Now it's Britain's turn to suffer. Supermarkets here are rationing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuces as UK farmers struggle with higher energy costs which stop them using hothouses in winter to grow them. Soft fruit, including raspberries, are also hard to find in the shops.

Tony Montalbano, a director of Green Acre Salads in Roydon, Essex, typically produces a million kilograms of baby cucumbers a year, but his glasshouses were empty last month. He delayed growing his crops to avoid rocketing winter fuel bills of up to £500,000 a month. He expects his production to be cut by up to half this year.

'It's sad and frustrating but I can't afford to grow,' he said. 'I must make a profit. If I don't, there's no point in me going on. Lots of growers are closing their doors and selling up.' Jack Ward, chief executive of the British Growers Association, added: 'Up and down the country, we've got empty glasshouses. People who would grow two or three crops of cucumbers a year may cut that to just one, because they want to avoid using more expensive energy.'

Eggs are also being rationed as farmers cannot afford the costs of keeping laying hens warm in energy-guzzling sheds. All this, of course, makes you wonder who is winning the economic war. From Perm, John told us: 'I have seen with my own eyes that sanctions are not hurting Russia. People on the street hardly notice anything. The shops are full of everything they want or need.

The National Communications Commission (NCC), citing the island's telecom service, blamed two Chinese ships for cutting the cables. It said a Chinese fishing vessel is suspected of severing the first cable some 50 kilometres (31 miles) out at sea. Six days later, on February 8, a Chinese cargo ship cut the second, NCC said.

Taiwan's government stopped short of calling it a deliberate act on the part of Beijing, and there was no direct evidence to show the Chinese ships were responsible.

In a statement on Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong – the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a senior figure in the ruling Workers’ Party – responded to a recent press report citing a high ranking US military official, who said the Pentagon would immediately intercept any long-range missile fired into the Pacific by the DPRK.

“If a military response such as an interception follows our strategic weapons test, which is conducted without any harm to the safety of neighboring countries in the high seas and airspace not under the jurisdiction of the United States, this will undoubtedly be regarded as a clear declaration of war,” she said in comments carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

But below that is a crack reaching across finance: Rising interest rates have left banks laden with low-interest bonds that can’t be sold in a hurry without losses. So if too many customers tap their deposits at once, it risks a vicious cycle.

Across the investing world, “people are asking who is the next one?” said Jens Nordvig, founder of market analytics and data intelligence companies Exante Data and Market Reader. “I am getting lots of questions about this from my clients.” Indeed, amid deposit withdrawals at SVB, its chief executive officer urged customers on Thursday to “stay calm.”

April Babcock, Austen’s mother, and Wendy Thomas, Matthew’s mother, have both become activists to raise awareness about illicit fentanyl. Babcock is the founder of Lost Voices of Fentanyl, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness on illicit fentanyl, and Thomas is the founder of Mathew’s Voice. Both told The Epoch Times that obtaining illicit fentanyl is as easy as ordering a pizza.

“I talk to all these moms [in Lost Voices of Fentanyl], and their kids go on social media and literally ordered drugs just like a pizza. It’s just like Uber Eats. Well, now it’s like Uber drugs,” Babcock said. “Some of these parents in the group literally saw the dealer on their Ring. They’d pull up into their driveway, and their kid would run out. I mean, these pills are cheap.”

Xi made a rare direct rebuke of Washington in his speech to China’s National People’s Conference, with additional remarks that did not appear in the English transcript of the event, NPR reported. “Western countries led by the US have implemented comprehensive containment, encirclement and suppression against us, bringing unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development,” he reportedly said, NPR reported.

Qin, who most recently served as China’s ambassador to the United States before being named Foreign Minister just weeks ago, elaborated further, saying, “If the United States does not hit the brakes, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation,” the outlet reported.

State of play: President Biden has repeatedly claimed that while the US seeks to compete with China it does not wish for conflict.

Qin threw cold water on the US position, claiming that the US "so-called competition" amounted to "total containment and suppression." "If the US side does not hit the brakes but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing or a crash and there will be conflict and confrontation," Qin said at the press conference.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby pushed back on Qin's assessment during a press briefing later Tuesday, saying that "nothing" about the administration's approach to US-China relations "should lead anybody to think that we want conflict."

"With all due respect to the Chinese foreign minister, there's no change to the United States' posture when it comes to this bilateral relationship," Kirby added.

Beijing has not condemned Russia's invasion and China's military, economic and political ties with Russia — one year after its invasion of Ukraine — continue to deepen, Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian reports. The US has previously said that Beijing was considering sending direct lethal military aid to Russia, but there had not been evidence that any had been sent.

The Chinese government's proposal takes a clear anti-Western position, calling for the end of Western-led sanctions, which Beijing has long opposed. But it also implicitly criticizes some of the Russian army's tactics, such as blocking grain exports from Ukraine and endangering nuclear plants.

Given Beijing's close relationship with Moscow and tense relationship with the West, it's hard to imagine that China's leaders would try to push any real concessions on Putin. That means Western leaders are likely to be skeptical of Beijing's efforts to broker a peace.

Beijing's actions on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine demonstrate the growing role China's leaders wish to play on the global stage, as its government seeks to take a leading role in one of the world's most high-profile current crises — and to bolster its own geopolitical interests by doing so. Chinese officials abstained again in a United Nations General Assembly vote on Thursday that demanded Putin's forces withdraw from Ukraine.

Beijing has not condemned Russia's invasion and appears to be largely following basic international conventions regarding the war. Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned Putin not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and there's no evidence that China has sent direct lethal military aid to Russia — though the US says Beijing is considering it.

China "was not directly concerned in the conflict, but was not standing idly by," Wang said at the Munich Security Conference last week, adding the peace plan would be based on “the sovereignty of all countries."

Western leaders appeared skeptical at this announcement, the Financial Times reported. “Who doesn’t want guns to stop firing? Except we have to be incredibly wary of the kind of traps that can be set,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the conference.

Europe hasn't entirely soured on China either, as trade ties between Europe and China remain strong. Beijing's attempt to drive a wedge between European countries and the US by encouraging Europe to exer cise an "independent" foreign policy toward both Russia and China has also made little headway.

Putin hailed it as a "significant event" for Russia's energy industry and the whole economy. He joined a video link to workers at the site, who were shown lined up on the snow in blue protective suits and white helmets, and gave the order "Start work!" to inaugurate the project.

Russia started selling natural gas to China at the end of 2019 via the Power of Siberia pipeline, which supplied about 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in 2021 and is due to reach its full capacity of 38 bcm in 2025. Russia is now Beijing's No 3 gas supplier.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise visit to China on Wednesday for talks with President Xi Jinping, which Medvedev said had included discussion of the "no limits" strategic partnership that the two countries announced in February.

China, Russia's top oil buyer, has not agreed to the price cap. Traders said they were doing business as usual. China's independent refiners, dominant clients of ESPO, a grade exported from the Russian Far East port of Kozmino, secure the shipments almost all on delivered basis from traders who arrange shipping and insurance, shielding the refiners from possible secondary sanctions that may result from the price cap.

With the price cap in place, China, India and Turkey could have more bargaining power, the analysts added. In Shandong, a province with many independent refiners, known as teapots, ESPO is also facing increasing competition particularly from Iranian oil, which traded at a discount of nearly $10 against ICE Brent last week.

Beijing has faced a growing wave of accusations from Western officials and media in recent weeks of potentially being open to supplying Russia with military aid – an allegation which it denies. China will “stay committed to an independent foreign policy of peace,” Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday, making no mention of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

China has repeatedly denied the accusations. Last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Washington was peddling “false information about weapons” and sanctioning Chinese firms “for no reason,” describing this as “hypocritical” and “a blatant act of bullying.” Washington is already fueling the fire in Ukraine by “pouring weapons into one side of the conflict, thus prolonging the fight and making peace elusive,” Mao added.

If the central banks are going to compete directly for retail accounts, it’s going to shrink the fees and business for a lot of banks. You are talking about cutting their income or putting them out of business. So, CBDC is highly controversial. The CBDC is the ultimate lockdown tool, and they can lock anyone down whenever they feel like it.”