Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s rare visit to North Korea continues this Tuesday. The two-day state visit – his first overseas trip this year – aims to boost ties and consolidate trust between China and North Korea, as the China Daily and Global Times both report. It’s Xi’s first trip to North Korea in seven years. It’s believed that Kim Jong Un was expected to press Xi for a greater acceptance of his nuclear programme – but the Chinese press made no mention of this. As The New York Times notes, this visit also serves to remind North Korea’s Kim that China is his “most important benefactor, economic partner and bulwark against the US”.

The visit also indicates Xi’s desire to balance influence from Russia, which signed a mutual defence pact with North Korea two years ago. The pact has helped revive North Korea’s economy. However, The New York Timesnotes that the revival actually began during the pandemic six years ago. During the lockdown, Kim shut down the border with China to prevent citizens from fleeing and clamped down on trade and smuggling. This forced North Koreans to produce more goods domestically. He strengthened his monopoly over the country through brutal enforcement and has steadily expanded his nuclear arsenal. The big boon for him was the war in Ukraine: Kim has supplied troops and weapons to Russia. Moscow, in turn, has helped modernise Pyongyang’s military, thus bringing it out of economic isolation.

In the UK, David Sullivan, the former co-chair of West Ham football club, is facing accusations of sexual coercion. In a two-year investigation led by The Times and BBC’s Panaroma programme, several women accused Sullivan of using his power to pressure aspiring models into sex. The accusations date back to the 1980s. Sulllivan is known as a porn baron, having made his fortune in the adult entertainment industry. That past is also now coming under scrutiny. The Guardian reminds us that he led the Sunday Sport, a sports tabloid that “occupied the seediest corner of Fleet Street”. In 1987, the paper “plumbed the depths of journalistic ethics”, with a countdown to the 16th birthday of a schoolgirl – so she could legally pose topless on the paper. Sullivan denies the allegations against him.

We stay in the UK for our last story. He is a newly knighted Sir Idris Elba but he will most likely not be Bond, James Bond! Elba’s name has come up a lot as possibly the next actor to play Bond, but he has all but poured cold water on that speculation. He recently told British GQ that the rumours of him playing Bond are “just a rumour”. Elba added that a Black James Bond is not realistic because some markets are just not ready for such a change. He also offered this advice for the next Bond films: don’t make it woke! He says that Bond has always been about escapism and trying to make it political will take away that aspect of the beloved franchise.

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