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C hinese officials, their boss Xi Jinping likes to say, should “tell China’s story well.” So when that story isn’t a good one, it’s perhaps natural that they shouldn’t say much of anything, which may explain why this year’s National People’s Congress (NPC) annual rubberstamp parliament has proven tedious even by its own dismal standards. Dressed in navy suit and crimson tie, Premier Li Qiang rattled off his highly anticipated Work Report on Tuesday in just 50 minutes, the shortest time since 2001. And by ditching the customary closing press conference—a highly choreographed affair at the best of times—Li didn’t portray much confidence that this particular story would stand up to even cursory scrutiny. Li’s speech, which reviews the nation’s economic health while setting new goals and targets, proved to be an almost carbon copy of his predecessor’s last year, down to the same projected growth target of “about 5%.” Although he unveiled a 7.2% increase in military spending, $139 billion i...

T he British Army has removed its claim that Kate, Princess of Wales will be attending its annual Trooping the Colour event. Until Tuesday, tickets for the Military parade on June 8 were on sale alongside an image of the royal. It was anticipated that Kate would review the display as part of her role as Colonel of the Irish Guards — the regiment trooping its color this summer. The website similarly advertised the second Trooping the Colour event for the King’s Birthday Parade, which announced that King Charles III will review the troops on June 15. The army has now removed the claim that Kate will attend the event, as the details were not formally confirmed by Kensington Palace before it was published. Buckingham Palace has not confirmed Charles’ attendance, but his inclusion on the army website has remained.  It is understood that the attendance of senior royals is typically confirmed closer to the date of an event. Kensington Palace did not immediately respond to TIME’s request ...

BERLIN — A German military officer used an unsecured phone line at a Singapore hotel to join a conference call that was hacked by Russians and leaked to the public, Germany’s defense minister said Tuesday. The fallout from the leaked audio tape, which features four high-ranking German air force officers discussing hypothetically how Taurus long-range cruise missiles could be used by Kyiv against invading Russian forces, has embarrassed the German government and further increased tensions between the two countries. “Not all participants adhered to the secure dialing procedure as intended,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said as he briefed reporters in Berlin on the initial results of an ongoing investigation. The minister said that the officer in question, whose name he did not give, had participated in the Singapore Air Show, which was attended by high-ranking Military officers from across Europe, and then dialed into the WebEx call using either his mobile phone or the hotel...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — It’s the one question on the minds of all Haitians ever since armed gangs plunged the long-suffering Caribbean nation into near anarchy: Where in the world is Prime Minister Ariel Henry? The embattled leader, who assumed power following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, has been notably absent since the country's latest and most serious outbreak of violence started last week. Henry has stayed silent as he crisscrosses the world, from South America to Africa, with no announced date of return. Meanwhile, armed groups have seized on the power void. They tried to take control of Haiti’s main international airport on Monday and exchanged gunfire with police and soldiers. The explosion of violence also included a mass escape from the country’s two biggest prisons. Even a decree declaring a state of emergency and curfew to restore order lacked Henry's imprint. It was signed by his finance minister, who is serving as acting prime minister. ...

K ate Middleton has been spotted for the first time since she underwent a “planned abdominal surgery” two months ago.  On Monday, TMZ published images of the 42-year-old Princess of Wales in a car with her mother near Windsor Castle. The images follow weeks of unrelenting online speculation, and even conspiracy theories, about her health and whereabouts. The royal was last seen with Prince William and their children during Christmas festivities in Norfolk, England, but there have been no appearances or images of her since. Read More: U.K. Army Removes Claim Kate Middleton Will Attend Event Amid Ongoing Speculation Meanwhile, the Princess of Wales’s uncle Gary Goldsmith became a contestant on the British reality TV show Big Brother on Monday evening, and said his niece is in a “nice house somewhere” recuperating from surgery. Kensington Palace issued a statement in January announcing that Kate had undergone abdominal surgery in January and would recover—out of the spotlight—until a...

L ast month, Ukrainian drones sank another large Russian warship. The loss of Tsezar Kunikov now means that a whopping one-third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has been disabled. The Kunikov joined Russia’s flagship Moskva at the bottom of the Black Sea and cemented the fact that the maritime theatre of the war in Ukraine remains the single most significant naval co NFL ict since the Falklands war more than four decades ago. This David vs. Goliath event raises an important question. Are ever-advanced drones rendering naval fleets obsolete? The fact that Ukraine is winning at sea would suggest as much. Yet the temptation to concede to this line of argument fundamentally misses two crucial points. First, war at sea is deeply attritional. As a recent study conducted at the U.S. Naval War College pointed out, modern naval warfare relies on mass. The numbers of combatants— surface, submarine, and air—and a capacity to regenerate them at scale makes all the difference in war at sea. The U.S. na...

MELBOURNE, Australia — Taylor Swift stole the show at an Asian summit Tuesday when Singapore’s leader defended his tiny country’s lucrative concert deal that could cause bad blood with neighboring nations. Read More: Look What Taylor Swift’s Exclusive Singapore Shows Made Its Southeast Asian Neighbors Do Singapore is a key member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-nation bloc known as ASEAN. Its three-day summit was expected to focus on member Myanmar’s humanitarian crisis and co NFL icts in the South China Sea. Instead, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was grilled on the summit’s sidelines about an exclusive deal his city-state struck with Swift that prevents the singer from taking her Eras Tour to any other stop in Southeast Asia. Swift is performing six concerts from March 2 to 9 in Singapore, and some Southeast Asian neighbors complain that the Singapore deal deprives them of the tourism boom her concerts bring to hosts. Her Eras Tou...