Reporter Raquel Camila

  China said Tuesday it has sealed a wide-ranging security pact with the Solomon Islands, an agreement the US and its regional allies fear could give Beijing a military foothold in the South Pacific. The US on Monday warned that a security pact between the Solomon Islands and China could destabilise the islands, and set a “concerning precedent” for the wider Pacific Island region, announcing a visit by senior officials, including the National Security Council (NSC) Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell, to the Pacific islands. In an announcement on Monday, the White House said Campbell and the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Kritenbrink, would lead a US delegation to Fiji, Papua New Guine and Solomon Islands. The inter-agency delegation would seek to “further deepen ties” with the region and advance a “free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific”. To know more: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-officials-heading-to-solomons-over-china-p...

 BEIJING: Three Chinese astronauts landed in northern China on Saturday after 183 days in space, state broadcaster CCTV said, ending the country’s longest crewed space mission to date. The Shenzhou-13 spacecraft is the latest mission in Beijing’s drive to become a major space power rivalling the US, after landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the Moon. The two men and one woman — Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping — landed in a small capsule shortly before 10 am Beijing time, after six months aboard the Tianhe core module of China’s Tiangong space station. “Shenzhou 13’s re-entry capsule successfully landed,” state broadcaster CCTV said. The trio originally launched in the Shenzhou-13 from the Gobi Desert in northwestern China last October, as the second of four crewed missions during 2021-2022 sent to assemble the country’s first permanent space station — Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace.” Wang became the first Chinese woman to spacewalk last Nove...