Akira Toriyama, the Japanese manga artist who created the enormously popular and influential Dragon Ball series, died of a brain condition last week at the age of 68, his production studio said Friday.

Toriyama was the mind behind the fantasy martial arts franchise featuring Son Goku, a boy from outer space with superhuman strength and a monkey tail who embarks on a quest for the seven dragon balls.

The Dragon Ball universe remains one of Japan’s most successful global hits, captivating the hearts of many manga-loving teens and adults from around the world since its debut in the 1980s.

Toriyama’s death was announced on Friday by Dragon Ball’s official website in a shared statement from Bird Studio and Capsule Corporation Tokyo.

“It’s our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation with great enthusiasm,” it said.

“He would have many more things to achieve. However, he has left many manga titles and works of art to this world,” it added, thanking fans for their support on Toriyama’s behalf.

The artist died of acute subdural hematoma, a form of brain bleeding, the statement said.

Born on April 5, 1955 in Kiyosu City, Aichi prefecture, Toriyama began drawing manga at the age of 23.

He made his debut as a cartoonist in 1978 by submitting a short story to manga fans’ magazine Weekly Shonen Jump.

His “Dragon Ball” series went on to be featured in the same magazine in 1984 and was front and center of a creative career that spanned more than four decades.

The franchise is based on classic Chinese novel Journey to the West and has since been adapted into into anime and the 2009 Hollywood action movie “Dragon Ball Evolution.”

As Son Goku sets off for his quest in search of the seven dragon balls, he fights off villains along the way and protects the Earth. As he ages, the storyline shifts to his descendants and friends.

The dragon balls, when collected, can summon Shen Long, a divine dragon that can grant any wish. Son Goku often ended up spending the wishes on his friends or restoring a heavily destructed Earth in the series centered on courage, friendship and kinship.

Prominent Japanese author and game designer Yuji Horii, a longtime friend of Toriyama, said they worked on the popular game Dragon Quest together.

“I can’t believe he’s gone,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Eiichiro Oda, creator of manga series “One Piece,” said the thought of never seeing his friend Toriyama again “fills me with sadness.”

Toriyama “took the baton from the era when reading manga would make you stupid, and created an era where both adults and children read and enjoy manga. He showed us the dream that manga can do things like this and that we can go to the world,” Oda said on the Shonen Jump website.

Many fans also paid tribute to the manga heavyweight online.

“Dragon Ball was my textbook for life. It taught me that I could overcome any hardship if I worked on it cheerfully and with enjoyment,” one fan wrote on X.

More than 300 students were taken early Thursday by the armed bandits on motorcycles who stormed the LEA Primary and Secondary School in the Kuriga village of Kaduna’s Chikun district, the state’s police spokesman Mansur Hassan said.

Some of the students were rescued but 287 of them remain with the kidnappers, Hassan said.

“Students were kidnapped from the school premises on Thursday morning around 8:00 am (local time). About 287 students are still in the hands of the bandits, 100 from the primary side and 187 from the secondary school,” Hassan said, adding that “over 300 students were initially kidnapped, but some were rescued.”

Earlier, Reuters reported that 227 children were kidnapped, citing a teacher, local councilor, and parents of the missing children. Several other reports including the Washington Post and a local outlet report 287, citing the school’s headteacher.

Governor of Kaduna state, Uba Sani said in a statement Thursday that his government was “doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of the pupils and students” kidnapped.

Sani also said a member of the community who confronted the abductors during the attack was killed, adding that the President of Nigeria and the National Security Adviser were aware of the situation, and a Security Committee and a military base will be established in Kuriga to strengthen security in the area.

Kaduna state, which borders the Nigerian capital Abuja to the southwest, has grappled with recurring incidents of kidnappings for ransom by bandits and has witnessed several mass abductions in recent years, including in the district where LEA Primary and Secondary School is located.

Amnesty International’s Nigeria office condemned the kidnapping while urging authorities to take immediate measures “to prevent attacks on schools, to protect children’s lives and their right to education.”

Hundreds of seabirds have been found dead on French Atlantic beaches, exhausted by unusually heavy winter storms that prevent them from feeding, environmentalists said.

More than 500 common guillemots – seabirds related to penguins and puffins – have been found dead along the French Atlantic coast since the year began, French League for Birds has estimated.

Antoine Prevel, a volunteer for the nonprofit Sea Shepherd France, said guillemot beachings happen regularly in winter, but not to the scale of the past weeks.

Scientists say it is likely the birds died from exhaustion due to difficult conditions at sea.

“Climate change is an indirect cause, as it increases the frequency and intensity of storms, particularly winter storms, which are the main reason for massive strandings of seabirds,” said Jerome Fort, a scientist from France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

Poisoning by micro plastics and chemical contamination can also weaken the birds, and the fish they prey on have become rare and relocated closer to shore due to climate change and overfishing, Fort added.

Guillemots cannot survive without food for two or three days, as they have few energy reserves and need to feed almost constantly.

“In storms like we have seen recently, these birds find it hard to feed properly and will die of exhaustion,” Fort said.

Israel’s military has said its investigation into the deadly humanitarian aid incident in Gaza last month found Israeli troops did not fire at the aid convoy, but at “a number of suspects” who approached and posed a threat to nearby forces.

More than 100 people were killed in the incident in northern Gaza, which has become known as the “Flour Massacre,” as Israeli troops opened fire near civilians gathering around food aid trucks, triggering panic.

A local journalist in Gaza, Khader Al Za’anoun, who was at the scene and witnessed the incident, said at the time that the chaos and confusion only began once Israeli troops opened fire, and that many of the victims were run over by trucks in the ensuing panic.

“The command review found that IDF troops did not fire at the humanitarian convoy but did fire at a number of suspects who approached the nearby forces and posed a threat to them,” the IDF said in a summary of the report released Friday.

The IDF said that thousands of Palestinians swarmed the aid trucks, which were traveling toward distribution centers, looting the trucks’ equipment. They added that “incidents of significant harm” occurred to civilians from a stampede and being run over by trucks.

The IDF said during the crowding, dozens of Palestinians “advanced towards nearby IDF troops, up to several meters from them, and thereby posed a real threat to the forces at that point.”

“At this stage, the forces fired cautionary fire in order to distance the suspects. As the suspects continued to advance toward them, the troops fired precisely toward a number of the suspects to remove the threat,” the IDF’s summary said.

The United Nations said earlier that most of the civilians wounded in the incident presented gunshot wounds. The international body could not determine the same for the deceased.

UN experts earlier this week condemned the incident as a “massacre,” and have called on Israel to relax its severe restrictions on food aid entering Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people are facing the prospect of famine.

A chance discovery made in southern France has revealed a rare specimen — an almost complete dinosaur skeleton found connected from its hind skull to its tail.

The massive fossil came to light in May 2022, after now 25-year-old amateur paleontologist Damien Boschetto and his dog stumbled across something unusual while walking in a forest in Montouliers, France. Boschetto had noticed a cliff edge that had recently collapsed and decided to take a closer look, when he spotted an exposed bone sticking out of the ground, local media outlet France Bleu first reported on February 13.

“From a museography point of view, it will make it possible to present to the general public animals almost complete in anatomical positions, which is something great,” Boschetto added via email.

A group of history and archaeology enthusiasts created the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association in 1975 to safeguard the heritage around the village of Cruzy, with several members becoming enlightened amateurs in paleontology due to the areas’ wealth of dinosaur fossils, said Jean-Marc Veyssières, a member of the group and one of the fossil preparers for this discovery. Today, the association is made up of inhabitants of the region, including a few scientists as well as students.

“The most exciting thing was to realize that we had at least one anatomically connected animal and that it was a titanosaur, a long-necked dinosaur,” said Veyssières in an email. “(Boschetto) is an enlightened enthusiast and curious about nature, he spends a lot of time surveying the region in search of new areas. … He became an expert on the Late Cretaceous fauna of our region.”

The association has been excavating the site, which Boschetto referred to as a bone bed, a term used by paleontologists to describe a dense area of animal bones and other fossilized remains, for the past two years. And the newly announced find was not Boschetto’s first.

The recently revealed 70% complete Titanosaur skeleton was retrieved during the excavation along with several fossils of various dinosaurs and other vertebrates, including some in anatomical connection and near complete. Other remains identified included those of a Rhabdodon — a herbivore, or plant-eater, like the Titanosaur — and fragments from skeletons of carnivores such as Theropods and crocodiles, according to Boschetto.

The Titanosaur skeleton currently resides in the Cruzy Museum’s laboratory, where it will be further studied, Veyssières said.

Titanosaur found intact

Researchers estimated the age of the newly discovered fossil to be around 70 to 72 million years old, but Titanosaurs roamed around on four legs from the Late Jurassic Epoch to the end of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 163.5 million to 66 million years ago. Titanosaurs belong to a larger group of dinosaurs known as sauropods, a family of long-necked herbivores that were some of the largest dinosaurs of their time, according to Britannica.

Remains of Titanosaur fossils are widely unearthed in Europe, but few are discovered in anatomical connection, Boschetto said. Finding a skeleton in this connected state suggests that the body was buried before it had entirely decomposed, leaving “some tissues connecting the bones to one another,” said Matthew Carrano, research geologist and curator of Dinosauria at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History.

The completeness of the specimen will “make it easier to determine whether it’s a new species or a new specimen of a species that’s already known,” Carrano said in an email. “It will take time to learn all the details about this new specimen, but I’m sure it will provide important new information about this group of dinosaurs.”

The region in which Boschetto discovered the specimen is known to be rich in fossils of dinosaurs and other species living at the same time and is “building one of the largest collections of dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous in France,” he said. The association did not publicize the discovery until excavation was complete to protect the archaeological site, he added.

The association plans to continue research on the fossils and to further search the area, and the group’s members hope to obtain the funds to “create a large-scale museum that can accommodate and present these collections,” Boschetto said.

Nearly a year after civil war broke out between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces, more than 25 million people in northeastern Africa are facing “the world’s largest hunger crisis.”

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says nine in 10 people across Sudan are “trapped” by “relentless violence.” The fighting is fueling “emergency levels” of food insecurity, not only in the war-torn country, but also in neighboring Chad and South Sudan where millions of refugees have fled.

The Sudanese civil war has also triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 8.1 million people have fled since fighting erupted in April 2023. The agency reports some 6.3 million people are internally displaced while another 1.8 million have escaped to neighboring countries such as Egypt, Chad, and Ethiopia.

Many civilians are among the thousands killed and wounded. Women, children, and teens have been especially vulnerable with rising reports of domestic and sexual violence targeting them.

Aid organizations are on the ground delivering relief to refugees. Click HERE or use the form below to help those who need it most during this ongoing situation.

French President Emmanuel Macron and former US President Bill Clinton were among those paying tribute to Nigerian banking boss Herbert Wigwe as his funeral got underway.

Wigwe was a towering figure in African banking and philanthropy and his death has spurred an outpouring of grief.

A seven-day funeral ceremony celebrating his life is currently being held in Nigeria’s commercial hub Lagos.

Wigwe died last month in a helicopter crash along with his wife and son in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border. A former group chairman of the Nigeria Stock Exchange, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, was also killed in the crash.

“France has lost a great friend in Herbert Wigwe,” said Macron, represented Wednesday by French foreign trade minister Franck Riester at the ‘Night of Tributes’ memorial for the Wigwes held in Lagos’ Victoria Island.

“Not only was he dedicated to the development of cross-cultural initiatives between our two countries, but he has also without respite worked to increase our economic partnership,” he added.

Former US President Bill Clinton also paid tribute to Wigwe, saying “Words cannot ease the pain of such a tragic loss.”

Clinton added that he “deeply admired Herbert’s commitment to widening the circle of opportunity for young people in Nigeria and supporting humanitarian work around the world.”

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu earlier called the death of the Wigwes “an overwhelming tragedy that is shocking beyond comprehension,” while Vice President Kashim Shettima mourned their deaths in a eulogy delivered at the memorial Wednesday.

“Herbert left us in winter before the season of bloom,” the Nigerian vice president said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described Wigwe as a “continental partner and banking sector pioneer” whose death was a “terrible loss.”

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote gave a tearful tribute to Wigwe, describing him as a “loyal friend” and “mentee.”

“I feel very helpless because I could not prevent the tragedy that befell my friend, brother, and mentee – a very loyal friend for that matter,” said Dangote who added he was immortalizing Wigwe by renaming one of the major roads leading to his refinery after him.

Wigwe’s aide, Olusola Faleye, described his final moments during the ‘Night of Tributes’ event held in Lagos on Wednesday. Faleye said he was supposed to fly with his boss on the ill-fated journey to Las Vegas but opted at the last minute to go by road with the family’s luggage.

“Since 2019, I cannot count one or two places or flights that he (Wigwe) has been in that I’m not in it. We were always together,” said Faleye.

Building Africa’s biggest bank

Born in August 1966 in the city of Ibadan, Wigwe’s father Shyngle was a civil servant, and his mother Stella a nurse. Wigwe has spoken of how they instilled in him the values of hard work, integrity, and service to others.

Wigwe graduated with a degree in accounting from the prestigious University of Nigeria Nsukka in 1987 and embarked on a career in finance. He later pursued a master’s degree in Banking and Finance at North Wales University (now Bangor University) in the United Kingdom.

In 1991 Wigwe returned to Nigeria and began his professional journey as a graduate assistant at Coopers and Lybrand Associates Limited, swiftly rising through the ranks.

He later joined the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), where he became the youngest executive director at the age of 32.

It was during his tenure at GTB that Herbert forged a lifelong friendship and partnership with Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, another rising star in the Nigerian banking scene.

Together, they set their sights on a venture that would change the landscape of Nigerian banking forever.

In 2002, Wigwe and Aig-Imoukhuede made history by acquiring Access Bank, a relatively unknown institution at the time.

Under his leadership, Access Bank transformed from a modest entity into one of Africa’s biggest banks, with branches in Paris and South Africa. Wigwe was planning an Asian expansion at the time of his death.

A 2-month-old was among the dead in a mass killing in Canada that claimed the lives of 4 children, their mother and a family friend, Ottawa police said Thursday.

The father of the family survived the attack and emerged from the home injured and asking for help, police said. He remains in the hospital in serious but stable condition.

Police responded to a man calling for help at about 10:52 p.m. and found the victims upon arrival.

The victims have been identified as Darshani Banbaranayake Gama Walwwe Darshani Dilanthika Ekanyake, 35, and her children; Inuka, 7; Ashwini, 4; Rinyana, 2; and 2-month-old Kelly. All are Sri Lankan nationals and newcomers to Canada, authorities said.

A family friend, Amarakoonmubiayansela Ge Gamini Amarakoon, 40, who was living at the family’s home at the time, was also killed in the attack.

Ottawa police chief Eric Stubbs called the tragedy an “unimaginable loss” during a Thursday news conference.

“This will undoubtedly weigh on the hearts of everyone for a long time,” Stubbs said.

Febrio De-Zoysa, 19, faces 6 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder and was scheduled to appear in court later Thursday. Police say he was an acquaintance living at the family’s home at the time of the killings.

“The accused is a Sri Lankan national who is believed to have been in Canada as a student,” Stubbs said, adding De-Zoysa is the only suspect.

Police say they believe a “sharp-edged” weapon was used to commit the murders.

“We know there are a lot of questions about why this tragedy occurred. This is the focus of our Homicide Unit as they diligently investigate this tragic crime,” Stubbs said.

“This was a senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people,” Stubbs added. “I know our whole community is shocked and mourning this event.”

Intruders broke into a major port terminal in Haiti Thursday as violence in the country escalated after the government extended its state of emergency.

The Haitian government decreed the state of emergency would be extended to April 3 in the country’s West Region and the capital Port-au-Prince. A curfew has been extended to March 10.

The source said the unrest at the port continues.

Port-au-Prince has been gripped by a wave of highly coordinated gang attacks on law enforcement and state institutions in what one gang leader, Jimmy Cherizier, has described as an attempt to overthrow Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s government.

Armed groups have burned down police stations and released thousands of inmates from two prisons, and Cherizier has warned of “a civil war that will end in genocide” if the prime minister does not step down, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The chaos has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes in the past few days, adding to the more than 300,000 already displaced by gang violence.

It is also affecting the distribution of essential supplies by aid organizations. The World Food Programme suspended its maritime transport services in Port-au-Prince from distributing aid across Haiti due to the instability.

Two dozen trucks of aid, filled with food, medical supplies, and equipment, are stuck at the port in Port-au-Prince, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a Thursday statement.

Maritime routes are the only way to transport aid, especially food and medical supplies for humanitarian and development organizations, from Port-au-Prince to the rest of the country, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General and OCHA.

Healthcare system ‘near collapse’

Haiti’s healthcare system is “near collapse,” and many health centers have been forced to reduce their operations due to violence and lack of personnel and medicine, Dujarric said.

Only one public hospital remains operational in Port-au-Prince’s metropolitan area, according to an official at the country’s Civil Protection, and emergency services are severely hampered.

Hôpital Universitaire la Paix has received nearly 70 patients with gunshot wounds since the weekend and several medical centers in the country have been burned down in the past day, the official said.

Doctors in Haiti are desperate for help amid a lack of oxygen and a shortage of water.

Laroche runs a network of more than 20 medical centers throughout Haiti, two of which have been destroyed by gangs, he said. “They (gangs) turned them into their general quarters. Seven of our medical centers had to close their doors as well to prevent our employees from being kidnapped.”

Calls for a political transition

The US has been urging Prime Minister Henry to clear the way for a political transition in Haiti, which Haitian officials say could be structured with the initial appointment of a three-member transitional council that would select an interim president to lead the country.

The unelected leader came to power in 2021 with the backing of the United States, Canada and other key allies, following the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise. He promised to hold elections in 2023, but they never transpired, with Henry’s administration citing the country’s insecurity as a major obstacle.

Henry has had difficulty returning to the country this week. His plane was diverted to the US territory of Puerto Rico after the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, refused to let it land.

When the violence broke out last Friday, Henry was in Kenya to sign an agreement for a Kenyan-led multinational mission to restore security in the Caribbean nation.

Nearby nations have been securing their borders following the outbreak of violence. A maritime blockade was established in the southeastern Bahamas amid fears of mass migration from Haiti, Commodore Raymond King of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), said at a press conference on Thursday.

King said officials are particularly concerned about the jailbreaks, fearing the prison escapees will try to flee Haiti by boat.

While security has deteriorated in recent months, Haiti has for years suffered chronic violence, political crisis and drought, leaving some 5.5 million Haitians – about half the population – in need of humanitarian assistance.

More than 40% of deaths in the impoverished neighborhood of Cité Soleil in the Haitian capital have been caused by violence, according to a survey conducted by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) that studied the period between July 25 and August 24, 2023. MSF said the mortality rate is comparable to those seen during exceptionally violent periods in Syria and Myanmar.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

China’s top diplomat hit out at Washington’s “bewildering” trade policy during a news conference Thursday on the sidelines of a political gathering in Beijing, where Chinese leaders have been championing high-tech development in the face of mounting curbs from Washington.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi accused the US of “devising various tactics to suppress China” and said Washington’s “lengthening” unilateral sanctions list had reached “bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity.”

“If it gets jittery whenever it hears the word China, where is its confidence as a major country?” Wang said in a response to a question about trade with the US and technological restrictions.

“If it only wants itself to prosper, but denies other countries legitimate development, where is international fairness? If it persistently monopolizes the high end of the value chain and keeps China at the low end, where is fairness and competition?”

Wang made the comments during an annual Foreign Minister’s briefing held during each “two sessions” gathering of China’s rubber stamp legislature and its top political advisory body. Though highly choreographed, the more than hour-long engagement is a key opportunity for China’s top diplomat to express the country’s foreign policy vision directly to reporters from media around the world.

In a stark contrast to his comments on the US, Wang praised China’s burgeoning relationship and record trade with Russia – highlighting this near the top of his press conference when a Russian state media reporter was the first question taken from a foreign reporter.

Wang’s comments on the US come as Washington continues its drive to narrow the kinds of high-end technology that can be accessed by China. In October, the White House further reduced the types of semiconductors that US companies can sell in China as it aims to ensure American tech won’t be used to bolster the Chinese military.

The US has also enacted sanctions against Chinese actors over a host of issues in recent years, including allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the illicit fentanyl trade and providing support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Wang spoke during what has been a period of relative stability between the China and the US. Adopting a softer tone at times, Wang noted that there had been “some improvements” in the US-China relationship since a summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco last November.

He called on Washington to work with Beijing “to bring the relationship back on the track of stable, sound and sustainable development.”

What has been on the agenda at the meetings this week is China’s drive to bolster its “self-reliance and strength in science and technology,” with Beijing sending a message that it will boost its self-reliance rather than sit back and wait for tech frictions with the US to improve.

The government announced plans to increase its annual budget for science and technology by 10% to an unprecedented 370.8 billion yuan ($51.6 billion) — the biggest jump since 2019 after years of minimal growth.

Russian relations

Wang also praised robust trade ties between China and Russia, which have deepened following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s subsequent economic isolation on the global stage.

Bilateral trade between China and Russia hit a historic $240 billion last year, surpassing a target of $200 billion set by Xi and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in 2019 ahead of schedule.

“Russian natural gas is fueling numerous Chinese households and Chinese-made automobiles are running on Russian roads,” Wang said. “All this shows the strong resilience and broad prospects of China-Russia mutually beneficial cooperation.”

Beijing’s ties to Moscow have sparked deep suspicion in the West, including over concerns about China’s position as the Kremlin’s key economic lifeline. While China claims neutrality in the Ukraine conflict it has appeared unwilling to use its significant economic leverage to curb Russia’s aggression and has not condemned the invasion.

During the briefing, Wang repeated China’s call for peace talks to avoid an “unthinkable” escalation and deterioration of the conflict. He also reiterated past rhetoric framing China’s relationship with Russia as a responsible one.

Maintaining and growing the China-Russia relationship is a “strategic choice” by the two sides based on their fundamental interests and is also “what we must do to keep pace with the trend of the world,” Wang said.

“China and Russia have forged a new paradigm of major country relations that differs entirely from the obsolete Cold War approach on the basis of non-alliance, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party,” he added.

Tensions in Asia

The diplomat also addressed simmering tensions in the disputed South China Sea where non-lethal but increasingly tense clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in recent months have raised concerns about the risk of conflict, which could then embroil the United States, a Philippine mutual defense ally.

Those flared again Tuesday when the Philippines Coast Guard accused Chinese vessels of executing “dangerous maneuvers” to impede and obstruct a resupply mission in contested waters in the South China Sea.

Despite an international tribunal rejecting China’s claim of historic rights to the bulk of the sea, it has continued to militarize islands and maintains a large presence of coast guard and fishing vessels to enforce its claims.

“In the face of deliberate infringement, we will take justified actions to defend our rights in accordance with the law. In the face of unwarranted provocation, we will respond with prompt and legitimate countermeasures,” Wang said Thursday.

“We also urge certain countries outside the region, not to make provocations, excite or stir up troubles,” he said, in an apparent jab at the US presence in the region.

The foreign minister’s comments on Taiwan also caught the notice of those closely watching for any evolution of Chinese policy on Taiwan during the “two sessions” meeting.

China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy as its territory, despite never having controlled it. It has not ruled out the use of force to retake the island, which maintains close unofficial ties with the US.

Some observers had noted that a line in a report delivered by Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday proclaimed that China would advance the cause of “China’s reunification” instead of saying “peaceful reunification” as it has been written at times in the past.

On Thursday, when responding to a question about Taiwan’s recent election of Lai Ching-te, whose party views Taiwan as a de facto sovereign nation under threat from China, Wang specifically called for the support of “peaceful reunification.”

He also reiterated staid language that “whoever in the world” supports Taiwan independence will get “burned for playing with fire.”

This story has been updated.