Author: Laudo

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is heading to the US on Sunday to meet President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as the three nations unveil the next phase of the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, a security partnership meant to counter China. The decision on how to move ahead will be announced Monday when the three leaders meet in San Diego. The plan will take years to produce its first vessel, probably necessitating stopgap measures, according to people familiar with the discussions. The US may base nuclear submarines in Australia or sell the country Virginia-class submarines in the interim. Australia’s…

At first, it appears to be dead. Its head lies in the sand, and a small tide pool has formed around it. Its shoulder blades jut out and its coffee and beige pelt hangs loosely on protruding vertebrae that taper down to its long tail flippers. But the young male sea lion is still alive. Its round wet eyes blink and occasionally it tries to move, rolling over or lifting its head, as the flooding tide inches it up the beach in Chepeconde, about 75 miles south of Peru’s coastal capital, Lima. “Looking at the state he’s in, you can…

China on Friday urged the U.S., the UK and Australia to stop putting their selfish geopolitical agenda above nuclear non-proliferation obligations and stop coercing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into endorsing their nuclear submarine cooperation. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s remarks that the AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation is the advancement of NATO military infrastructure into Asia, which makes a serious bet on many years of confrontation in the region. Wang said the U.S., the UK and Australia are putting up…

ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 14, 2023 / 13:30 pm Ulises Gutiérrez, the archbishop of Ciudad Bolívar and second vice president of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference, lamented that the country is falling back into “extreme poverty.” In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Gutiérrez noted that “hunger is more acute every day; there is great need in all sectors of the country.” “We have six soup kitchens where 100 meals a day are given to children and the elderly,” he said, adding that “maintaining these soup kitchens is extremely expensive and we’re looking for resources,” most of which…

The European Parliament adopted, last Thursday, a new resolution hostile to the kingdom calling for banning Moroccan officials from accessing the Brussels hemicycle. The daily Assabah reports, in its weekend edition (February 18 and 19), that this new resolution confirms a deliberate desire for escalation, behind which are opponents of Morocco in certain political coalitions, including the parties of the radical left and the Greens. Faced with this pathological hostility, Morocco has rejected this interference which undermines its sovereignty, in the absence of evidence corroborating the accusations made against the kingdom. This resolution cancels the access badges of Morocco’s representatives to the European Parliament…

KAWASAKI, Japan (AP) — Yao Ming graced marquees for a decade in the NBA, spurring basketball’s growing popularity in China. Table tennis needs the inverse: an eye-catching outsider to get the focus off China. Hugo Calderano fits the profile. He’s from Brazil — table tennis is largely invisible there — has beaten many of China’s top players, and speaks seven languages including Chinese; a player to broaden the game’s appeal. “It’s still probably one of the biggest issues we have out there we have to tackle,” said Steve Dainton, the CEO of the ITTF, the sport’s world governing body. He…

Monica Albuquerque, who joined Warner Bros. Discovery Latin (WBDLA) in 2021 as head of talent and telenovela development, has been upped to head of scripted content at the company. She takes over the responsibilities of Marcelo Tamburri who leaves the company in March after nearly two decades. In her new role, she will be responsible for the conceptualization and development of original scripted projects for WBDLA’s streaming platform HBO Max and pay TV outlets in Latin America. She will continue to oversee the development, research and talent management for both fiction and non-fiction content at the company. “It’s an honor…

Police in Brazil have arrested a man they say had tried to detonate an explosive device to “sow chaos” ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on 1 January. The man had planted the bomb in a fuel truck near the airport in Brasilia, but it failed to go off, police said. The suspect told officers he had hatched the plan with other supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro. Police are trying to find his possible co-conspirators. The 54-year-old suspect told investigators he had come to Brasilia on 12 November to take part in protests outside…