Why young Russian women appear so eager to marry Chinese men

By Adam Roberts Digital editor The Economist. Before the heavy geopolitical stuff, let me alert you to a strange phenomenon in China, of young Russian women who appear so eager to marry Chinese men. As our article explains, not all is at it first seems.What sort of renewed offensive has Russia launched against Ukraine in recent days? Russian forces have been making progress, seizing land to the north of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv. It does not appear—at least not yet—that Kharkiv itself is threatened. Perhaps Russia’s army has fairly limited ambitions. It may want to seize territory on the Ukrainian side of the border, creating a buffer zone to make it harder for Ukraine to strike inside Russia. Or, of much greater concern, this may be the start of a much bigger and undoubtedly bloodier attack–the Russian summer offensive. One of my colleagues recently interviewed the head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavliuk, who says the critical phase of the Russia-Ukraine war will come in the next two months. Still on the theme of Russia, our defence editor has just written a fascinating account of an apparent upsurge across Europe of what Russia euphemistically calls “active measures”, and most of us would call “sabotage”. It is stepping up a “covert war”, heightening fears that it might one day become open conflict. In New York we have had a reporter in the court room for every day of the trial of Donald Trump. We have just published his latest assessment of progress in the prosecution. I’d also recommend our look at the Trump trial through the lens of film versions of court-room dramas. As our Back Story culture columnist observes: “As film-makers have always grasped, a courtroom is inherently theatrical. It brings adversaries into uncomfortable proximity.” In the past week it was the former president and Stormy Daniels, a former porn star. Soon the court will hear the most consequential testimony, from Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former lawyer. You may have been paying attention to many of the big elections under way around the planet this year. But how about the one that looms in South Africa? My first position as a foreign correspondent, over two decades ago, was in that country. I still treasure interviews I had with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu as among the highlights of my career. It is now three decades since the election of Mr Mandela as the first black president, presiding over a government led by the African National Congress. We recently marked that occasion with a detailed look at the state of South Africa today. And if you want to keep tabs on the election, check out our new election poll tracker for South Africa. (You can see our other poll trackers, for America, Britain and beyond, at economist.com/polls.) The latest edition of our weekly history quiz, Dateline, is live. Let me know how you get on with it. (And remember you can play all the previous editions from the past ten weeks or so, too.) No, it’s not about marriages. Instead it’s on the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, as the two men are due to meet soon in Beijing. Where do you expect the relationship between the two countries to go next?