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 Italy has withdrawn from Xi’s signature global Belt and Road Initiative that seeks to deepen China’s relations with countries in Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Middle East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.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
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