TAIWAN CRISIS
The US sends a destroyer to the South China Sea in full tension over Taiwan and Beijing condemns it
Singapore/Beijing. The US announced today that a missile-launching destroyer is sailing through waters near some islands in the South China Sea that Beijing is fighting with countries in the area, in full escalation of tensions over high-intensity Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan, a fact that condemned the Chinese Army. The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet noted that the USS Milius is sailing “close” to the Spratly Islands, which China disputes with the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei, in an exercise in defense of “freedom of navigation consistent with international law”. According to the Chinese Army, “the USS Milius illegally entered the waters near the Spratly Islands without the approval of the Chinese government.”
TAIWAN CRISIS
Taiwan notifies incursion of 59 planes on the last day of Chinese maneuvers and condemns Beijing’s “provocation”
Peking. A total of 59 planes and 11 military ships from China made incursions on Monday in areas around Taiwan during the maneuvers carried out by the Chinese Army in areas near the island, the official CNA agency reported. Taiwan today expressed its “strong condemnation” against these “provocative” moves by China around the island in response to the meeting last Wednesday in California between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Taiwan. The US, Kevin McCarthy, and accused China of “clearly challenging the international order” and “undermining the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait and the region.”
UKRAINE WAR
Russia applies “‘Syrian’ scorched-earth tactics” in Bakhmut, according to kyiv
kyiv. The commander of the Ukrainian land forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, affirmed today after visiting the Bakhmut front on Sunday that the Russian forces that try to take the city completely have gone on to apply “scorched earth tactics” like the ones Russia used in Syria. . “The enemy has switched to the so-called Syrian scorched-earth tactics – destroying (Ukrainian) buildings and positions with airstrikes and artillery fire,” Syrksy said. He added that the troops still holding out in the part of Bakhmuth that Kiev still controls “are exhausting the Wagnerites (Russian Wagner group mercenaries)” and have forced Russia to deploy special forces and airborne assault forces to the area.
UKRAINE WAR
kyiv says Russia loses almost two companies in Avdiivka and denounces kidnapping of civilians in Lugansk
kyiv. Russia loses about two companies in its attempts to take the town of Avdiivka on Ukraine’s eastern front, “but it does not give up,” Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi said on national television news service last night. . In its daily part this Monday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces explained that the Russian forces continue to concentrate their efforts on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka, all on the eastern front. For its part, the Military Administration of the Luhansk Oblast denounced raids and kidnappings of civilians by Moscow-imposed authorities in this largely Russian-occupied province of eastern Ukraine.
NORTHERN IRELAND ANNIVERSARY
Sunak highlights the commitment of those who signed the Good Friday agreement
London. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday highlighted the courage and commitment of the leaders who reached the Good Friday Agreement, which ended sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, and called for the restoration of power-sharing self-government. In a statement marking the 25th anniversary of the peace agreement, Sunak highlighted the “difficult decisions” and the “political imagination” of those who signed the agreement on April 10, 1998. He added that the peace agreement “continues to enjoy a great international support”, as evidenced by the visit that US President Joe Biden will begin on Tuesday night in Belfast.
FRANCE COLLAPSE
They recover two bodies from the collapse of a building in Marseille
Paris. Emergency teams recovered two bodies from the rubble of the building that collapsed this Saturday in Marseille and left at least eight missing, official sources reported today, while work continues at the scene, according to the mayor of the French city. , Benoit Payan. The main hypothesis is that the collapse, which also affected the neighboring buildings, was caused by an explosion, possibly due to a gas leak. The collapse initially affected 33 residents, of whom 6 had to be taken to the hospital. Five were in a state of “relative severity.”
JAPAN ELECTIONS
Japan’s ruling party wins several key local elections
Tokyo. Japan’s ruling party led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has won several key local elections in Japan on Sunday, according to results released today. Some of the victories include the prefecture of Hokkaido (north), where Naomichi Suzuki, the candidate backed by Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and his coalition partner in the central government, the Buddhist Komeito, managed to revalidate his post as governor. The results of the ruling Kishida PLD in these local elections serve as a thermometer of support for his government.
HONDURAS PRISONS
The UN, concerned about violence in prisons in Honduras, calls for urgent action
Tegucigalpa. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras (Oacnudh) expressed this Sunday its “deep concern” about the violent acts registered in four prisons in the country and asked the State to take “urgent measures” to guarantee the safety of The prisoners. The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, announced this Sunday a “harsh” intervention of the penitentiary centers after the clashes this Saturday in four prisons that resulted in one death and eleven wounded.
HOLY WEEK NICARAGUA
Catholics packed the temples during Holy Week in Nicaragua, says cardinal
Tegucigalpa. Nicaraguan Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano expressed his joy this Sunday at the massive attendance of Catholics at the temples during Holy Week, after the authorities of his country prohibited the Catholic Church from holding processions in the streets. “I am glad because the reports, the comments that I have received from the priests, from their parishes, (is that in) the entire liturgy, our temples have been practically full,” said Brenes, also archbishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, during his homily at Easter mass.
CHINA HUMAN D.
Sentences of 12 and 14 years in China for two human rights lawyers
Peking. Lawyers and activists Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were sentenced to more than ten years in prison after being found guilty of “subverting state power,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced today. Ding and Xu were members of the New Citizens movement, a network of activists founded in 2012 in favor of government transparency and against corruption in the Asian country. Xu was sentenced to 14 years by the Linshu County People’s Court in Shandong province, while Ding was sentenced to 12 years by the same court, the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported.
QUENTIN TARANTINO
Tarantino confesses in Barcelona: “the film that traumatized me was Bambi”
Barcelona. The American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino ended up in Barcelona this Holy Sunday as part of his European tour to present the book “Meditations on Cinema” (Reservoir Books), a meeting with followers in which he confessed that the film that, against all odds, best suited him ” traumatized” in his childhood was “Bambi. “I couldn’t imagine that something like this would happen, that Bambi’s mother would be shot. I didn’t expect it, I didn’t see it coming, hence the shock. I had seen the poster before and I assumed that everything would be happy between little animals and not that it would become that dystopian reality in which Bambi becomes an orphan”, acknowledged the director of contemporary classics such as “Pulp Fiction” or “Kill Bill”. EFE
int/ah
