “Every dish had to be innovative, visually beautiful, nutritious and worthy of presentation on the imperial dining table.”

    As times have changed, the restaurant has made thoughtful adaptations to align with modern norms: rare, protected ingredients like bear paws are no longer served, and other ingredients have been substituted to fit contemporary availability and dietary preferences, all while retaining the core spirit and flavor of each original dish.

    Scholars note that Chinese culinary traditions have always carried layered meaning beyond sustenance, reflecting broader cultural, political and aesthetic values that evolve over time. Wang points to a famous poem by Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu, who wrote about cold noodles made from pagoda-tree leaves. “The poem is not simply a description of a dish,” Wang said. “Du Fu turns the verdant, fresh, yet modest dish into an expression of his political loyalty and thwarted ambition to serve the emperor.”

    “Preserving a culinary tradition begins with taking its history seriously,” Wang added. “Culinary heritage tells us not only how people ate in the past, but also how people in the present choose to remember and give meaning to that past.”

    Fan emphasizes that at its core, Fangshan’s imperial cuisine is a historic fusion of Manchu and Han Chinese culinary traditions, bringing together the food culture of the Qing Dynasty’s Manchu rulers and China’s Han majority. “It’s not simply a collection of dishes from the two cultures,” he said. “It represents the blending of their different approaches to food into a unified cuisine.”

    While core techniques like stir-frying, braising and stewing have remained intact, and some ingredients have been updated for accessibility and modern palates, the team’s commitment to preserving this unique cultural heritage remains unshaken. “When people dine at Fangshan Restaurant, I hope they experience more than just a meal,” Fan said. “They experience the weight of history.”

  • Israeli strike on Gaza port kills at least seven, including a child

    Israeli strike on Gaza port kills at least seven, including a child

    A deadly Israeli drone attack on a coastal cafe in Gaza City’s western port district has left at least seven Palestinians dead, one child among the victims, and sparked renewed scrutiny of Israeli military actions amid a fragile ceasefire framework, Gaza health authorities confirmed Tuesday.

    The brutality of the strike left one victim’s body so severely damaged that medical teams have not been able to identify the person, officials added. Most casualties, multiple of whom are in critical condition, were transported to Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest medical facility. Al-Shifa initially received six corpses and 13 injured people, with a 13th wounded person dying of their injuries later the same evening. Hospital staff noted that one victim suffered a direct missile strike that left the body unidentifiable.

    According to Al Jazeera Arabic, the force of the blast threw several dead and injured people into the adjacent Mediterranean Sea, leading observers to warn that the final casualty count could climb higher than currently recorded as recovery operations continue along the coastline.

    One eyewitness, Mohammed Alghoul, told Agence France-Presse that Israeli military aircraft launched two missiles directly at the “Sweet and Bitter” cafe, a popular gathering spot located on Gaza’s fishermen’s port in the western part of the city.

    The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed the strike in a statement posted to the Telegram messaging platform, framing the operation as a “precise aerial strike” targeting several Hamas commanders in the Shati district west of Gaza City. The IDF claimed the group was plotting an attack against Israeli troops deployed inside the Gaza Strip, saying the airstrike was carried out “to remove the threat to the forces” and that Israeli forces had “taken steps to mitigate harm to civilians”. The military has not yet issued any comment on the dead child, nor has it released any evidence to back up its claims that the people killed in the cafe were Hamas commanders.

    Hamas condemned the attack, labeling it a “massacre” that exposes Israel’s open disregard for calls from U.S. President Donald Trump to uphold the existing ceasefire agreement between the two sides. The group has called on international mediators to ramp up pressure on Israel to honor the signed ceasefire deal and the previously agreed roadmap for peace.

    The targeted strike comes just 24 hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave approval to the next phase of the U.S.-backed “Board of Peace” plan for Gaza, following talks that Netanyahu described as “deep and constructive” with a delegation led by U.S. Special Envoy Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The U.S.-brokered plan requires Hamas to fully disarm in exchange for a full Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israel initially rejected Trump’s 15-point proposal even after Hamas agreed to lay down its weapons and transfer administrative control of Gaza to an independent technocratic governing body.

    As of Monday, medical sources in Gaza report that the total death toll in the territory has reached at least 73,399 people, with an additional 174,310 injured, since Israel launched its large-scale military campaign in October 2023. Of those fatalities, 1,265 have been killed since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect in October 2025.

  • New Zealand blocks lawsuits against firms over climate harm

    New Zealand blocks lawsuits against firms over climate harm

    New Zealand’s right-wing coalition government has pushed through a divisive piece of legislation that blocks civil climate liability lawsuits against private companies, immediately ending a high-profile ongoing case against six of the nation’s largest corporations. The legal amendment passed its final parliamentary vote Tuesday night by a margin of 67 to 53, capping weeks of heated debate over the balance of government climate policy, corporate interests and public access to legal recourse.

    The legislation was drafted directly in response to a lawsuit brought by Indigenous Māori climate activist Michael Smith, who targeted six prominent New Zealand firms — including global dairy giant Fonterra — seeking to hold them legally accountable for their contributions to climate-related environmental harm. The new law retroactively halts Smith’s active case, a move that has drawn fierce condemnation from activists, opposition lawmakers and climate experts.

    Speaking to New Zealand’s national public broadcaster RNZ, Smith called the vote a dark turning point for democratic accountability in the country. “If parliament can cancel a live court case simply because it becomes politically inconvenient, then no legal claim is secure at all,” he argued. Opposition Green Party MP Steve Abel echoed that criticism in parliamentary debate, framing the change as a deliberate handout to corporate polluters at the expense of the public interest.

    “Six dirty polluters versus one activist — they had the best-paid, most skilled lawyers in the country and they still were losing the case,” Abel said. “So what did they do? They turned to this sitting government and begged them to extinguish the case, wipe it from the books, nullify it entirely.”

    Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith defended the government’s action, arguing that the legislation is necessary to create clarity for businesses around their climate obligations. He argued that ongoing High Court litigation over corporate emissions risked creating an ad-hoc regulatory framework that directly contradicts the national climate policy structure already enacted by parliament.

    “These ongoing claims create deep uncertainty for business confidence and domestic investment,” Goldsmith said in an official statement. “Climate change is a complex issue that intersects with environmental, economic and social priorities across the nation. It is not a matter that should be resolved piecemeal through individual court cases. Our national climate response is best designed and managed by the elected government at a national level.”

    The passage of the law comes as New Zealand faces growing pressure to step up its emissions reduction efforts, following a stark warning from an independent statutory climate advisory body last month. The Climate Change Commission, established by federal law in 2019, issued a report warning that current policies under Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s government put the nation at severe risk of missing its legally binding emissions reduction targets.

    The commission highlighted a series of controversial policy changes made by the current government that will increase overall national emissions: excluding the agricultural sector from emissions pricing, rolling back clean vehicle emissions standards, reducing mandatory emissions reporting requirements for businesses, and moving forward with plans to build a new liquefied natural gas import terminal. The report noted that the emissions increases from these policies will outweigh any emissions cuts achieved through other government programs.

    Commission chief executive Jo Hendy called the findings an urgent wake-up call for policymakers. “While emissions have declined gradually over recent years, progress stalled entirely in 2024,” Hendy said. “Current policy settings are simply not delivering the rate of reduction we need to hit our targets, and the window to correct course is now closing quickly.”

  • Sacked Ukrainian defence minister calls for presidential election

    Sacked Ukrainian defence minister calls for presidential election

    Nearly two and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a former top defense official has thrown the country’s domestic political landscape into upheaval, launching what analysts widely describe as the most significant test of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s authority since the war began.

    Mykhailo Fedorov, the 35-year-old former defense minister unexpectedly removed from his post in late July just six months after his appointment, publicly called for wartime national elections in a YouTube video posted Tuesday. Arguing that Ukrainian democracy must not become a casualty of Russian aggression, Fedorov framed the push as core to the country’s identity as a free European democracy, stating, “Ukraine is fighting precisely because we want to remain a free European state.” He did not mention Zelensky by name in his address.

    Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has operated under continuous martial law, a legal framework that formally suspends all national electoral activity. In his video, Fedorov did not outline his own immediate political ambitions, instead centering his argument on the urgent need to establish what he called a “legal, safe, and realistic mechanism” to reinstate full democratic processes even amid ongoing active conflict. He went further to warn that Ukraine is currently grappling with a “systemic crisis of governance”, that the country’s leadership has become “scared of change”, and that persistent systemic corruption remains a major drain on the nation’s war effort.

    Fedorov’s dismissal in July sparked waves of public protests across multiple Ukrainian cities, and Zelensky has not yet issued a formal public response to the former minister’s latest remarks. Widely reported sources indicate Fedorov’s removal stemmed from long-running public and private tensions with then-Army Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. In a chain of leadership shifts that followed, Syrskyi himself was replaced by Zelensky several weeks later, after mounting public pressure from protests targeting the presidency.

    During his short tenure as defense minister, Fedorov earned broad praise for overhauling the ministry’s operations, leading a high-profile anti-corruption purge, and leveraging data analytics to identify gaps and improve frontline military performance. This focus on innovation was not new: long before taking the defense portfolio, Fedorov served as Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, where he launched the volunteer “IT Army of Ukraine” to coordinate large-scale cyber operations against Russian targets in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 invasion. He later spearheaded the wildly successful “Army of Drones” fundraising initiative, which revolutionized Ukrainian military tactics by integrating drone technology into frontline operations, and even introduced a gamified reward system that awarded credits to units for successfully striking Russian targets.

    As defense minister, Fedorov doubled down on this high-tech approach, including a high-stakes request to SpaceX founder Elon Musk to restrict Russian access to Starlink satellite connectivity for drone operations. Military analysts credit that move with causing major disruptions to Russian frontline deployments and offensive advances. After his dismissal, Fedorov published a Facebook post summarizing his time in office, reaffirming his commitment to defeating Russia through asymmetric tactics, rapid innovation, and strong organizational reform.

    Following Fedorov’s removal, Zelensky appointed Yevgeniy Khmara, a low-profile career intelligence official, as acting defense minister. The president offered Fedorov alternative senior positions in the cabinet, including the role of deputy prime minister for military innovation, but Fedorov has publicly stated he will only accept a return to his former post as defense minister.