On Thursday, Donald Trump will walk into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, shake Xi Jinping's hand, and declare it a great meeting. There will be announcements. There will be numbers — billions of dollars in Chinese purchase commitments, a new bilateral mechanism with an important-sounding name, possibly a joint statement on Iran. Trump will post on Truth Social. Markets will rally briefly. Pundits will argue about who won. None of that will tell you what actually happened. What is actually happening in Beijing this week is something more consequential and more uncomfortable than the summit theatre will reveal: two leaders of two deeply mutually dependent superpowers, both of whom need this meeting to succeed for entirely different reasons, sitting across a table in a world that has already moved past the assumptions that defined their last nine months of negotiations. The Iran war changed the equations. The rare earth gambit changed the power balance. Taiwan is sitting in...
Twitter has recently changed its verification system, requiring users to pay a monthly fee of $8 to subscribe to its 'Twitter Blue' service if they want to keep or get their blue tick badges. This decision has sparked controversy and backlash from many users, especially celebrities who have lost their verified status. One of them is American actor Charlie Sheen, who is known for his roles in films such as Platoon, Wall Street, and The Three Musketeers, and TV shows such as Spin City and Two and a Half Men. Sheen has been vocal about his displeasure with the new policy, and has repeatedly asked Twitter CEO Elon Musk to restore his blue check. On Saturday, Sheen tweeted a sarcastic message to Musk, saying "I'm sorry your fancy rocket exploded in spectacular fashion. I'm certain you'll build an even bigger and more explody one. Now, may I please have my blue check back? It would mean a lot to me. Thank you in advance." dear @elonmusk i’m sorry your fan...