China and Russia pledged to further deepen their already “no limits” partnership in a joint statement published ahead of Russia’s military parade yesterday, as the two sides stressed the importance of maintaining the “correct view” of World War II history.
In a lengthy statement published during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to Moscow for the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of the World War II, which Russia celebrates on 9 May as Victory Day, Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said “certain countries ... are attempting to tamper with the results of the victory of World War II.”
Xi is on his 11th visit to Russia since becoming president in 2013. On Thursday, Xi and Putin held nearly four hours of talks in which both leaders described the other as a close friend. Putin announced plans to visit China in the autumn for the commemoration of Japan’s defeat in World War II.
Photo: AP
The Xi-Putin statement went further than previous ones in directly condemning the US.
“The United States and its allies are trying to promote NATO’s eastward expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, build ‘small circles’ in the Asia-Pacific region and win over countries in the region to promote their ‘Indo-Pacific strategy,’ undermining regional peace, stability and prosperity,” the statement said.
The statement also said that “unilateral coercive measures, including economic sanctions, that bypass the UN Security Council violate the UN Charter and other international laws and undermine international security interests.”
This week’s meeting of the Chinese and Russian leaders underscores the close relationship between the two men who see themselves as a bulwark against US hegemony
Earlier this week, Xi claimed that World War II also represented the “liberation” of Taiwan and marked “Taiwan’s return to China.”
The joint Xi-Putin statement stated that Russia “firmly supports the measures taken by the Chinese government to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity and achieve national reunification.”
Although China and Russia do not have a normal military alliance, there are growing concerns in the West about the close security cooperation between the two countries. China and Russia conducted 14 joint military exercises last year, according to data compiled by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies’ ChinaPower project, which tracks military and economic developments.
A Chinese honor guard participated in yesterday’s military parade in Moscow for the first time since 2015.
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in