Xi's special envoy visits Laos

Liu Haixing, special envoy of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping, visited Laos on Tuesday to congratulate the successful convening of the 12th National Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and Thongloun Sisoulith on his election as general secretary of the 12th LPRP Central Committee.

Liu, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a congratulatory letter from Xi to Thongloun and conveyed a message.

The message stated that China stands ready to work with Laos to advance the continuous development of a China-Laos community with a shared future, guided by the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties and two countries.

Thongloun expressed his sincere appreciation and extended warm greetings to Xi.

He noted that the new central leadership of the LPRP attaches great importance to developing relations with China and is willing to work closely with China to continuously elevate bilateral relations between the two parties and two countries to a higher level.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure overnight on Saturday, for the second time in less than a week, Ukraine's Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

The strikes targeted the Burshtyn and Dobrotvir thermal power plants in western Ukraine, as well as substations and overhead transmission lines, the minister said.

He further said personnel unloaded units at nuclear power plants as a precautionary measure.

Ukraine's state-run energy company Ukrenergo has requested emergency assistance from Poland in the wake of the attack, Shmyhal added, while the company said it has imposed emergency power outages across most of the country.

The previous attack on Ukraine's energy facilities was carried out on Tuesday.