US President Donald Trump said on May 12 he will have a long talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the war in Iran during his upcoming trip to China, but added that he does not think he needs Mr Xi’s help.
“I don’t think we need any help with Iran. We’ll win it one way or the other, peacefully or otherwise,” Mr Trump told reporters when departing the White House for China.
The leaders of the world’s two largest economies will hold their first face-to-face talks in more than six months as they try to stabilise ties strained by trade, the US and Israeli war with Iran and other areas of disagreement.
Mr Trump is heading to China amid an unresolved Iran war with diplomatic negotiations to end it at an impasse. Beijing maintains ties with Iran and remains a major consumer of its oil exports.
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PHOTO: REUTERS
Both Iraq and Pakistan have cut deals with Iran to ship oil and liquefied natural gas from the Gulf, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter, in a demonstration of Tehran’s ability to control energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
The US-Israeli war with Iran has slashed energy exports from a region that normally supplies 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil and LNG.
Though Iran initially sought to halt traffic through the strait, that stance is now changing, said Mr Claudio Steuer of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. “Iran has shifted from blocking Hormuz to controlling access to it… Hormuz is no longer a neutral transit route, it is a controlled corridor,” he said.
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PHOTO: EPA
A French woman repatriated from a cruise ship struck by hantavirus was on May 12 in intensive care on a ventilator battling a severe case of the rare disease, a doctor said.
The woman, one of five French passengers flown back from the MV Hondius and placed in isolation in Paris, started to feel very unwell on the night of May 10 and tested positive.
“The patient now has the most severe form of cardiopulmonary presentation,” Dr Xavier Lescure told a press conference at the health ministry.
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Noted German Holocaust survivor Albrecht Weinberg, who devoted much of the end of his life to educating younger generations about the Nazis’ crimes, died on May 12 at the age of 101.
Mr Weinberg’s friend and housemate, Ms Gerda Daenekas, told AFP that he passed away peacefully in his sleep on the morning of May 12.
Born into a Jewish family in northwestern Germany, Mr Weinberg and his two siblings were sent to Auschwitz in what was Nazi-occupied Poland when he was 18.
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PHOTO: EPA
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner extended his Masters 1000 winning streak to 31 matches, equalling Novak Djokovic’s all-time record, with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over unseeded compatriot Andrea Pellegrino in the round of 16 of the Italian Open on May 12.
The four-time Grand Slam champion was ruthless early on, racing into a 4-0 lead before Pellegrino got on the scoreboard.
Pellegrino showed greater resistance in the second set, drawing level at 3-3, but Sinner broke for 4-3 and closed out the match comfortably.
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