CHINA
Hussain Usman Rasheed Chuadhry, Senior Reporter
Politics: Tensions rise between the U.S. and China after the recent incident where two US war ships have sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands.
Economics: China has threatened to cut Australian Imports by billions of dollars.
Culture: The Chinese Netflix like company, iQiyi has opened its first theatre in the Guangdong province. The company's mission is to provide on demand movies service in a facility that is equipped with all the amenities that a traditional movie theatre has.
EUROPE
FINLAND
Fatima Yousuf, Editor-in-Chief
Politics: The two leading candidates competing to become Finland’s next prime minister have both ruled out working with the nationalist and eurosceptic Finns Party following elections. This hurts the chances of the Finns Party electing Parliament members in the future.
Economics: Finland has officially ended its Universal Basic Income experiment two years early. However, they will still be considering the possibilities of implementing UBI in policy and will soon start testing a universal credit system.
Culture: Students in Finland are choosing not to attend cultural performances set by organizations such as the Finnish Cultural Foundation on the religious grounds that they find them “disturbing” and “confusing”.
LITHUANIA
Hussain Usman Rasheed Chuadhry, Senior Reporter
Politics: Lithuanian parliament has rejected the EU proposal of allowing EU nationals to found political parties in the country.
Economics: A four lane road connecting Lithuania with Poland is expected to be completed by 2022. The Via Baltica highway is set to link Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas and Warsaw.
Culture: Lithuania will host this year’s Women Political Leaders summit which will bring women leaders from around the world for a two days forum in Vilnius.
UNITED KINGDOM
Syed Mansoor Aamir, Reporter
Politics: EU negotiator said the UK needed to stop playing "hide and seek" and instead clarify its demands
Economics: Bank of England Governor expects to raise interest rates if the economy bounces back - Goldman Sachs believes there are already strong reasons to believe it is doing just that.
Culture: Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
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