Chinese Party Congress, March 5. TT
People's Congress of China
Analysis: "Covid ghost" and risk of impact from Beijing
Investors may be disappointed by China's modest GDP target, which suggests the country's post-pandemic recovery will not be as strong as many had hoped, writes Shuli Ren in a Bloomberg analysis.
She believes that China's growth target does not necessarily reflect the state of the economy, but that it reveals the sentiment and "sometimes hidden agendas" of the decision makers.
This year, she sees risks that Beijing may crack down on additional sectors, which could discourage "some investors from returning in the near future."
The new top names in Xi Jinping's inner circle will be important to keep an eye on, Nikkei wrote before the People's Congress was to begin. The new generation of technocrats is expected to focus more on innovation and the tech sector than pure monetary policy, according to writer Yu Jie.
FT's Thomas Hale and WSJ's Holman W Jenkins in turn write about the "covid specter" that looms over Congress - where Jenkins believes that it is of the utmost importance to find out how the covid virus began to spread in order to avoid future pandemics.
Supporters of Khan outside a court in Islamabad earlier in February. Anjum Naveed / AP
Political situation in Pakistan
Pakistani police tried to arrest ex-prime minister
Pakistani police made an unsuccessful attempt to arrest former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday, reports Bloomberg.
A group of policemen tried to take Khan into custody at his home in Lahore without finding him. Khan is accused of corruption but has denied wrongdoing and called on his supporters to gather outside his home.
Imran Khan led the country for four years before stepping down following a vote of no confidence in April last year. He has since tried to make a comeback and has called for new elections.
Political situation in Pakistan
The party warns: "There will be protests throughout the country"
An arrest of Imran Khan risks destabilizing Pakistan. This is what Hammad Azhar, a high-ranking politician in Khan's PTI party, told Bloomberg.
- There will be protests all over the country, says Azhar.
Pakistan is in a difficult economic situation and Khan's successor Shehbaz Sharif is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for emergency loans.
Khan has made it clear that he is aiming for a comeback as prime minister. He has called for new elections and gathered tens of thousands of supporters at his election rallies. In November, he was shot in the leg during a protest.
Demonstrators held up placards with words such as "murderer" and "never again" as they protested outside parliament. Aggelos Barai / AP
The train crash in Greece
Thousands of Greeks in protest against lagging railways
Around 12,000 Greeks demonstrated in Athens on Sunday, in protest against the country's lagging railways, several news agencies report.
The demonstration was carried out less than six days after the train collision in which 57 people died and around 80 were injured.
A stins is accused of having caused the accident, but the protesters believe that the accident is rather the result of a neglected system.
- We are not machines, but we have machines that should have been used. What has happened is a serious crime. Greeks have been murdered. The government must say why, protester Alex Pappas told Britain's The Guardian.
The Minister of Transport has resigned, but the trade unions are not satisfied with that and demand that the politicians now take a long series of measures to secure the railway network.
Polish F16 plane. Illustration image. AP
The Russian invasion. The outside world's response
Two Ukrainian pilots in the US for simulator training
Two Ukrainian fighter pilots are in the United States for simulator flight and evaluation, the US military told several media outlets.
The purpose is to evaluate how long it would take Ukrainian fighter pilots to learn to fly US fighter jets, including the F16. However, no real exercises are conducted and the pilots will not make any flights during their stay, US authorities point out.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on the US to send F16 planes, but has so far been cold-handed by the Biden administration.
Bezalel Smotrich (right). Abir Sultan / AP
The Israel-Palestine conflict
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