TAIWAN: THE Chinese breakaway province of Taiwan said today that it had received no information about a pause to a $14 billion arms deal with the United States.

This comes after acting navy secretary Hung Cao told his senate confirmation hearing on Thursday that the deal had been paused to ensure that it has enough weapons if it resumes the Iran war.

NATO: Nato and US defence officials expressed confusion today at US President Donald Trump’s decision to send 5,000 US troops to Poland just weeks after he had ordered the same amount of troops to be pulled out of Europe.

“It is confusing indeed,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told reporters. US defence officials, speaking anonymously, said: “We don’t know what this means either.” 

KENYA: Kenya’s public transport operators today called off a nationwide strike that had been suspended for a week to allow talks over rising fuel prices.

The strike on Monday and Tuesday triggered protests in which four people were killed and more than 30 others injured after police fired live ammunition at demonstrators.

The operators met with President William Ruto today and announced the strike would not resume after he pledged that diesel prices would be reduced in the upcoming monthly fuel price review in June.

GREECE: The head of a left-wing Greek militant group that killed 23 people has been released from a maximum-security prison, officials said today. 

Alexandros Giotopoulos, the leader of the armed group November 17, was given conditional release on Thursday on grounds of advanced age, deteriorating health and good behaviour.