Around the World in 60 Seconds

🇹🇼 Taiwan's false alarm: A partly state-owned news station mistakenly broadcast a false report yesterday that said Chinese armed forces had launched an invasion, firing missiles at cities and ports surrounding the capital, Taipei. The channel issued an apology several hours later, saying the report had been created in conjunction with emergency services for upcoming security drills but had been accidentally broadcast.

🇨🇳🤝🇸🇧 There’s trouble brewing in the Pacific. High-ranking US officials are on their way to the Solomon Islands after learning earlier this week that the South Pacific nation had negotiated a security pact with Beijing. The agreement will – among other things – allow China to dock military and police vessels across the Solomon Islands and use its forces “to assist in maintaining social order.”

🇫🇷 France’s presidential election is coming to a head. President Emmanuel Macron and challenger Marine Le Pen met last night in their first and only televised debate before the country heads to the polls this weekend. Recent numbers give Macron the advantage, at 53 to 56 percent against 44 to 47 percent for Le Pen, who is making her third run for the presidency.

🇺🇦 An update on Russia/Ukraine: Russia continued its bombardment of the port city of Mariupol yesterday as part of Moscow’s new offensive targeting the heavily-industrialized Donbas region. Driving its moves? Ukraine's military believes Putin wants full control not just of Donbas, but also of the southern region of Kherson (to the north and west of Crimea), the BBC reports. This would give him a land bridge along the south coast to the Russian border and control of the water supply to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.