🇫🇷🇨🇳 A French national has been executed in China after being convicted on drug-related charges, according to official reports.

The 62-year-old man was found guilty of making, smuggling, and trafficking illegal substances. The sentence was carried out in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The man, identified as Chan Tao Fumi, had originally been sentenced to death in 2010 and spent more than 15 years on death row.

During that period, his legal defense team was denied access to the final court hearing, a move that was widely viewed as a violation of his rights. France’s Foreign Ministry expressed “outrage” over the case.

🇺🇸 US-131 in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan was closed for hours on Saturday after a truck hauling some 30 000 litres of gasoline crashed and caught fire.

🇬🇧🇺🇸 Pepsi has announced it is withdrawing its sponsorship of the Wireless Festival in London this summer after news that Kanye West is to headline the three-day event.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said earlier that it was "deeply concerning" West was set to headline Wireless.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said on Thursday that the government should ban West from entering the UK, arguing "we need to get tougher on antisemitism" and describing West's planned appearance as "extremely serious".

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "Personally I wouldn't buy a ticket."

Last year West was blocked from entering Australia after releasing a song titled "Heil Hitler", glorifying the Nazi leader.

🇺🇸🇨🇳 A new Gallup poll shows China surpassing the United States in terms of the global approval of its leadership.

Previously, the situation only happened during the first term of President Trump as well as right after the 2008 world economic crisis under President Bush Jr.

However, the gap in approval between the American and Chinese leaders has never seen China pull ahead by as much as it does now.

🇨🇳 Following a dispute with his neighbour, a Chinese man resorted to blasting ghost stories for more than 10 hours a day as revenge, deliberately keeping the volume just below the legal limit, drawing widespread ridicule online.

Two men Li and Lu began playing ghost stories through a loudspeaker (pictured) placed against the wall shared with the neighbor they have a conflict with every day, from 8.45am to noon, and again from 3.30pm to 10pm.

During these periods, eerie “ghostly mountain sounds” echoed through the neighbour’s home, looping continuously for more than 10 hours a day.

🇮🇹 Camorra boss Roberto Mazzarella caught in luxury resort on Amalfi coast. He was fourth on the Ministry of the Interior's list of the most dangerous fugitives.

Mazzarella, head of the clan bearing his name, was on the list of Italy's most dangerous fugitives. Murder charges and other charges were brought against him. Cash and luxury watches were seized in the operation.

The hunt for Roberto Mazzarella, head of the eponymous clan that controls Naples, ended in a luxury resort in Vietri sul Mare, in the Salerno area. Carabinieri on Friday night arrested the boss, who had been wanted since 28 January 2025, after having escaped a European arrest warrant.

The Mazzarella family controls much of the smuggling and drug trafficking in Naples and its province, of which it shares control with the so-called Secondigliano Alliance, and the laundering of proceeds via Milan and northern Italy.

🇺🇸 A light passenger plane made an emergency landing on a busy Pennsylvania highway.

🇺🇸🇨🇳 Beginning in the 1980s, the share of China's publications in the world's leading science journals grew from 0% to 32%.

At the same time, the US share dropped from 60% to 24%.

While the United States continues to lead in the field of medicine, China's best domains are applied physics and chemistry.

🇺🇸 Sysco, America's infamous largest provider of food and other goods to restaurants and other foodservice providers, announced that it has a deal to acquire Restaurant Depot for $29.1 billion in cash and stock.

Restaurant Depot is a leading source of products for mostly independent restaurants and other businesses. It operates 166 large-format warehouse stores in 35 states that generate $16 billion in annual revenue.

The deal gives Sysco access to a crucial customer base of independent restaurants. Restaurant Depot serves about 725 000 such operators every year - representing a very big share of restaurants, who intentionally tried to avoid dealing with Sysco for years.

🇺🇸🇪🇸 African American tourist decided that celebrations of the Catholic holiday of Semana Santa in Spain were the Klan's rally.

🇪🇸🇺🇸 Spanish newspaper of record El Pais held a poll to identify world leaders who are seen as bigger global threats by residents of the country.

Donald Trump came first with 63% of respondents choosing him as 'a big threat', ahead of Vladimir Putin of Russia and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

🇮🇹 An Italian council has bought a villa where Benito Mussolini spent his summer holidays, partly to avoid the property falling into the hands of “fascist nostalgics”.

Daniela Angelini, the leftwing mayor of Riccione, a town close to Rimini along Italy’s Adriatic coast, said the acquisition of Villa Mussolini through an auction was “an act of love and vision” and that bringing it back into public hands was a victory for the entire town.

Riccione’s council had fended off competition from a private buyer who was a former member of the Italian Social Movement, the neofascist party founded in 1946 by Mussolini’s lingering supporters.

The villa has a long and, unsurprisingly, controversial history. Built steps away from the sea in 1893, it was bought by Mussolini’s second wife, Rachele, in 1934. The fascist dictator would arrive by seaplane and often used the villa for government business during his stays. The Mussolini family expanded the property to include a third floor, 20 rooms and a tennis court.

🇷🇺 Military contract enlistment for Russia’s war effort has fallen short of targets this year, prompting authorities to increase pressure on businesses and universities to supply recruits, according to the new report by the project “I Want to Live.”

The initiative said that 409,000 people are expected to be enlisted in 2026. However, recruitment has lagged behind projections: instead of the anticipated 1,100 to 1,150 contracts per day, the first three months of the year averaged just over 940. If the current pace continues, the shortfall could exceed 16 percent — or roughly 65,000 people.

In North Ossetia and Dagestan, less than 8 percent of the annual target has been met so far. Across North Caucasus, overall performance remains weak, with Chechnya accounting for a significant share of enlistments, in part by drawing recruits from other regions.

As interest in military service declines, the proportion of so-called “special contingents” - including convicts and debtors - has increased.

🇷🇺 A man recently sentenced to life in prison for the 2024 ISIS-organized Crocus City Hall terror attack in Moscow just committed suicide in own cell.

While medics arrived swiftly, they either failed or didn't try to do enough in order to save the inmate. He was ruled dead few hours later.

🇺🇸 In the Wisconsin Supreme Court election this Tuesday, voters will choose between liberal Chris Taylor and conservative Maria Lazar in the state’s third spring high court election in just four years.

But unlike the last election - which drew more than $100 million in spending and attracted major national attention - this year’s contest is barely even resonating with voters inside Wisconsin.

Statewide elections in Wisconsin have often been decided on razor-thin majorities in recent years. But liberal candidates have romped in the last three state Supreme Court races, taking control of the court in the process. It’s left Republican voters and donors in the state de-energized, some operatives say.

Then there’s the fact that, unlike last year, this election won’t immediately decide which party moves into a majority on the court. A conservative victory would merely keep the current 4-3 liberal majority from widening.

🇺🇸 Dean Roy, who is just 14 years of age, is running for governor in Vermont, which has no age restrictions for public office candidates.

Roy's platform focuses on affordability and smaller government in Vermont. He promises to lower taxes for families and small businesses, implement housing reform and reject incumbent Vermont Gov. Phil Scott's EV mandate, a policy to slash greenhouse emissions by requiring that 35% of vehicles delivered to car dealers in Vermont be zero emission.

Roy also promises "no new restrictions of any kind on guns, construction, or farming" in his platform, and emphasizes his focus on residents' "personal freedoms."

The teen is not running as a Democrat or Republican, but is launching a third-party candidacy as a member of the Liberty and Union Party.

🇪🇺🇨🇳 Share of Chinese cars among new cars sold in the EU reached 9.3%.

At the same time, in the United Kingdom, that figure became as high as 20.6%.

🇵🇦 Fuel tankers exploded near the crucial Panama Canal bridge, leading to it being temporarily closed.

Multiple people are injured. One individual is missing, meaning that he probably burnt to the extent it is hard to locate remains.

🇺🇸 The Michigan Wolverines won this year's NCAA Division I basketball title defeating Connecticut 69:63 in the final game.

Michigan have demonstrated extremely dominant play against all the major favorites, consecutively defeating each of them in play-offs.

The win ends the 26-year title drought for one of the strongest United States college basketball conferences, The Big Ten.

🇹🇷 Skilled Turkish cop armed with a gun demonstrates peak professionalism, proceeds to shoot leg of an ISIS militant, who tried to kill him using an assault rifle. Then eliminates the target.

🇬🇧 The UK's Department for Work and Pensions has paid out £850million in benefits to deceased individuals since 2021.

The payments stem from approximately 2.6 million separate errors, involving a combination of mental health support, unemployment benefits and the state pension.

Fewer than half of the overpayments have been recovered, raising concerns about the department’s ability to safeguard public funds.