CHINA
Italian president visits
Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Friday met with President Xi Jinping (習近平) on an official visit to China that came as Russia’s full-on invasion of Ukraine pitted Rome’s NATO allies against Beijing’s support for Moscow. The two exchanged greetings following a ceremony with full military honors at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing. In his opening remarks, Xi referred to the 700th anniversary of Italian adventurer and trader Marco Polo’s journey to China that encouraged cultural, economic and religious links between Europe and East Asia. Italy is heavily reliant on foreign trade such as luxury products that have a large market in China. It is also a member of NATO, which China has blamed for provoking the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Beijing has provided Moscow with assistance by purchasing its energy exports while selling it technology that can be used in drones and other armaments. Any differences on political issues were not raised in front of the media and the two leaders later oversaw the signing of a series of agreements on matters from culture to technology and trade. Italy has withdrawn from Xi’s signature global Belt and Road Initiative that seeks to deepen China’s relations with countries in Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Middle East through infrastructure investments. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni had declined to renew the agreement, but nevertheless visited China in July.
INDONESIA
Dua Lipa concert canceled
Glastonbury headliner Dua Lipa has canceled the Indonesian leg of her Asian tour, citing unsafe staging. The 29-year-old pop star was due to perform in Jakarta yesterday, but pulled out the night before over safety issues at the capital’s 16,500-seat Indonesia Arena. “I’m heartbroken to share that I won’t be able to perform in Jakarta this Saturday,” she wrote in a social media post late on Friday. “I am here in your amazing country and ready to perform, but I am gutted to share that it has been determined that it is not safe for the performance to carry on due to safety issues with the staging.” She had just performed in Singapore, but her tour will now skip past Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and home to about 280 million people, moving on to the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand. “I was so looking forward to this night, and it truly pains me that we cannot perform for you all, especially after such a long time since my last performance in Jakarta,” she said. “I love you all and truly can’t wait to be back together in the same room with you singing and dancing our hearts out as soon as possible.”
BRAZIL
Gunmen kill businessman
Police said that unidentified gunmen in a black car on Friday afternoon opened fire at Sao Paulo’s International Airport in Guarulhos, killing one person and injuring three. Police identified the victim who died as Antonio Vinicius Lopes Gritzbach, who had previously received death threats from the First Command of the Capital, a powerful international criminal group. Gritzbach, who had cryptocurrency businesses, had recently entered a plea bargain with local prosecutors to speak about his ties to the criminal organization, police said. Police have not yet determined the number of gunmen involved in the attack. Social media footage shows two people who appear to have been shot at the airport. One victim is seen lying on the ground at Terminal 2, primarily used for domestic flights, while the other is seen stranded on an access road outside the terminal.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
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