China

Under the Solomon Islands' terms of a draft agreement, China could send police, military personnel and other armed forces to the Solomon Islands "to assist in maintaining social order."

Many residents in the city of 26 million have been confined to their homes for up to three weeks as China maintains its "zero-COVID" strategy of handling outbreaks.

The jury also found Feng "Franklin" Tao not guilty of four related counts in the case, which spurred by the Trump Justice Department's controversial "China Initiative" effort.

John Lee, who has spent most of his civil service career in the police and overseeing security matters, has much less policy-making experience than previous chief executives.

The announcement comes amid growing concern by the U.S. and its allies about China's growing military assertiveness and Washington's concern of Russia using the weapons in Ukraine.

The COVID-19 outbreak in China's largest metropolis of Shanghai remains "extremely grim" amid an ongoing lockdown confining around 26 million people to their homes, a city official said Tuesday.

The country's defense minister cites both the Russia-Ukraine war and China for accelerating the rearming of fighter jets and warships.

The development lending institution urges governments to lift restrictions on trade and services and to end fossil fuel subsidies to encourage adoption of more green energy technologies.

The European Union is seeking China's assurances that it won't assist Russia in circumventing economic sanctions for invading Ukraine and cooperation on ending the war at today's virtual meeting.