He is proud of the tight-knit, welcoming Catholic community that he leads, and how they’ve helped recent converts come into the faith.
News of the first U.S.-born pope was welcomed by Catholics across the ideological spectrum in Pope Leo XIV ’s homeland.
“Something that did bring me a lot of hope is Pope Leo has a missionary background,” said Ace Acuna, a Princeton alumni. He recently attended a Mass at the chapel before beginning a nearly five-week Catholic pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles.
“In a world where in some places it might look like faith is on the decline, a church that’s willing to go out to the margins and evangelize and be on mission, that’s going to be so important,” Acuna said.
When he was an undergrad at Princeton, Acuna said the chapel became crucial to his college life.
On his way to class every morning, he’d pass by the chapel for a silent prayer. He’d return for the noon Mass and again at the end of the day for one last prayer.
“Princeton is a very busy place and there’s a lot of noise both externally but also internally because we’re so busy and we’re always worried about the next thing,” he said. “Sometimes you just want silence, and you just want a place where you can lay down your burdens.”
At the close of one recent Mass, David Kim and his girlfriend Savannah Nichols continued to pray near the altar, holding hands, kneeling or prostrating on the floor in a sign of reverence.
Kim, a recent graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary, converted to Catholicism last year and has been serving as an altar server at the Princeton University chapel. He called the chapel's side altar "an island of Christian life in an unbelieving world.”
Princeton University has always had a vibrant religious community and a religiously diverse one, said Eric Gregory, a professor of religion there.
“In a way it’s either so secular or even post-secular that it’s not threatened by the Christian presence on campus,” he said. "Religious students in our campus are not cloistered from campus. They’re also in sports teams, clubs and the newspaper. They’re integrated.”
Catholics at the the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were elated by his election — and reinvigorated in practicing their faith.
“Being able to live out my faith in this extremely secular campus is such a blessing to me,” said student Daniel Vanisko, a lifelong Catholic, later adding in an email that the pope's election “really helps me to draw closer to my faith, seeing that someone that grew up in the same state as me, is the successor of Peter in the Church."
Cavan Morber, a rising junior, said attending UIUC “gives me chance to be challenged in my beliefs, think critically about what I believe, and share my faith with others.”
Asked in an email exchange about the pope’s election, Morber replied: “What a time to be alive!”
Stanley Fischer, Former Fed Vice Chair and Bank of Israel Chief, Dies at 81
Stanley Fischer, who helped shape modern economic theory during a career that included heading the Bank of Israel and serving as vice chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has died at the age of 81.
The Bank of Israel said he died on Saturday night but did not give a cause of death. Fischer was born in Zambia and had dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship.
As an academic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fischer trained many of the people who went on to be top central bankers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president.
Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank, and first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund during the Asian financial crisis and was then vice chairman at Citigroup from 2002 to 2005.
During an eight-year stint as Israel's central bank chief from 2005-2013, Fischer helped the country weather the 2008 global financial crisis with minimal economic damage, elevating Israel's economy on the global stage, while creating a monetary policy committee to decide on interest rates like in other advanced economies.
He was vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017 and served as a director at Bank Hapoalim in 2020 and 2021.
Current Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron praised Fischer's contribution to the Bank of Israel and to advancing Israel’s economy as "truly significant."
The soft-spoken Fischer - who played a role in Israel's economic stabilization plan in 1985 during a period of hyperinflation - was chosen by then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as central bank chief.
2 Fans Died and an Officer Is in a Coma after Champions League Celebrations in France
Two fans died and a police officer is in a coma after mass nationwide celebrations for Paris Saint-Germain’s historic Champions League victory, European soccer’s biggest prize, French authorities said Sunday.
A 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in the city of Dax during a PSG street party after Saturday night's final in Munich, the national police service said. A man was killed in Paris when his scooter was hit by a car during PSG celebrations, the interior minister’s office said. The circumstances of both are being investigated.
A police officer was hit accidentally by fireworks in Coutance in northwest France and placed in an artificial coma because of grave eye injuries, the national police service said.
Hundreds of people were arrested in the celebrations, which were largely peaceful but degenerated into violence in some areas.
The team is expected to return to a big parade on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday after clinching its first Champions League title, a 5-0 win over Inter Milan.
At the top of the Champs-Élysées avenue, a water cannon was used to protect the Place de l’Étoile, near the landmark Arc de Triomphe. Police said a large crowd not watching the match tried to push through a barrier to make contact with police.
By 2 a.m. Sunday, a total of 294 arrests had been made, including 30 people who broke into a shoe shop on the Champs-Élysées. Two cars were set alight close to Parc des Princes, police added.
At the Place de la Bastille, there were joyous scenes as fans climbed onto the base of the famous column, singing, dancing and letting off flares, while those around joined in.
At one point, motorbikes loudly revved their engines and the crowd cheered as they did laps around the column. There were no police nearby and, by 1 a.m., the atmosphere was upbeat with no tensions and plenty of singing.
Security had been tightened up in anticipation of potential post-match violence and 5,400 police officers were deployed on the Champs-Élysées, other key parts of Paris, and its nearby suburbs.
Mexico Votes in First Judicial Election Amid Concerns Over Rule of Law
Mexicans vote on Sunday in the country's first ever judicial elections, part of an overhaul of the nation's judiciary that critics warn could jeopardize the rule of law.
The vote will elect 2,600 judges and magistrates, including all Supreme Court justices, and is part of a reform pushed by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his protege and successor President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum say the election will root out corruption in a flawed judiciary dominated by an out-of-touch elite and instead allow people to decide who should be a judge.
But the run-up to the vote has been dominated by a scandal over some of the candidates, including a convicted drug smuggler and a former lawyer of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Opponents say the overhaul risks removing checks and balances on the ruling Morena party, by appointing judges friendly to their cause, and also allowing organized crime groups greater influence over the judicial system by running their own candidates.
Mexico joins Bolivia as the only countries worldwide to conduct judicial elections at the national level, though state-level judicial elections are common in the United States and some local Swiss judges are also elected.
Voters on Sunday will cast ballots for Mexico's nine Supreme Court judges, as well as for judges and magistrates across 19 of Mexico's 32 administrative divisions. More than 7,700 candidates are running for judicial posts.
Pollsters expect a poor turnout, in part due to opposition calls to boycott the vote, but also because of the complexity of the process and vast number of candidates to consider.
"In Mexico City we are going to vote for 50 candidates. If even discerning people with access to social media aren't checking the candidates, imagine the people who don't have this access," 22-year-old accounting student Maria Alejandra Mares told Reuters. "They're going to vote blind."
Voting is not mandatory in Mexico and there is no minimum turnout required to legitimize an election.
Just 37% of 1,000 people polled by Buendia & Marquez said they would come out to vote, compared to 61% who participated in the vote last June that elected President Sheinbaum.
The right-wing PAN opposition party has called on supporters to boycott the election, branding it a "vulgar fraud," but Sheinbaum has vigorously defended her predecessor's reform and her party has sought to mobilize the grassroots vote.
"We call on you to participate, participate, participate," Sheinbaum told a press conference on Friday, saying this would help significantly improve the current judiciary. "Participating is the best way to transform a country."
Besides mandating the popular election of judges, the judicial reform, promoted last year by former President Lopez Obrador, also reduced the number of Supreme Court judges, shortened terms and eased some requirements such as minimum age and work experience.
The reform's approval by lawmakers last year knocked financial markets, sparked the United States to express concern about a weaker judicial system, and sparked a strike by the country's judicial workers.
"Mexico's justice system was far from perfect, and this new judicial system will not address its shortcomings," said Rodolfo Ramos, an analyst at Brazilian bank Bradesco BBI.
Ramos said "the real litmus test" would come when cases against a government action reach the Supreme Court.
Counting is expected to take two weeks, with the results out on June 15.
In 2027, another vote is scheduled to fill over 1,000 more judicial positions.
China and North Korea's support for Russia in its war against Ukraine has exposed how lines between regions have blurred, and the need for a global approach toward defense, top security officials said Sunday.
North Korea has sent troops to fight on the front lines in Ukraine, while China has supported Russia economically and technologically while opposing international sanctions.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė told delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premiere defense forum, that if Ukraine were to fall, it would have a ripple effect in Asia and suggested it could embolden China in its territorial claims on Taiwan and virtually the entire South China Sea.
“If Russia prevails in Ukraine, it’s not about Europe. It’s not about one region," she said. “It will send a very clear signal also to smaller states here in Indo-Pacific that anyone can ignore their borders, that any fabricated excuse can justify invasion.”
The comments echoed those from French President Emmanuel Macron as he opened the conference on Friday advocating for greater European engagement in the Indo-Pacific.
On Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested European countries should focus their defense efforts in their own region and leave the Indo-Pacific more to the U.S., but Šakalienė said the regions were clearly intertwined.
“It's not a secret that when we talk about the main perpetrators in cyber security against Japan it's China, Russia and North Korea,” she said.
“When we talk about main cyber security perpetrators against Lithuania it's Russia, China and Belarus — two out of the three are absolutely the same.”
She added that “the convergence of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea into an increasingly coordinated authoritarian axis,” demands a unified response. Iran has been a key supplier of attack drones to Russia for its war effort.
"In this context, the United States' strategic focus on Indo-Pacific is both justified and necessary, but this is not America’s responsibility alone,” she said.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles told reporters on the sidelines that his main takeaway from the three-day conference, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, was the “real intent in the way in which European countries have engaged” in the debates.
“It reflects the sense of connection, interconnectedness ... between Indo-Pacific on the one hand and the North Atlantic on the other,” he said.
China sent a lower-level delegation from its National Defense University this year to the conference, but its Foreign Ministry on Sunday responded to comments from Hegseth that Beijing was destabilizing the region and preparing to possibly seize Taiwan by force.
“No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the U.S. itself, who is also the primary factor undermining the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific,” it said, while reiterating its stance that the Taiwan issue was an internal Chinese matter.
“The U.S. must neve play with fire on this question,” the ministry said.
Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, whose country has been involved in increasingly violent clashes with China over competing claims in the South China Sea, scoffed at the idea that the U.S. was the problem.
“What the Chinese government considers fair and just may stand in stark contrast to the norms and values accepted by the rest of the world, especially the smaller countries,” he said.
"To envision a China-led international order, we only need to look at how they treat their much smaller neighbors in the South China Sea.”
He also underscored the international implications of the tensions in the Indo-Pacific, noting that the South China Sea was one of several maritime routes that are “arteries of the global economy.”
“Disruption in any of these maritime corridors triggers ripple effects across continents, impacting trade flows, military deployments, and diplomatic posture,” he said.
Singapore’s Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing said China missed an opportunity to have its voice heard by not sending its own defense minister, but it was still incumbent upon others to reach out to Beijing to try and build bridges and prevent misunderstandings.
Singapore has close ties to both the U.S. and China, and is part of the regionally influential Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with the Philippines and others.
“It is in the interest of all of us to work with China, and it is also in the interest of China to work with everyone else in the world,” he said. “It is in the interest of all of us to have a deeper understanding of China’s fears, concerns and aspirations, just as it is important for China to understand how the rest of the world perceives China.”
Putin Is Preparing for More War, US Senators Warn, Urging Swift Sanctions and Global Action
Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling at the peace table while preparing a new military offensive in Ukraine, two senior U.S. senators warned Sunday, arguing that the next two weeks could shape the future of a war that has already smashed cities, displaced millions and redrawn Europe’s security map.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal spoke to The Associated Press in Paris after meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and touring neighborhoods shattered by what they called the worst Russian bombardments since the full-scale invasion began.
In Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron — who they say is “100% aligned” with them on the war — the senators warned the window to prevent a renewed assault is closing. A sweeping U.S. sanctions bill could be the West’s last chance to choke off the Kremlin’s war economy, they said.
"What I learned on this trip was he’s preparing for more war,” Graham said of Putin. Blumenthal called the sanctions proposed in legislation “bone-crushing” and said it would place Russia’s economy “on a trade island.”
“It is crunch time for Putin and for the world because Russia is mounting a new offensive,” he said.
At the heart of their push is a bipartisan sanctions bill, backed by nearly the entire U.S. Senate but still facing uncertain odds in Washington. It would impose 500% tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations like China and India that account for roughly 70% of Russia’s energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.
Graham called it “the most draconian bill I’ve ever seen in my life in the Senate."
“The world has a lot of cards to play against Putin,” he said. “We’re going to hit China and India for propping up his war machine.”
Peace talks are scheduled to resume Monday in Istanbul. But Ukrainian officials say Moscow has yet to submit a serious proposal — a delay both senators described as deliberate and dangerous.
He is proud of the tight-knit, welcoming Catholic community that he leads, and how they’ve helped recent converts come into the faith.
News of the first U.S.-born pope was welcomed by Catholics across the ideological spectrum in Pope Leo XIV ’s homeland.
“Something that did bring me a lot of hope is Pope Leo has a missionary background,” said Ace Acuna, a Princeton alumni. He recently attended a Mass at the chapel before beginning a nearly five-week Catholic pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles.
“In a world where in some places it might look like faith is on the decline, a church that’s willing to go out to the margins and evangelize and be on mission, that’s going to be so important,” Acuna said.
When he was an undergrad at Princeton, Acuna said the chapel became crucial to his college life.
On his way to class every morning, he’d pass by the chapel for a silent prayer. He’d return for the noon Mass and again at the end of the day for one last prayer.
“Princeton is a very busy place and there’s a lot of noise both externally but also internally because we’re so busy and we’re always worried about the next thing,” he said. “Sometimes you just want silence, and you just want a place where you can lay down your burdens.”
At the close of one recent Mass, David Kim and his girlfriend Savannah Nichols continued to pray near the altar, holding hands, kneeling or prostrating on the floor in a sign of reverence.
Kim, a recent graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary, converted to Catholicism last year and has been serving as an altar server at the Princeton University chapel. He called the chapel's side altar "an island of Christian life in an unbelieving world.”
Princeton University has always had a vibrant religious community and a religiously diverse one, said Eric Gregory, a professor of religion there.
“In a way it’s either so secular or even post-secular that it’s not threatened by the Christian presence on campus,” he said. "Religious students in our campus are not cloistered from campus. They’re also in sports teams, clubs and the newspaper. They’re integrated.”
!summarize #ai #religion #karenhao
!summarize #trump #politics #centrism
Catholics at the the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were elated by his election — and reinvigorated in practicing their faith.
“Being able to live out my faith in this extremely secular campus is such a blessing to me,” said student Daniel Vanisko, a lifelong Catholic, later adding in an email that the pope's election “really helps me to draw closer to my faith, seeing that someone that grew up in the same state as me, is the successor of Peter in the Church."
Cavan Morber, a rising junior, said attending UIUC “gives me chance to be challenged in my beliefs, think critically about what I believe, and share my faith with others.”
Asked in an email exchange about the pope’s election, Morber replied: “What a time to be alive!”
Stanley Fischer, Former Fed Vice Chair and Bank of Israel Chief, Dies at 81
Stanley Fischer, who helped shape modern economic theory during a career that included heading the Bank of Israel and serving as vice chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has died at the age of 81.
The Bank of Israel said he died on Saturday night but did not give a cause of death. Fischer was born in Zambia and had dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship.
As an academic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fischer trained many of the people who went on to be top central bankers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president.
Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank, and first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund during the Asian financial crisis and was then vice chairman at Citigroup from 2002 to 2005.
During an eight-year stint as Israel's central bank chief from 2005-2013, Fischer helped the country weather the 2008 global financial crisis with minimal economic damage, elevating Israel's economy on the global stage, while creating a monetary policy committee to decide on interest rates like in other advanced economies.
He was vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017 and served as a director at Bank Hapoalim in 2020 and 2021.
Current Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron praised Fischer's contribution to the Bank of Israel and to advancing Israel’s economy as "truly significant."
The soft-spoken Fischer - who played a role in Israel's economic stabilization plan in 1985 during a period of hyperinflation - was chosen by then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as central bank chief.
2 Fans Died and an Officer Is in a Coma after Champions League Celebrations in France
Two fans died and a police officer is in a coma after mass nationwide celebrations for Paris Saint-Germain’s historic Champions League victory, European soccer’s biggest prize, French authorities said Sunday.
A 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in the city of Dax during a PSG street party after Saturday night's final in Munich, the national police service said. A man was killed in Paris when his scooter was hit by a car during PSG celebrations, the interior minister’s office said. The circumstances of both are being investigated.
A police officer was hit accidentally by fireworks in Coutance in northwest France and placed in an artificial coma because of grave eye injuries, the national police service said.
Hundreds of people were arrested in the celebrations, which were largely peaceful but degenerated into violence in some areas.
The team is expected to return to a big parade on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday after clinching its first Champions League title, a 5-0 win over Inter Milan.
At the top of the Champs-Élysées avenue, a water cannon was used to protect the Place de l’Étoile, near the landmark Arc de Triomphe. Police said a large crowd not watching the match tried to push through a barrier to make contact with police.
By 2 a.m. Sunday, a total of 294 arrests had been made, including 30 people who broke into a shoe shop on the Champs-Élysées. Two cars were set alight close to Parc des Princes, police added.
At the Place de la Bastille, there were joyous scenes as fans climbed onto the base of the famous column, singing, dancing and letting off flares, while those around joined in.
!summarize #culture #woken #institutions #society
At one point, motorbikes loudly revved their engines and the crowd cheered as they did laps around the column. There were no police nearby and, by 1 a.m., the atmosphere was upbeat with no tensions and plenty of singing.
Security had been tightened up in anticipation of potential post-match violence and 5,400 police officers were deployed on the Champs-Élysées, other key parts of Paris, and its nearby suburbs.
Mexico Votes in First Judicial Election Amid Concerns Over Rule of Law
Mexicans vote on Sunday in the country's first ever judicial elections, part of an overhaul of the nation's judiciary that critics warn could jeopardize the rule of law.
The vote will elect 2,600 judges and magistrates, including all Supreme Court justices, and is part of a reform pushed by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his protege and successor President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum say the election will root out corruption in a flawed judiciary dominated by an out-of-touch elite and instead allow people to decide who should be a judge.
But the run-up to the vote has been dominated by a scandal over some of the candidates, including a convicted drug smuggler and a former lawyer of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Opponents say the overhaul risks removing checks and balances on the ruling Morena party, by appointing judges friendly to their cause, and also allowing organized crime groups greater influence over the judicial system by running their own candidates.
Mexico joins Bolivia as the only countries worldwide to conduct judicial elections at the national level, though state-level judicial elections are common in the United States and some local Swiss judges are also elected.
Voters on Sunday will cast ballots for Mexico's nine Supreme Court judges, as well as for judges and magistrates across 19 of Mexico's 32 administrative divisions. More than 7,700 candidates are running for judicial posts.
Pollsters expect a poor turnout, in part due to opposition calls to boycott the vote, but also because of the complexity of the process and vast number of candidates to consider.
!summarize #ww2 #stalingrad #history
"In Mexico City we are going to vote for 50 candidates. If even discerning people with access to social media aren't checking the candidates, imagine the people who don't have this access," 22-year-old accounting student Maria Alejandra Mares told Reuters. "They're going to vote blind."
Voting is not mandatory in Mexico and there is no minimum turnout required to legitimize an election.
Just 37% of 1,000 people polled by Buendia & Marquez said they would come out to vote, compared to 61% who participated in the vote last June that elected President Sheinbaum.
The right-wing PAN opposition party has called on supporters to boycott the election, branding it a "vulgar fraud," but Sheinbaum has vigorously defended her predecessor's reform and her party has sought to mobilize the grassroots vote.
"We call on you to participate, participate, participate," Sheinbaum told a press conference on Friday, saying this would help significantly improve the current judiciary. "Participating is the best way to transform a country."
Besides mandating the popular election of judges, the judicial reform, promoted last year by former President Lopez Obrador, also reduced the number of Supreme Court judges, shortened terms and eased some requirements such as minimum age and work experience.
!summarize #crypto #kidnappings #crime
The reform's approval by lawmakers last year knocked financial markets, sparked the United States to express concern about a weaker judicial system, and sparked a strike by the country's judicial workers.
"Mexico's justice system was far from perfect, and this new judicial system will not address its shortcomings," said Rodolfo Ramos, an analyst at Brazilian bank Bradesco BBI.
Ramos said "the real litmus test" would come when cases against a government action reach the Supreme Court.
Counting is expected to take two weeks, with the results out on June 15.
In 2027, another vote is scheduled to fill over 1,000 more judicial positions.
Hegseth: US Will Lead in Countering China Threat
China and North Korea's support for Russia in its war against Ukraine has exposed how lines between regions have blurred, and the need for a global approach toward defense, top security officials said Sunday.
North Korea has sent troops to fight on the front lines in Ukraine, while China has supported Russia economically and technologically while opposing international sanctions.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė told delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premiere defense forum, that if Ukraine were to fall, it would have a ripple effect in Asia and suggested it could embolden China in its territorial claims on Taiwan and virtually the entire South China Sea.
“If Russia prevails in Ukraine, it’s not about Europe. It’s not about one region," she said. “It will send a very clear signal also to smaller states here in Indo-Pacific that anyone can ignore their borders, that any fabricated excuse can justify invasion.”
The comments echoed those from French President Emmanuel Macron as he opened the conference on Friday advocating for greater European engagement in the Indo-Pacific.
On Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested European countries should focus their defense efforts in their own region and leave the Indo-Pacific more to the U.S., but Šakalienė said the regions were clearly intertwined.
“It's not a secret that when we talk about the main perpetrators in cyber security against Japan it's China, Russia and North Korea,” she said.
“When we talk about main cyber security perpetrators against Lithuania it's Russia, China and Belarus — two out of the three are absolutely the same.”
She added that “the convergence of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea into an increasingly coordinated authoritarian axis,” demands a unified response. Iran has been a key supplier of attack drones to Russia for its war effort.
"In this context, the United States' strategic focus on Indo-Pacific is both justified and necessary, but this is not America’s responsibility alone,” she said.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles told reporters on the sidelines that his main takeaway from the three-day conference, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, was the “real intent in the way in which European countries have engaged” in the debates.
!summarize #mikerowe #chriscuomo #men #ivyleague #universitites #tradeschools
“It reflects the sense of connection, interconnectedness ... between Indo-Pacific on the one hand and the North Atlantic on the other,” he said.
China sent a lower-level delegation from its National Defense University this year to the conference, but its Foreign Ministry on Sunday responded to comments from Hegseth that Beijing was destabilizing the region and preparing to possibly seize Taiwan by force.
“No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the U.S. itself, who is also the primary factor undermining the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific,” it said, while reiterating its stance that the Taiwan issue was an internal Chinese matter.
“The U.S. must neve play with fire on this question,” the ministry said.
!summarize #vanguard #joedavis #ai #technology #economy
!summarize #bull #market #gold #investing #commodities
Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, whose country has been involved in increasingly violent clashes with China over competing claims in the South China Sea, scoffed at the idea that the U.S. was the problem.
“What the Chinese government considers fair and just may stand in stark contrast to the norms and values accepted by the rest of the world, especially the smaller countries,” he said.
"To envision a China-led international order, we only need to look at how they treat their much smaller neighbors in the South China Sea.”
He also underscored the international implications of the tensions in the Indo-Pacific, noting that the South China Sea was one of several maritime routes that are “arteries of the global economy.”
!summarize #southafrica #energy #electricity
“Disruption in any of these maritime corridors triggers ripple effects across continents, impacting trade flows, military deployments, and diplomatic posture,” he said.
Singapore’s Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing said China missed an opportunity to have its voice heard by not sending its own defense minister, but it was still incumbent upon others to reach out to Beijing to try and build bridges and prevent misunderstandings.
Singapore has close ties to both the U.S. and China, and is part of the regionally influential Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with the Philippines and others.
“It is in the interest of all of us to work with China, and it is also in the interest of China to work with everyone else in the world,” he said. “It is in the interest of all of us to have a deeper understanding of China’s fears, concerns and aspirations, just as it is important for China to understand how the rest of the world perceives China.”
Putin Is Preparing for More War, US Senators Warn, Urging Swift Sanctions and Global Action
Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling at the peace table while preparing a new military offensive in Ukraine, two senior U.S. senators warned Sunday, arguing that the next two weeks could shape the future of a war that has already smashed cities, displaced millions and redrawn Europe’s security map.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal spoke to The Associated Press in Paris after meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and touring neighborhoods shattered by what they called the worst Russian bombardments since the full-scale invasion began.
In Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron — who they say is “100% aligned” with them on the war — the senators warned the window to prevent a renewed assault is closing. A sweeping U.S. sanctions bill could be the West’s last chance to choke off the Kremlin’s war economy, they said.
"What I learned on this trip was he’s preparing for more war,” Graham said of Putin. Blumenthal called the sanctions proposed in legislation “bone-crushing” and said it would place Russia’s economy “on a trade island.”
“It is crunch time for Putin and for the world because Russia is mounting a new offensive,” he said.
At the heart of their push is a bipartisan sanctions bill, backed by nearly the entire U.S. Senate but still facing uncertain odds in Washington. It would impose 500% tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations like China and India that account for roughly 70% of Russia’s energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.
Graham called it “the most draconian bill I’ve ever seen in my life in the Senate."
“The world has a lot of cards to play against Putin,” he said. “We’re going to hit China and India for propping up his war machine.”
Peace talks are scheduled to resume Monday in Istanbul. But Ukrainian officials say Moscow has yet to submit a serious proposal — a delay both senators described as deliberate and dangerous.