The US has set a November deadline for sanctions against buyers of Iran oil, and North Korea has resumed nuclear activity.
China is trying to prevent actors from engaging in ‘money worship’
Chinese authorities are capping the pay of actors in Chinese films and TV programmes at 40 per cent of total production costs, reports the BBC.
Authorities say the move is part of a crackdown on tax evasion and “money worship” in the industry. A joint statement from five governmental agencies — including the propaganda department and the ministry of culture of tourism — said the problem of tax evasion had led to “the youth blindly chasing celebrities” and “distorted social values”.
Lead actors can now no longer be paid more than 70 per cent of total cast pay. A celebrity tax evasion scandal took place in China earlier this month, when a TV presenter, Cui Yongyuan, implied that one of the country’s most famous actresses, Fan Bingbing, was holding back on paying taxes.
The US is trying to get the world to stop buying oil from Iran, and India listened
The United States of America will be imposing sanctions against all countries that import Iranian oil after 4 November, reports The New York Times.
The decision is suprisingly tough, and the policy “shook financial markets that had become accustomed to waivers for American sanctions that in years past had been granted to companies in countries like India and China as long as they showed steady reductions in their imports of Iranian oil”, the report adds.
Owing to the pressure, India’s oil ministry has asked refiners to be prepared for a “drastic reduction or zero” imports of oil from Iran from November, Reuters reports, making it the first country to respond to the US’ push to cut trade ties with Iran.
Buzz Aldrin and his children are in a legal battle
Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, is suing his children, reports The Washington Post.
His son and daughter, Andy and Jan Aldrin, sought a court order to install themselves as his guardians and oversee his finances, owing to his age, which they claim has led to “increased confusion and memory loss”.
In response, the 88-year-old astronaut is suing them — and his business manager — for implying that he is mentally unstable, and claims that they are trying to take advantage of him.
“Like many intergenerational feuds involving elderly parents, this one centres on the delicate questions of how best to care for the elderly, when others should step in and who should make those decisions,” The Washington Post adds.
North Korea has already resumed nuclear activity
“New satellite images show North Korea has made rapid improvements to the infrastructure at its Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center,” reports CNN.
The images, captured on 21 June, show that several support facilities have been constructed, and modifications made to the site’s plutonium production reactor. The photographs were taken nine days after the summit between North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.
The research centre is a facility used to produce weapons-grade fissile material, according to 38 North, a prominent North Korea monitoring group.
Trump and Putin will meet for first independent summit in Finland
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have their first independent summit on 16 July in Helsinki, Finland. Reuters points out that Helsinki is a famed venue for ‘Cold War diplomacy’, making the meeting symbolic.
The Kremlin and the White House announced the time and place of the summit simultaneously. The meeting will take place after the 11-12 July NATO summit.
They are expected to discuss a “range of national security issues”, according to a statement from the White House.
Sri Lanka says Hambantota Port deal with China purely commercial
The Sri Lankan minister for Ports and shipping, Mahina Samarasinghe, said Thursday that the agreement with a Chinese firm to build Hambantota Port was purely commercial, and that the port was not being used for military purposes.
The Daily News reported that the “intelligence and strategic possibilities of the port’s location” were not part of the commercial transaction between the Chinese firm, China Merchant Port, and the Sri Lankan government.
The clarification was a follow-up to a New York Times article alleging that control over Hambantota Port gave China influence over strategic territory. China Merchant Port has a lease of 69.9 per cent over the port, and the Sri Lankan Ports Authority has the remaining 30.1 per cent.
“Two Sri Lankan companies registered under the Companies Act will run the operations. And the Chinese will only be handling the commercial operations,” the minister said.
A new Cold War could be taking shape, between the US and China
“The US-China economic relationship is complex and inter-dependent,” writes international security expert Robert A. Manning in an opinion piece for the Global Times.
As tensions over trade have mounted, both countries have been showing disdain for each other’s views. “Polls show a growing majority of Americans see China as either an adversary or a problem. Chinese public opinion is similarly divided in its views of the US,” he adds.
Manning predicts that US-China relations will get worse before they can get better. “I suspect mutual economic pain will reach a tipping point that leads back to a negotiated resolution. On geopolitical issues, some crisis leading to clashes in South or East China Sea might spark a rethink of the strategic dimension of Sino-US ties.”
“But for the foreseeable future, the state of Sino-US relations appears somewhere between instability and a new Cold War — a volatile relationship lurching from one speed bump to the next awaiting a denouement,” he writes.
The Chinese tourism market is showing increasing growth
The Chinese mainland saw inbound and outbound tourists reach 139 million and 131 million in 2017, up by 0.8 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively on Wednesday, reports Xinhua.
A report by China Tourism Academy (CTA), a think tank under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that outbound tourists spent $115.29 billion on their trips, which is up by 5 percent year on year.
China’s outbound tourism market is estimated to increase by 5 percent annually on average in the coming years.