Entertainment
Putin to join President Xi and world leaders at SCO meeting in China
TIANJIN: Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to arrive in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin on Sunday, where he will join President Xi Jinping and around 20 other world leaders for a major regional summit.
The gathering, organised under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), will run until Monday and comes just days before a huge military parade in Beijing marking 80 years since the end of World War II.
The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus — with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners”.
China and Russia have sometimes touted the SCO as an alternative to the NATO military alliance.
In an interview published on China’s Xinhua news agency on Saturday, Putin said the upcoming summit will “strengthen the SCO’s capacity to respond to contemporary challenges and threats, and consolidate solidarity across the shared Eurasian space”.
“All this will help shape a fairer multipolar world order,” Putin said, Xinhua reported.
As China’s claim over Taiwan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have seen them clash with the United States and Europe, experts say Beijing and Moscow are eager to use platforms like the SCO to curry influence.
“China has long sought to present the SCO as a non-Western-led power bloc that promotes a new type of international relations, which, it claims, is more democratic,” said Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
“In short, it offers a Chinese-inflected multilateral order that is distinct from the western-dominated ones in international politics,” Loh told AFP.
More than 20 leaders including Iranian and Turkish presidents Masoud Pezeshkian and Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the bloc’s largest meeting since its founding in 2001.
“The large-scale participation indicates China’s growing influence and the SCO’s appeal as a platform for non-Western countries,” Loh added.
Beijing, through the SCO, will try to “project influence and signal that Eurasia has its own institutions and rules of the game”, said Lizzi Lee from the Asia Society Policy Institute.
“It is framed as something different, built around sovereignty, non-interference, and multipolarity, which the Chinese tout as a model,” Lee told AFP.
Talks on the sidelines
Chinese President Xi met leaders including Egyptian Premier Moustafa Madbouly and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Tianjin on Saturday.
Other bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit will be organised.
Putin is expected to hold talks on Monday with Turkey’s Erdogan and Iran’s Pezeshkian about the Ukraine conflict and Tehran’s nuclear programme respectively.
Putin needs “all the benefits of SCO as a player on the world stage and also the support of the second largest economy in the world”, said Lim Tai Wei, a professor and East Asia expert at Japan’s Soka University.
“Russia is also keen to win over India, and India’s trade frictions with the United States present this opportunity,” Lim told AFP.
The summit comes days after India was hit by a sharp bump up in US tariffs on its goods as punishment for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Tianjin on Saturday evening after a trip to Japan, marking the start of his first visit to China since 2018.
The two most populous nations are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia and fought a deadly border clash in 2020.
A thaw began last October when Modi met with Xi for the first time in five years at a summit in Russia.
Modi was not on a list of attendees for the Beijing parade published by Chinese state media on Thursday that included Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.
Ariana Grande is preparing her fans to expect something unexpected from her as she shared a glimpse into what her new era might look like.
The 32-year-old singer and actress took to Instagram on Saturday, April 18, and shared a cryptic video with fans.
In the video, the Side to Side hitmaker was seen describing her new album to her label.
The Wicked star told her listeners it would be “something that is full of life and growing through the cracks of something cold, hard and challenging.”
The footage was recorded in a studio and Grande’s producers and executives were heard appreciating the work-in-progress in one of the clips.
The Into You songstress took social media by the storm with her video as fans rushed to the comments to share their excitement for her eighth album.
“It’s giving hope. It’s giving rebirth. It’s giving Album of the Year,” one fan wrote on X, while another impatiently exclaimed, “OKAY GAG NOW ANNOUNCE THE LEAD SINGLE.”
A third chimed in, “she really said healing era but make it ART… we are NOT ready,” and “AG8 is among us i cant believe,” added another.
Jacob Elordi and Kendall Jenner have drawn all the attention to their seemingly budding romance after they were spotted together at Coachella.
The 28-year-old actor has come back to Los Angeles after the music festival in Indio, California, and fans are still looking for signs to confirm his relationship status with the supermodel, 30.
The Frankenstein star recently stepped out for a shopping spree in the city, and was seen talking to someone on facetime as he stepped out of the store with the bags.
Although the paparazzi pictures didn’t clearly show who Elordi was talking to, fans were keen on zooming in to find out.
“Anyone else zoom in on his phone to see who he was FaceTiming?” one comment read on DeuxMoi’s post, which many others agreed with.
However, despite the majority wondering if the Euphoria actor was talking to Jenner, some noted that he was likely talking to his mom as he has often shared how he calls her 3-4 times a day.
This comes after the Wuthering Heights actor was spotted on a coffee run in Santa Barbara earlier this week. The outing garnered much attention because the cafe was near Jenner’s ranch in the city.
Despite the constant speculations the reality star and Elordi have not addressed the rumours.
Prince Harry’s rift with Prince William and King Charles has widened the breach between the royal family and the Sussexes.
The Duke of Sussex reportedly feels ‘utterly betrayed by the King, with insiders citing two major issues that burned all bridges between the father and son.
Meghan’s husband’s ongoing security battle and the collapse of hopes for reunion have deepened rift between the monarch and the Duke.
Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’s dad has lost his taxpayer-funded protection since he moved to the US after quitting his royal job in 2020.
The 41-year old has fought unsuccessfully to have it reinstated. He believes the current arrangements make it unsafe for his family to visit the UK.
On the other hand his efforts to rebuild his relationship with Charles, 77, have seemingly ended in smoke as no further development has been made.
A source close to Harry claimed to OK!: “From Harry’s perspective, the sense of betrayal by Charles isn’t vague or abstract – it’s rooted in two very specific frustrations that have been building over time.
“The first is the continued lack of clarity and progress around his security arrangements, which he sees as fundamental to his ability to return safely to the U.K. with his family.
“The second is the growing feeling that any genuine effort to rebuild his relationship with his father is being quietly deprioritised. He had been led to believe there would be movement on both, and instead he feels increasingly held at arm’s length.”
The insider went on to explain: “On Harry’s side, there’s a strong perception that Charles has stepped back from the idea of another meaningful face-to-face meeting, despite earlier indications that a deeper reconciliation might be possible.”
The pause creates a picture for him of being shut out rather than welcomed back. That combination has been particularly difficult for him to process and has left him feeling profoundly let down, according to the insider.
However, some commentators believe that the Sussexes’ upcoming summer visit could act as a turning point as it may open the door to rebuilding relationships and easing tensions.
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