China's urgent cleanup after diplomat's comments

🍜 Young Girl Digs Up 1000-Year-Old Viking Coins

Hello again, Global Recap readers!

What happened: A young girl discovered nearly 300 silver coins dating back more than 1,000 years in northwestern Denmark. How did she find it? By using a metal detector.

The treasure was found near the Medieval fort of Fyrkat, which was built by the infamous Viking warlord Harald Bluetooth - yes, that Bluetooth.

History: The coins feature crosses, which is not the case with King Harald's earlier coins. So the king likely introduced the cross coins as propaganda in connection with his Christianization of the Danes.

Compensation: The girl who found the hoard handed it over to the North Jutland Museum and received compensation for the discovery (the amount unknown).

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• Countries are scrambling to evacuate their nationals out of Sudan, amid growing violence and false declarations of seize-fire.

• Guatemalan President Giammattei pledges to "stand by the Republic of Taiwan as a solid diplomatic ally."

• World military spending hit an all-time high last year, according to a report released this week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

🇨🇳 A Busy Week of Cleanup for China

What happened: In a TV interview with Swiss journalist Darius Rochebin that aired in France on April 21, China’s ambassador to France Lu Shaye publicly questioned:

• the sovereignty of the ex-Soviet Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania),

• the ownership of Crimea under international law.

Lu’s comments: When Rochebin asked if he believes Crimea is part of Ukraine or not, Ambassador Lu remarked that it was historically part of Russia and had been offered to Ukraine by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev - which is in fact true. It was transferred to Ukraine SSR in 1954. But he went on and added:

International response: After the broadcast, the French Foreign Ministry called on China to clarify whether Lu’s inflammatory comments reflected China’s official diplomatic position, in coordination with Lithuania and Estonia. The Latvian Foreign Minister even summoned a Chinese diplomat from the Chinese embassy in Riga.

Regarding Lu’s questioning of the ownership of Crimea, an adviser to Ukrainian President fired back at China on Twitter:

International response: On April 24, the Chinese Embassy in Paris attempted to disown the ambassador's statements by publishing a statement on its website. It stated that Lu’s remarks were “not a political declaration but an expression of personal points of view.”