An Embarrassing Trade War Climbdown, Trump’s Middle East Joyride, Pinoy Family Feud, And The Peace Talk That Never Happened

A detailed recount mixed with meme comedy to mark our times at Week 19 of 2025 featuring source material from Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld, Lower Decks, No. 7 West Mars Street, and Hailey’s On It!

May 18, 2025

Trade Off - The Climbdown

In a major de-escalation after two days of talks, the US and China agreed to slash tariffs for 90 days. The US will reduce the tariff rate from 145% a week ago to 30%, while China will reduce its US tariff rate to 10% after the high point of 125%. US officials were surprised by China’s willingness to deal with the problem, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying, “Neither side wants to decouple” and that "Both countries represented their national interest very well." In response, Chinese stocks wiped out all their losses in April since Trump’s tariff announcement, and Hong Kong stocks jumped by 3%. Hours later, Wall Street opened with the S&P 500 jumping by 2.9%. Further boosting the markets, Trump said he may speak to Chinese leader Xi Jinping “maybe at the end of the week," adding that the talks would be great for "unification and peace.” By the end of Monday, the S&P 500 logged its biggest gain in over a month, the Dow rose by 2.81%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped by 4.35%.

On Tuesday, the White House announced that the tariff for small packages had decreased from 120% to 54%, while China removed a month-long ban on Boeing plane deliveries to Chinese airlines. During a gathering of representatives of more than 30 Latin American and Caribbean nations in Beijing, Xi made thinly veiled jabs at the US by saying, “There were no winners in tariff wars,” adding that “bullying or hegemonism only leads to self-isolation.” Meanwhile, China criticised a trade deal made between the UK and the US last week, saying it would squeeze Chinese products out of British supply chains. In the US, consumer prices in April 2025 climbed at the slowest pace since February 2021, as the inflationary impacts of Trump’s tariffs were yet to be felt.

By the latter part of the week, China suspended its rare-earth export curbs designed to target US entities. Meanwhile, Trump told investors in Qatar that India has offered to drop tariffs on US goods, saying the Indian government has “offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff.” In the US, Walmart said price hikes are coming as soon as this month because of tariffs, and they are too high to avoid passing the cost to consumers. On Friday, we learned consumer sentiment has sunk near a record low due to tariffs, while the US lost its triple-A credit rating for the first time after Moody’s downgraded the country, citing large fiscal deficits and rising interest costs. Coincidentally, the story was buried by the Robert Hur interview tapes with Joe Biden hours later. In response to the downgrade, the Treasury Secretary called Moody’s a “lagging indicator,” while also telling NBC News that he spoke on the phone with Walmart's CEO who agreed to absorb some of the costs of Trump's tariffs.

Russia/Ukraine War Watch - Peace Talks Between Warring Factions (Featuring No War Leaders)

The week began with tepid hopes of a potential ceasefire, if not talks between Russia and Ukraine, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to have in-person peace talks with Putin in Türkiye. Poland accused Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a massive shopping centre fire in Warsaw last year, which marks a potential provocation against a NATO country, even as Russia had previously denied any sabotage attempts by other states. On social media, a deranged conspiracy theory that claimed Macron, Starmer, and Merz were using drugs because of a tissue was perpetuated by Russian disinformation. As Zelensky prepares to leave for Istanbul, his aides clearly stated that he would not be meeting other Russian officials besides President Putin, while the president himself told journalists, “Trump needs to believe that Putin actually lies. And we should do our part. Sensibly approach this issue, to show that it’s not us that is slowing down the process.”

Despite calling for the talks in the first place, Putin was not part of the Russian delegation heading to Istanbul. Even though Trump also confirmed he will not go, he claimed, “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together.” Although the leaders’ meeting did not happen, Zelensky sent a team of Ukrainian diplomats to meet with their Russian counterparts for the first time since March 2022. Before both sides sat down on Friday, a report by Reporters Without Borders said Russia is targeting Ukrainian hotels to discourage journalists from reporting on the Ukraine war. By midday, the Turkish talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials ended in under two hours, and both sides agreed to the largest POW swap since the war began, with more than 1000 soldiers being freed. We later learned the Russian delegation took a harsh stance during closed-door talks, claiming they would further invade Ukraine if things didn’t go their way. On the other side of the world, Trump claimed he wants to meet Putin “as soon as possible.”

Hours after the closed-door talks, a Russian strike on a civilian bus in northern Ukraine killed nine Ukrainians. In response, Trump said he will hold phone calls with Putin, Zelensky, and NATO officials on Monday. By Sunday, Russia launched the war's largest drone attack against Ukraine right before a proposed Putin-Trump call, as Kyiv intelligence authorities claim Russian forces are prepared to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile to intimidate the West. On the diplomatic side, Zelensky became the first foreign leader to meet Pope Leo XIV after his inaugural mass, before talking with JD Vance for the first time since the Oval Office spat.

Middle East Chaos - Trump’s Fun Bribe Trip

Following Hamas saying that they would release an Israeli American hostage “within hours” as part of a broader effort to reach a ceasefire deal, Israel said there will be no ceasefire in response to that release, while Israeli forces had killed 15 Palestinians in a Gaza school. With Edan Alexander being officially released from Hamas by the end of Monday, it seemed the terrorist group wants to curry favor with the American government. At the same time, the US has fully bypassed Israel in hostage release negotiations.

Kickstarting Trump’s Middle East tour, the president first visited Saudi Arabia, a repeat of 2017 when he was president for the first time. To satisfy the president, a mobile and operational McDonald’s truck was spotted to feed Mr. Trump. When Trump arrived in the country, he was personally greeted by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) on the tarmac, a break from royal tradition. After saluting a Saudi general for no apparent reason, both countries have signed a $142 billion arms deal. Touted by the White House as the “largest defence sales agreement in history,” Trump inflated the numbers by claiming it was a $600 billion arms deal. At the same time, Trump announced a move with significant geopolitical implications. The US president decided to remove all sanctions against Syria, which Trump said was to give the country “a chance at greatness.” He also promised to meet with the new Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, marking the first face-to-face meeting between a US president and a Syrian leader since 2000. In Gaza, Israel bombed the European and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis, killing at least 18 people, including the journalist Hassan Eslaih. Israeli officials say fighter jets bombed the city in a bid to kill Muhammad Sinwar, one of Hamas’s remaining top leaders.

On Wednesday, Trump officially met with Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa alongside MBS and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan via phone. The US president told his Syrian counterpart that he has “a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country,” urging al-Sharaa (The same message delivered to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince) to normalize relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords. Announcing a drastic change in the US’s Middle East policy, Trump said the world’s superpower would no longer be “giving you lectures on how to live,” adding that “In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built.” Throughout his two days in Saudi Arabia, Trump openly called for Iran to strike a new nuclear deal, while calling for fellow leaders to enforce sanctions and secondary sanctions on Iranian oil. During his flight to Qatar, Trump said al-Sharaa is a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.” In unrelated news, the Syrian leader proposed a possible Trump Tower Damascus in a bid to charm the easily manipulable leader. After arriving in Qatar, Trump boasted a record-breaking deal for Boeing, as it secured an agreement to sell up to 210 aircraft to Qatar Airways. It is part of more than $243 billion in deals with Qatar, laying the groundwork for a bigger $1.2 trillion economic pledge.

Arriving in Abu Dhabi as the final destination of Trump’s Middle East trip, the US signed a sweeping AI project that included deals to create a 10-mile campus, aiming to make the UAW an AI powerhouse. As Israeli airstrikes kill hundreds of people in Gaza within two days, Trump talked of turning Gaza into a “freedom zone,” as Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was "troubled" by the humanitarian situation in Gaza. More alarmingly, the UN released a horrifying new report that showed one in five Gazans are facing starvation, with Israel’s months-long blockade pushing the Gaza Strip closer to famine. The chief prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, said he would be on leave pending an investigation into sexual assault allegations against him is complete, which could affect the potential Gaza genocide case. In a sign of warming ties between Syria and the US, Marco Rubio met with the new Syrian foreign minister.

Over the weekend, Israel launched the “opening moves” of Operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” aimed at seizing “controlled areas in the Gaza Strip.” Since Friday, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousands have been ordered to flee. Things are so bad that an Israel-backed food aid group admitted it won’t be able to reach the most vulnerable people in Gaza. As Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu was sidelined by Trump during his Middle East visit, NBC News reported that Trump officials are seriously working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, another conflict hotspot. With particularly intense Israeli airstrikes killing 125 Palestinians in a single day, all public hospitals in northern Gaza were declared “out of service.” Hours after the IDF announced it had begun "extensive ground operations" in northern and southern Gaza, Israel said it would ease its blockade and let limited amounts of food as the Gaza Strip teeters on the brink of famine.

The Trump Show: Series 2 - Hey, Look At That Old President! (The Former One Who’s Not In Charge Anymore)

Given the state of American politics, legacy media brands were doggedly releasing juicy details about the last president and his mental decline (Because the current 78-year-old president is sane and well, I guess…). Written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, the new book Original Sin claimed Biden’s decision to run again despite evidence of his “serious decline” had “led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting.” According to excerpts reported by the press, Biden aides discussed whether to use a wheelchair if he were re-elected, while former senior advisor David Plouffe said Biden “totally fucked us” by staying in the race for too long and tanked any chances of Harris from winning. Another revelation came from an excerpt released in the New Yorker, when the then-president did not recognize George Clooney in a fundraiser gala, who later wrote an op-ed urging Biden to drop out. This account was disputed by people who were in the scene, and figures from former DNC chair Jamie Harrison to Biden’s then-National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have disputed details from the excerpts that connect to them. Taking on a victory lap of schadenfreude, former Biden advisor and Biden critic David Axelrod said the allegations of Biden’s mental decline were “Troubling,” telling an NPR reporter that the details were "somewhat stunning." Another troubling bit of news hit Tapper and Thompson, as the Daily Beast reported that the authors have hired a crisis PR expert as they begin releasing the new revelations. Outside of the book frenzy, former Biden-era Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg admitted Biden had “maybe” hurt Democrats by running for re-election, saying “with the benefit of hindsight, I think most people would agree that that’s the case.” As the Trump administration gets close to releasing the interview between Biden and Special Counsel Robert Hur, a report by Axios’s Marc Caputo and Alex Thompson suggested the recordings appear to validate Hur's assertion that jurors in a trial likely would have viewed Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." The excerpts showed the former president making pauses and halting replies to Hur’s questions, though some have pointed out the response was to a question about the death of Beau Biden in 2015. After Axios released the full audio of Biden and Hur’s interviews, Newsweek magazine pointed out, “Biden remained largely engaged throughout the interview, and some of the pauses occur at deeply emotional moments while he is speaking, particularly when discussing Beau's death.” In the realm of public opinion, MAGA supporters have lambasted Tapper for covering up Biden’s alleged decline and conducting revisionist history, while defenders from the Democrats and the pro-democracy realm have criticized legacy media for overhyping their coverage and hawking the book as if it were an infomercial. Then on Sunday, Biden’s spokesperson announced on Sunday that the former president was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer. The statement said the cancer has “metastasized to the bone,” but it “appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”

And now, the rest of what happened in US politics…

Screeching right into the third rail of American politics, House Republicans proposed Medicaid spending cuts as they try to pass the “one, big, beautiful” spending bill, which would push forward with Trump’s agenda. It came as the president signed an executive order to cap prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices at the lowest cost offered to any other country, which, funny enough, was widely embraced by Republicans despite them calling the same plan “socialism” when the Democrats mulled similar proposals. Despite the DHS terminating the temporary protection status program for Afghans residing in America, the US welcomed the first Afrikaner refugees, white South Africans who ruled South Africa during apartheid. In other immigration news, the Trump regime began investigating California's aid to undocumented immigrants and requested the Supreme Court to allow them to continue deporting Venezuelan migrants. Meanwhile, progressive streamer and far-left pundit Hasan Piker said he was stopped by US Customs and Border Protection agents when he arrived at a Chicago airport, and was questioned about his opinions of Donald Trump and the war in Gaza. Within the Library of Congress, Trump installed a top DOJ official and Trump loyalist, Todd Blanche, to be Acting Librarian days after firing Carla Hayden. Concerning the brewing scandal and ethics violations of Trump receiving a luxury plane from Qatar, the president responded to critics on Monday by saying it would be “stupid” to reject the Qatari Air Force One gift. Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed it does not reach the level of corruption because Trump is not giving anything in return. Fun sidenote, Bondi worked as a lobbyist for Qatar before she took on the Attorney General job. It was so bad, even MAGA superstars have decried the Qatar “palace in the sky” gift acceptance, with Trump whisperer Laura Loomer tweeting, “I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him. But, I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million 'gift' from jihadists in suits.”

Republican politicians amped up their criticisms of Trump’s Qatari plane deal on Tuesday, with former Trump challenger Nikki Haley tweeting, “If this were Biden, we would be furious.” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer announced he was placing a hold on Trump’s DOJ nominees in a bid to pressure the White House to respond to the Qatari deal, calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before Congress to answer questions related to the gift. Writing for an op-ed in the NYT, GOP Senator Josh Hawley spoke out against the Medicaid cuts in the “big, beautiful bill,” calling it “politically suicidal.” In other headlines, the Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugin was indicted on charges that she helped an immigrant evade federal agents, RFK Jr boasted that he took a dip in a contaminated waterway with his grandkids, while a federal judge approved for the first time for Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies Act as a way of deporting Venezuelans.

On Wednesday, the Democrats had a surprising win in Omaha, Nebraska. Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing Jr. became the city’s first Black mayor, ousting the incumbent Republican Mayor Jean Stothert, who had been in power since 2013. There was a lot of news concerning immigration, starting with the good news that a federal judge has ordered the release of Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri, who was alleged by the Trump regime as a threat to foreign policy interests. In other immigrant cases, lawyers working for Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan sought to dismiss the federal charges against her, while the US charged Russian scientist Kseniia Petrova with criminal smuggling charges because she failed to declare lab mice while traveling to the country. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Democratic lawmakers who visited an ICE facility in New Jersey committed “felonies,” and suggested that current conditions could justify the suspension of habeas corpus and due process. Meanwhile, acting ICE director Todd Lyons acknowledged 9 detainee deaths in their custody but disputed claims of overspending. Regarding health, the EPA weakened rules curbing “forever chemicals” in drinking water, while drug overdose deaths fell 27% last year, but were still higher than pre-pandemic levels. Oh, and RFK Jr told Congress, “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired the leaders of the top two officials at the National Intelligence Council, who wrote the Venezuela assessment that contradicted Trump’s rationale for invoking the Alien Enemies Act weeks ago. With NOAA being severely impacted by DOGE’s assault on public institutions, it is offering to pay weather forecasters to fill its critically understaffed teams as hurricane season looms. As the Group of 20 conference is set to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, this November, Trump has banned agencies from all work on the G-20 in South Africa following public threats to boycott the summit over the country’s “Land Confiscation” law.

Inside the Supreme Court, although Trump’s birthright citizenship ban was met with a frosty reception by the justices, the Court was divided on scaling back court orders blocking the move. A federal judge dismissed charges against nearly 100 migrants who were detained for trespassing on a newly declared “national defense” zone along New Mexico’s border, which comes as the Pentagon has increased its military build-up along the US-Mexico border in recent months. Former U.S. Attorney in D.C. nominee Ed Martin wrote in an all-office goodbye email that he is facing an ethics review, while the Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan pleaded not guilty to charges of impeding immigration agents. In the latest round of government retaliation news, the administration fired hundreds of VOA employees, former FBI head James Comey was investigated over a seashell social media post that Trump supporters and officials claim amounted to a call for Mr. Trump’s assassination, employees of the Kennedy Center announced plans to unionize after Trump’s radical makeover of the institution, the FBI dismantled its elite public corruption squad, and Trump’s planned June military parade could cost taxpayers $45 million.

GOP hardliners in the House Budget Committee delivered a stinging rebuke to Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, blocking Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that included drastic tax and immigration measures that would define his presidency. In the worst Hunger Games remake ever, Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has been working with the producer of “Duck Dynasty” to pitch a reality TV show, which involves immigrant contestants competing to get fast-track citizenship. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court extended its block on using the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, arguing the Trump regime must give Venezuelans more time to challenge their deportations. On Truth Social, Trump suggested James Comey’s “86 47” seashell tweet is an “assassination threat” (Right before Secret Service agents went to question Comey about the post), while joking how Taylor Swift is not “HOT” anymore after his September tweet directing his hate at the successful singer. Outside the Department of Agriculture building, an enormous and brooding picture of Trump hanging from the USDA office gave serious dictator vibes, with social media users describing it as having an “North Korean aesthetic” and giving off “Saddam Hussein vibes.”

Over the weekend, ramping up their efforts to jail political opponents, the DOJ is considering prosecuting lawmakers without approval from lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. A massive explosion from a bomb has destroyed American Reproductive Centers, an IVF and fertility center in Palm Springs, California. It killed one person, as the FBI says the blast is an “intentional act of terrorism.”

Voterama 2025 - Proxy Family Fight In The Philippines

Monday was a big day for Filipino voters as they headed to the voting booths for the general election, which also marks a midterm election for the current president, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. Voters get to select the House of Representatives, half of the Senate and thousands of city and municipal council seats. It comes as the country’s economy is experiencing weak growth, with rising inflation, and a two-year slump in per capita income expansion has led to low consumption rates. Looking abroad, Trump’s trade war and his stringent immigration policies have also affected Filipinos from interacting with the United States. Ahead of the election, Marcos has repeatedly touted his administration’s success in leading the Philippines to become one of the fastest economic expansions in the region, and vowed to defend Philippine territory amid rising territorial tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea. However, the election was overshadowed by a family feud between the president and the vice president. In 2022, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was elected alongside Sara Duterte, and both figures have significant family baggage. On Bongbong’s side, his father, Ferdinand Marcos, was a notorious dictator who ruled the Philippines with an iron fist under martial law and was toppled from power following a popular mass uprising. Guinness World Records awarded both Ferdinand and his wife, Imelda, with the title of largest-ever state robbery from a government. During the 2022 election cycle, Bongbong Marcos dodged questions and demands to apologize for his parents’ actions between 1965 to 1986. On Sara’s side, her father, Rodrigo Duterte, was infamous for launching a brutal and bloody war on drugs that involved rampant extrajudicial killings and falsified police reports to justify the mysterious deaths of alleged drug users, all of this leading to his arrest in March by a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. During the 2022 election campaign, Bongbong and Sara formed an unlikely alliance to win a landslide election mandate, built on a platform of misinformation and populist appeal, but that partnership quickly deteriorated. In February, Sara Duterte was impeached by the lower house of Congress for plotting to kill Marcos and the first lady after she publicly claimed she had hired an assassin to do so, misusing millions of public funds, violating the constitution, and “other high crimes.” Although Sara Duterte isn’t on the ballot, her political future is very much at stake in the Monday election. Even though Sara claims it is a political vendetta, the impeachment now heads to the Senate, with 12 Senators being voted in on Monday. If two-thirds of the Senate finds Duterte guilty, she would be removed from office and banned from running in future elections. This would seriously impact Sara Duterte’s political survival and her chances of running for president in 2028, in which she is a frontrunner according to the polls. Meanwhile, despite being currently locked up in the Netherlands under charges of crimes against humanity, Rodrigo Duterte’s absence did not stop his campaign to become mayor of Davao, a city where he was mayor, on and off, for two decades. After the polls closed on Monday, initial results show a surprise backing for the Duterte family and weak performances by candidates backed by President Marcos. In Davos City, Rodrigo Duterte has been elected as the Mayor even though he is accused of crimes against humanity. One of Duterte’s sons is expected to fill in while the patriarch is under trial. His two most loyal aides, long-time assistant Christopher "Bong" Go and Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, both deeply involved in the brutal drug war, were re-elected to the Senate among other close allies of the Duterte family. According to Al Jazeera, candidates backed by Marcos are on course to win 6 out of the 12 seats in the Senate. Even though the official results won’t be official until next week, so candidates can contest the results, what was certain was that Sara Duterte’s fate is far from certain, as she won this round in the growing political family feud against Marcos.

In Europe, two elections were underway on Sunday. First of all, Portuguese voters headed to the polls for the third time in barely three years, after the ruling coalition lost a vote of confidence in March this year. It came as the Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, was embroiled in a conflict of interest scandal that eventually tanked his government. According to the opinion polls, the governing centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) maintains a lead but falls short of a majority in parliament. With voters dabbling with choosing between political stability and continued fragmentation, it provides breathing room for the hard-right Chega (Enough) party to swoop in and influence local politics. By the time the polls were closed, the incumbent Democratic Alliance won the country’s third snap general election in three years despite again falling short of a majority. Meanwhile, the underperforming Socialist Party was vying for second place with the hard-right Chega party, the latter party has seen a dramatic increase in support since the past election.

Secondly, the second round of voting in Romania was surprising as voters deterred a far-right populist from getting power. Leading the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), the MAGA-styled populist George Simion was widely seen as pro-Russian and firmly eurosceptic. Simion came in first place in a re-run election following the nullification of last year’s first round of voting, and he is competing against the centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan, who was widely seen as unlikely to win the election. Fearing a possible Simion’s win, observers fear an isolated Romania could destabilise NATO's eastern flank amid a three-year war in Ukraine. According to preliminary results, after a large turnout rate by the Romanian electorate, Dan achieved a remarkable upset by winning the election with 54% of the vote.

Following up on last week’s Albanian election, hours after the polls ended, not a single Albanian news channel released its exit polls. Political analyst Lutfi Dervishi told Politico, “Exit polls were not published even by news channels that announced that they would have their polls on the night of the election. There is no clear answer as to why this happened.” By Monday, partial results show Prime Minister Edi Rama and his Socialist Party are leading the vote, winning 53% of the vote with 30% of ballots counted, and far ahead of the opposition Democratic Party. By the time the votes were counted, the Socialist Party won 52 percent of the vote, handing Rama an official and unprecedented fourth term in office.

Because I’m Too Busy For Memeing: Some Other Important News From The Rest Of The World

Dateline Hong Kong, China:

In a move to strengthen the city’s domestic security law, Hong Kong’s Security Bureau and the Department of Justice submitted a paper to the legislature (Legislative Council, or LegCo) on Monday. The paper proposed subsidiary legislation to Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s homegrown national security legislation, to offer better support for Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong, including declaring its premises as a “prohibited place.” Among the suggestions listed in the paper is one relating to Article 55 of the National Security Law (Imposed by the central government in Beijing in 2020), which states Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong can “exercise jurisdiction” over cases under the legislation. Local media refer to it as the “extradition to China” article as it deals with “complex” cases related to foreign nations, and the suggestions want the government to “establish a mechanism at the local law level” for Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong to “effectively” perform the duties of Article 55, including requirements for government departments and agencies to provide “necessary and reasonable assistance.”

On Tuesday, the government fast-tracked the approval of these changes, with the new regulations taking effect immediately. Citing “potential unforeseen circumstances amid escalating geopolitical tensions,” the legislation was gazetted and signed by Acting Chief Executive Eric Chan Kwok-ki, given that the Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was in Kuwait for a business trip. As the new rules took effect, Hong Kong declared six sites occupied by Beijing’s national security office as “prohibited places,” including four hotels across the city and the office’s future permanent sites that are still under construction. The government has insisted that the move would “not cause any unreasonable impact on the surrounding community,” and the possibility of residents unwittingly entering such sites would be minimal.

By Thursday, LegCo formed a subcommittee to oversee two new pieces of subsidiary legislation under Article 23, appointing the same lawmakers who oversaw its passage in 2024. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Free Press reported that police have already stopped journalists from taking photos and videos of “prohibited places” linked to national security offices across the city, including the construction sites in Tai Kok Tsui. According to the SCMP over the weekend, Beijing had planned this “for months,” telling the city’s government to fast-track the passage of the subsidiary legislation by the end of the week, citing the easing of trade tensions between China and the US.

Dateline Ankara, Türkiye:

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced it plans to disband and disarm. It brings an end to a long-running conflict between the Kurdish armed group and the Turkish government, as part of a new peace initiative with Ankara designed to end four decades of violence. This comes after news from February by the jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, to lay down arms, followed by a party congress in northern Iraq that ended on Friday, which they claimed had reached “historic” decisions.