Russian President Vladimir Putin announced tactical nuclear weapons drills in response to “belligerent statements” made by Western leaders threatening to put troops on the ground in Ukraine.
“During the exercises, a set of measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” Russia’s defense ministry said Monday.
China is willing to launch an initiative with France, on the occasion of the Paris Olympic Games, for a worldwide truce during the Games, Chinese President Xi Jinping told reporters on Monday at a press conference with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
The US State Department on Monday plans to release an ambitious new cybersecurity strategy that seeks to curb Russia and China’s digital influence in the developing world and blunt those countries’ alleged efforts to interfere in elections.
With roughly half of the world’s population holding elections in 2024, their vulnerability to “cyber-enabled interference” is “particularly acute” and requires the US to continuously expose hackers and propagandists trying to undermine confidence in democracies, says the strategy, which CNN has reviewed.
“We have communicated and will continue to communicate to Russia and to China that we view interference in our democratic processes in the United States as absolutely unacceptable,” Nate Fick, the State Department’s top cyber diplomat, said in an interview. “Secretary [Antony] Blinken has said it, and I have said it.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping has begun three-way talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Xi is on his first tour of Europe in five years. On Monday, he was welcomed by President Macron at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris before the discussions started around 11 a.m.
As the meeting started, Macron said the current global situation calls for dialogue between Europe and China more than ever.
Xi said China and the EU should sustain a solid partnership as the world’s two important powers. He said they should develop stable and healthy relations and constantly contribute to global peace and prosperity.
Displaced people including ISIS families at al-Hol camp, Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), 2019. Photo: AFP
United States announced Tuesday it had brought back two dozen Western citizens, half of them Americans, from a camp for Islamic State prisoners in Syria, its largest-ever repatriation as thousands languish.
In a complex operation involving US agencies, Kuwait and pro-US Kurdish fighters, the United States repatriated 11 US citizens, including five minors, as well as a nine-year-old non-US sibling of an American, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The United States in the same operation facilitated the repatriation of six Canadian citizens, four Dutch citizens, and one Finnish citizen, among them eight children, he said.
“This is the largest single repatriation of US citizens from northeast Syria to date,” Blinken said in a statement.