Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Brazil’s former spy chief detained by ICE agents in US

    Brazil’s former spy chief detained by ICE agents in US

    In a significant development in Brazil’s high-profile anti-coup investigation, Alexandre Ramagem — the former head of Brazil’s national intelligence agency Abin and a close ally of incarcerated ex-President Jair Bolsonaro — has been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Orlando, Florida. The detention marks a major milestone in cross-border law enforcement cooperation after Ramagem spent months as a fugitive following his conviction on coup plotting charges.

    Ramagem was among eight people, including Bolsonaro himself, found guilty in a Brazilian Supreme Court trial of orchestrating a plan to stage a military coup to overturn the results of the 2022 Brazilian presidential election, which Bolsonaro lost to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Handed a 16-year prison sentence, Ramagem never appeared to hear the guilty verdict: he fled Brazil by car to neighboring Guyana shortly before the ruling was issued, then flew to the United States to evade custody.

    ICE confirmed Monday that Ramagem is currently in their custody, but has declined to share additional details on the circumstances of his arrest. Brazilian federal police confirmed only that a Brazilian national convicted of coup conspiracy by the Supreme Court had been detained in Orlando, crediting the arrest to coordinated international police collaboration between Brazilian federal authorities and U.S. law enforcement. Multiple regional law enforcement sources familiar with the case tell BBC News Brasil that Brazilian officials expect Ramagem will be deported back to Brazil following a hearing before an American immigration judge.

    Ramagem’s legal team has already signaled it will fight extradition, arguing that the conviction against him is politically motivated. Legal analysts expect his attorneys will formally apply for political asylum in the U.S. if that application has not already been submitted.

    Beyond his coup conviction, Ramagem, who led Abin from 2019 to 2022 during Bolsonaro’s presidency, is also facing separate investigation for allegedly misusing his intelligence agency post to conduct illegal surveillance on political opponents of the former president — allegations Ramagem has repeatedly denied.

    After Ramagem fled Brazil, Brazilian judicial authorities officially labeled him a fugitive and formally requested his extradition from the U.S. through diplomatic channels back in December 2025. In a pre-detention interview with a pro-Bolsonaro journalist, Ramagem defended his decision to flee, claiming he would have been wrongfully imprisoned in Brazil and that he felt secure on U.S. soil. He also claimed he had been welcomed by U.S. authorities upon arrival, saying, ‘What I can tell you is that the American authorities received me very well, and that’s exactly what they said: “It’s very good to have a friend safe here with us.”‘

    The case has already drawn cross-border political attention, with former U.S. President Donald Trump dismissing the entire investigation that led to the convictions of Bolsonaro, Ramagem and their co-conspirators as a politically motivated ‘witch hunt’. When Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in the plot, Trump called the sentence ‘very surprising’. Shortly after the verdict was issued, the Trump administration imposed economic sanctions on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who led the investigation, but later reversed the sanctions, citing that the restrictions were ‘inconsistent with US foreign policy interests’.

  • Separatists in Cameroon announce a 3-day pause in fighting for pope’s visit

    Separatists in Cameroon announce a 3-day pause in fighting for pope’s visit

    YAOUNDE, Cameroon – In a surprising gesture ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit to the Central African nation, coalitions of English-speaking separatist insurgents have declared a 72-hour pause in hostilities to open secure passage for civilians, religious pilgrims, and official delegations during the papal trip.

    The Unity Alliance, a umbrella organization bringing together multiple separatist factions operating in Cameroon’s restive western regions, released an official statement late Monday confirming the ceasefire. The announcement notes the temporary halt to fighting honors the “profound spiritual importance” of Pope Leo XIV’s visit, prioritizing the safety of all those planning to participate in papal events.

    As of Tuesday, Cameroon’s national government has not issued an immediate formal response to the ceasefire declaration, following a request for comment from the Associated Press. Last week, government spokesperson René Sadi reaffirmed that state officials had completed “all necessary arrangements” to guarantee a safe and successful visit for the pontiff.

    Decades of underlying tension erupted into open armed conflict in 2017, when separatist groups launched an independence rebellion seeking to carve out a sovereign state for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority, separated from the country’s French-speaking majority. Since the conflict began, fighting has plagued the North-West and South-West regions, leaving more than 6,000 people dead and forcing more than 600,000 residents to flee their homes, according to data from the International Crisis Group, an independent non-profit conflict analysis organization.

    Pope Leo XIV launched a four-nation tour of Africa earlier this week, starting his journey in Algeria before moving on to Cameroon, where he is scheduled to land in the capital Yaoundé on Wednesday. On Thursday, he will lead a high-profile peace gathering in Bamenda, the urban center that has become the epicenter of the separatist conflict.

    Unity Alliance spokesperson Lucas Asu emphasized in the statement that the ceasefire “reflects a deliberate commitment to responsibility, restraint, and respect for human dignity, even in the context of ongoing conflict.” Asu also clarified that the papal visit should be framed exclusively as a spiritual event, and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any Cameroonian political faction or governing authority.

    While the frequency of deadly separatist attacks has declined in recent years, the long-running conflict remains far from resolved. Brokered peace talks mediated by international third parties have stalled in recent months, with both the Cameroonian government and separatist leaders repeatedly accusing one another of negotiating in bad faith.

    The roots of the current crisis stretch back to Cameroon’s colonial legacy. After World War I, the former German colony of Cameroon was split into two administrative zones, controlled by France and the United Kingdom respectively. In a 1961 UN-supervised referendum, the British-administered English-speaking regions voted to reunify with French Cameroon to form a single independent nation. Separatist leaders argue that since unification, English-speaking communities have faced systematic political and economic marginalization at the hands of the Francophone-dominated national government.

    This report includes contributions from correspondent Banchereau, who reported from Dakar, Senegal.

  • Thousands gather in Poland for the annual March of the Living on Holocaust Remembrance Day

    Thousands gather in Poland for the annual March of the Living on Holocaust Remembrance Day

    On Tuesday, Holocaust survivors from across the globe converged on the former site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in southern Poland to take part in the March of the Living, an annual pilgrimage to honor the memory of the 6 million Jews systematically murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the Second World War. This year’s observance fell on Holocaust Remembrance Day on the Jewish calendar, marking the 38th iteration of the event that draws participants from every corner of the world.

    Fifty survivors joined this year’s march, with many making the journey to Poland from Israel despite significant travel disruptions. Organizers confirmed that airspace restrictions linked to the ongoing Iran conflict created logistical hurdles that did not stop survivors from attending the commemoration.

    The 3-kilometer trek starts at the Auschwitz camp and ends at the adjacent Birkenau site, the largest of the Nazi death camps built during the occupation of Europe. It was at Birkenau where hundreds of thousands of Jews from across the continent were unloaded from deportation trains and immediately executed in purpose-built gas chambers. Today, both sites stand as preserved memorials to the atrocities of the Holocaust.

    This year’s gathering comes at a moment of surging anti-Jewish hatred across the globe, a trend organizers and participants have warned echoes the conditions that allowed the Holocaust to unfold. Revital Yakin Krakovsky, deputy chief executive of the International March of the Living, the group that organizes the annual event, stressed that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been fully absorbed by the modern world. “Since Oct. 7, anti-Semitism has surged and is spreading everywhere,” she said. “The scale and normalization of this hatred echoes the dark times we have seen before and, today of all days, we know how it ended.”

    Among the special guests at this year’s march were survivors of recent anti-Semitic attacks, including survivors of the December mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney, Australia’s Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead. Hannah Abesidon, whose father Tibor Weitzen — a 78-year-old Holocaust survivor — was killed in that attack, shared her family’s story with march participants. “My father didn’t make it because he was a Jew,” Abesidon said. “It starts with the Jews but it doesn’t end with the Jews,” she added, emphasizing the broader threat that unchecked prejudice poses to all global communities.

    For nearly four decades, the March of the Living has brought together thousands of participants each year, including not just Holocaust survivors, but also Jewish youth, community leaders, and elected officials from across the world. The event remains one of the most high-profile global efforts to educate the public about the Holocaust and push back against rising anti-Semitism and historical revisionism.

  • Lebanon, Israel to hold direct talks as Trump blockades Iran

    Lebanon, Israel to hold direct talks as Trump blockades Iran

    Decades of frozen diplomatic relations between Israel and Lebanon are set to see a rare breakthrough this Tuesday, as the two neighboring Middle Eastern nations prepare to sit down for their first direct in-person talks since 1993, hosted in Washington. The high-stakes meeting comes against a backdrop of spiraling regional turmoil, anchored by the Trump administration’s newly imposed naval blockade of Iranian ports that has raised the stakes of the ongoing U.S.-Iran standoff at the Strait of Hormuz.

    Ahead of the talks, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar struck a cautiously constructive tone, stating that Israel remains committed to pursuing peace and full normalization with Lebanon. However, he doubled down on the government’s longstanding position that the Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah is the core obstacle to any lasting agreement. The decades-long technical state of war between the two countries erupted into open conflict after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israeli territory, pulling Lebanon into the broader regional crisis. The subsequent Israeli ground incursion and airstrikes—including a massive April 8 strike on central Beirut—have killed more than 2,000 people and forced over a million Lebanese residents to flee their homes, according to casualty and displacement figures.

    Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has voiced hope that the Washington meeting will produce a workable truce agreement and pave the way for full formal negotiations between the two states, though expectations of a major breakthrough remain muted. Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem has already rejected the talks outright, labeling them a futile exercise and calling for them to be canceled before they even convene. The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will mediate the discussions, which will feature the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States as the lead negotiators.

    While the international community turns its attention to the Israel-Lebanon border crisis, the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on Tehran with a strict naval blockade covering all vessels entering or exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas along the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic waterway, which carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s global oil supply during peacetime, had already been effectively closed to commercial traffic by Iranian military actions prior to the U.S. blockade, disrupting global shipping networks.

    Despite the sweeping announced restrictions, maritime tracking data from analytics firm Kpler shows that at least two vessels operating out of Iranian ports successfully transited the strait on Monday, suggesting gaps in the enforcement of the new blockade. Iranian military leaders have condemned the U.S. move as an act of outright piracy, issuing a stark warning that if the security of Iranian harbors is threatened, all ports across the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea will no longer be safe. Security analysts note that the blockade is intended to cut off critical oil export revenue for Iran while also pressuring China—Tehran’s largest crude oil buyer—to leverage its influence to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The Chinese government has already issued a sharp rebuke, calling the blockade dangerous and irresponsible, particularly after Trump threatened to sink any vessel attempting to enter or leave Iranian ports.

    Surprisingly, the heightened standoff at the strait has not shaken global market confidence: Asian equity markets rallied this week, and global oil prices have continued a downward trend, defying widespread expectations of a price spike from supply disruptions. France and Britain have announced plans to co-host a video conference this Friday for nations willing to contribute to a purely defensive security mission to reopen and secure navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

    Notably, the fragile two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that took effect last Wednesday remains intact despite the escalation, even after an initial round of U.S.-Iran talks hosted in Pakistan failed to produce any breakthrough. President Trump told reporters outside the Oval Office that Iranian representatives have reached out to Washington since the inconclusive Islamabad meeting, claiming that Tehran is very eager to reach a new deal. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed Monday that full diplomatic efforts are ongoing to secure a lasting end to hostilities, and senior Pakistani sources told AFP Tuesday that Islamabad is working to arrange a second round of direct talks between U.S. and Iranian negotiators.

    Speaking in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated that Tehran will only continue diplomatic negotiations within the framework of international law. Macron for his part urged both Tehran and Washington to restart stalled talks to end the U.S.-Iran war, which Trump launched after accusing Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program—an allegation Iran has repeatedly denied. Trump has insisted any final agreement must permanently block Iran from acquiring a nuclear device.

    Recent media reports have shed light on the gaps in the nuclear negotiation position: U.S. negotiators have proposed a 20-year full suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, while Iran has only offered a five-year pause, a proposal U.S. officials have already rejected. Diplomatic activity is also picking up among other global powers: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Chinese counterparts in Beijing on Tuesday, just hours after he held talks with his Iranian counterpart. Moscow has put forward a proposal to store Iran’s enriched uranium on Russian territory as part of any potential nuclear deal, while Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed that Beijing will play a constructive role in advancing peace talks across the Middle East.

  • War in the Middle East: latest developments

    War in the Middle East: latest developments

    Escalating tensions and shifting diplomatic moves across the Middle East have dominated global headlines this week, as multiple parallel efforts to de-escalate conflict face critical tests amid new military clashes and economic disruptions.

  • Cameroon separatists to pause fighting ahead of Pope visit

    Cameroon separatists to pause fighting ahead of Pope visit

    As Pope Leo XIV continues the second day of his landmark 11-day tour across four African nations, a remarkable development has unfolded in violence-wracked Cameroon, where armed Anglophone separatist groups have agreed to a three-day ceasefire to open a “safe travel passage” ahead of the pontiff’s upcoming visit.

    The ceasefire, announced by the Unity Alliance — a coalition of major armed secessionist groups active in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions — will come into effect ahead of Pope Leo’s arrival on Wednesday. In an official statement, the alliance framed the pause in hostilities as a recognition of the “profound spiritual importance” of the papal visit, and a commitment to protecting civilian life and facilitating smooth movement for pilgrims and attendees gathering for the papal events. The statement emphasized that the decision reflects a deliberate commitment to responsibility, restraint, and respect for human dignity, even amid years of ongoing conflict. The alliance also added that the visit should remain strictly spiritual and pastoral in nature, warning against any attempts to politicize the historic occasion.

    Cameroon’s francophone-dominated national government has not yet issued an official comment on the ceasefire announcement, though local authorities have confirmed that comprehensive security measures have already been put in place to protect the pontiff and all visitors at scheduled event locations across the country. Local preparations in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s North-West region and the focal point of the separatist conflict where Pope Leo will hold a key peace gathering, are already well underway: street billboards featuring portraits of Pope Leo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya have been erected across the city, and officials have confirmed that all papal event sites will be open to visitors free of charge.

    The conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions erupted nearly a decade ago, when separatist movements launched an armed campaign for secession from the country’s majority French-speaking government. The violence has claimed at least 6,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes. A 2019 national dialogue convened by the Cameroonian government failed to resolve the standoff, leaving the region locked in a cycle of persistent violence. Pope Leo’s planned stop in Bamenda is widely viewed as a symbolic outreach by the Catholic Church to advance peace and reconciliation in the divided region, where he is scheduled to host a special peace gathering at the city’s Saint Joseph’s Cathedral.

    Pope Leo launched his 11-day African tour on Monday, with his first stop in Algeria — marking the first ever papal visit to the North African nation, which is predominantly populated by Sunni Muslims. Algeria also holds deep personal significance for the new pontiff: it is the birthplace of St Augustine, and Pope Leo is the first pope from the religious order that follows St Augustine’s teachings. Currently based in Annaba, where St Augustine served as bishop centuries ago, the pontiff visited the archaeological site of the ancient city of Hippo Regius on Tuesday, and is scheduled to lead a public Mass at the Basilica of Saint Augustine later that same day.

    After concluding his stop in Cameroon, Pope Leo will continue his tour with visits to Angola and Equatorial Guinea, adding up to 11 stops across four African nations overall. This trip marks only his second major foreign visit since he was elected to the papacy in 2025, and it underscores the growing global importance of the Catholic Church in Africa. Latest 2024 demographic data shows that Africa is home to roughly 288 million Catholics — accounting for more than one-fifth of the global Catholic population, a share that continues to grow steadily year over year.

  • French woman, 86, held by ICE after moving to US to reunite with long-lost love

    French woman, 86, held by ICE after moving to US to reunite with long-lost love

    A decades-long romance that defied time and distance has ended in an unexpected and grim turn: an 86-year-old French woman, who moved to the U.S. last year to build a new life with her reconnected 1960s sweetheart, is now being held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Louisiana.

    The story of Marie-Thérèse, a native of Nantes, France, reads like a romantic drama that has shifted into a chilling real-life legal nightmare. Back in the 1960s, she was working as a secretary when she met Billy, an American soldier stationed at a NATO base in Saint-Nazaire. The pair forged a connection, but when Billy was ordered back to the U.S. in 1966, they lost contact completely. Both moved on with their separate lives: they married other partners, raised children, and built families in their respective countries.

    Decades later, in 2010, the former sweethearts reconnected, and began visiting one another regularly, even alongside their respective spouses at the time. By 2022, both had been widowed, and the pair rekindled their old romance. Marie-Thérèse’s son described the couple as being smitten “like teenagers,” calling Billy a “charming, adorable man” who won his mother’s heart. The pair married in 2024, and Marie-Thérèse relocated to Anniston, Alabama, to start her new life, submitting an application for a green card to secure permanent legal residency in the U.S.

    Tragedy struck just months later, in January 2025, when Billy died suddenly. What followed was a bitter dispute over his estate between Marie-Thérèse and her stepson, Billy’s son. According to Marie-Thérèse’s son, who spoke to French newspaper Ouest-France, the stepson launched a campaign of harassment against his mother: he threatened her, intimidated her, and even cut off access to basic utilities including water, electricity and internet at her home.

    Marie-Thérèse retained legal counsel to resolve the inheritance conflict, but she was taken into ICE custody the day before a scheduled court hearing on the matter. Neighbors of the elderly woman alerted her biological children in France after the arrest, and her son has since spoken out to raise awareness of her case.

    He described the arrest to Ouest-France, saying that agents restrained his mother by handcuffing both her hands and feet, treating her “like she was a dangerous criminal.” While there is no concrete evidence linking the stepson’s alleged harassment to the detention, the timing of the arrest has raised serious questions about the circumstances that led to ICE taking an 86-year-old woman with chronic health conditions into custody.

    Currently, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has intervened in the case, and consular officials have already visited Marie-Thérèse in detention. Her son says despite her advanced age and pre-existing health conditions including heart disease and chronic back pain, his mother, who he describes as a “fighter,” is holding up as well as can be expected. Still, he warns that her health cannot tolerate the conditions of detention long-term.

    “Our priority is to get her out of this detention center and repatriate her to France,” he said. “Given her health, she won’t last a month in such conditions of detention.”

    This case comes amid a major expansion of ICE’s authority and operations following the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. The agency has been placed at the center of the administration’s aggressive mass deportation policy, with its budget and enforcement mandate significantly expanded to carry out removals of undocumented immigrants across the country.

    For Marie-Thérèse’s family, the entire ordeal feels surreal. “This story was like a bad American film,” her son said. “Every morning I wake up and tell myself none of it is true, that it was just a nightmare.”

    As of reporting, the BBC has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, to request comment on the case, and has not yet received a response.

  • Sixteen injured after ex-student opens fire at high school in Turkey

    Sixteen injured after ex-student opens fire at high school in Turkey

    A violent shooting incident has shaken a southeastern Turkish community, after a former high school student opened fire on campus Wednesday, leaving at least 16 people wounded before taking his own life. Local authorities confirmed the details of the attack, which unfolded on the grounds of Ahmet Koyuncu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Siverek District at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time, or 6:30 a.m. GMT.

    Local governor Hasan Şıldak, the region’s top local official, told reporters that the attacker was in his late teens, who carried an illegally obtained shotgun onto the campus and began firing indiscriminately at people inside the school grounds before turning the weapon on himself. Among the 16 injured victims are 10 students, four teachers, one cafeteria employee and one responding police officer. Five of the wounded have been transferred to larger medical facilities in other regions for more advanced treatment, while the remaining injured receive care at local hospitals. Immediately after the shooting, authorities ordered a full evacuation of the entire campus, and have launched a formal criminal investigation into the circumstances of the attack.

    In a surprising statement, Şıldak noted that the 17 to 18-year-old attacker had no prior criminal record on file with Turkish law enforcement, and that the school had long been classified as a safe facility by local police. Witness testimony collected by Turkish news agency IHA has painted a chaotic picture of the attack. One unnamed witness described the gunman entering the school’s front gate without warning, pulling out a long, pump-action shotgun and immediately opening fire in all directions.

    “He immediately started shooting left and right. Then he fired towards the main school building. Then he ran inside. He started shooting at anyone who came in front of him, and then with the students’ screams, the teachers’ screams, everyone immediately scattered,” the witness recalled in their account.

    One injured student, Ömer Furkan Sayar, spoke to Turkey’s state-owned public broadcaster TRT from his hospital bed, describing how the gunman moved through at least two occupied classrooms during the rampage, including his own. “First we threw ourselves to the ground, then two of us jumped out of the window. He didn’t say anything to us, he just came in and started shooting,” Sayar said.

    As of Thursday morning, authorities have not released a possible motive for the attack, and the investigation is ongoing.

  • Youth from Vietnam explore Red ties

    Youth from Vietnam explore Red ties

    In a landmark cross-border youth exchange initiative hosted in Guangzhou, the capital of China’s southern Guangdong province, 200 young Vietnamese delegates from diverse professional backgrounds gathered in mid-April 2026 for a three-day “Red Study Tour” designed to deepen understanding of the shared revolutionary history and dynamic cultural connections between China and Vietnam.

    Organized by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, the delegation brought together young participants spanning civil servants, youth league cadres, working journalists, university students, youth advocates, and digital content creators — reflecting the broad cross-section of contemporary Vietnamese youth society.

    Over the three-day program from Saturday to Monday, delegates toured a curated lineup of historically significant, cultural, and innovation-focused sites across Guangzhou. These included the former headquarters of the Vietnamese Youth Revolutionary Comrades Association, the resting place of Vietnamese revolutionary martyr Pham Hong Thai, the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the Socialist Youth League of China, and the Whampoa Military Academy Memorial Hall — sites that anchor the shared revolutionary legacy of the two nations. The tour also extended to cultural landmarks such as the historic Yongqing Fang old alley district, modern infrastructure at Guangzhou Metro Group, the advanced Fushan Circular Economy Industrial Park, leading Chinese technology enterprises, and popular scenic destinations.

    Throughout their visits, participants explored the deep revolutionary camaraderie forged between early Chinese and Vietnamese pioneers who fought side-by-side for national independence and liberation. The experience allowed delegates to gain a more nuanced, personal understanding of the sacrifices that laid the foundation for modern national development in both countries, and to reaffirm the enduring value of bilateral friendship and cooperative partnership.

    To strengthen people-to-people connections, the tour included three themed symposiums and a collaborative joint painting project that brought Vietnamese delegates together with local Chinese young people, creating space for open dialogue and relationship-building beyond guided visits.

    Huynh Thi Thanh Thuy, the 2022 Miss Vietnam and 2024 Miss International titleholder, who was among the delegates, praised the rich artistic expression and inclusive cultural fusion that defines Lingnan culture, the regional culture of southern China’s Guangdong area. She proposed a new vision for youth-led cross-border cultural collaboration that leverages digital platforms.

    “I hope young people from both countries can work together to breathe new life into cultural heritage through digital platforms,” she said. “For example, we could create joint music projects that blend traditional Lingnan and Vietnamese musical instruments with modern harmony and orchestration, or integrate the iconic imagery of Vietnamese ao dai into the traditional architectural spaces of Guangzhou’s Xiguan old mansions. This is how heritage can truly come alive in the hearts of Generation Z.”

    Tran Tuan Hiep, a performer of Tuong, Vietnam’s centuries-old traditional theatrical art form, highlighted that both China and Vietnam boast deep-rooted, distinct cultural heritages — noting that Peking Opera holds a similar place as a iconic national cultural treasure in China, mirroring Tuong’s role in Vietnam.

    “Having had the opportunity to visit China in person, I am deeply impressed by your country’s outstanding efforts in preserving traditional culture,” he said. “I hope there will be more opportunities for exchanges in the future so that we can learn from each other and jointly protect and develop the traditional arts and cultures of our two countries.”

    Vietnamese children’s book author Bui Thi Thu Ha emphasized that cultural and artistic exchange acts as a durable bridge between the two peoples, helping build greater mutual understanding of shared and distinct values, traditions, and national identities.

    “Through artistic performances, exhibitions, music, food and other events, we can not only appreciate beauty but also feel the soul, history and way of thinking of each nation,” she said.

    The Guangzhou leg of the tour concluded on Monday afternoon, with the delegation set to travel to Beijing to continue their study tour and explore more of China’s cultural and historical heritage, extending what organizers frame as a growing people-to-people partnership between the next generations of the two neighboring nations.

  • Police officers among seven arrested over deadly Haiti stampede

    Police officers among seven arrested over deadly Haiti stampede

    A devastating crowd crush at one of Haiti’s most iconic cultural landmarks has left 25 people dead, triggering national mourning and a sweeping official investigation that has resulted in seven arrests, including senior local security and heritage officials, Haiti’s national police confirmed this week.

    The fatal incident unfolded Saturday during an unsanctioned gathering at the Laferrière Citadel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site perched in northern Haiti that stands as the country’s most prominent symbol of post-independence sovereignty. Initial casualty estimates put the death toll at 30, but authorities have since revised the figure downward to 25.

    Of the seven people taken into custody, five are active local police officers and two are staff members of the National Institute for the Preservation of Heritage (ISPAN), the government body tasked with managing and protecting Haiti’s major cultural and historical landmarks. All seven remain in detention as investigators piece together the sequence of events that led to the crush, police said.

    Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé confirmed the disaster on Saturday, noting that the stampede occurred during a youth-focused gathering that drew hundreds of attendees to the mountain-top fortress. In response to the tragedy, the government has declared three days of national mourning scheduled to begin Tuesday.

    Local officials have raised serious questions about how the unapproved event went forward. Milot Mayor Wesner Joseph told local radio outlet Magik9 on Monday that his municipal administration received no prior notification of any planned activity at the citadel that day. After the incident, investigators learned the gathering had been organized by a local disc jockey who promoted the event to the public via the TikTok social media platform.

    Additional details surrounding the crush have emerged from site officials. Jean-Hérold Pérard, a civil engineer who previously led ISPAN and still works at the Citadel, told the Haitian Times that security personnel closed off one of the site’s only two public entrances so that entry fees could be collected from attendees. As a heavy rain shower moved through the area, crowds already gathered outside the single open entrance began pushing to get inside the fortress for shelter.

    Pérard also alleged that unknown individuals fired gunshots into the air and deployed tear gas into the crowd, exacerbating the panic. “People were pushing each other in a frantic bid to escape, and many victims died from asphyxiation, especially after the tear gas was released,” he explained.

    The Laferrière Citadel, sometimes called Citadelle Henry, holds enormous historical significance for Haiti. Constructed in the years immediately after Haiti won its independence from France in 1804, the massive mountain fortress was built under the direction of revolutionary leader Henri Christophe. It took more than 10 years to complete, and was designed as a defensive stronghold to protect the newly independent nation from foreign invasion. Today, it remains one of Haiti’s top tourist attractions and a core part of the country’s national identity.

    This deadly disaster unfolds against a backdrop of profound instability in Haiti, where rampant gang-related violence has already plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis that has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands more since the start of 2024.