UNITED STATES
Wendy Sherman to retire
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Friday said she would retire at the end of next month, after three decades in Washington’s foreign policy establishment. Sherman is the first woman to serve in her current role, in which she has headed up Washington’s diplomacy with China and led unsuccessful talks with Russia to avert Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken credited Sherman with breaking barriers for women and working on “some of the toughest foreign policy challenges of our time.” Blinken said in a statement that the US “is safer and more secure, and our partnerships more robust, due to her leadership.”
EUROPEAN UNION
New China stance sought
The bloc’s foreign ministers on Friday agreed on the need to “recalibrate” their position on China, reducing dependencies and coaxing Beijing to take a tougher stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Brussels has urged the bloc’s 27 nations to get on the same page on how they deal with China, as a more assertive Beijing asserts its influence on the world stage. At a meeting hosted by Sweden, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell unveiled a paper outlining the need to “define” and “recalibrate our position towards China.” Borrell said the bloc was sticking to its existing vision of China as simultaneously a partner, competitor and rival. He said it remained important to “engage” with Beijing at the same time as looking to cut the bloc’s reliance in the face of fundamentally different values and economic systems.
PAKISTAN
Former PM returns home
Former prime minister Imran Khan arrived at his Lahore residence yesterday, after being freed on bail following days of legal drama and nationwide riots over his arrest on corruption charges. Khan was arrested during a routine court appearance on Tuesday, triggering violent clashes in several cities. His detention came just hours after he was rebuked by the military, whom he accused of being involved in an assassination attempt against him last year. His arrest was on Thursday declared unlawful by the Supreme Court, which kept Khan in custody until Friday — when he was granted two weeks’ bail in the corruption case. The Islamabad High Court ordered Khan could not be arrested before Monday in any case. “The head of the country’s largest party was abducted, kidnapped from the high court, and in front of the entire nation,” Khan said. “They treated me like a terrorist.”
AUSTRALIA
Man feared killed by shark
Rescuers were scouring the waters off a remote beach in South Australia yesterday for traces of a surfer believed to have been killed in a shark attack. Emergency services were called to the beach near the town of Elliston, about 650km south of the state capital, Adelaide, following reports of the attack. “A man is believed to have died following a shark attack at Walkers Rocks Beach,” police said in a statement, adding that the 46-year-old was the only person thought to have been attacked. A team was searching the area by boat, a state emergency services spokesperson said. The attack followed the death in February of a girl mauled by a shark in a river in Western Australia.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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