French President Emmanuel Macron meets students and dines with Xi Jinping in the southern city of Guangzhou Friday, wrapping up a three-day state visit to China that has been dominated by discussions of how Beijing could mediate the Ukraine conflict.. Macron Friday heads to the southern city of Guangzhou, where he will meet with local students at the city's Sun Yat-sen University.
China sent warships and aircraft near Taiwan for a second day on Friday, Taipei said, after President Tsai Ing-wen angered Beijing by meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.. McCarthy, who is second in line for the US presidency, had originally planned to go to Taiwan himself but opted instead to meet Tsai in California.
Seoul, Washington and Tokyo on Friday urged UN member states to repatriate North Koreans working overseas, claiming they continue to evade sanctions abroad to finance Pyongyang's unlawful weapons programme.. But on Friday, Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington's special envoys for North Korea said the country's overseas workers were continuing to help fund Pyongyang's increasingly aggressive provocations, following a trilateral meeting in the South Korean capital.
Israel launched air strikes before dawn on Friday in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, saying it was targeting Hamas in retaliation for several dozen rockets fired at Israel from both territories. . France condemned what it called "indiscriminate rocket fire targeting Israeli territory from Gaza and southern Lebanon".
Luz Maria Collazo was Cuba's first black model, a virtuoso of modern dance and star of the film "Soy Cuba" (I am Cuba) -- a flop in its time now considered a classic.. "It was exceptional at the time to choose a black woman," said Collazo, who went on to have a successful modeling career that included having her face on ads for Cuban rum.
As night fell in Mexico's Yucatan jungle, veterinarian Omar Garcia extracted blood and fluids from a bat as part of an investigation aimed at preventing the next potential pandemic.. Once caught, blood, fluid and ectoparasite samples -- if they carry them -- are taken.
Venezuela has launched an anti-corruption probe of state oil firm PDVSA and other related government bodies that has seen 51 people arrested, including top government officials.. - The public prosecutor's office says 34 of the 51 people arrested are linked to the oil industry, the economic vehicle on which Venezuela is totally dependent.
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted years of luxury travel trips from a billionaire Republican, according to a report Thursday, including yachting in New Zealand and private jet flights across the globe.. In response to Thursday's report, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said Thomas's "behavior is simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court."
Nearly a million young children in Africa's Sahel region will face severe acute malnutrition this year amid high food prices, conflict and climate change, UNICEF warned Friday.. "An estimated 970,000 children under 5 from West Africa's three central Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) will face severe wasting this year", the UN children's agency said in a statement.
A supertanker bought by the United Nations to remove oil from a ship abandoned off war-ravaged Yemen's coast departed China on Thursday, the UN announced, calling it a "significant" step in efforts to prevent a major spill.. It was an unusual move for the agency, and was hailed as a breakthrough in efforts to avert a potentially catastrophic oil spill.
