Briefly

CHINA

President of DR Congo to visit China

President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo will pay a state visit to China starting from Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry has announced. During his six-day tour, President Xi Jinping will hold talks with the DR Congo's president and they will jointly attend a signing ceremony of cooperation documents, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. Premier Li Qiang and top Chinese legislator Zhao Leji will meet with him respectively, she said. China believes that the visit will inject new impetus into the development of bilateral relations, Mao said.

UNITED STATES

Biden, McCarthy to meet on debt ceiling

US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy were set to meet at the White House at a pivotal moment as Washington works to strike a budget compromise and raise the nation's borrowing limit in time to avert a devastating federal default. The meeting on Monday afternoon between the Democratic president and the new Republican speaker was expected to be critical as they race to prevent a looming debt crisis. After a weekend of start-stop talks, both appeared upbeat as they face a deadline, as soon as June 1. Biden and McCarthy spoke by phone on Sunday while the president was returning home after the Group of Seven summit in Japan.

ITALY

Activists turn Rome's Trevi Fountain black

Climate activists in Italy turned Rome's famous Trevi Fountain black on Sunday, saying floods that have killed 14 people in the country's northeast were "a warning". Activists from the anti-climate change organization Last Generation climbed onto the landmark and poured a vegetable-based carbon liquid into it, before being pulled out and escorted away by police. The Trevi Fountain's most iconic moment saw Swedish actress Anita Ekberg go for a dip in Federico Fellini's film La Dolce Vita. The protest came as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived in Emilia — Romagna to visit areas devastated by floods.

Agencies - China Daily