Our latest for @aj101east.bsky.social The head of a Chinese trade association claims he is Beijing’s man in Paraguay - Taiwan‘s sole South American ally. But he’s also an alleged criminal with a secret agenda. 1/2 youtu.be/QA78--LYmWA

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis in a message group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters reut.rs/3RoyBbh

For people in the journalism business, and for people in general, *this* is the killer detail in latest Hegseth-dereliction-of-duty report: That *four* people on the call were willing to talk about it! Congrats to the reporters. And most obvious dead-man-walking of cabinet members perhaps ever.

"Harvard is changing course, perhaps because it grasped the true takeaway from Columbia’s cautionary tale: Appeasement doesn’t work, because the Trump administration isn’t really trying to reform elite higher education. It’s trying to break it." www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

It's too early and drastic to say that the U.S. and China are decoupling their economies. The two are intertwined at so many levels (e.g. 90% of christmas decorations sold in the US are from China) but if the tariffs are kept in place for, say, 6 months, the split may then become real

Lu Siwei, Chinese human rights lawyer who fled to Laos and sent back to China, is sentenced to 11 months in prison for "illegally crossing the border". Many rights lawyers are now barred from leaving China: ino.to/xOZe4eL

Raising a child in America has never been cheap. But tariffs will make it many times more expensive for new parents.

Breaking: #Taiwan’s Digital Ministry said two undersea cables connecting the main island and the outlying island Matsu have been severed since this morning. The exact cause remains unclear. www.cna.com.tw/news/afe/202...

Three siblings of wanted former pollster Chung Kim-wah have been taken in for questioning by national security police, local media has reported. In full: https://buff.ly/40SoH7r

NATO countries will deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones in the Baltic Sea to help protect critical infrastructure and reserve the right to take action against ships suspected of posing a security threat, alliance members said reut.rs/4afLTzs

Tencent <0700.HK> shares down 7% in HK at the market bell after the firm was added to US "Section 1260H list" of entities that qualify as "Chinese military companies". The tech giant says its inclusion on the list was "clearly a mistake" www.reuters.com/world/us-add...

Wow. This is a jaw-dropping thriller of a story: How a Mole Infiltrated the Highest Ranks of American Militias

This is highly disconcerting. WaPo editors killed an editorial cartoon that mocked Bezos and other tech oligarchs. Will the Post respond to this? Democracy dies with accommodation. anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-qui...

⚡️Drones reportedly target one of Russia's largest sea trade ports in Leningrad Oblast. Most of the drones that attacked Leningrad Oblast were shot down over the terminal of Novotrans, a Russian transportation and logistics company.