Fantasy and science fiction currently make up a disproportionate amount of the world's biggest mainstream films and TV shows, from Game of Thrones to The Avengers: Endgame. And while most can trace their inspirations back to legendarily geeky sources, like Lord of the Rings and Marvel Comics respectively, their popularity has also led to something of a revival for the king of all nerdy past-times.

Dungeons & Dragons has never gone away but it now has more global players than ever, spurred not only by the general fantasy renaissance but also its explicit inclusion in shows like Community and — most recently — Stranger Things.

As a storytelling game, D&D has long appealed to writers and creators, and so has often inspired or appeared in film, TVs and music. Yet the growth the game is currently seeing is unmatched, even compared to its '80s heyday, according to Dungeons & Dragons creative director Mike Mearls.

"I think what might be different this time is that we're really seeing D&D break into more mainstream culture. We're getting more people now who 10, 20, 30 years ago we would not have thought of as gamers, people who were sort of outside that sphere of geekdom," Mearls says.

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"As geek culture is becoming demystified by the internet, you have so many people who grew up loving comics, loving science fiction and fantasy, and they're now the ones crafting mainstream entertainment, and they're bringing that stuff and placing it in the mainstream. We're seeing a lot of people now who [in the past] would never have been exposed to D&D."

And it's not just retro-inspired TV shows like Riverdale bringing the game to new audiences through their screens. D&D's personality-driven and performative aspects have seen it become a hit on live-streaming services like Twitch, where viewers have watched for a combined total of more than 1.5 billion minutes.

There are of course also countless video games inspired by D&D, but the reason they haven't supplanted the original comes down to the social dynamics of the tabletop game. The ability for players to create the experience and set the pace and rules even as they play through is D&D's defining feature, and the reason it's such a natural way to frame stories about groups of friends on a fantastical adventure, like Stranger Things.

And it seems that inspiration goes both ways, with Wizards of the Coast (the Hasbro-owned creative force behind Dungeons & Dragons) recently announcing a D&D starter kit themed after the Netflix show. The set gives players access to an original adventure designed to resemble the one played by Stranger Things' main characters, and although it offers something new for seasoned adventurers Mearls says it's also specifically targeted at those who may be interested in discovering the game after watching the show.

"One of the design directives was to make a single adventure you could play in a couple hours, that would give you a nice broad, diverse array of the different set of challenges that you might encounter in a game of Dungeons & Dragons," he says, adding that the door is open for further adventures and campaigns that draw on pop culture.

"I like to say that every generation gets the Dungeons & Dragons that they need. The game has to evolve, we can't get too focused on what we did in the past. And I think part of that is finding more ways to appeal to a larger and larger audience."

The integration of a $7.3 billion new metro line into Sydney's broader rail network passed its first test on Monday despite a greater number of commuters than expected riding on the driverless trains.

A day after about 140,000 people hopped on board for the first time, attention turned to how the system would handle high commuter volumes during the morning peak, especially at pinch points such as Chatswood and Epping stations.

About 21,000 people travelled on the Metro Northwest line between 4.45am and 10am on Monday, which was higher than government expectations of up to 17,000 passengers.

Half of the commuters using the 36-kilometre line from Rouse Hill to Chatswood on Monday morning travelled to destinations along the north-west corridor, instead of switching to other services to get into central Sydney.

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Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the 21,000 people who had travelled on the metro trains on Monday morning had exceeded her expectations.

"People have confidence in the system and are using it," she said.

Figures show Chatswood had the highest number of people (9425) using their Opal cards to tap off between 4.45am and 10am, followed by Macquarie University (5875) and Epping (2368).

Platform crowding was greatest at Epping during the morning peak, partly because an escalator funnels passengers to the centre of a platform.

Some commuters have been startled by metro trains slightly overshooting station platforms, and then reversing to line up carriage doors with the and glass-screen platform doors.

But Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the trains were "doing exactly" what they should. "The train is designed to make sure the doors align," he said. "It's a matter of seconds [to line up the doors]. That is the same with every system around the world."

With an initial frequency of a train every five minutes during peak periods, the metro line can carry about 17,000 passengers an hour. The frequency during the morning and evening peaks will rise to four-minute intervals in about six weeks.

While each driverless metro train will initially have at least one staff member on board, Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Alex Claassens said he was concerned that the workers would be removed in the "very near future".

"We’ve long held real concerns about the Sydney Metro system," he said.

But Transport for NSW secretary Rodd Staples said the automated trains were built to operate successfully without a customer service attendant on board each train.

"While we bed the system down, we will have a customer attendant on board until we are comfortable," he said.

Asked when that was likely to be, he said: "We will wait and see."

Mr Staples said one of the lessons from the opening of the line on Sunday was that it took too long to remove a train from service after it suffered a door fault at Macquarie Park.

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"But once [the line] started moving, the power of the system became obvious because we added more trains quickly. When we had that fault with the doors at Macquarie Park, we had 12 trains on the system. We inserted another three to four trains to clear the waiting customers," he said.

Epping resident Julia Hood gave the thumbs up to the new metro services on her first ride on Monday morning, saying the driverless train she rode on to get to Chatswood was smooth, quick and easy. "Once it goes all the way to the city it will be better," she said.

Other commuters were equally impressed. Paul Nijjar caught a metro train for the first time from Bella Vista on Monday morning. "It was awesome. It’s up there with Japan now," he said.

Mr Nijjar said it used to take about an hour and 20 minutes to get to work at Rhodes, but the new line meant it should be less than an hour. "It’s a huge difference," he said.

Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins said Chatswood and Epping stations were busy during the morning peak but passengers switched between metro and Sydney Trains services relatively smoothly.

"We are really pleased with the service and the loadings on the trains," he said.

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Growing numbers of people are being diagnosed with cancer, but the good news is your chances of survival are getting significantly better, the latest Cancer Institute NSW report shows.

As our ageing population swells, so do absolute numbers of cancer diagnoses and deaths across the state, the Cancer Control in NSW report shows.

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This year, 47,526 people will be diagnosed with cancer in NSW and 15,501 will die from the illness.

But cancer mortality rates are falling with rising rates of early detection and better access to treatment.

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The cancer death rate is projected to drop from 148.7 per 100,000 this year to 144.2 per 100,000 in 2021, the report, released on Tuesday, said.

Survival rates were on the rise for all nine major cancer types included in the report.

"Prevention campaigns, cancer screening participation, access to services and new emerging therapies have all helped contribute to an overall reduction in mortality rates," said David Currow, chief cancer officer and chief executive of the Cancer Institute NSW.

"Tackling fatalism is crucial," Professor Currow said.

"The really important message is that if you are diagnosed in 2019 with cancer in NSW, you will get some of the best outcomes in the world and, if you're worried about it, please see your doctor."

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Following a federal election that underscored the inequity of cancer treatment in Australia, the report confirmed significant disparities in cancer incidence and survival depending on the type of cancer and where patients live.

Between 2010 and 2014, more than nine in 10 breast cancer patients (90.6 per cent) were alive five years after they were first diagnosed in NSW; the highest of any state and territory.

NSW also had the highest five-year survival rate for melanoma skin cancers at 93.9 per cent. For bowel cancer, it was more than 70 per cent.

Yet roughly four in five people with lung or liver cancer died within five years. For stomach cancer, it was two in three.

Pancreatic cancer had the highest death rate, with 12 per cent of patients living five years after being diagnosed with the notoriously aggressive and hard-to-detect disease. But this figure was a hard-fought improvement.

"I remember attending a national think tank in 2012 where the thought of getting into double-digit survival [for pancreatic cancer] seemed a faint hope," Professor Currow said.

"We need to keep this in perspective, these are people's lives we are talking about … but we are seeing a real and sustained shift," he said.

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But there was much more work to be done to redress the "unwarranted variations" in diagnosis and survival rates between local health districts, Professor Currow said.

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Lung cancer death rates – intrinsically linked to disadvantage and smoking – were significantly higher than the state average in the local health districts of South Western Sydney and Western NSW and low in the more affluent districts of Northern and South Eastern Sydney.

Western NSW had the highest smoking rate in the state, more than 2.5 times the rate of Northern Sydney with the lowest rate of 9.5 per cent.

Northern and South Eastern Sydney had some of the highest rates of breast cancer, for which – at a population level – social advantage is a known risk factor.

The Central Coast, Mid North Coast and the Hunter New England districts had some of the highest skin cancer death rates, while Sydney, Northern, South Western and Western Sydney districts have some of the lowest in the state.

Meanwhile, bowel cancer rates were high in the Hunter New England, Central Coast and Mid North Coast and Murrumbidgee districts where the retirement population was booming.

The report also showed an uptick in people taking part in national screening programs.

Breast cancer screening participation ranged from 44.8 per cent in Far West NSW to 61.8 per cent in Hunter New England in 2016-2017.

Statewide, 55.9 per cent of women aged 20 to 69 had been screened for cervical cancer between July 2015 and June 2017, almost 63,000 more than were screened from 2010 to 2012.

NSW had the second-lowest participation rate for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program in Australia (after the Northern Territory) of 38.2 per cent, but it had risen from 31.8 per cent in 2012.

The report also showed the number of enrolments in cancer clinical trials across the state had more than doubled in just four years to 3924 patients. That's nine enrolments in clinical trials for every 100 people newly diagnosed with cancer.

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Sydneysiders will have their first water restrictions imposed in almost a decade to help stem a rapid decline in the city's reservoirs amid the state's ongoing drought.

The Berejiklian government decided to bring forward the level 1 curbs to June 1, or about two months earlier than would be triggered under the Metropolitan Water Plan.

The formal trigger for such restrictions is when dam levels hit 50 per cent. On Tuesday, they were at 53.5 per cent and losing 0.5 percentage points per week, according to WaterNSW.

Sydney Water have said the city's dams have fallen faster over the past two years than during the Millennium Drought, with inflows at levels not seen since the 1940s.

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The water restrictions will target outdoor water use, although the government is also planning to encourage the public to save water where possible.

Fines for breaches are expected to be $220 for individuals and $550 for companies – with a three-month grace period to allow people to adjust.  About 75 per cent of Sydney Water's output goes to residential users.

The first stage of water curbs will seek to mandate the so-called Water Wise Rules that have been voluntary to this point, according to the Metropolitan Water Plan. These include requiring all garden hoses to have a trigger nozzle or other attachment that permits an instant on-off use.

Lawns and gardens should also not be watered between 10am and 4pm to limit evaporation losses.

Sprinklers and watering systems will also not be permitted, except for drip-irrigation systems or automated watering systems with controllers that automatically limit usage based on soil moisture and weather conditions.

Residents will also not be allowed to hose hard surfaces like paths and driveways, except for health and safety reasons or in an emergency.

Residents can only wash vehicles, boats and buildings with a bucket, a hose fitted with a trigger nozzle or high-pressure cleaning equipment, and those seeking to fill a new or renovated pool will need a permit if it contains more than 10,000 litres of water.

Exclusions for level 1 restrictions include bore water use and where there is "no practical alternative".

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Other exclusions include households laying fresh turf with watering permitted for a week after installation. Professional gardeners – who often work through the day – will be able to apply for exemption permits.

The restrictions are coming into force even as the Sydney Desalination Plant ramps up towards full capacity. It was restarted last year after repairs following a tornado strike in 2015, and is producing about 850 million litres a week. a spokesman said on Saturday.

At full capacity, the plant will supply 250 million litres of drinking water daily, or about 15 per cent of Sydney's needs.

While not a direct proxy for the city's catchments, Sydney has been particularly dry for the past two months.

Observatory Hill has had no rain in its gauge since May 6 and may not get any until Saturday.

Rainfall since the start of April has been just 25.8mm, trailing only 1888 as the driest spell for those two months in Sydney in records going back to 1858, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The bureau’s winter outlook is for conditions that favour below-average rainfall across most eastern Australia, including in the region around Sydney.

Those seeking to be excluded from the water restrictions can phone Sydney Water on 13 20 92 or email [email protected].

More to come

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You've probably never heard of David Briggs. But you've very likely heard of Newspoll. That's the opinion poll that Malcolm Turnbull formalised as the benchmark of prime ministerial performance.

Remember? Tony Abbott had to go when he "lost" 30 in a row. Then, eventually, Turnbull himself had to go after he "lost" 38 of them.

Briggs is the man behind the poll. So that made him, in effect, the arbiter of whether Australia's leaders were seen to be succeeding or failing. He was the spokesman for the jury, as well as the judge, in the courtroom of Australian politics. All it took to finish the process was the executioners in the party caucuses to deliver the punishment.

But Briggs is much more than Newspoll, published by Rupert Murdoch's The Australian. He's also the man behind the YouGov Galaxy polls published by Murdoch's tabloid papers. And he's the man behind the exit poll conducted for Nine at the federal election.

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Beyond his polling for media outlets, Briggs this year was also the pollster for the Labor Party. Taken together, this made him by far the most influential and important pollster in the land, the narrator of the Australian political story.

He also got the election result wrong. And because he got it wrong, all his clients got it wrong. That included the Labor Party which, to the end, thought it was cruising to victory two weekends ago.

So when I phoned Briggs last week and asked him how he was doing, I wasn't surprised when he replied "shithouse". He made no attempt to gild the lily. "It's very sad," he said.

He was also as bewildered as everyone else as to how his polls had consistently pointed to a Labor win. "Our final poll of the 2016 election campaign was the most accurate there has ever been," he said, when measured against the actual result.

"We used exactly the same methodology for this election that we used in 2016. Since I started at Newspoll in 1985, there hasn't been this style of disaster. Australia has been well served." Till now. He had already begun a post-mortem examination of the Newspoll poll data.

Briggs points out this election had some unique features. Clive Palmer's $60 million ad campaign, for instance, which was more than double the sum spent by the two main parties combined. We might ask what effect that had, Briggs says, but "it still doesn't explain why we were overstating Labor's vote by 3 to 4 per cent."

How did one pollster reach such a position of dominance? Through the quality and consistency of his results. Other polling companies always cast a nervous eye at his results as they published their own. Clients went to Briggs because of his reputation.

The long-time Labor pollster John Utting was quick to ask whether Briggs was guilty of a conflict of interest. He pointed out that Briggs' company, Galaxy YouGov Research, presented itself as an "honest broker and dispassionate observer" while at the same time it was "intimately involved in Labor's campaign." This, said Utting, "beggars belief."

Briggs has two responses. First: "It's not a conflict of interest. All our clients want the same thing. They all want accurate information. We were doing our best for all our clients." And second, he discounts Utting as a fair-minded critic: "It's sour grapes from someone who lost the contract" as the quantitative pollster for Labor.

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But if this were only the story of the failure of Briggs' polling constellation, the problem would be easier to isolate. In fact, all the major published polls were wrong, and wrong in the same way.

The Essential poll published by The Guardian and the Ipsos poll published by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, consistently pointed to the same outcome – a Labor victory.

There were variations in the detail. For instance, the Ipsos finding of a very low Labor primary vote turned out to be exactly and uniquely right. But in the election-deciding measure, the two-party preferred share of the vote, all the pollsters indicated Labor would win with 51 or 52 per cent. In the event, it was the Coalition that won 51.6 per cent. Labor lost with 48.4 on the count so far.

This was an industry failure. Like Briggs, the Ipsos pollster, Jess Elgood, is baffled. "We treated and presented our data identically to the 2016 election," she says.

As for the reason for the clustering of the various polls around the same – wrong – conclusion, she points out that Ipsos has been unafraid to publish "outlier" results, even though it has been criticised for doing so. She has no explanation for the clustering in the final polls: "I think it's far too early to say." Ipsos, like all the others, is doing its own introspection.

All the pollsters could take shelter under the defence of margin of error. All polls are just estimates of a larger reality, and all are published with the note that they have margins of error of 2 to 3 per cent. But all the pollsters reject this as a cop-out. All recognise that they have a duty to do better.

"For me," says Elgood, "this is a lesson in caution." That should be the lesson for the country at large. The betting markets are often cited as a better indicator. They were spectacularly wrong-footed in this election too. The theory that punters are smarter than pollsters is now a dead letter.

But other indicators gave contrary signals. Ipsos conducted mid-campaign focus groups for this newspaper that pointed to a lack of appetite for change of government, and the main front-page news report began: "Uncommitted voters know about Labor's plans for new taxes but have heard almost nothing about the promised benefits, in a sign of potential trouble for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's election prospects."

Our reporters on the road, testing opinion the old-fashioned way, also reported the lack of appetite for change of government, the scepticism about Labor and Bill Shorten. Opinion polls conducted in individual key seats also proved to be more useful indicators than national averages, although polling a meaningful number is a big and expensive exercise. The political parties poll around 20 each to map their battles.

But because of our long conditioning to the pseudo-scientific infallibility of the opinion polls, the country allowed alternative data points to be pushed aside. The pollsters need to address their problems. And the rest of us need to recover our common sense.

Peter Hartcher is the political editor.

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A member of the Comancheros and four other men have been arrested in connection with the death of a man who was shot multiple times outside a home in Sydney's west.

Emergency services were called to Meridian Place at Doonside about 7.30pm on Monday after reports of a shooting.

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NSW Ambulance paramedics treated Craig Anderson, 51, who had suffered several gunshot wounds, but he died at the scene.

Investigators say that Mr Anderson, who was known to police, had been in a dispute with one of the men over something trivial.

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"The personal nature of this has been escalating for some time," Detective Superintendent Scott Cook told reporters on Tuesday.

"It's not clear what the dispute was over."

Police comforted several people at a house in Meridian Place on Monday who appeared highly distressed.

"Many" neighbours called police after hearing gunshots, Det Supt Cook said.

A crime scene was established, and officers from Blacktown Police Area Command and State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad commenced inquiries.

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An hour after the shooting, five men, aged 44, 29, 28, 27, and 22, were arrested after vehicle stops in the St Marys area, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

Police seized four cars and one firearm found in a vehicle.

The 44-year-old and 28-year-old man were taken to St Marys Police Station and the other three were taken to Penrith Police Station. They all continue to assist with inquiries. No charges have been laid.

"Murder is not acceptable in New South Wales," Det Supt Cook said.

"It's not tolerable. This is bad behaviour, not sophisticated organised crime."

How easy is it for anyone to become homeless?

To be an intelligent, kind, articulate person and one day find yourself sleeping on the streets?

Just ask Rachel, 37, who grew up in a middle class house in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs, and who now sleeps in parks at night.

‘‘I didn’t think that I would end up here at all,’’ she says. ‘‘It didn’t take much.’’

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It also happened to alleged murder victim Courtney Herron, who was from a loving family and went to the exclusive Genazzano College in Kew as a teenager and yet due to a complex set of circumstances, found herself homeless at age 25.

Ms Herron’s plight, and her death, her battered body found in Royal Park in the inner suburb of Parkville, on Saturday, did not surprise Rachel*.

‘‘It’s not uncommon that [homeless] people would get bashed ,’’ she said.

Rachel feels society is getting more violent ‘‘and we don’t understand what compassion is anymore’’.

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She says many of today’s homeless are women, although there is ‘‘a smidge more men’’.

But it is more dangerous for women.

In the past, Rachel spent many nights in Melbourne’s CBD but ‘‘you sleep with one eye open,’’ she says.

A drunk might throw water on you, and you can’t get warm or dry. A year ago, in a lane off Flinders Street, she was kicked and punched in an altercation. She says when you don’t sleep, the next day you’re so tired you look like you’re on drugs, and the police can move you on.

These days, Rachel spends only the days in the CBD, holding a sign that asks not for cash but for a job, be it mowing or dog walking.

‘‘I’m busting to go back to work. I have got a little bit of work from this sign. I did a lady’s ironing and a bit of gardening, odds and ends. But I’d do factory work or retail, or whatever.’’

At night Rachel retrieves her bedding from a railway locker and she and a male friend head out of the CBD. They take the train to Box Hill or Balwyn, where they sleep in a park, preferably in a rotunda, or under a tree; somewhere ‘‘as dry and as warm as I can get it to be’’.

Rachel wants us to challenge the stereotypes of the homeless. ‘‘A lot of us are here because it’s a crappy situation we’re in, and we’re trying to get out of it.’’

Fifteen years ago, Rachel’s mother became ill, suffering seven strokes. As a loving daughter, Rachel looked after her, for which she received a carer’s pension.

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When her mother died two years ago, age 60, Rachel did not have work experience to find a job. Without a job, she couldn’t afford rent. Within six months, she was evicted.

She now sees that ‘‘it really is a fine line, between having somewhere safe to call home, and being out here’’.

According to the Council to Homeless Persons, 24,817 people were homeless on census night 2016, and 10,432, or 42 per cent of those, were female.

CHP chief executive Jenny Smith said there are no one-bedroom rentals anywhere in Victoria that a single woman on Centrelink can afford.

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‘‘Even rooming houses and most share houses charge rents in excess of 50 per cent of people’s incomes,’’ Ms Smith said. ‘

‘‘So if you lose your job, or you have to move out of your rental, and you’re on a low income you can very quickly find that there is nowhere to turn.

‘‘You might couch surf for a while until you wear out your welcome, or stay in a rooming houses. But rooming houses are often dangerous and women are particularly vulnerable, so then they end up on the street.

‘‘That’s why we need the Victorian government to deliver at least 3,000 new units of social housing each year and the federal government to more than match that effort.’’

Last January, in response to a public outcry over the number of rough sleepers on Melbourne streets, the government released a plan to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

It included almost $20 million for outreach teams across Victoria that can approach rough sleepers directly to offer support. Another $9 million was spent on six teams of housing workers to support people once they move into social or public housing, and $13 million for 106 accommodation units and onsite support.

But while homelessness services welcomed these initiatives, safe and affordable housing is so limited that workers are often only able to refer people to motels and rooming houses. The social housing wait list is more than 80,000 people long.

A person with drug and alcohol issues, who is escaping family violence or has been repeatedly homeless can be placed on a ‘‘priority’’ list. But the average wait time for priority cases is currently 10 months.

*Not her real name.

Latrell Mitchell's "mad battle" with Will Chambers typified NSW's coming of age this time last year.

Mitchell, the game's hottest young talent, was just 20 years old when he made his Origin debut alongside 10 others rookies. Chambers, a player 10 years his senior, was the ultimate Queensland warrior.

When they met for the first time in the middle of the MCG, Mitchell did not take a backwards step.

Six weeks later, Mitchell had stamped himself as the game's best centre.

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He dominated Chambers at every turn and as NSW begin their preparations for next Wednesday's series opener, he told the Herald he intends to do the same again this year.

"If he’s on the right going up against me, that’s cool. It’s a mad battle. I love going up against Willy," Mitchell said. "He makes me a better player."

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Personal battles with his opposite number in the centres have driven Mitchell to lofty new heights in the 12 months since making his Origin debut.

He relishes the one-on-one nature playing in the centres provides, desperate to win the individual battle if it means his team will succeed.

Making the battles personal have occasionally pushed the hottest young talent in the game over the edge but more often than not, it brings out his very best football.

"If I’m opposite a centre, I want to dominate him," Mitchell said. "It’s about making sure that he knows if I’m on my game he needs to be on his game and vice versa. If they have a centre that is playing good, I want to make sure I’m on my game.

"I want to be defending well and then attacking them when I can. That’s why I like playing in the centres."

After a "long" 11 week stint to start the season, Mitchell arrives in NSW camp eager to leave the off-field distractions which have plagued his year to date at the door.

By his own admission, his form has been a touch patchy. Unstoppable one week, average the next.

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"It’s been a long 11 weeks of footy. Coming in here and taking things up another level, it’s going to be pretty good. I’m pretty keen," Mitchell said. "I’m in and out a bit, I think. I had a few average weeks at the start of the year and then I came into my own footy.

"But then I’ve gone back to square one a bit. I’m just trying to stay in the moment, that’s the key for me. Just enjoying it. Even though we have lost our last two, I have really enjoyed playing.

"I’ve had a lot of things going on. It’s been tough. But I really enjoy coming in here and enjoying that."

Mitchell admits there is something about the environment coach Brad Fittler creates which helps him thrive.

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Perhaps it is the no phone policy, a ploy to cultivate the bond held by all players involved.

"It’s really good to get away from that and get to know the boys," Mitchell said. "We leave them in our rooms. It’s a long walk [laughs] but it’s good. I like when Freddy gets the boys together and not having any phones is a really good thing."

Or perhaps it is simply the stage itself. Mitchell seems to save his best football for the matches where all eyes are on him. They were this time last year and they will be again next Wednesday.

"Last year we created something special," he said. "For the boys that have come in, they’re coming into an environment that’s pretty packed.

"We patched things up from the past and now we have to keep going now. We want to create more memories.

"I just want to go out there and play my footy and enjoy being in that arena again."

Islamabad: Rabia Kanwal's parents were sure her marriage to a wealthy Chinese Muslim she had just met would give her a comfortable future, far from the hardships of their lives in Pakistan. But she had a premonition.

"I was not excited," said Kanwal, 22, who lives in a poor neighbourhood in the city of Gujranwala, in the eastern province of Punjab. "I felt something bad was going to happen."

Arranged marriages are common in Pakistan, but this one was unusual. The groom, who said he was a rich poultry farmer, met Kanwal's family during a months-long stay on a tourist visa. He had to use a Chinese-Urdu translation app to communicate with them, but overall, he made a favourable impression.

Kanwal went through with the wedding. But upon moving to China with her new husband in February, she said, she was disappointed by what she found: He was a poor farmer, not a wealthy one. Far worse, he was not a Muslim. Within days, with the help of the Pakistani Embassy, she was back home and pursuing a divorce.

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Hers was a relatively happy ending, though. In recent weeks, Pakistan has been rocked by charges that at least 150 women were brought to China as brides under false pretences — not only lied to, but in some cases forced into prostitution. Others said they were made to work in bars and clubs, an unacceptable practice in Pakistan's conservative Muslim culture.

At the same time, Kanwal's story is not uncommon in China.

China has one of the most heavily skewed gender ratios in the world, with 106.3 men for every 100 women as of 2017, according to the World Bank. That tilt is a product of nearly three decades of strict enforcement of China's one-child policy and a preference for boys over girls — a combination that caused an untold number of forced abortions and female infanticides.

But the long-term human costs of this gender imbalance have only recently come into view — and they are having an impact far beyond China's borders.

As the boys of the one-child policy era have begun to reach marriage age, the demand for foreign brides like Kanwal has surged, even as the Chinese government has loosened birth restrictions.

The allegations of trafficking are a disturbing aspect of China's growing presence in Pakistan, a longtime ally drawn closer lately by expanding economic ties — including China's Belt and Road initiative.

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More Chinese are coming to Pakistan as labourers and investors. In the capital, Islamabad, shops and other businesses have begun catering specifically to them.

The Pakistani government has cracked down on brokers said to have arranged the marriages, arresting at least two dozen Chinese citizens and Pakistanis earlier this month, and charging them with human trafficking. The raids followed an undercover operation that included attending an arranged marriage, Pakistani media reported.

The Chinese Embassy denied that Pakistani brides were being mistreated in China. But Human Rights Watch said last month that the trafficking allegations were "disturbingly similar" to past patterns in which women from other poor Asian countries — North Korea, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam — were brought to China as brides and subjected to abuse.

"Both Pakistan and China should take seriously increasing evidence that Pakistani women and girls are at risk of sexual slavery," the rights group's China director, Sophie Richardson, wrote on its website.

Pakistani investigators said men in China paid the brokers to arrange marriages with local women, staying in rented houses in Pakistan until the weddings were performed. The men covered the costs of the ceremonies and in some cases they paid the women's families the equivalent of thousands of dollars, investigators said.

None of that is illegal in Pakistan. The human trafficking charges come from the allegations that women were forced into prostitution or brought to China under false pretences. In some cases, investigators say, the men were provided with forged documents indicating that they were Muslim.

Other men sought out wives from Pakistan's Christian minority, many of whom are impoverished and subjected to discrimination, investigators said. But virtually all of the women, Christian and Muslim alike, were drawn by the hope of better economic prospects.

"My parents said that our neighbour's girls were happy in China, so I would be, too," Kanwal said.

She said she met her husband at the marriage broker's office in Islamabad, where there were many other Chinese men and Pakistani women. According to Kanwal, he told her family that he was Muslim and recited the first tenet of the Muslim faith, which every follower must know: "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet."

But Kanwal never saw him pray, even when they visited the famous Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

In February after the wedding, they flew to Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region in western China. After a brief stopover there, they flew on to Henan province in central China.

Then, after a four-hour drive past fields of wheat and corn, they arrived at Dongzhang village in Shandong province, where she saw her husband's duck farm. It was not the sprawling operation of a wealthy man that she had envisioned, but a modest family farm where he lived with his parents and two brothers.

"They were not even Muslim and he had faked it all along," she said. "There weren't even proper washrooms in their house. I got agitated and started crying."

Her husband, Zhang Shuchen, 33, tells a different story.

Over a meal of cold-tossed pig liver and stir-fried tomato and egg near his family home in Dongzhang, the boyish farmer acknowledged that he had travelled to Pakistan late last year and paid around $US14,500 ($20,900) to a Chinese broker in the hopes of bringing home a Pakistani bride.

It was his first visit to Pakistan, he said, and the poverty there reminded him of China in the 1980s and '90s. When he first met Kanwal, he said, he liked her. But he said he was upfront with her that while he had converted to Islam on paper, he was not a true believer.

"I told her I wasn't a Muslim," Zhang said in an interview. He added that Kanwal had taught him the first principle of the Muslim faith.

Kanwal later stood by her insistence that she did not know Zhang was not Muslim and denied she had taught him the first principle.

Previously a logistics warehouse worker in southern China, Zhang said he now earned about $US2,900 a month farming ducks, far more than the $US180 or so that the average Chinese farmer made per month in 2018, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.

Zhang's income could not be independently verified. But on a recent visit to the Zhang family home, a New York Times reporter found a newly built housing compound with multiple bedrooms and shiny tile floors.

Outside the family home, Zhang's mother, who is in her 60s, recalled being puzzled by Kanwal's reactions.

"She is religious, so when she came here I went out of my way not to give her any pork," she said. "I stir-fried chicken and made egg omelets for her. But no matter what I served her, she just refused to eat."

Kanwal said the family locked her in a room for two days, trying to pressure her to stay. (Zhang denied the accusation.) She managed to email the Pakistani Embassy, whose staff connected her through to the Chinese police, who took her away and made arrangements with the embassy for her return to Pakistan.

Her stay in China lasted eight days. She said it was "horrible and beyond words".

"I prayed daily for hours, asking God to take me safely back to my country, to my people," Kanwal said. This month, she filed for divorce at a family court in Gujranwala, saying in her application that Zhang forced her into "immoral activities" and that she "would prefer to die instead of living with him".

After news outlets in Pakistan reported the raids and the trafficking charges, the Chinese Embassy there said it supported the government's efforts to combat crime. But it denied that Pakistani wives in China had been forced into prostitution or that their organs had been harvested, allegations in some Pakistani news reports that investigators said had not been substantiated.

Around the same time that Kanwal returned to Pakistan, the local marriage agency that many local men in the Dongzhang area had consulted for help in finding Pakistani wives was shuttered. But according to Zhang and other villagers in Dongzhang, there are still a number of Pakistani women in the area. Two Pakistani wives in a neighbouring village are said to be pregnant.

"There are no girls here," said Zhang's mother, when asked why so many local men had gone to Pakistan to find wives. "We weren't allowed to have more children, so everyone wanted boys."

The New York Times

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei struck a defiant tone in the face of US sanctions that threaten his company's very survival.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, the billionaire founder of China's largest technology company conceded that Trump administration export curbs will cut into a two-year lead Huawei had painstakingly built over rivals like Ericsson and Nokia. But the company will either ramp up its own chip supply or find alternatives to keep its edge in smartphones and 5G.

The US on May 17 blacklisted Huawei – which it accuses of aiding Beijing in espionage – and cut it off from the US software and components it needs to make its products. The ban hamstrings the world's largest provider of networking gear and No.2 smartphone vendor, just as it was preparing to vault to the forefront of global technology.

The ban is rocking chipmakers from America to Europe as the global supply chain comes under threat. It could also disrupt the rollout of 5G wireless globally, undermining a standard that's touted as the foundation of everything from autonomous cars to robot surgery.

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Ren maintained Huawei had the capability to devise its own solutions – given time. It's been designing its own chips for years, which it now uses in many of its own smartphones. It's even developing its own operating software to run phones and servers. However, the CEO deflected questions about how quickly Huawei can ramp up those internal replacement endeavours. Failure could dent the fast-growing consumer business and even kill emergent efforts such as cloud servers.

"That depends on how fast our repairmen are able to fix the plane," said Ren, who appeared at ease in a white jacket over a pink shirt, making light of questions about his company's plight. "No matter what materials they use, be it metal, cloth or paper, the aim is to keep the plane in the sky."

Ren has gone from recluse to media maven in the span of months as he fights to save the $US100 billion ($144 billion) company he founded. The 74-year-old billionaire emerged from virtual seclusion after the arrest of eldest daughter and Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou as part of a broader probe of Huawei. He's since become a central figure in a US-Chinese conflict that's potentially the most important episode to shape world affairs since the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Ren said in January, when the world's biggest economies battle for dominion, nothing in their way will survive. His company is a "sesame seed" between twin great powers, he said.

"This may bring one of China's national champions to its knees,'' said Chris Lane, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

"If China shut down all the Apple plants, the US would get very upset. This is a similar kind of move."

Ren has had much to deal with of late. His company finds itself increasingly under fire, besieged by a US effort to get key allies to ban its equipment. The US assault helped crystallise fears about Huawei's growing clout in areas from wireless infrastructure and semiconductors to consumer gadgets.

Then came the blacklist. Huawei appears to have anticipated this possibility since at least mid-2018, when similar sanctions threatened to sink rival ZTE. Huawei's said to have stockpiled enough chips and other vital components to keep its business running at least three months.

"We have made some really good chips," said Ren, a legendary figure in his home country thanks to the way he built Huawei from scratch into a global powerhouse.

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"Being able to grow in the toughest battle environment, that just reflects how great we are."

Last week, Trump said Huawei could become part of a US-Chinese trade deal, stirring speculation it was a bargaining chip in sensitive negotiations. But Ren said he wasn't a politician. "It's a big joke," he scoffed. "How are we related to China-US trade?"

If Trump calls, "I will ignore him, then to whom can he negotiate with? If he calls me, I may not answer. But he doesn't have my number."

In fact, Ren pulled no punches in going after a man he labelled "a great president" just months prior. "I see his tweets and think it's laughable because they're self-contradictory," he quipped. "How did he become a master of the art of the deal?"

Beijing itself isn't without options. Some speculate China might retaliate against the ban of Huawei – which may widen to include some of its most promising AI firms – by in turn barring America's largest corporations from its own markets. Apple could relinquish nearly a third of its profit if China banned its products, Goldman Sachs analysts estimate.

Ren said he would object to any such move against his American rival.

"That will not happen, first of all. And second of all, if that happens, I'll be the first to protest," Ren said in the interview. "Apple is my teacher, it's in the lead. As a student, why go against my teacher? Never."

At the heart of Trump's campaign is suspicion that Huawei aids Beijing in espionage while spearheading China's ambitions to become a technology superpower. It's been accused for years of stealing intellectual property in lawsuits filed by American companies from Cisco and Motorola to T-Mobile. Critics say such theft helped Huawei vault into the upper echelons of technology – but Ren laughed off that premise.

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"I stole the American technologies from tomorrow. The US doesn't even have those technologies," he said. "We are ahead of the US If we were behind, there would be no need for Trump to strenuously attack us."

Ren's easy demeanour belies the way he's consistently shunned attention. The army engineer-turned-entrepreneur has this year turned in a command performance in the public spotlight, particularly for someone who's rarely spoken to foreign media since he created Huawei. The re-emergence of the reclusive CEO – who before January last spoke with foreign media in 2015 – underscores the depth of the attacks on Huawei, the largest symbol of China's growing technological might. Ren again waved off speculation his company is in any way beholden to the Communist Party, though he's declared his loyalty ultimately lies with the country's stocksruling body.

US lawmakers aren't convinced. That's why the US Commerce Department cut off the flow of American technology – from chips to software and everything in-between.

An iconic figure in Chinese business circles, the billionaire remains a uniquely placed voice in a conflict that will help define the global landscape. Ren, who says he survived the chaos of the Cultural Revolution thanks in part to his much sought-after expertise in high-precision tools, remains a big believer that Huawei's technology will win the day.

His company today generates more sales than internet giants Alibaba and Tencent combined. In 2018, Huawei overtook Apple in smartphone sales, a triumph that burnished his tech credentials

His quotes adorn the walls of the food court at Huawei's sprawling campus on the outskirts of the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, and employees still speak of him in reverent tones. The company's 2018 report shows he has a 1.14 per cent stake, giving him a net worth of $US2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Ren, who survived Mao Zedong's great famine to found Huawei in 1987 with 21,000 yuan, said Huawei will do whatever it takes to survive. It will ignore the noise while doing its business the best it can. Meanwhile, the pressure is bound to take a toll. At one point during the interview, Ren's unflappable demeanor cracked – if only for a minute.

"The US has never bought products from us," he said, bristling. "Even if the US wants to buy our products in the future, I may not sell to them. There's no need for a negotiation."

Bloomberg