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☆ Ukraine President Zelenskiy to attend G7 Summit in person on Sunday -Japan govt
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend the Group of Seven (G7) Hiroshima summit in person on Sunday and hold a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his stay, Japan's foreign ministry announced on Saturday. Zelenskiy will take part in a session regarding peace and security alongside the G7 leaders and invited outreach countries, according to the foreign ministry. The Ukrainian president is set to arrive in Hiroshima on Saturday, and is expected to hold bilateral meetings with other attendees of the G7 summit. Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The Taliban promised to provide security to Afghans. New data shows threat from ISIS is growing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh Ehsan Popalzai Antonio Jarne Lou Robinson | Eliza Mackintosh | Ehsan Popalzai | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

“Currently we don’t have security in Afghanistan at all, whenever we go out we don’t know if we will come home alive or not,” he added. Taliban security forces guard a checkpoint near the foreign ministry in Kabul on March 27, after an ISIS-K suicide bomber struck the site. The data, which is available in a live map, includes 367 pieces of open-source evidence — largely videos and images shared on social media — about 70 ISIS-K attacks since August 2021. As the Taliban try to minimize the threat ISIS-K poses, attacks on civilians continue. Taliban security forces have been waging ongoing operations and night raids against ISIS-K.

☆ Visiting Ukraine, China's envoy urged all sides to create space for peace talks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, May 18 (Reuters) - Beijing's special envoy noted there was no panacea to the war in Ukraine during a visit to Kyiv earlier this week, but urged all parties to create conditions for peace talks, China's foreign ministry said on Thursday. Ukraine's foreign minister told Li on Wednesday that Kyiv would not accept any proposals to end the war that involved losing territory or freezing the conflict, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said. Li, who is a former ambassador to Russia, will also visit Poland, France, Germany and finally Russia during a multi-day trip. He is the most senior Chinese official to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. During Li's visit to Kyiv, bilateral relations were also discussed, and both sides agreed to work to maintain mutual respect and keep moving forward with mutually beneficial co-operation, China's foreign ministry said.

☆ In Mexico, new non-binary passport can now sidestep male or female box
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( David Alire Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The new non-binary passport was unveiled at an event hosted by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, but it came under immediate criticism by some non-binary activists as confusing gender with sex. Under the new passport policy, non-binary Mexicans who do not identify as either a man or a woman, which are gender categories, can now respond with an "X" on paperwork that asks applicants to choose between male or female, which are biological sex categories. Mexican passports did not previously ask applicants to select gender, only sex. Ebrard, who is seeking the presidential nomination of the leftist Morena party for next year's election, touted the policy as "a quantum leap" for Mexico. But non-binary Mexican activist Alex Orue argued that Ebrard mostly flubbed the attempt at progressive inclusion by blurring the difference between gender and sex.

☆ Analysis: Qatar takes diplomatic back seat as Saudi flexes political muscle
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Andrew Mills | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Qatar has been steadily mending ties with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Qatar cast the Syrian National Coalition as a government-in-exile, handing them Syria's Arab League seat and opening the Doha mission in a villa nearby other embassies. Several Gulf states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates began backing rebel groups fighting to oust Assad from power. As Syria's anti-Assad movement lost ground, "Saudi Arabia and the UAE shifted their policy most dramatically but Qatar has not," Kamrava said. Qatar initially opposed efforts this spring by Saudi Arabia to galvanise support to readmit Syria to the Arab League following its 2011 suspension.

☆ Chinese fishing boat capsizes in Indian Ocean, 39 crew members missing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, May 17 (Reuters) - A Chinese fishing vessel with 39 crew members on board has capsized in the Indian ocean and President Xi Jinping has ordered that all efforts be made to search for survivors, state media reported on Wednesday. The distant-water fishing vessel "Lupeng Yuanyu 028", owned by Penglai Jinglu Fishery Co Ltd based in Shandong province, capsized early on Tuesday, state-run CCTV reported. The 39 people on board - 17 Chinese crew members, 17 Indonesians and five from the Philippines - were missing, CCTV said. Xi said all efforts should be made for the rescue and early warning alerts of safety risks would be strengthened for distant-sea operations, CCTV reported. Reporting by Ethan Wang and Bernard Orr; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Several foreign missions in China raised the Ukrainian flag, or displayed its image in posters and lights, following the February 2022 invasion that sparked international condemnation of Russia, a close ally of China. "Do not use the building facilities' exterior walls to display politicised propaganda to avoid inciting disputes between countries," China's foreign ministry said in a notification dated May 10. The notice, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, was addressed to "all embassies, and international organisations' China representative offices". The foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China has called for a peace in Ukraine but has refrained from condemning Russia, leading to criticism from Western countries.

☆ Li Hui: Beijing attempts to play peacemaker with planned trip by special envoy to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Simone Mccarthy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

A source within the Ukrainian government told CNN earlier this week that a Chinese envoy would be in Kyiv Tuesday and Wednesday, though Ukraine has not released further details. Beijing’s ties with Moscow have been under close scrutiny over the past week as European officials discussed a recalibration of the bloc’s China strategy. On Monday ahead of Li’s expected arrival in Ukraine, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called for Ukraine’s peace plan to be the basis of efforts to resolve the conflict. It is therefore the one that should set out the core principles for a just peace,” she said in Brussels. Ukraine, the US and more than 100 nations have called for peace predicated on the unconditional withdrawal of Russia troops from Ukrainian territory.

☆ Czechs cancel Soviet-era decrees giving Russian embassy free land
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PRAGUE, May 17 (Reuters) - The Czech government on Wednesday cancelled Soviet-era decrees that granted the Russian embassy free use of land in Prague and other cities, a further step in a more than two-year diplomatic spat with Moscow worsened by the war in Ukraine. The Russian embassy in Prague did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Russia will now have to pay leases to use of the land, the foreign ministry said. Prague has been a strong supporter of Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 2022 and has supplied it with military aid. The Czech parliament designated "the current Russian regime as terrorist" in November.

☆ Cuba announces new migration policies as exodus continues
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HAVANA, May 16 (Reuters) - Cuba announced on Tuesday measures that ease restrictions on its citizens living abroad as the communist-run nation continues to grapple with an unprecedented exodus of migrants to the United States. The new rules take effect on July 1, said Ernesto Soberon, director of Consular Affairs for the Cuban Foreign Ministry. He said the measures are focused on "the strengthening of ties with the Cuban community abroad." Cuba for decades limited emigration of its citizens, and many Cubans living abroad complain of bureaucratic hurtles and exorbitant fees for maintaining ties and renewing travel documents with their home country. Reporting by Nelson Acosta; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Top Chinese envoy to visit Ukraine, Russia on 'peace' mission
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIJING, May 15 (Reuters) - A top Chinese envoy will begin a tour of Ukraine, Russia and other European cities on Monday in a trip Beijing says is aimed at discussing a "political settlement" to the Ukraine crisis. "The visit ... is a testament to China's efforts towards promoting peace talks, and fully demonstrates China's firm commitment to peace," foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing. He is the most senior Chinese official to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, and his trip could coincide with the beginnings of a long anticipated counteroffensive by Ukraine to recapture territory seized by Russia. Ukraine is scheduled to be Li's first stop on his trip, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The visit comes weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy in late April, in the first talks between the two leaders since the war began.

Long stuck in the shadow of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party (AKP), opposition leader Kilicdaroglu has flourished on the campaign trail with polls showing he has a slight lead. Kilicdaroglu said a fundamental problem of Turkey's foreign policy during the tenure of Erdogan's AKP was the exclusion of the foreign ministry in the policy making process. 'PEACE-ORIENTED FOREIGN POLICY'"We would pursue a peace-oriented foreign policy that prioritises Turkey's national interest. Before entering politics, Kilicdaroglu worked in the finance ministry and then chaired Turkey's Social Insurance Institution for most of the 1990s. A year after losing a mayoral run in Istanbul, he was elected unopposed as party leader in 2010.

One presidential candidate from a small party, Muharrem Ince, withdrew on Thursday citing a faked "character assassination" carried out online. "We find it unacceptable for another country to interfere in Turkey's election process in favour of a political party. [1/4] FILE PHOTO-Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Turkey's main opposition alliance, greets his supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, in Tekirdag, Turkey April 27, 2023. Kilicdaroglu said a fundamental problem of Turkey's foreign policy in Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) tenure was the exclusion of the foreign ministry from the policy-making process. Turkey, Kilicdaroglu said, will pursue a peace-oriented foreign policy that prioritises its national interest and acts in line with the modern world.

☆ Opinion: Turkey’s Erdogan is in the fight of his political life. The real winner may be Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Opinion Elmira Bayrasli | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —For Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s longest serving ruler, Sunday’s upcoming election may be the end of a two-decade winning streak. Following an attempted coup to unseat Erdogan, the Russian president called his Turkish counterpart and offered his country’s support. Still, it was not enough to change the eastern tilt of Turkish foreign policy. Whether Erdogan wins or loses, Ankara is unlikely to untangle itself from Moscow and turn back to the West. (The Turkish president has previously dismissed concerns about press freedom in his country).

☆ -China's steps to control its data and information
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Below is a timeline of main events in China’s effort to tighten its grip on data and information and especially over their export. July 2015: China passes a national security law that broadened the scope to protect its cyberspace and also emphasised a need to develop key technologies. June 2021: China passes a data security law on the protection of “important data” and “core data”, including information involving national and economic security, people’s welfare and on issues of important public interest. July 2022: China unveils cross-border data review measures that require a security review for “important” offshore data transfers. September 2022: Regulators ask China's biggest financial data provider Wind Information Co to stop providing offshore users with certain data, sources told Reuters.

Paris CNN —France’s finance minister is in the spotlight. “It is about music, my passion for music,” Le Maire insisted of the novel, whose central character is a piano virtuoso. Some in France chastized the finance minister for devoting time to writing, especially as the country weathers economic headwinds. The French finance ministry confirmed to CNN that Le Maire had warned the French presidency of the book before its release. And the finance minister seemed unabashed on Twitter.

HONG KONG, May 4 (Reuters) - China's biggest financial data provider Wind Information Co told some customers late last year that it was restricting offshore users from accessing certain business and economic data as a result of the cybersecurity regulator's new data rules, two sources said. Restricted access to Wind by offshore users comes as China sharpens its focus on data usage and security amid rising geopolitical tensions and concerns about privacy in the world's second-largest economy. A Wind salesperson told the source in September the company had made the changes as per instructions from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which asked it to stop providing offshore users with certain data. The restrictions on offshore users' access to certain Wind data have expanded since last September, said the first source. Reuters has reported, citing sources that Chinese data providers including company databases Qichacha, partially owned by Wind, and TianYanCha have stopped opening to offshore users for at least months.

Hong Kong CNN —Fang Bin, a retailer turned citizen journalist who documented the early outbreak of Covid-19 in Wuhan, has been released after more than three years detention in China, a family member told CNN. In one video, Fang, a Wuhan resident who sold clothing, showed hospital corridors crowded with patients and their desperate relatives. Rights groups had repeatedly called for Fang’s release and information about his case and of others who were also detained after sharing information about Wuhan outbreak. Both had reported on China’s initial Covid outbreak in Wuhan in early 2020. Authorities have never confirmed how many people had been detained or prosecuted in connection with sharing information on the pandemic.

☆ Sudan: Leaders of warring factions agree to seven-day ceasefire, South Sudan says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Chris Liakos | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – the two warring factions in Sudan – have agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, the foreign ministry of South Sudan said in a statement Tuesday. The two sides also said they would send representatives for peace talks “to be held at an agreed venue of their choice,” it added. The SAF or RSF have both yet to comment on the report on their official channels. Previous ceasefires have failed to stop the fighting between the rival factions in various parts of the country. More details to follow.

☆ US Ambassador to China: ‘We are ready to talk’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Jennifer Hansler | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said Tuesday the United States is “ready to talk” to China, and expressed hope that Beijing would “meet us halfway on this.”Burns, however, did not give a clear answer about when Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China – which was postponed in February – would be rescheduled. “Our view is we need better channels between the two governments and deeper channels, and we are ready to talk,” Burns said at an event at the Stimson Center, which he attended virtually. “We’ve never been shy of talking, and we hope the Chinese will meet us halfway on this,” he said. Tensions soared following a visit by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan and after a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the US, leading Blinken to call off that planned visit to China. “So I think that’s what we would like and I’m sure that’s what the European countries would like, that’s what Ukraine wants from China.”

"Since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, China has expanded the legal landscape for exit bans and increasingly used them, sometimes outside legal justification," the Safeguard Defenders report reads. Attention on the exit bans comes as China-U.S. tensions have risen over trade and security disputes. The Reuters analysis of records on exit bans, from China's Supreme Court database, shows an eight-fold increase in cases mentioning bans between 2016 and 2022. Most of the cases in the database referring to exit bans are civil, not criminal. Some activists say the wider use of exit bans reflects tighter security measures under President Xi.

☆ Sudan military faction chiefs agree May 4-11 truce in princple -South Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mohamed Noureldin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The credibility of the reported May 4-11 deal ceasefire deal between Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support forces (RSF) leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was unclear, given the rampant violations that undermined previous agreements running from 24 to 72 hours. "The entire region could be affected," he said in an interview with a Japanese newspaper on Tuesday as an envoy from Sudan's army chief, who leads one of the warring sides, met Egyptian officials in Cairo. United Nations officials had said U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths aimed to visit Sudan on Tuesday but the timing was still to be confirmed. "The risk is that this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it's going to be a regional crisis," said Michael Dunford, the WFP's East Africa director. That has raised the spectre of a prolonged conflict that could draw in outside powers.

☆ Russia rejects U.S. request to visit detained reporter over visa snub
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 27 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it had rejected a request from the U.S. embassy to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in response to Washington's refusal to grant visas to a group of Russian journalists. Gershkovich, the U.S. reporter, was arrested last month and accused by Russia of espionage, a charge he has denied. The United States has designated him as wrongfully detained. Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that it had rejected a U.S. request to pay him a consular visit on May 11. "It was particularly emphasised (to the U.S. diplomat) that such sabotage, intended to prevent normal journalistic work, would not go unanswered," the foreign ministry said in its statement.

☆ Sweden launches research rocket, accidentally hits Norway
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

STOCKHOLM, April 25 (Reuters) - A research rocket launched by Sweden Space Corp (SSC) early on Monday from Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden malfunctioned and landed 15 km (9.32 miles) inside neighbouring Norway. There are routines in place when things go wrong and we inform both Swedish and Norwegian governments, and other actors, he said. In the event of any border violation, those responsible should immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities, which included the foreign ministry, through the right channels, the spokesperson said. The ministry had not received a formal notification of the incident from the Swedish authorities, she added. The Norwegian foreign ministry said it was not aware of whether there was any damage to the surroundings, while a SSC spokesperson said the rocket came down far from any settlement.

☆ Factbox: Countries rush to evacuate foreign citizens from Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday some 16,000 people had crossed from Sudan to Egypt, including 14,000 Sudanese citizens. The foreign ministry said those evacuated included not only French nationals but also Britons, Americans, Canadians, Ethiopians, Dutch, Italians and Swedes. Cyprus said it had activated a humanitarian rescue mechanism at Britain's request to let third countries use it for reception and repatriation of foreign citizens evacuated from Sudan. NETHERLANDSAbout 100 Dutch nationals have been evacuated from Sudan since Sunday, Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said. IRANIran's foreign minister said on Saturday 65 Iranian citizens had left from Port Sudan, through Jeddah, to Iran.

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