Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO reports from the start of Kunming’s Belt and Road media forum, where 200 journalists from 71 countries celebrated a new openness and optimism, forged by China’s enormous contribution to global development

MAHMOUD KHALIL, the former Columbia University student and Palestinian activist who, on March 8, was abruptly arrested and transported to a detention facility in Louisiana, has spoken out for the first time since his ordeal began.
On Tuesday, in a letter dictated over the phone, Khalil described the horrors he has been witnessing daily since being sent to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana after being unaccounted for in the immediate aftermath of his arrest. So far he has faced no charges.
Describing himself as “a political prisoner,” Khalil said that “I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.

Women opponents of the Trump regime fear his misogynist, racist and anti-immigrant views are taking hold in Britain, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER, as protests against his visit hit London’s streets

But the beneath the racism and misogyny of the far right lies a shared grievance with the left — Starmer’s complete betrayal of working people, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Still the only black man to win the US Open tennis title, a statue of the legendary champion, Arthur Ashe, is now the only one remaining on Monument Avenue in his Richmond, Virginia hometown, where confederate leaders of the Civil War were also once displayed, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Danni Perry’s flag display at the Royal Opera House sparked 182 performers to sign a solidarity letter that cancelled the Tel Aviv Tosca production, while Leonardo DiCaprio invests in Tel Aviv hotels, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER