Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • Former deputy director of Xizang people’s congress under investigation

    Former deputy director of Xizang people’s congress under investigation

    China’s top anti-corruption watchdog announced on Sunday that Ding Yexian, a 65-year-old former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Xizang Autonomous Region People’s Congress, is facing investigation over suspected severe violations of discipline and national law. Currently, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission are conducting a combined disciplinary review and official investigation into Ding’s conduct, according to the official announcement.

    Public career records show that Ding built his decades-long professional career entirely in Xizang, starting his first work assignment in the region back in 1978. Over his years in public service, he held a series of senior leadership positions: he served as vice chairman of the Xizang Autonomous Regional Government from September 2010 to June 2013, after which he was promoted to the post of executive vice chairman of the region. In January 2021, Ding took up his final public position as deputy director of the Xizang Autonomous Region People’s Congress Standing Committee, the region’s top legislative body.

    This investigation is part of China’s sustained national campaign to root out corruption across all levels of public office, holding current and former senior officials accountable for any violations of disciplinary and legal regulations.

  • Trump’s Strait of Hormuz blockade threat raises risks and leaves predicaments unchanged

    Trump’s Strait of Hormuz blockade threat raises risks and leaves predicaments unchanged

    ### After Collapsed Islamabad Negotiations, Washington Unveils Aggressive New Strategy Amid Rising Political and Global Risks

    It has been one month since the United States entered open conflict with Iran, and a fragile two-week ceasefire agreed last week to facilitate face-to-face negotiations is now teetering on the edge of collapse. After a 20-hour diplomatic session in Islamabad led by U.S. Vice President JD Vance failed to produce a breakthrough deal to end the conflict, President Donald Trump outlined his administration’s next move in a series of Sunday morning posts on Truth Social.

    Trump announced that the U.S. would implement a full naval blockade of Iranian waters, stating that any vessel that pays what Washington defines as an “illegal toll” to Tehran would be blocked from safe passage through international waters. At the same time, the president confirmed that U.S. naval forces would continue demining operations in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints, to guarantee unimpeded access for shipping aligned with U.S. allies. He added that U.S. military assets are fully prepared and “locked and loaded” to resume offensive strikes against Iran if an “appropriate moment” arises.

    Trump claimed that the talks made incremental progress, but that Tehran ultimately refused to meet Washington’s core demand to abandon its nuclear program. However, a senior U.S. official close to Vance’s negotiation team pushed back on this framing, revealing that the two sides face far broader, deeper disagreements beyond the nuclear issue. These unresolved disputes include Iran’s sovereignty claims and control over access to the Strait of Hormuz, as well as Iran’s long-standing support for regional armed groups including Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

    Unlike Trump’s incendiary threat from last week to “end Iranian civilization,” the president’s latest announcements avoid apocalyptic rhetoric. Even so, the new blockade strategy opens the door to a cascade of unanswerable risks and unprecedented challenges for the United States. Key open questions remain: Will ongoing demining missions put U.S. naval vessels at heightened risk of targeted Iranian retaliation? How will Washington verify whether commercial ships have paid tolls to Tehran? Will the U.S. use military force against civilian ships flying foreign flags that defy the blockade? How will major oil-dependent economies that continue to import Iranian crude, most notably China, respond to the new restriction? And could the blockade, designed to cut off Iran’s primary export revenue, send global oil prices soaring to new record highs? As of yet, the Trump administration has not offered clear responses to any of these critical questions.

    The new policy has already sparked division within U.S. political circles. Senate Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia questioned the strategic logic of the move, telling CNN Sunday, “I don’t understand how blockading the strait is going to somehow push the Iranians into opening it.” By contrast, former House Intelligence Committee chair Republican Mike Turner of Ohio defended the blockade as a necessary coercive measure to force a resolution to the standoff over the Strait. Speaking on CBS’ *Face the Nation*, Turner noted that by rejecting Tehran’s right to control access to the waterway, Trump is rallying U.S. allies to engage on the issue, adding that “this needs to be addressed.”

    The current impasse comes as Trump faces the same unresolvable dilemma that pushed him to agree to a ceasefire and talks last week. Before the Islamabad negotiations, the president had two unappealing options: continue escalating offensive strikes on Iran, which would cause irreversible damage to Iranian civilian infrastructure, deepen an already worsening humanitarian crisis, and send further shockwaves through the already fragile global economy; or step back from a conflict that has never been popular with the U.S. public, and has even started to alienate core Trump supporters who backed him on his promise to avoid draining foreign wars and new entanglements in the Middle East.

    Recent polling underscores the political risk for Trump and his party ahead of November’s midterm elections. A new CBS survey finds that 59% of U.S. voters believe the war is going poorly for the United States. Large majorities of voters from both parties agree that achieving core U.S. war goals – keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, securing greater political freedom for the Iranian people, and permanently eliminating Iran’s nuclear program – is critical, but most voters say none of these objectives have been met nearly a month into the conflict.

    Almost a week after the ceasefire took effect, and despite the administration’s claims of early military success, Trump’s core predicament remains unchanged. Speaking to Fox News Sunday morning, the president struck an optimistic tone, claiming Iran will eventually concede to all U.S. demands. He acknowledged that global oil prices could stay steady or rise in the coming months, but insisted the U.S. economy would withstand the pressure. This prediction is at best a high-stakes gamble, political analysts note: with midterm elections just months away, Trump’s Republican Party could face devastating electoral losses if the president’s assessment proves wrong.

    In a striking juxtaposition to the high-stakes diplomacy unfolding in Pakistan, Trump spent Saturday night in Miami attending a UFC mixed martial arts cage fighting event, where top fighters competed in a violent, blood-spattered ring. Members of the press pool covering the event described the moment as surreal: the U.S. president watched the bouts, mingled with celebrities, and held urgent strategy discussions with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior advisors in full view of thousands of spectators.

    Unlike the structured, rule-bound sport of mixed martial arts – which always ends with a clear winner and a defined time limit – the war with Iran offers no such clarity. As the conflict enters its second month and the ceasefire nears collapse, it has devolved into a brutal test of wills: can Iran withstand continuing strikes from the U.S. and its ally Israel, or will Trump buckle under growing economic and political pressure from the costs of the war? When this high-stakes standoff ends, all parties involved may leave diminished.

  • Intl forum discusses role of peony flowers in cultural exchange and mutual understanding

    Intl forum discusses role of peony flowers in cultural exchange and mutual understanding

    In the heart of China’s famed “Peony Capital” of Heze, Shandong province, global stakeholders from academia, government, and cultural institutions gathered on Saturday for the 2026 Heze Peony International Communication Forum, a landmark event designed to frame the iconic peony flower as a powerful cross-cultural bridge fostering global mutual understanding. Bringing together officials, scholars and industry specialists from nations including Russia and Italy, the forum builds on centuries of peony cultivation heritage in Heze to open new avenues for people-to-people connection across borders.

    This gathering marks a core component of the 2026 World Peony Conference, a 30-day global event that launched the previous day under the unifying theme “Blooming Across the World, Cultivating Shared Beauty”. The conference and accompanying forum shine a global spotlight on Heze’s unparalleled legacy as one of the world’s preeminent centers of peony cultivation: the region boasts more than 1,500 years of continuous peony growing history, with 1,308 officially registered varieties spanning nine distinct color groups and 10 unique flower forms. Beyond its cultural significance, Heze’s peony industry has grown into a major economic driver, with the total output value spanning from primary cultivation to high-value processed peony goods surpassing 13 billion yuan in 2025.

    The forum opened with a symbolic act of cross-cultural friendship, as Tatiana Bakurova, principal of Oryol State First High School in Russia, presented an original oil painting of peonies titled *Flower of Friendship* — a work created collectively by her school’s teachers and students. In return, the Publicity Department of Heze gifted the Russian delegation a traditional handcrafted peony paper-cut artwork, a tangible example of China’s intangible cultural heritage tied to the iconic bloom. This gift exchange set the collaborative tone for the day’s discussions.

    In his opening address, Zhang Lun, secretary of the Heze Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, emphasized the universal appeal of floral aesthetics. “Flowers are an aesthetic language that transcends national borders,” Zhang noted. He called for coordinated collective action to advance two complementary goals: expanding global access to Heze’s peony varieties and cultural products, while welcoming international floral expertise and cultural exchange to Heze. This dual approach, Zhang argued, would inject fresh momentum into global efforts to build a harmonious shared global community rooted in mutual respect and understanding.

  • War in the Middle East: latest developments

    War in the Middle East: latest developments

    The long-simmering conflict across the Middle East entered a sharp new phase of escalation on Sunday, as multiple interconnected fronts saw rapidly shifting developments that threaten to drag more global powers into open confrontation. The most consequential shift came early Sunday, when former U.S. President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the U.S. Navy to implement a full naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for global oil supplies. The order came just after talks mediated by Pakistan between U.S. and Iranian delegations collapsed, ending a brief fragile ceasefire between the two powers that had held for less than two weeks.

    In response to the blockade announcement, Iran’s top leadership has issued a firm rejection of U.S. pressure, saying the country will never bow to foreign coercion. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker who led the Iranian negotiating delegation to the Pakistan talks, delivered the defiant message in comments carried by multiple Iranian state news outlets. “If they fight, we will fight, and if they come forward with logic, we will deal with logic,” Ghalibaf said. “We will not bow to any threats, let them test our will once again so that we can teach them a bigger lesson.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reinforced that stance, confirming that Iranian security forces maintain full operational control over the Strait, and warned that any hostile misstep by foreign powers would trap aggressors in a “deadly vortex” with devastating consequences.

    Along the Israel-Hezbollah front in southern Lebanon, Israeli military operations continued unabated Sunday, with a series of sustained airstrikes hitting targets across the region. Lebanese authorities reported that at least five people were killed in the latest strikes, pushing the total death toll from the conflict on Lebanese territory to more than 2,055. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his government remains focused on ending the fighting and securing key concessions to stabilize the country. “We will continue to work to stop this war, to ensure the Israeli withdrawal from all our lands, the return of all the prisoners, to rebuild our destroyed villages and towns, and the safe return of the displaced,” Salam said.

    Visiting Israeli troops deployed in southern Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the immediate cross-border threat his country faced has been neutralized. He confirmed that Israeli operations will continue, however, including in the newly established security zone inside Lebanese territory. “Israeli forces have eliminated the threat of an invasion by Hezbollah militants,” Netanyahu said in a video statement released by his office, adding that “the war continues, including within the security zone in Lebanon.” Israel has repeatedly maintained that the broader regional ceasefire agreement does not apply to its operations targeting Hezbollah, which is backed financially and militarily by Iran.

    A new point of international tension emerged Sunday when the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) issued a statement condemning Israeli military actions against its peacekeeping mission. The statement confirmed that an Israeli tank twice rammed UNIFIL vehicles in southern Lebanon, where active combat between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has been ongoing for weeks. Additionally, Israeli soldiers blocked a key road in the town of Bayada that provides the only access to multiple UNIFIL positions, hampering the peacekeeping force’s ability to operate.

    Beyond the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanese fronts, the escalation has spilled over into other regional states. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry announced it had summoned Iraq’s top ambassador to deliver a formal complaint over drone attacks launched from Iraqi territory, marking the second such complaint in days after the U.S. issued a similar protest. In Kuwait, authorities announced the arrest of 24 people, including five former lawmakers, as part of an investigation into alleged financing of terrorist entities. Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council states have cracked down on individuals and organizations suspected of ties to Iran since Tehran launched attacks on Gulf targets.

    On Iran’s home front, the country’s judiciary-affiliated Legal Medicine Organization released the highest official death toll from the ongoing war with the U.S. and Israel to date, with head Abbas Masjedi confirming that 3,375 Iranians have been killed. Agence France-Presse, which reported the figure, noted that it cannot independently verify casualty numbers or access strike sites in Iran due to official government reporting restrictions.

    International actors have already begun moving to push for de-escalation. Pakistan, which mediated the collapsed weekend talks between the U.S. and Iran, has issued a public plea to uphold the two-week ceasefire that Washington and Tehran initially agreed to. Russian President Vladimir Putin also extended an offer of diplomatic mediation to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, with the Kremlin confirming Sunday that Putin stands ready to facilitate new peace efforts. In a separate move that expands the conflict’s global reach, Trump issued a new threat to China during an interview with Fox News, saying the U.S. will impose 50 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods imported into the country if Beijing provides military assistance to Iran.

  • No deal after US, Iran end marathon talks

    No deal after US, Iran end marathon talks

    After 21 hours of intensive, overnight diplomatic negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan, the highest-level direct talks between the United States and Iran in more than a decade have concluded without a breakthrough, leaving a fragile two-week ceasefire in their six-week conflict on the brink of collapse. The war, which has already claimed thousands of lives, has roiled global energy markets and sent international oil prices soaring, casting deep uncertainty over regional stability.

    Hosted by Pakistani mediators, the April 12 talks marked the most senior official engagement between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, raising cautious hopes across the international community for de-escalation. The conflict erupted in late February after the U.S. and its closest Middle East ally Israel launched pre-emptive military strikes against Iran during an ongoing round of nuclear negotiations that included former U.S. president Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and then-senior advisor Jared Kushner. Iran responded with widespread retaliatory action, dragging the entire Middle East into open conflict.

    Disagreements over core sticking points derailed any path to a final agreement, according to officials and media reports from both sides. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency blamed what it described as “excessive American demands” for the collapsed talks, while other Iranian outlets noted that while incremental progress was made on secondary issues, two major flashpoints—the future of the strategic Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program—proved impossible to reconcile. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei framed the negotiations as having taken place against a backdrop of deep long-standing distrust between the two nations, adding that a comprehensive deal was never a realistic outcome for a single round of talks. Still, he emphasized that diplomatic channels would remain open, noting that “Diplomacy never ends.”

    JD Vance, U.S. Vice President and leader of the American delegation, told reporters that Iran had rejected Washington’s “final and best offer” during the discussions. “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad for the U.S,” Vance said, offering no clarity on how the U.S. would act once the 14-day Pakistan-brokered ceasefire expires. Iran’s delegation was led by Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a composition that analysts had previously viewed as a clear signal of Tehran’s seriousness about reaching a negotiated settlement. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a leading expert on US-Iran relations, noted ahead of the talks that the size and seniority of the Iranian delegation “signal both Tehran’s sincerity in these negotiations and its clear expectations and confidence.”

    Pakistani mediators, who spearheaded the efforts to bring the two adversaries to the table, have publicly urged both sides to extend the ceasefire and continue negotiating. “We hope that the two sides continue with a positive spirit to achieve durable peace and prosperity for the entire region and beyond,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said. A senior Pakistani source involved in the negotiations told Reuters that the talks saw sharp shifts in tone, with tensions rising and falling repeatedly across the marathon overnight session that began Saturday.

    Going into the negotiations, unconfirmed reports emerged that the U.S. had agreed to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks, a claim a senior U.S. official quickly denied. Tehran has laid out clear non-negotiable demands in the talks: full sovereign control over the Strait of Hormuz, war reparations for American and Israeli strikes, and a region-wide ceasefire that includes an end to Israeli military operations in Lebanon. Israel has refused to include the Lebanon conflict in any truce with Iran, and new Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday and Sunday killed 18 people, pushing the total death toll from Israel’s campaign in the country past 2,000 since the outbreak of the wider war.

    Control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily seaborne oil trade passed before the conflict, has emerged as Iran’s most powerful strategic leverage in the negotiations. Since the war began, Iran has effectively restricted access to the waterway, with only 12 vessels recorded passing through since the ceasefire took effect, compared to more than 100 per day pre-war. Tensions over the strategic chokepoint flared even during the talks: the U.S. military announced that two American destroyers had transited the strait ahead of planned mine-clearing operations, marking the first U.S. military passage since the war began. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Naval Force quickly rejected the U.S. claim and issued a stark warning. “Any attempt by military vessels to cross the Strait of Hormuz will be confronted firmly and decisively,” the command said in a statement.

  • De Zerbi suffers debut defeat as Spurs crisis deepens, City rampant

    De Zerbi suffers debut defeat as Spurs crisis deepens, City rampant

    The 2024-25 English Premier League season delivered another dramatic weekend of results that reshaped both the title race and the relegation battle, with two high-stakes stories dominating the headlines. For Tottenham Hotspur, what was meant to be a fresh start under new manager Roberto De Zerbi instead turned into another gut-wrenching setback that leaves their 48-year-long stretch in the top flight hanging by a thread.

    De Zerbi, the highly regarded former Brighton & Hove Albion and Olympique de Marseille boss, was appointed at the end of last month as Tottenham’s third manager of the campaign. The Italian was brought in as a last-ditch hire to pull the club out of a freefall that has them staring down the barrel of relegation – a scenario that would go down as one of the biggest shocks in English football history, given Tottenham’s status as the ninth-wealthiest club in the world per Deloitte’s latest football finance rankings. His first test came on the road against a stubborn Sunderland side, but the new manager could not spark an immediate turnaround.

    The only goal of the game came in the 60th minute, when Nordi Mukiele’s shot took a massive deflection off Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven, looping the ball over goalkeeper and into the net. Tottenham threw bodies forward in the final half-hour in search of an equalizer, but their attacks repeatedly broke down, and the scoreline held. The result leaves Tottenham stuck in the relegation zone, still winless in Premier League play since December. They now sit two points behind 17th-place West Ham United, with just six matches remaining to claw their way out of the drop.

    After the final whistle, De Zerbi pinpointed the root of his side’s struggles as a deep crisis of confidence, not a lack of technical quality. “I can be a big brother, father, they don’t need a coach,” he told the BBC. “They don’t need to improve football. They can play better and they will play better once we reach a different level of confidence.”

    At the opposite end of the table, Manchester City sent a clear warning to league leaders Arsenal, putting on a dominant second-half display to secure a 3-0 away win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The result comes 24 hours after Arsenal suffered a surprise 2-1 home defeat to Bournemouth, opening the door for Pep Guardiola’s side to cut the Gunners’ lead at the top of the table to just six points – with City holding one game in hand, and a decisive head-to-head clash against Arsenal scheduled for next weekend at the Etihad Stadium.

    City, who saw their streak of five consecutive Premier League titles ended by Liverpool last season, made full use of Arsenal’s slip-up, turning a slow, cagey first half into a rout after the break. Young midfielder Nico O’Reilly opened the scoring with a header from a precise Rayan Cherki cross, before defender Marc Guehi doubled City’s advantage in the 57th minute, finishing off a perfectly weighted through ball from Cherki. Jeremy Doku put the result beyond doubt late on, drilling a shot past Chelsea’s goalkeeper after the Blues turned the ball over in their own defensive third.

    The result keeps City on track for a domestic treble this season: they have already lifted the League Cup, and are set to face Championship side Southampton in the FA Cup semi-finals. Speaking ahead of next week’s title decider against Arsenal, Guardiola stressed his full respect for the league leaders, who have led the table for most of the campaign. “They have been the best team in this country, in Europe, so far,” he told Sky Sports. “Beating Arsenal once (in the League Cup final) is so difficult, imagine beating them twice in a few weeks. We have to rest. I would like to say to my fans — respect Arsenal a lot, they are an extraordinary team. Come to join us from minute one because the players will do the maximum.”

    For Chelsea, the defeat marks their third consecutive Premier League loss, leaving them stuck in sixth place in the table. They now sit four points behind fifth-place Liverpool in the tight race for Champions League qualification next season.

    Other key results in the relegation and European races saw Nottingham Forest, one of Tottenham’s fellow relegation rivals, hold fourth-place Aston Villa to a 1-1 draw at the City Ground. Villa, who are also chasing a Champions League spot, took an early lead through an own goal from Forest defender Murillo, but Neco Williams equalized for the home side. The result leaves Forest one point above West Ham, outside the relegation zone by the thinnest of margins. At Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace scored two late goals, including a stoppage-time penalty from Jean-Philippe Mateta, to come from behind and beat Newcastle United 2-1.

  • Civilians feared killed after reports of air strike on Nigerian market

    Civilians feared killed after reports of air strike on Nigerian market

    Northeastern Nigeria is at the center of escalating controversy after an alleged accidental air strike by the Nigerian military on a busy weekly village market near the Yobe-Borno state border left scores of civilians feared dead, in what would be the latest in a string of deadly civilian casualties from counter-insurgency operations targeting Boko Haram militants.

    The strike occurred Saturday on the Jilli market in Borno State’s Gubio local government area, during what the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) described as a “mop-up” operation against remaining terrorist factions. In an official statement, the NAF confirmed it carried out targeted strikes on what it labeled as “identified terrorist locations” in the Jilli axis, noting the mission was designed to eliminate fleeing insurgent remnants and regrouping cells that have taken advantage of the region’s rugged, hard-to-access terrain to rebuild their networks. The service has so far declined to confirm it hit the market or verify any civilian casualties from the operation.

    This zone of northeastern Nigeria has been the epicenter of a 15-year Boko Haram insurgency that has left more than 35,000 people dead and displaced over 2 million residents, with frequent military operations targeting insurgent strongholds near the Yobe-Borno border. The Jilli weekly market draws hundreds of traders and shoppers from cross-border communities in both states, making it a busy gathering point for local commerce at the time of the strike.

    As of Sunday, official casualty counts remain deeply conflicting across local and international sources. Citing multiple on-the-ground sources including a Yobe state councillor, three local residents, and an official from an international humanitarian organization, Reuters reported Saturday that at least 200 civilians were killed in the strike, with injured survivors transported to medical facilities in both Yobe and Borno states. Local councillor Lawan Zanna Nur Geidam called the event “a very devastating incident”. Two other major Nigerian national outlets, The Sun and Punch, have cited local sources putting the death toll at 10, with an unspecified number of additional people wounded. Abuja-based newspaper Daily Trust, meanwhile, cited an eyewitness account reporting at least 56 fatalities and 14 hospitalizations.

    Ahmed Ali, a 43-year-old trader who was at the market during the strike and sustained injuries, described the chaos of the attack to Reuters: “I became so scared and attempted to run away, but a friend dragged me and we all lay on the ground.”

    State emergency authorities have acknowledged the incident but have not confirmed a casualty count. In a Sunday Facebook post, the Yobe State Emergency Management Agency said it had received preliminary reports of an incident at Jilli Market that caused casualties among market participants, noting it had immediately activated emergency response protocols and deployed assessment teams to the remote area. The agency added that key details including the nature of the incident and the final number of casualties remain unverified as of Sunday. Brigadier General Dahiru Abdulsalam also confirmed via Facebook that residents from Yobe’s Geidam local government area, which borders the strike site in Borno, were among those affected.

    Amnesty International’s Nigeria branch has issued a sharp condemnation of the strike, putting the confirmed death toll at more than 100 people. In a post on the social platform X, the organization argued that “Launching air raids is not a legitimate law enforcement method by anyone’s standard. Such reckless use of deadly force is unlawful, outrageous and lays bare the Nigerian military’s shocking disregard for the lives of those it supposedly exists to protect.”

    This incident fits a documented pattern of repeated civilian casualties from Nigerian military counter-insurgency operations in the northeast over the past decade. Military air strikes targeting Islamist militants have previously mistakenly hit civilian sites including residential villages, camps for internally displaced persons, and public marketplaces, drawing ongoing criticism from human rights groups over inadequate safeguards to protect civilian populations.

  • Delays mar voting as crisis-hit Peru picks ninth president in decade

    Delays mar voting as crisis-hit Peru picks ninth president in decade

    On a scorching Sunday across Peru, long-delayed presidential and legislative elections kicked off, wrapping the Andean nation’s latest desperate bid to escape a decade of nonstop political chaos that has seen nine heads of state ousted or imprisoned. Nearly 27 million eligible voters, stretching from the Amazon rainforest lowlands to the high peaks of the Andes, cast ballots on an unprecedented half-meter-long ballot paper listing a record 35 presidential candidates from across the ideological spectrum.

    What was meant to be a routine democratic process quickly descended into public frustration, with dozens of polling stations in metropolitan Lima remaining shuttered hours after opening. Furious would-be voters queued for up to four hours under unforgiving equatorial sun, with many raising accusations of electoral fraud following a brutal, acrimonious campaign season. Peru’s national electoral commission quickly pinned the blame on a contracted logistics supplier that failed to deliver critical voting materials on time, and extended voting hours by one hour to accommodate disrupted voters.

    Decades of systemic corruption and backroom politicking have left most Peruvians deeply disillusioned with the country’s ruling political class. Public anger runs so deep that the nation has even built a purpose-built prison to house former presidents convicted of corruption. For many ordinary Peruvians, this election represents a last chance to turn the tide of rising crime, economic instability and political dysfunction that has eroded quality of life nationwide. “The people can’t take it anymore,” said Rosenda Lopez, a 47-year-old textile vendor in Lima. “I hope someone is elected who works for the community. The community needs it. They are killing us.”

    Over the past 10 years, Peru’s homicide rate has more than doubled, while reported annual extortion cases have skyrocketed from just 3,200 to more than 26,500. In response to widespread public anxiety over insecurity, candidates have leaned into increasingly hardline policy proposals: from ordering the extrajudicial killing of gang hitmen to mass deportations of irregular migrants, to detaining offenders in remote jungle jails surrounded by snakes.

    Pre-election opinion polls have been split, with conservative candidates leading the field amid a broader regional shift toward right-wing populist governments aligned with former U.S. President Donald Trump. No candidate has managed to poll above 15% support, far below the 50% majority required to win an outright victory, making a June runoff election all but certain. Alongside the presidency, voters are selecting a new 130-seat Congress, a body that has been central to the removal of every recent Peruvian president.

    The nominal frontrunner in the race is Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who died in 2024 while serving a 16-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity, bribery and embezzlement. This marks Fujimori’s fourth run for the presidency, and she has leaned heavily on public nostalgia for her father’s authoritarian, tough-on-crime rule to court voters. In a pre-election interview, she outlined plans to restore public order within her first 100 days in office by deploying the military to manage overcrowded, violence-plagued prisons, strengthen border controls and deport all undocumented migrants. She also vowed to build a united conservative bloc with aligned right-wing leaders across the Americas, from the United States to neighboring Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia. “I believe that time and history are giving my father the place he deserves,” Fujimori said of her father’s controversial legacy.

    Fujimori faces a surprise late surge from 80-year-old former Lima mayor Ricardo Belmont, who has built a massive grassroots following on the social media platform TikTok, drawing cross-ideological support from voters fed up with establishment politics. “He’s collecting votes from left to right, like Pac-Man,” explained Patricia Zarate, a political analyst with the Institute of Peruvian Studies. Other notable candidates include conservative television comedian Carlos Alvarez and far-right former mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, who has openly promised to “hunt” Venezuelan migrants and has rebranded himself with the nickname “Porky” after the iconic cartoon pig.

    Incumbent President Jose Maria Balcazar, who has held office for less than two months, is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election. Voting is compulsory for all eligible Peruvians, and polls were scheduled to close at 6 p.m. local time (2300 GMT), one hour later than originally planned to offset opening delays. Sociologist David Sulmont noted that the fragmented field and widespread voter anger reflects a “major disconnect” between the Peruvian electorate and the policy offerings of the country’s political elite, a rift that has fueled the decade-long cycle of political collapse that this election aims to end. Many voters share the sentiment of 60-year-old shopkeeper Anita Medrano, who says she will not back any traditional or establishment candidate: “They already had their chance.”

  • Argentina international Cristian Romero injured in Tottenham’s loss to Sunderland

    Argentina international Cristian Romero injured in Tottenham’s loss to Sunderland

    In a tense Premier League clash at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur suffered a double blow: a 1-0 defeat to the Black Cats and a worrying injury to star defender Cristian Romero that left the Argentine international visibly emotional as he exited the pitch.

    The incident unfolded in the second half, when Romero collided with Spurs goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky during a sequence of play in the box. Immediately after the impact, the 27-year-old defender was seen limping heavily, and it quickly became clear he could not continue the match. Though Romero did not need a stretcher and walked off the pitch under his own power, he was openly distressed and in tears, with teammates stepping in to console him as he made his way to the sideline for medical assessment.

    As of Sunday evening, the full extent of Romero’s injury remains undisclosed, with club medical staff yet to release a formal diagnosis. The timing of the setback has already sparked widespread concern, however, coming just months before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where Romero is expected to be a core contributor to the defending champion Argentina national team.

    For Tottenham, the injury is a major potential setback to the club’s remaining domestic season goals. Newly appointed Spurs head coach Roberto De Zerbi described the incident as “very bad” in his post-match comments, acknowledging the uncertainty around how severe the damage is.

    “We have to wait for assessments over the coming days to know more,” De Zerbi told reporters. “I hope for all of us that this is not a serious issue, because Cristian is a crucial player for this squad. We need him back to finish this season strong and hit the targets we’ve set for ourselves.”

    Kinsky, by contrast, escaped the collision relatively unscathed. The goalkeeper was able to remain on the pitch after receiving treatment, with medics only needing to wrap a bandage around a head wound he sustained in the impact.

  • Brazilian counsellor highlights Heze peonies’ cultural values

    Brazilian counsellor highlights Heze peonies’ cultural values

    Against a backdrop of growing global demand for cross-cultural people-to-people exchange, the 2026 Heze Peony International Communication Forum kicked off on April 11 in Heze, a city in East China’s Shandong Province long renowned as China’s “Peony Capital”. The event drew diplomatic representatives, cultural scholars and industry practitioners from across China and around the world, all gathering to explore how the iconic flower can act as a soft medium to strengthen cross-border connection and mutual understanding.

    Among the participating international guests was Rodrigo Mendes Araujo, Counsellor for Energy, Mines and Intellectual Property at the Embassy of Brazil in Beijing. In his remarks at the forum, Araujo centered his discussion on the evolving global role of Heze’s peony culture, focusing particular attention on China’s innovative approach to revitalizing traditional cultural heritage.

    Araujo emphasized that China has achieved a remarkable balance between cultural preservation and economic development, successfully transforming centuries-old peony heritage into a dynamic, thriving creative and commercial industry. Beyond domestic economic benefits, he noted, this development has also positioned peony culture as a powerful, approachable bridge for international cultural exchange. He added that forums focused on Heze peonies create a valuable, accessible entry point for Brazilian audiences and the broader Latin American public to dive into the deep historical roots of Chinese traditional culture, breaking down cultural barriers through shared appreciation for natural beauty and cultural tradition.

    As one of China’s most iconic traditional flowers, the peony has been embedded in Chinese art, literature and cultural identity for more than 1,500 years. Heze, which is home to over 1200 varieties of peony cultivated across more than 40,000 hectares of farmland, has built peony culture into a core part of its regional identity and international branding, hosting annual international exchange events to share the flower’s cultural significance with global audiences.