Global Pulse

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  • ROK president expresses regret to DPRK over drone incident

    ROK president expresses regret to DPRK over drone incident

    In a landmark address to his cabinet on Monday, Republic of Korea (ROK) President Lee Jae-myung became the first South Korean head of state to formally express regret to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) following an incident involving unauthorized civilian drone flights into DPRK territory that sparked unneeded military friction on the Korean Peninsula.

    Lee emphasized that while the South Korean government bore no direct intention for the incident, the irresponsible and reckless actions of a small number of private actors had generated avoidable military tension between the two Koreas. In his capacity as the nation’s president, Lee extended his official regret to the DPRK over the episode.

    Beyond the expression of regret, the president ordered South Korea’s relevant government ministries to immediately overhaul existing regulatory and security systems, rolling out concrete, enforceable measures to prevent similar unauthorized incidents from occurring in the future. He also offered his deepest consolation to residents living along the inter-Korean border, who have faced elevated anxiety and uncertainty in the wake of the incident.

    This public address marks the first time the South Korean president has issued a formal statement of regret since the drone incident was brought to light. Earlier in February, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young had already conveyed an official government-level expression of regret to the DPRK regarding the unauthorized civilian drone incursions.

    Lee reinforced that South Korea’s constitution and national laws explicitly prohibit private citizens from carrying out independent provocative acts against the DPRK, noting that the occurrence of such private provocations remains a source of deep regret for his administration. The president added that all South Korean people must clearly recognize that peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula are the most critical priorities for the region, and that this shared stability must be safeguarded collectively by all parties.

  • Nigerian army rescues 31 held hostage in Easter church attack

    Nigerian army rescues 31 held hostage in Easter church attack

    On a Sunday morning ahead of the Easter holiday, armed attackers targeted a church in the northwestern Nigerian community of Ariko, Kaduna State, leaving multiple civilians dead and dozens held captive in a brazen act of violence that has underscored the persistent security crisis plaguing the region. In the aftermath of the assault, Nigerian military forces announced they have successfully recovered all 31 civilian hostages taken during the attack, though discrepancies have already emerged over the final civilian death toll. Official security force statements confirm five civilians were killed when gunmen opened fire during Easter worship celebrations, but a local church leader initially placed the confirmed death count at seven. According to the Nigerian army’s official account, responding military personnel engaged the attacking gunmen in an intense close-quarters firefight that eventually forced the assailants to retreat from the area, abandoning their hostages and the remains of those they had killed. Military officials added that the fleeing attackers sustained heavy losses during the clash, with visible blood trails along their escape routes confirming significant casualties among the insurgents. Despite the military’s claims of a rapid, effective response to the attack, local media reports quoting area residents tell a different story, claiming the gunmen were able to carry out their assault and operate in the area for an extended period before security forces arrived to confront them. In the wake of the rescue operation, additional military troops have been deployed to the region to track down the surviving attackers and bolster local security protections for civilian communities. Military authorities have also called on local residents to share any intelligence that can help advance counter-insurgency operations targeting the armed groups driving widespread insecurity across northern Nigeria. This church attack is not an isolated incident: kidnappings for ransom and targeted attacks on civilian communities are endemic across northern Nigeria, where the national government has struggled for years to contain overlapping security threats from jihadist insurgent networks and criminal armed gangs known locally as bandits. In a separate, coordinated counter-offensive announced just days after a mass abduction of village residents in Zamfara State, Nigeria’s military confirmed it had killed 65 bandits during a major operation in the state, per reporting from the Agence France-Presse news agency. Police had already confirmed earlier that dozens of local residents were abducted from multiple villages in Zamfara earlier that same week, and a regional manhunt had been launched immediately after the kidnapping was reported. The persistent targeting of religious communities in Nigeria, including Christian congregations celebrating major holidays, has drawn international scrutiny in recent years. During the final year of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the White House raised formal concerns over the treatment of Christian communities in Nigeria and called on the Nigerian national government to take more aggressive action to improve security and protect Christian populations. Trump went as far as to publicly claim that a “Christian genocide” was ongoing in the country, an accusation that Nigerian government officials firmly rejected, noting that Muslims, Christians, and people of no religious affiliation have all been killed in widespread attacks across the country’s northern regions. In a show of international support for Nigeria’s counter-insurgency efforts, U.S. military personnel were deployed to Nigeria earlier this year in February to provide specialized training for local security forces and share intelligence support to aid the fight against Islamist militants and other armed criminal groups.

  • Unearthing 13 dynasties and the souls of emperors

    Unearthing 13 dynasties and the souls of emperors

    For 31-year-old Beijing-based state-owned enterprise worker Zhong Jing, 2024 marked the start of a new, intentional hobby: becoming a “weekend historian,” trading routine city weekends for cross-country road trips with friends to hunt for lesser-known historical sites scattered across China’s countryside. After each excursion, Zhong documents his observations and reflections, turning casual travel into a deeply personal journey of cultural discovery that has reshaped how he engages with the past and broadened his perspective.

    It was during an October trip to Luoyang, Henan province, that this passion clicked into place for Zhong. Long celebrated as the capital of 13 ancient Chinese dynasties, Luoyang retains few visible above-ground traces of its imperial golden ages. Most of its layered history lies buried beneath the soil, so Zhong and his travel companions mapped out an itinerary connecting remote imperial tombs spread across the region’s rolling landscape.

    Of all the sites he has explored on these trips, none left a more lasting mark than Changling Mausoleum, the final resting place of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), tucked into the slopes of Luoyang’s Mangshan Mountain. When Zhong arrived at the site, he encountered a playful, memorable moment: a group of local high school students had brought a tongue-in-cheek certificate reading “Luoyang Real Estate Annual Sales Champion Award” to present to the long-dead emperor. The joke carried quiet weight: Emperor Xiaowen relocated his dynasty’s capital to Luoyang 1,500 years ago, breathing new life into the city that endures to this day.

    The encounter sparked deep reflection for Zhong. Growing up, traditional historical education framed the Northern Wei as just one of many competing dynasties during a chaotic period of division, overshadowed by the grand unification of the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC) and the military prowess of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). That context left little room to appreciate the dynasty’s transformative legacy — a gap that visiting the emperor’s tomb in person filled.

    What strikes Zhong most deeply through his on-the-ground explorations is the core truth of Chinese civilization: it is a diverse, deeply unified whole, sustained by its long history of openness and cultural integration. Emperor Xiaowen, a ruler of ethnic Xianbei heritage, championed mass cultural and ethnic fusion by embracing Han traditions, a policy of openness that Zhong argues laid groundwork for the later strength and cosmopolitanism of the Tang Dynasty (618–907). This willingness to welcome new influences, he says, is what keeps civilizations vibrant; without it, cultures stagnate, trapped in closed cycles of repetition.

    Today, the slopes of Mangshan Mountain are dotted with imperial burials, and small pavilions near the tombs hang with an eclectic mix of banners: some honor the historical contributions of the figures buried below, while others carry the same kind of playful, irreverent humor that the high school students brought to Changling Mausoleum. A short distance from Emperor Xiaowen’s tomb, Zhong also visited the resting place widely believed to belong to Li Yu, the last ruler of the Southern Tang during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960). Remembered by history as a fallen king, Li Yu is celebrated across the centuries as one of China’s most gifted poets, whose work captures universal human emotions that transcend his royal status.

    “We do not worship victors; we treasure the hearts that have given the purest voice to human feeling,” Zhong observes. More than a thousand years after Li Yu lived, his emotions still draw modern visitors to stand quietly before his tomb. While few people today know what it means to lose an entire kingdom, everyone knows the weight of regret; though most have not watched dynasties rise and fall, all have tasted life’s quiet helplessness. The poetic sighs Li Yu wrote centuries ago still echo through time, finding a home in every heart that can understand them.

    This firsthand feature was reported by China Daily’s Li Hongyang, updated on April 6, 2026.

  • A Russian attack kills 3 in Odesa while Ukraine targets Russian oil infrastructure, officials say

    A Russian attack kills 3 in Odesa while Ukraine targets Russian oil infrastructure, officials say

    Fresh large-scale drone exchanges between Russia and Ukraine have escalated civilian casualties and infrastructure damage, marking another dangerous turn in the four-year full-scale invasion that continues to defy international peace efforts. The latest wave of violence unfolded overnight Monday, with Russian strike teams launching a coordinated aerial assault on Odesa, Ukraine’s strategically critical southern Black Sea port city.

    The attack on Odesa left a devastating civilian toll: local officials confirmed the deaths of two adult women and a two-year-old toddler, who were killed when a drone slammed into a residential apartment building, leaving the structure heavily damaged. Working through the night under bright floodlights, emergency rescue teams pulled four surviving people trapped in the rubble of the damaged building. Eleven additional people, including a pregnant woman and two children under one year of age, were admitted to local hospitals for treatment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed in an official post on social media platform X.

    This strike is part of a sustained, widespread Russian assault across multiple Ukrainian regions, targeting both civilian residential areas and critical energy infrastructure. Since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russian forces have consistently targeted civilian population centers across Ukraine, with United Nations data confirming the deaths of more than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians to date. In Monday’s overnight barrages, in addition to Odesa, Russian strikes hit energy assets in four northern and eastern regions: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipro. The damage to transmission and distribution facilities in Chernihiv left more than 300,000 households without power, according to the region’s public utility operator.

    Zelenskyy released updated figures Monday showing the extreme intensity of Russian aerial assaults over the past seven days: Russia has launched more than 2,800 attack drones, nearly 1,350 heavy glide bombs, and over 40 assorted missiles at Ukrainian targets in just one week. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, the Ukrainian leader warned that ongoing conflicts in other global regions, particularly the standoff between Iran and Israel, are depleting global stockpiles of the air defense systems Ukraine relies on to fend off these attacks — most notably the U.S.-manufactured Patriot systems designed to intercept incoming cruise and ballistic missiles. On Monday, Zelenskyy reiterated his call for international partners to ramp up support for Ukraine’s air defense networks, saying, “Russia has no intention of stopping” its offensive as U.S.-led peace negotiations remain completely stalled. “We need to strengthen air defense together so that the interception rate of drones and missiles continues to increase,” he added.

    In response to the ongoing Russian assaults, Ukraine has launched counter-strikes deep inside Russian territory using domestically developed long-range drones, which now have an operational range of up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). Kyiv has increasingly targeted Russian oil and energy export infrastructure in these strikes, as Russia works to expand crude oil exports following a temporary sanctions waiver granted during the previous Trump administration to ease global energy supply constraints. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly stated that all expanded energy export revenue generated by Russia flows directly into its military budget to fund new weapons and attacks on Ukraine.

    Monday’s Ukrainian counter-strike targeted Novorossiisk, one of Russia’s largest and most economically critical Black Sea oil export ports located in the Krasnodar Krai region. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its air defense systems intercepted and downed a total of 50 Ukrainian drones launched in the overnight attack. Regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev confirmed that the attack still caused damage and civilian casualties: eight people, including two children, were injured, and six apartment buildings plus two private residential homes suffered damage. Unconfirmed independent media reports suggest the primary target of the strike was Novorossiisk’s Sheskharis oil terminal, a major hub for Russian Black Sea oil exports. This attack follows a similar strike last week that hit multiple Russian oil facilities on the Gulf of Finland in northwest Russia.

    The Associated Press continues to provide ongoing full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at its dedicated online hub.

  • Last train market keeps tradition alive

    Last train market keeps tradition alive

    Tucked away in the mountainous terrain of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, in the rural town of Baihe, Pingbian Miao Autonomous County, a unique century-old way of life continues to unfold every Monday along the tracks of the historic Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. This is the famous ‘Train Market’ of Baiheqiao Station, a living relic of industrial and cultural history that has now earned the title of China’s ‘last train market’, drawing curious visitors and keeping generations-old trading traditions alive.

    The market’s origins stretch back to the construction of the narrow-gauge Yunnan-Vietnam Railway more than 100 years ago, a line that once connected inland China to global trade routes through Vietnam. Long before modern highways and large commercial hubs transformed regional commerce, local communities leaned on the railway as both a transportation link and a natural gathering place for trade. Every week, villagers from surrounding mountain valleys would travel to the station, where access was easiest for communities spread across the rugged landscape, to buy and sell goods.

    Today, the centuries-old line has undergone massive changes. It no longer functions as a primary transport artery for passenger travel, but the Kaiyuan-Hekou section still maintains limited freight operations, with one or two cargo trains rolling through Baiheqiao Station on an average day. The rhythm of the market has adapted perfectly to this schedule: when the train’s whistle echoes through the valley and the locomotive rumbles into view, vendors step back from their stall spaces that line both sides of the tracks, pausing their haggling and transactions. As soon as the train passes and the tracks clear, trade resumes just as quickly as it paused.

    Every week, vendors arrive before dawn, carrying handwoven baskets stacked high with homegrown produce, free-range poultry, foraged mountain delicacies, and seasonal vegetables. What once was a weekly gathering exclusively for nearby local residents has grown into a popular cultural and tourism attraction in recent years. Each Monday, tourists from across Yunnan and other provinces across China travel to the remote station to experience this one-of-a-kind market. They come not just to purchase authentic local farm products, but to walk in the footsteps of history, exploring a living industrial heritage that has adapted rather than disappeared in the face of modernization.

    As nearby communities have gradually shifted toward more developed urban centers further from the railway line, the Baiheqiao Train Market stands as a persistent anchor for tradition. Unlike many historic market sites that have been relocated or turned into sterile tourist attractions, this market retains its original character, continuing to serve both local traders and modern visitors who seek a connection to China’s rural and industrial past.

  • Website aims to fill funeral info gap

    Website aims to fill funeral info gap

    To mark the 2026 Tomb Sweeping Day, China launched its first centralized national online platform for funeral and interment services on Sunday, a development crafted to tackle longstanding public concerns over opaque pricing and fragmented information in the country’s funeral sector.

    Developed under the official guidance of China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, the new platform — named China Funeral Network and accessible at https://www.zgbznet.com.cn — is designed to streamline end-of-life planning for grieving families by aggregating authoritative, up-to-date information across every core stage of funeral arrangements, from initial mourning services to final burial and ongoing memorial activities.

    At the heart of the platform is its “one-stop” service model, which integrates national access to official government portals for handling all post-death administrative affairs. A key interactive feature is its map-based interface, which pinpoints the exact locations of funeral homes, columbaria, and cemeteries across every region of China, alongside full details on service offerings, required application procedures, and transparent pricing breakdowns. Users can filter search results by geographic region, proximity to their location, and type of service institution to find resources that match their specific needs.

    Officials confirmed that civil affairs departments from all 31 provincial-level administrative regions across mainland China, plus the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, contributed to the platform’s development and national rollout.

    “The platform will help bereaved families quickly locate nearby funeral service resources and gain a clear understanding of service pricing, which effectively addresses the information asymmetry that often creates additional stress for families during an already difficult time of funeral arrangements,” explained Xu Zesheng, a senior official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs’ national funeral services task force.

    Beyond core service information, the website also hosts dedicated sections covering national and local funeral policies and regulations, updates on industry-wide developments, and public case alerts about unregulated or problematic service providers. These additional resources are designed to serve both the general public and funeral industry professionals seeking authoritative regulatory updates, cultural guidance, and professional training materials.

    Moving forward, authorities plan to expand the platform’s existing functions to further promote the adoption of environmentally friendly burial practices and encourage more civilized, cost-effective forms of memorialization that align with modern public needs.

    In a coordinated move aligned with the platform’s launch, six newly revised or formulated industry standards for funeral services also went into effect on the same day, with a focus on advancing digital transformation and raising overall service quality across the sector.

    One of the new standards outlines technical requirements for communication architecture and interface protocols for funeral internet of things (IoT) systems, establishing clear technical guidelines for digital infrastructure to support more innovative governance and service delivery in the funeral space.

    A second standard formalizes rules for secure data sharing and exchange between civil affairs regulatory bodies and service institutions including funeral homes, cemeteries, and columbaria, strengthening the sector’s overall capacity for secure data transmission and practical data application.

    A revised public satisfaction evaluation standard formalizes core principles, performance indicators, and assessment procedures for measuring funeral service quality, creating a clear framework for service providers to implement targeted improvements to their offerings.

    Additionally, a new set of standards for electronic certification across core funeral services — covering cremation, ash storage, and burial — is designed to streamline digital documentation across key end-of-life processes and build a stronger foundation for data-driven sector management.

    The Ministry of Civil Affairs noted that it will continue refining the national funeral industry standards system and strengthening regulatory oversight to support the healthy, well-regulated development of the sector for all Chinese families.

  • Seoul spy agency says it’s fair to view teen daughter of North Korean leader Kim as his heir

    Seoul spy agency says it’s fair to view teen daughter of North Korean leader Kim as his heir

    After years of gradual public observations and incremental official assessments, South Korea’s top intelligence body has delivered its most definitive judgment to date on the North Korean succession: Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter is being groomed to extend the Kim family’s dynastic rule into a fourth generation.

    The confirmation came during a closed-door policy briefing to South Korea’s National Assembly on Monday, according to multiple lawmakers who attended the session. National Intelligence Service Director Lee Jong-seok told lawmakers that it is now reasonable to identify the girl, widely believed to be 13-year-old Kim Ju Ae, as the designated future leader of North Korea, lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun told reporters after the meeting.

    This latest statement marks a clear escalation of the NIS’s public assessments of Kim Ju Ae’s status. Early in 2024, the agency first labeled her as the likely heir, and just months ago in February, it concluded she was nearing an official designation as successor. Monday’s briefing solidified that positioning into a clear, formal confirmation.

    In a striking secondary finding that upends long-held outside assumptions about North Korea’s power structure, the NIS also dismissed the long-circulated narrative that Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, would pose a challenge to her niece’s rise. Citing unspecified but reliable intelligence, the agency told lawmakers Kim Yo Jong — long viewed by many foreign analysts as North Korea’s second-most powerful figure — holds no substantive governing authority, leaving her no pathway to block the younger Kim’s succession.

    Kim Ju Ae first began appearing at high-profile state events alongside her father in late 2022, and North Korean state media has repeatedly referred to her as Kim Jong Un’s “most beloved” and “respected” child, a framing that sparked widespread international speculation about her future role. In recent months, she has taken on an increasingly public portfolio tied to the country’s powerful military: she has been photographed driving a tank during military drills supervised by her father and firing pistols during a visit to a light weapons factory. According to lawmakers who received the briefing, North Korean authorities arranged these public military appearances to establish Kim Ju Ae’s credentials among the country’s military elite and dampen existing skepticism about the prospect of a female leader.

    North Korea has been ruled exclusively by male members of the Kim dynasty since the country’s founding in 1948. Kim Il Sung, the state’s founder, passed power to his son Kim Jong Il in 1994, who in turn transferred control to his son Kim Jong Un following his death in 2011. While the NIS’s assessment is the most definitive official foreign judgment on the succession to date, not all outside observers agree with the conclusion. Critics note that North Korea operates as an extremely patriarchal society, arguing that elite and public acceptance of a female leader remains unlikely. They also point out that Kim Jong Un is just 42 years old, and naming an heir so early in his rule could risk eroding his own hold on power, making a formal designation premature.

    Details about Kim Ju Ae’s personal life remain tightly guarded by Pyongyang. North Korean state media has never confirmed her name or exact age; the widely used name Kim Ju Ae stems from a 2013 account by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who met the Kim family during a visit to Pyongyang and recalled holding Kim Jong Un’s infant daughter.

  • China-built engine fueled by hydrogen test-flown

    China-built engine fueled by hydrogen test-flown

    In a historic milestone for global green aviation development, an independently developed Chinese megawatt-class hydrogen-fueled turboprop engine has completed the world’s first successful maiden test flight. The 7.5-tonne unmanned cargo aircraft fitted with the AEP100 engine completed the 16-minute flight at an airport in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province on Saturday, marking a new chapter for carbon-free aviation technology.

    According to the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), the developer of the engine, the AEP100 system operated stably and reliably throughout the entire flight. The aircraft traveled 36 kilometers, holding a steady cruising speed of 220 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 300 meters, before returning safely to base after completing all pre-planned test missions. AECC experts noted that this successful maiden flight represents a transformative breakthrough, moving China’s domestic hydrogen-powered aviation engine program from purely conceptual technological development to practical engineering application.

    The achievement also confirms that China has built a fully self-contained, end-to-end technical supply chain for hydrogen-fueled aviation engines, spanning from the manufacturing of core specialized components to full system integration. The successful test verified that integrating hydrogen-powered propulsion systems with aircraft flight platforms is engineeringly feasible and reliable, creating a solid foundation for future mass industrial deployment of hydrogen energy in the aviation sector. This milestone also signals that China’s green aviation power development has crossed a key threshold, shifting from early technological exploration to hands-on engineering practice.

    Beyond the technical breakthrough itself, experts project that the advancement of hydrogen-powered aviation technology will drive coordinated upgrades across the entire hydrogen energy industrial chain. This spans upstream green hydrogen production, midstream hydrogen storage and refueling infrastructure construction, and downstream development of high-end equipment and advanced new material clusters. These linked developments will in turn accelerate the shift toward green, low-carbon, high-quality growth across China’s whole aviation industry.

    Looking ahead, as production costs for green hydrogen continue to fall globally, the economic and energy security benefits of hydrogen-powered aviation will become increasingly prominent. Industry planners expect the technology to first enter early commercial use in low-altitude aviation segments, such as unmanned cargo delivery and inter-island logistics transport, before gradually expanding to serve regional passenger routes and eventually long-haul mainline passenger aircraft.

  • Tomb tributes bridge gap between centuries

    Tomb tributes bridge gap between centuries

    As the Qingming Festival, China’s traditional occasion for honoring ancestors and departed heroes, approaches in 2026, a growing trend of spontaneous tribute-paying by young people at the graves of historical figures has emerged, bridging the gap between centuries and bringing centuries-old revolutionary spirits to life for modern generations.

    Twenty-one-year-old Wu Yutong, a university student hailing from Dalian, Liaoning province, stumbled upon an unexpected connection during a recent trip to Hangzhou, Zhejiang. While checking her location in her hotel room, she discovered she was staying just hundreds of meters away from the final resting place of Qiu Jin — a pioneering 20th-century Chinese revolutionary and feminist who was executed by Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) authorities in 1907 at just 31 years old, a heroine Wu has admired since her middle school years.

    The following morning, on a clear January day, Wu set off across Gushan Hill, which sits along the scenic shoreline of Hangzhou’s iconic West Lake. Winding past crowds of casual tourists and street vendors selling local handicrafts and souvenirs, she followed a quiet path to a secluded clearing ringed with tall pine and camphor trees. There, a white marble statue of Qiu Jin, holding a sword in hand, stands in quiet tribute to her legacy.

    Wu came prepared with two carefully chosen offerings: a bouquet of chrysanthemums, selected to honor a poem Qiu wrote about the resilient flower, and a bright red silk scarf, placed to symbolize the blood Qiu shed fighting for her radical beliefs of gender equality and national liberation. “The fire in her heart never went out,” Wu shared reflecting on the moment. She spent an entire hour standing quietly before the statue, and when passing tourists mistakenly identified Qiu as other famous figures from Chinese history or folklore — such as the legendary snake spirit Bai Suzhen, or 20th-century Communist martyr Jiang Zhujun — Wu took the time to share Qiu Jin’s true story with them.

    For Wu, the visit marked the end of a long journey to connect with the heroine she had first encountered as a one-dimensional name in middle school textbooks, where Qiu was reduced to just a few lines describing her as a revolutionary patriot and martyr. It was only after Wu sought out Qiu’s own writing — including the poetry and essays Qiu published in *Chinese Women’s Journal*, the groundbreaking feminist periodical she founded in 1907 — that she came to see Qiu as a fully realized person, not just a historical footnote.

    “I no longer saw just a name but a girl trapped by her era, one who fought desperately to break free,” Wu explained. When she shared the story of her visit to the grave on Xiaohongshu (RedNote), China’s popular lifestyle and social sharing platform, the overwhelming public response took her by surprise. To date, her post has earned more than 35,000 likes, and in the comment section, she found a thriving community of other young people who share this quiet hobby of paying respects to historical heroes.

    Commenters asked for directions to the site, while one young artist even shared an original New Year portrait of Qiu Jin, painted with mountains and rivers across her robes — a visual tribute to the nation Qiu gave her life to improve. For Wu, this trend of visiting historical graves is far from the modern celebrity culture many young people engage in; it is a deeply personal practice that allows her and other young Chinese to draw strength from the past to navigate modern challenges.

    Qiu Jin has become a mirror for Wu’s own life choices: “I remind myself to stand tall like her, to be the master of my own fate,” she said. “I don’t see it as chasing celebrities, but rather drawing strength from history. When we face challenges or feel lost in our own lives, thinking about the spirit of historical figures gives us courage to move forward. In the quiet of an ancient tomb, we can find in history the direction and confidence to keep going.”

    This grassroots movement of tribute-paying ahead of the 2026 Qingming Festival highlights a growing desire among young people in China to connect with their history beyond formal education, building intimate, cross-temporal bonds with the figures who shaped modern China.

  • Middle East conflict drives record fuel price hikes across Africa

    Middle East conflict drives record fuel price hikes across Africa

    The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has triggered an unprecedented ripple effect across African economies, most of which depend entirely on imported petroleum products, pushing fuel prices to historic levels that leave ordinary consumers bearing the full brunt of rising global energy costs. In Southern and East Africa in particular, two nations have rolled out the steepest monthly fuel price adjustments recorded in modern history, according to regional energy officials.

    South Africa’s Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources confirmed that new price hikes took effect Wednesday: gasoline rates rose by 3.06 South African rand (roughly $0.18) per liter, while diesel prices increased between 7.37 and 7.51 rand per liter. Even more dramatic increases hit illuminating paraffin, a critical off-grid energy source for millions of low-income South African households, which jumped 11.67 rand per liter. To offset some of this strain for consumers while maintaining broader economic stability, South Africa’s finance ministry implemented a temporary 3-rand-per-liter cut to the general fuel levy, running from April 1 to May 5, department spokesperson Lerato Ntsoko confirmed.

    Neighboring Malawi followed with an even larger proportional adjustment, rolling out a maximum 35 percent increase for core petroleum products that also took effect Wednesday. Lucas Kondowe, chair of the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority, explained that the persistent upward pressure from Middle East conflict-driven volatility has upended longstanding industry pricing norms. Where suppliers traditionally use the prior month’s average global price to set local rates, today’s volatile market has led all suppliers to switch to a far shorter two-week average from the current month, accelerating price jumps for end users. Under the new rates, Malawi’s gasoline and diesel now hit 6,672 kwacha ($3.86) per liter, ranking among the highest fuel prices on the entire African continent.

    South Africa and Malawi are far from isolated cases: energy regulators across the continent have hiked pump prices to pass along soaring import costs to consumers. Tanzania has raised fuel prices by roughly 33 percent, while Ghana increased gasoline by 15 percent and diesel by nearly 19 percent. Even in Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude oil producer, the continent’s biggest refinery operated by Dangote Petroleum announced a fresh price hike in late March, lifting Premium Motor Spirit costs from 1,175 to 1,245 Nigerian naira ($0.85 to $0.90) per liter. The conflict has pushed global Brent crude prices above $100 per barrel, forcing the local adjustment. Other nations that have rolled out significant fuel price increases in recent weeks include Mauritania, the Gambia, Mali, Botswana, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.

    To buffer low-income and vulnerable households from the growing impact of the conflict, a small number of governments have rolled out targeted support measures beyond South Africa’s fuel levy cut. Kenya for instance has reiterated that its existing fuel stabilization fund and longstanding government-to-government fuel import deal continue to work to moderate extreme price spikes and maintain consistent domestic supply. But even with these localized interventions, global bodies warn the damage extends far beyond energy markets. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has issued an urgent alarm that disruption to critical global energy shipping routes has amplified economic pressure across every region, including Africa. A rapid UNCTAD assessment found ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital energy chokepoints, has dropped to near a standstill, with transits plummeting nearly 95 percent. The International Energy Agency estimates that between 25 and 30 percent of global crude oil production and 20 percent of global liquefied natural gas supplies normally pass through the narrow waterway. “This has disrupted a large share of global energy supplies, driving fuel and transport costs higher and feeding inflationary pressures across economies worldwide,” the UN body noted in its latest update.