While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, April 3, 2024
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden's last direct interaction was at a summit in November in California.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Biden, Xi speak in phone call to manage tensions as top US officials set to visit China
US President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping spoke on April 2 in a new bid to manage tensions between the United States and China, with top US officials to head shortly to Beijing, officials said.
The telephone conversation was the two leaders’ first direct interaction since a summit in November in California that saw a marked thaw in tone if not the long-term rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen – who have both voiced a willingness to find areas to work with China even while maintaining pressure – will soon visit China.
Zelensky lowers army mobilisation age from 27 to 25: Parliament
AFP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on April 2 signed into law a measure lowering the country’s army mobilisation age from 27 to 25, the parliament said on its website.
Mobilisation has been a divisive issue in a nation exhausted by more than two years of war with Russia, which has seen huge military losses.
But the move comes as Ukraine lacks soldiers to battle the Russian invasion now in its third year.
Germany sees warmest March ever as records keep coming
AFP
Germany last month saw its warmest March since records began, the DWD weather office said on April 2, rounding off an unusually mild winter.
At 7.5 degrees Celsius, the mean temperature was four degrees above the average for the internationally recognised reference period of 1961 to 1990, the DWD said.
On March 30, temperatures reached 24.9 degrees in Cottbus, near the border with Poland, and 24 degrees in Munich in the south.
French police seek more remains after missing boy’s skull found
French police on April 2 conducted new searches for the remains of a boy whose skull was found at the weekend nine months after he went missing in a remote Alpine village, in a mystery that remains unresolved.
Emile Soleil, aged two-and-a-half, was at the summer home of his grandparents in the tiny hamlet of Le Haut-Vernet when he vanished in July.
Dozens of gendarmes and investigators, aided by dogs specialised in detecting human remains, were involved in the search which will also seek to find new evidence about what happened to Emile, the local gendarmerie told AFP.
Calvert-Lewin ends drought to earn point for Everton at Newcastle
REUTERS
Dominic Calvert-Lewin ended a 23-game goal drought as he scored a late penalty on April 2 to give struggling Everton a 1-1 Premier League draw at Newcastle United, who will rue several missed opportunities in a match they largely dominated.
Everton were awarded the spot-kick when Ashley Young was hauled to the floor by Newcastle defender Paul Dummett, who had only just come onto the pitch, and Calvert-Lewin netted as the visitors overcame a poor first half to equalise.
Alexander Isak had earlier scored for the fifth home game in a row for Newcastle after being played behind the Everton defence by Harvey Barnes, the Swede showing great composure to evade the challenges of James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite.
