Premier Li pledges stronger strategic alignment with ASEAN, GCC for common development

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Tuesday that China is ready to strengthen the alignment of development strategies with ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, continuously opening up new prospects for common development.

Li made the remarks when addressing the opening ceremony of the ASEAN-China-GCC Economic Forum 2025.

The successful convening of the ASEAN-China-GCC Summit opened up a new chapter in trilateral cooperation, Li said, adding that the summit featured in-depth discussions on the theme of "Synergizing Economic Opportunities towards Shared Prosperity," which held great significance.

He said in today's world, joining hands to address challenges is in itself a way of creating opportunities.

In the face of escalating geopolitical conflicts and confrontations, Li said, it is believed that staying committed to deepening mutual trust and enhancing solidarity can create long-term strategic opportunities and achieve sustained and stable development.

Chinese-built highway in Saudi Arabia partially opens to traffic

A Chinese-built major highway project in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, the Jubail TS-8 Highway, reached a key milestone on Tuesday with its partial handover and opening.

Located in the city of Jubail, the 16.8-km-long, six-lane dual carriageway -- constructed by China Railway 18th Bureau Group (Saudi Arabia) -- serves as a fast connection between Highway 95 and the Jubail Industrial Area in the Eastern Province. The newly opened section covers 8.1 km.

The highway is expected to be fully handed over and open to traffic by September, according to the Chinese company.

Mahmoud bin Saleh Al-Theeb, CEO of the Royal Commission in Jubail, said the highway's opening will significantly ease traffic pressure in Jubail, enhance transportation efficiency, benefit local communities, and inject new momentum into regional economic development.

Acknowledging the Chinese company's outstanding efforts on the project, Al-Theeb said Chinese solutions and technologies have made important contributions to local infrastructure development.

EU ministers approve creation of 150-bln-euro arms fund

Ministers from the European Union (EU) countries on Tuesday approved the creation of a 150-billion-euro (about 170.22 billion U.S. dollars) arms fund, the bloc's first large-scale defence investment program at EU level, the Council of the EU said in a press release.

The fund will be channelled through the new Security Action for Europe instrument, which offers competitively priced, long-maturity loans to member states that choose to invest in defence industrial production via joint procurement of priority capabilities, the Council said.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, proposed the fund in March as an essential part of its ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 package, which aims to leverage over 800 billion euros in defence spending to bolster European security and defence cooperation.

Russia, U.S. work on next prisoner swap

Moscow and Washington are coordinating the details of a previously agreed prisoner exchange, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

During a press briefing after his talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Moscow, Lavrov confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to arrange a prisoner swap during their latest call.

"For obvious reasons, the details are being coordinated by the relevant authorities," Lavrov said.

In a telephone conversation on May 19, Putin and Trump discussed the possibility of a prisoner swap involving nine people from each country, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters following the call.

Israel opens two U.S.-run food aid compounds in S. Gaza

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that two food distribution compounds operated by private U.S. companies have begun functioning in southern Gaza, as part of an aid initiative that has drawn sharp criticism from humanitarian organizations.

According to a military statement, the centers -- located in Tel al-Sultan near Rafah and in the Morag Corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis -- began operating on Tuesday and "are distributing food packages to thousands of families."

Video footage released by the military showed empty, fenced compounds surrounded by sand berms, with long tables set up for distribution.

A military map also indicated the establishment of two additional distribution centers -- one in Rafah and another in the Al Bureij area of central Gaza -- though no timeline was given for their activation.

U.S. pauses new student-visa interviews

The U.S. government has ordered U.S. embassies and consular sections worldwide to pause scheduling new interviews for student-visa applicants as it is considering requiring all foreign students applying to study in the United States to undergo social media vetting, local media cited a cable dated Tuesday and signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

"Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued, which we anticipate in the coming days," the cable said.

The cable did not directly specify what future social media vetting would screen for.

The U.S. government had earlier imposed some social media screening requirements, which were largely aimed at returning students who may have participated in protests against Israel's actions in Gaza. The new move is a significant expansion of previous such efforts.

Palestinian death toll in Gaza surpasses 54,000

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 54,000 since the outbreak of the conflict between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Gaza's health authorities said on Tuesday.

During the past 24 hours, 79 Palestinians were killed and 163 others injured as a result of Israeli attacks on various areas of the Gaza Strip, the health authorities said in a press statement, noting that the statistics do not include hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate due to the difficulty of accessing them.

The authorities indicated that a number of the dead and injured remain trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings or on the streets, as ongoing shelling and the absence of safe corridors continue to hinder the efforts of ambulance and civil defense crews.

Since Israel resumed its intensified military campaign on March 18, at least 3,901 Palestinians have been killed and 11,088 others injured, bringing the overall death toll in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 to 54,056, with a total of 123,129 people injured.