CHINA
No Xinjiang trip yet: EU
EU ambassadors in Beijing will not visit Xinjiang this week after receiving a government invitation, as such a trip needs “careful preparation,” a spokesperson for the bloc said yesterday. A spokesperson for the EU Delegation to China said it, along with embassies of member states, had on Thursday received a formal invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send ambassadors to Xinjiang from tomorrow through Friday. “While the EU and EU member states in principle welcome the invitation, such a visit requires careful preparation in order to be meaningful,” the spokesperson said. “The EU remains open to a future visit taking into account our expectations.”
SOUTH KOREA
Northerners return to office
Some North Korean officials yesterday returned to an inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong, three days after the North abruptly withdrew its entire staff citing unspecified instructions from “higher-level authorities,” the Unification Ministry said in a statement. It was not immediately clear why some workers were sent back or whether Pyongyang would restore a full staff, it said. Those who returned told Seoul officials that they came to work their usual shifts.
AUSTRALIA
Cyclone Veronica weakens
Slow-moving Cyclone Veronica was weakening yesterday from a Category 3 storm, on a scale in which 5 is the strongest, to a Category 2, the Bureau of Meteorology said. The storm was expected to continue to track west away from the coast of the sparsely populated Pilbara region of Western Australia state and weaken to below cyclone strength late yesterday, the bureau said. However, it is still on track to hit the nation’s biggest gas export hub. There have been no reports of injuries or major structural damage from two major cyclones that hit the coast over the weekend, but damage assessment had only just begun yesterday.
NEW ZEALAND
Ardern sets quick China trip
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday said that she would travel to China on Sunday to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Premier Li Keqiang (李克強). She told a news conference that the trip had been trimmed down to a one-day visit in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed 50 people and she would return home on Tuesday next week. “It was intended to be a longer visit, including a business delegation, but under the circumstances that just didn’t seem appropriate and I do want to acknowledge that our hosts, China, have been incredibly accommodating of those needs,” Ardern said. Talks would include discussions around an upgrade to the free-trade agreement as well as other issues, she said.
AUSTRALIA
NSW coalition wins poll
The Liberal-National government has won a third term in New South Wales (NSW), giving heart to their embattled federal colleagues who face their own tough election in May. Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Saturday became the first woman to be elected as premier in the state, after taking the leadership two years ago. While suffering a 2.5 percent swing away from her coalition, she said she expects to form a majority government with between 47 and 49 seats in the 93 seat lower house of parliament. “We will do everything we can to support you and your government’s re-election,” Berejiklian told Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday.
UNITED STATES
Parkland student dies
A student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has died in “an apparent suicide,” police said on Sunday, less than a week after a 19-year-old survivor of last year’s massacre at the school took her own life. The student’s death occurred on Saturday evening and is under investigation, Coral Springs Police spokesman Tyler Reik said. The student’s name, age and gender were not disclosed, he said. The Miami Herald reported that the suicide victim was a male sophomore at the school when 14 other students and three staff members were killed on Feb. 14 last year. A week ago, former student Sydney Aiello took her own life, according to her family. Aiello was suffering from survivor’s guilt and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, her mother told CBS Miami.
UNITED KINGDOM
Parties oppose arms sales
Five opposition parties have called on the government to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia on the fourth anniversary of the Yemen civil war, saying it has contributed to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. The letter to Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jeremy Hunt, signed by leaders of the Labour, Scottish National, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Green parties, comes as a fragile truce negotiated in December hangs by a thread. They said it is shameful that the government has not used all means at its disposal to put pressure on Saudi Arabia “to abide by basic human rights laws.”
FRANCE
Injured activist probe opens
Nice prosecutors have opened an inquiry to try to establish what happened on Saturday when 73-year-old veteran activist Genevieve Legay suffered head injuries during a “yellow vest” protest. Her daughter later said that she had suffered several fractures to the skull and subdural haematomas. Arie Alimi, the family’s lawyer, said that they would be filing a formal complaint against the authorities for violence against “a vulnerable person.” Photographs and video footage from the protest showed her carrying a rainbow-colored flag with the word “peace” written on it.
MEXICO
President vows search
Families of missing people on Sunday swarmed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after he vowed to ramp up efforts to identify thousands of bodies. They held pictures of their loved ones or pressed large envelopes with details of their cases into his right hand. The remains of at least 26,000 people are in government custody at forensic institutions nationwide, waiting to be identified, while thousands more people are missing, their bodies presumed to be in clandestine graves. Lopez Obrador said that his government would allot all the resources and manpower necessary — “there’s no financial ceiling” — to identify remains and give families some sense of closure.
SWEDEN
Bill backs cash banking
Key lawmakers said that the government is likely to push through a proposal to force banks to keep offering cash to customers who require it as the nation grapples with how to balance the rapid transformation into a cashless society. The proposed legislation would make it mandatory for banks that provide checking accounts and have more than 70 billion kronor (US$7.6 billion) in deposits from the public to offer cash withdrawals and handle daily receipts. It has been roundly criticized by the banking industry and called potentially illegal.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number