• Reuters

    China expected to stand pat on lending rates in May

    China is widely expected to hold benchmark lending rates steady on Monday, a Reuters survey showed, although expectations are growing for a cut in the mortgage reference rate as the authorities scramble to boost housing. The loan prime rate (LPR), normally charged to banks' best clients, is calculated each month after 20 designated commercial banks submit proposed rates to the People's Bank of China. Among the other six respondents, four predicted a steady one-year LPR but a five- to 20-basis-point reduction to the five-year tenor, while the remaining two projected similar cuts to both rates.

  • Associated Press

    US military says first aid shipment has been driven across a newly built US pier into the Gaza Strip

    Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built U.S. floating pier into the besieged enclave for the first time Friday as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hinder food and other supplies reaching people there. The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day entering the Gaza Strip as Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah as its 7-month offensive against Hamas rages on. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered Gaza on an average day.

  • The Guardian

    Everyone’s Getting Involved review – tepid all-star Talking Heads tribute

    Cult film company A24’s tie-in merch to the seminal documentary Stop Making Sense sounds either like karaoke or is wildly disconnected from the source material