Explosion Hits QatarEnergy Gas Facility Near Doha
Images | AP Photo
An explosion has occurred at a QatarEnergy facility near Doha, reportedly caused by a technical malfunction, according to RBC, citing Qatari authorities.
The blast took place at a plant in the Ras Laffan industrial zone, north of Doha, Qatar’s Ministry of Interior said. More than 50 people were injured, while 18 others remain missing.
According to the ministry, the incident was caused by a technical failure.
Later, QatarEnergy, the state-owned oil and gas company whose facilities are located in Ras Laffan, confirmed on social media platform X that an "incident resulting in an explosion and fire" occurred at the Barzan gas distribution facility during start-up operations.
In mid-March, Ras Laffan was targeted by missile attacks. The strikes caused significant damage to QatarEnergy facilities and triggered a major fire.
QatarEnergy’s facilities in Ras Laffan form the world’s largest centre for the production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The industrial complex accounts for approximately 20% of global LNG supplies.
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Chinese tech firm completes direct-to-cell satellite calls
Images | Heng/Xinhua
A Chinese satellite internet company has achieved a major tech milestone, successfully completing direct-to-satellite voice calls using standard, unmodified commercial smartphones, Xinhua reports.
The firm, Spacesail, based in Shanghai in east China, announced on Friday that this marks China's first trial of its kind, with the entire communication link remaining smooth and stable throughout, while delivering excellent voice quality.
Earlier this month, China launched a Zhuque-2E rocket carrying two satellites, including Spacesail DTC 01. This Spacesail test satellite is designed to verify key technologies for direct-to-cell services and integrated space-ground networking, supporting the convergence of satellite communications with 5G/6G.
Its direct-to-cell technology requires no hardware or software modifications to standard commercial smartphones, and the field test showed full signal strength and voice quality on par with terrestrial 5G. Also, its high compatibility with existing mobile networks paves the way for deeply integrated space-ground communications, according to the company.
By June 5, the Spacesail Constellation had grown to include 200 satellites.
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Iran and US Sign Memorandum of Understanding Electronically
The United States and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding that provides for an end to the war and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, RBC reported, citing Iranian broadcaster Press TV.
The document was signed electronically, making a previously planned signing ceremony in Geneva unnecessary. The memorandum was signed by US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.
When a document is signed by the highest-ranking officials of both countries, any violation of it will naturally carry more serious consequences. Given our past experience, we preferred this approach," he said.
According to Axios, the agreement has already entered into force.
At the same time, a meeting between US and Iranian representatives in Switzerland will go ahead as planned. US Vice President J.D. Vance and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are expected to discuss the start of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Earlier reports said that the United States and Iran had reached several compromises in the final text of the memorandum of understanding. The two countries announced the agreement during the night of June 15.
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CSTO Foreign Ministers Oppose Glorification of Nazism and an Arms Race in Outer Space
Images | kabar.kg
The foreign ministers of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have adopted two statements focusing on preserving the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War and preventing an arms race in outer space.
Ahead of the 85th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the foreign ministers honoured the memory of the millions who lost their lives and stressed the importance of preserving the historical truth about the events of the war.
The ministers underscored the inadmissibility of historical falsification, attempts to revise the causes and outcomes of the Second World War, as well as the glorification of Nazism and its collaborators.
We will continue to oppose any attempts to falsify and distort historical facts and to revise the causes and outcomes of the conflict," the statement said.
The CSTO member states also reaffirmed their commitment to the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal and called for continued efforts to counter manifestations of neo-fascism, neo-Nazism, racial discrimination, and religious intolerance.
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Xi Story: A bus ride across China's urban-rural divide
Images | Xinhua
As China works to narrow the development gap between cities and the countryside, the transformation of Jiaxing City in eastern Zhejiang Province is reflected in something as ordinary as a bus ride, Xinhua reports.
One spring afternoon in 2004, Xi Jinping, then secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), stepped onto a bus in downtown Jiaxing and rode more than 20 kilometers to the rural end of the route.
Xi wanted to see for himself how the city's new urban-rural bus service was faring. Launched in 2003, it was among the earliest bus lines in Zhejiang - and even in China - to directly link the city with the countryside.
During the journey, Xi struck up a conversation with conductor Jin Lijun, asking about changes since the route opened.
Now, farmers can travel into the city much more easily," said Jin.
This bus route winds its way to Sanxing Village, a well-known peach-growing area. In the past, farmers took their harvests only as far as the township market to sell. The new bus line carried them straight into the city, where their peaches could fetch higher prices.
Xi also invited passengers to share their views on the service - what still needed improvement and what they hoped to see next. The bus came alive with conversation.
After getting off the bus, Xi spoke with nearby villagers and listened to their views on urban-rural integration. They talked enthusiastically about the changes the new service had brought to their daily lives.
Such scenes reflected an approach Xi had long emphasized throughout his political career: pursuing projects that genuinely benefit the public and shaping policies by listening directly to the people they affect.
Among the concerns raised during the bus tour was a request for traffic lights at an intersection of a highway and a township road. Xi immediately instructed local authorities to look into the matter.
The 40-minute ride also gave him a firsthand look at infrastructure bottlenecks. Xi suggested widening a narrow road to improve accessibility and facilitate more convenient travel between urban and rural areas.
By then, Jiaxing had already opened 36 such bus routes linking 30 townships and 238 administrative villages - part of the efforts to close the urban-rural divide that had emerged alongside China's rapid economic development.
When Xi began working in Zhejiang in late 2002, he spent months traveling across the province to understand its realities on the ground. During visits to villages, he spoke with grassroots officials and farmers, guided by a central question: how could Zhejiang's over 30 million rural residents share more fully in the benefits of growth?
In July 2003, Xi unveiled a development strategy that made coordinated urban-rural development and deeper integration between city and countryside a long-term priority for Zhejiang. Integrated bus services in Jiaxing were among the first initiatives.
A bus route generated no headline-grabbing economic statistics, yet it quietly transformed daily lives for thousands of residents. In Xi's view, addressing people's everyday concerns is what constitutes meaningful public service and a genuine measure of governance achievement.
Tackling problems in economic development is an achievement, and so is addressing people's livelihood concerns," Xi said in a 2004 speech at the provincial Party School on the question of what it means to perform well - remarks that challenged the long-standing tendency to equate official performance solely with GDP growth.
For Xi, pursuing achievements that genuinely benefit the people has long been rooted in his identity as a CPC member. As he has said, the Party was born for the people and has prospered because of the people. "Serving the people wholeheartedly is the ultimate purpose of our Party's actions and what distinguishes the CPC from all others," he noted.
That conviction took shape in Xi's early years. More than half a century ago, while working in a poor rural area of northwest China, he led villagers in digging wells, building terraced fields and installing biogas pits to improve daily life. It was the first chapter in a political journey that would later take him through various levels of governance before eventually reaching China's top leadership - with striving to improve people's lives remaining a consistent thread throughout.
In November 2012, after being elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Xi told journalists from China and abroad: "The Chinese people's aspiration for a better life is the goal we must strive for."
Over the past two decades, Zhejiang has steadily moved toward the goals Xi laid out during his time in the province. It is now among China's most balanced regions in terms of the urban-rural income gap, with the ratio narrowing from 2.43:1 in 2003 to 1.81:1 in 2025. Part of that shift has come from the rise of rural industries with local features.
Public services have also spread deeper into rural areas. Zhejiang is one of the first provinces to provide passenger bus access to every administrative village. Today, integrated urban-rural bus networks cover more than 90 percent of the province. Basic public services in other areas have also improved, leading to more equitable and balanced access to high-quality services for both urban and rural residents.
In Jiaxing, the bus route Xi took is still in service, but the landscape along the route has quietly changed. Buses once crowded with farmers are now also carrying urban visitors heading to the countryside for fruit-picking trips, camping, or music festivals.
Jin, the conductor, is now a ride-hailing driver. "I go back and forth between the city and the countryside every day," Jin said. "You can really feel the gap narrowing year by year."
As China kicks off its 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) and enters the final decade toward its 2035 goal of basically achieving modernization, officials' understanding of performance has come under renewed scrutiny, seen as central to delivering on long-term development targets.
Leading officials at all levels now are full of enthusiasm and drive -- which is a good thing. But what matters most is that understanding of what counts as good performance must be correct," Xi said during a February inspection trip in Beijing.
Later that month, the CPC initiated a Party-wide study campaign, urging members -- especially officials at the county level and above -- to establish and practice a correct understanding of governance performance, which prioritizes people's well-being and values long-term, tangible results that may not be immediately visible, yet delivered through sound decision-making and concrete actions.
In March, Xi returned to the theme during a group deliberation with national lawmakers. "Party officials and members should be guided to work diligently," he said, "and to deliver results that stand up in practice, in the eyes of the people, and over the course of time."
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Xinhua Commentary: China-Russia all-round partnership injects certainty into an evolving world
Images | Attendees visit the 10th China-Russia Expo in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, May 17, 2026. The 10th China-Russia Expo opened to the public on Sunday. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)
Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to China is widely expected to elevate bilateral relations further and inject much-needed stability and positive momentum into a turbulent world, Xinhua reports.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination and the 25th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.
These milestones underscore the maturity and resilience of a relationship defined by mutual respect for each other's core interests and major concerns as well as mutually beneficial cooperation, while both sides pursue development paths suited to their own national conditions.
Guided by the strategic visions of the two heads of state, China-Russia relations have been continuously advancing to higher levels and expanding to broader dimensions, serving as a model for major-country relations in the new era. Since 2013, the two leaders have met more than 40 times on bilateral and multilateral occasions.
The China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era has grown steadily stronger and more substantive, underpinned by deepening political mutual trust, enduring good-neighborly friendship and practical cooperation across multiple fields.
Institutionalized dialogue mechanisms among ministries and agencies at all levels have continued to deliver fruitful outcomes, supported by mutual backing for each other's development interests. Energy cooperation remains a cornerstone of China-Russia ties, anchored by solid foundations and the steady progress of major infrastructure projects.
According to China's Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade reached approximately 228 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, exceeding the 200-billion-dollar threshold for the third consecutive year. China has remained Russia's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years.
Strategic coordination has also galvanized vibrant cultural exchanges, further strengthening mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples. The China-Russia Years of Education, starting this year, are set to feature hundreds of exchange events, building on the success of previous theme years dedicated to culture, sports and sci-tech innovation.
Mutual visa-free policies have significantly facilitated people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, over 150,000 Chinese tourists visited Russia in the first quarter of 2026, up 44.4 percent year on year, while Russian trips to China rose 33.6 percent in 2025.
Beyond bilateral cooperation, China and Russia also play an important role in amplifying the voice of the Global South and promoting a multipolar international order.
The world today is witnessing profound transformation and mounting turbulence, as the post-war international order comes under strain, established norms governing international relations are increasingly challenged, geopolitical conflicts intensify, and the risk of a return to the law of the jungle grows.
The strategic coordination between China and Russia is of great significance for maintaining global strategic stability, and upholding multilateralism and the international order.
China and Russia have been pooling global efforts to firmly uphold fairness and justice, defend the victorious outcomes of the World War II, and safeguard the UN-centered international system and the basic norms of international law.
In response to a more uncertain and unstable international landscape, Beijing and Moscow should strengthen multilateral coordination, uphold and practice multilateralism, and work together to revitalize the authority and vitality of the United Nations.
They should also maintain close coordination and cooperation within frameworks such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, and promote the development of the international order toward a more just and equitable direction.
As the world is undergoing profound changes, the continued resilience of China-Russia relations carry significance far beyond the bilateral level.
Their cooperation demonstrates that major-country relations can move beyond bloc confrontation and zero-sum rivalry, and instead contribute to multipolarity, the democratization of international relations, and greater stability and certainty in a changing world.
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