CHINA
Pakistan upgrade pledged
Beijing is willing to work with Islamabad to build an upgraded version of an economic corridor linking the two countries, President Xi Jinping (習近平) told visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday. Sharif pledged to ensure the safety of Chinese workers in Pakistan, according to a report on by state broadcaster China Central Television. Sharif offered his government’s condolences for the deaths in March of five Chinese engineers in a suicide bombing in Pakistan, the report said. The economic corridor includes building and improving roads and rail systems to link the western Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s Gwadar Port on the Arabian sea. Earlier in the day, Xi met with Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who expressed hope that many Chinese companies would participate in a Brazilian government infrastructure program that includes railways, energy, port and airport projects.
VIETNAM
Island building picks up
Hanoi has been increasing its dredging and landfill work in the South China Sea, creating almost as much new land as in the previous two years combined, setting the stage for a record year of island-building, US researchers said on Friday. Since November last year, when the Washington-based think tank issued its last report, Vietnam has created 280 hectares of land, compared with 163.5 hectares in the first 11 months of last year and 140 hectares in 2022, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said in a report.
DR CONGO
Coup suspects face death
Three US suspects in what the Congolese army called an attempted coup in Kinshasa last month committed acts “punishable by death,” a court heard on Friday as their trial opened. Marcel Malanga and Taylor Christian Thomson, both 21, and 36-year-old Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun are among 50 defendants in the case and were the first to stand before the judge to hear the charges against them. “These acts are punishable by death,” the presiding judge of the Kinshasa-Gombe military court, Freddy Ehume, told the three in Kinshasa. Western diplomats, journalists and lawyers were present for the trial, which is set to resume on Friday.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cameron talks to hoaxer
Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron exchanged messages and held a video call with someone purporting to be former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, but the interactions were later determined to be a hoax, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on Friday. “Whilst the video call clearly appeared to be with Mr Poroshenko, following the conversation the Foreign Secretary became suspicious,” the foreign office said in a statement. “The department has now investigated and confirmed that it was not genuine and that the messages and video call were a hoax.” The statement gave no details of what was discussed during the exchanges, other than to say that the caller asked Cameron for others’ contact details. “Whilst regretting his mistake, the Foreign Secretary thinks it important to call out this behavior and increase efforts to counter the use of misinformation,” the foreign office said. It did not say who it believed was responsible for the hoax.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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