Entertainment
Beijingers shrug off Trump tariff threat
Residents of China’s capital city expressed indifference and defiance on Saturday when asked by AFP about the latest threat by US President Donald Trump to impose blistering new tariffs on the country.
On Friday, Trump announced suddenly that the United States would slap additional 100% tariffs on all Chinese imports from November 1 “or sooner”, also calling into question an upcoming meeting with President Xi Jinping.
Chinese authorities have yet to publicly respond on the threat, which Trump said was in retaliation for Beijing’s new export control measures in the strategic rare-earth sector.
The ministries of foreign affairs and commerce did not comment when asked about it by AFP on Saturday.
“I felt nothing when I first saw the news,” said Liu Ming, a 48-year-old employee in a software company, outside a large Beijing shopping mall.
“Trump always has these childlike or capricious policies,” said Liu.
“China isn’t afraid of any US sanctions or policies aimed at limiting us. We have the confidence and ability to do better ourselves.”
‘Great commotion’
Like others interviewed by AFP on the streets of Beijing on Saturday, Liu sees Trump as fickle.
“From the perspective of a Chinese person, he is a bit unreliable,” he said.
“He always goes from this policy to that policy, causing great commotion in the world.
“It is not stable.”
Irene Wang, an insurance worker in her thirties, echoed the sentiment.
“He says one thing today, but maybe after a nap he’ll change his mind again,” joked Wang.
“At his age (79), he should be a little more composed!”
She believes the sky-high tariffs Trump is threatening could backfire.
“For Americans, it could have an impact,” she said, as tariffs on Chinese products could drive up prices in the United States.
As for the potential impact on people living in China, Wang acknowledged she couldn’t completely ignore the news.
“Honestly, it isn’t the first time, so we will have to wait and see how things play out.”
Hoping for ‘normal’
Some residents of the Chinese capital told AFP they expected only a moderate impact on their country’s economy if the trade war with Washington escalates again.
“The import-export sector, especially those businesses, will inevitably be affected to some extent,” said Jesicca Yu, 40.
But “for ordinary people in China, in the immediate future, I don’t think much will change in their daily lives,” she said.
Yu also bemoaned the tense relationship between Beijing and Washington.
“The more peaceful things are, the more economic development can take place,” she said.
“We hope things go back to normal.”
Lisa Liu, a colleague of Yu who is in her thirties, said she saw one good thing in Trump’s unpredictable approach to governing.
“He gives us a lot to talk about at the dinner table,” she said.
Scott Cooper, the director of the Bruce Springsteen biopic, just shared what the movie is about.
On Sunday, September 28, the 55-year-old American filmmaker and former actor attended the New York Film Festival premiere of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, where he chatted with PEOPLE magazine.
Cooper told the outlet that the forthcoming biopic, which stars Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, will “shed light” on the celebrated singer-songwriter and guitarist’s mental illness and the struggles he is facing.
He said, “This is probably his most painful chapter, most vulnerable chapter of his life.”
The director of Hostiles added, “He was just coming off of The River tour to great acclaim and success. Instead of chasing the roar of arenas and hit singles, he had the courage to look inward and face a lot of unresolved trauma that he had dealt with.”
Cooper went on to note that what came from this self-reflection “is — well, I think — his best album and one of the best albums of the last 50 years.”
He stated, “So to be able to tell that story and to shed light on Bruce’s mental illness, my hope is that folks who are struggling and don’t know how to get the help or the will to help will see that this is a very relatable story and will seek the help they need.”
The creator believes that seeing Springsteen “going into therapy will hopefully destigmatize” the negative notion attached to therapy, especially for men.
“We didn’t speak about it really because it isn’t a message movie about mental illness, but I think it’s a part of his creative process and when you see his creative process is about mining this unresolved trauma from his childhood that we all have in one form or another.”
“I think it’s a very relatable and powerful story, but it isn’t a message movie. There’s a lot of music in the film, but it just happens to be his record Nebraska and not Born in the USA,” Cooper remarked.
It is pertinent to mention that Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is scheduled to be released on October 24, 2025.
Justin Hawkins just admitted he never “intended to incite a feud” with Yungblud.
Yungblud was furious after The Darkness front man Justin blasted his MTV VMAs tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, saying: “Yungblud seems to have positioned himself as a natural heir to the Ozzy legacy, having nothing to do with the really important stuff.”
In a new video on his Justin Hawkins Rides Again YouTube channel titled Yungblud And The Cost of Having An Opinion, Justin said: “There’s nothing feudy about it, especially when it comes to my reactions to the VMAs performance.”
He could also be heard saying, “None of that was intended to incite a feud. I think that Yungblud is a very well-connected and, as such, dangerous artist. He’s an individual who is not the sort of bear you’d go round poking.”
“But I think that when there’s real-time pitch correction happening [referring to his criticism of Yungblud’s use of autotune] and stuff like that, and the other observations I made about the overall delivery of it… you’re talking about somebody that came from musical theatre via Disney and is now being lauded as the future of rock. And if they have real-time pitch correction and that kind of background, I think it’s OK to be a bit skeptical about it,” Justin expressed.
He continued, “I know that’s not a very popular opinion but from the reaction community if you can’t say something negative about something that leaves you only one opinion available to you and that’s not how life works. Everybody’s allowed to say whatever they want.”
“I’m not slagging him off because… I don’t even think I’m slagging it off actually. I think I’m making a point that if the future of rock requires real-time pitch correction in a live environment rock is pretty f**ked, isn’t it?” Justin Hawkins concluded.
This comes after Yungblud slammed the “bitter and jealous” Justin Hawkins during his appearance on Ozzy Osbourne’s son, Jack Osbourne’s Trying Not To Die podcast, where he said, “I think the strangest thing about that was all I was trying to do was my best for your old man, because he gave me such a gift.
“When people try and intellectualise a sense of spirit and six musicians on a stage going ‘f**king love you man’, it’s just bitter and jealous,” the Zombie hitmaker further said at that time.
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