President William Lai Ching-te says he met King Mswati III and signed trade agreements.

Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te says his government will never give up on engaging with the world as he visited Eswatini despite China’s efforts to block the trip.

Lai arrived in Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, on Saturday after “meticulous arrangements made by our diplomatic and national security teams”, he said in a Facebook post, although it is unclear how he arrived in the kingdom.

He said he was greeted with a “military-style welcoming ceremony”. Taiwan’s leader said he met with King Mswati III and signed trade agreements.

The trip was originally scheduled for late April, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar cancelled flight permits for his charter plane without notice.

Taiwan’s presidential office said the cancellations came after heavy pressure from Beijing, including economic coercion, and it called the move “without precedent in the international community”.

Taiwan operates as a self-governing democracy, but China claims it is part of its territory and says it must come under its rule. Beijing has insisted that countries halt engagements with the island’s government.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson called the trip a “laughable stunt” and said Lai used a “foreign plane to “smuggle” himself out of the island”, insisting that Taiwan is a part of China.

China has spent decades pressuring countries to sever formal ties with Taipei, leaving Taiwan with only 12 diplomatic allies, which include Belize, Guatemala, Haiti and the Vatican.

Although the United States doesn’t recognise Taiwan, it has pledged to help Taipei defend itself under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

Eswatini is the only country on the African continent that still recognises Taiwan.

Lai thanked its king for standing with Taiwan “undeterred by various diplomatic and economic pressures” and reiterated that no country has the right to prevent Taiwan from contributing to the world.

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Ministry of Commerce says sanctions against refineries accused of importing Iranian oil violate international law.

China has announced an injunction to block US sanctions placed on five Chinese refiners accused ‌of buying oil from Iran.

The US sanctions announced by the Department of the Treasury late last month bar the refiners from the US financial system and seek to penalise anyone doing business with the firms.

In a statement on Saturday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said the sanctions “improperly” restrict business between Chinese enterprises and third countries “in violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations”.

The Commerce Ministry said it had issued a “prohibition order” stipulating that the sanctions “shall not be recognized, enforced, or complied with,” calling the order a move to “safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests”.

“The Chinese government has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions that lack UN authorisation and basis in international law,” the ministry added.

It said the order blocked US measures against Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery and four other so-called “teapot” refineries: Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, Hebei Xinhai Chemical Group, Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical and Shandong ⁠Shengxing Chemical.

Announcing the sanctions on April 24, the US Treasury Department called Hengli “one of Tehran’s most valued customers”, saying it had generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Iranian military through crude oil purchases.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the other four refineries named by the Chinese ministry, among other facilities, last year.

China gets more than half of its oil from the Middle East, much of it from Iran.

According to commodities data firm Kpler, China bought more than 80 percent of the oil Iran shipped in 2025.

China’s “teapot” refineries operate independently and are generally smaller than the facilities run by state-owned oil giants, such as Sinopec.

The facilities, which have been crucial to China’s efforts to secure its oil supplies, capitalise on heavily discounted crude sold by countries under sanctions, such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

Teapots account for a quarter of Chinese ⁠refinery capacity, operate with narrow and sometimes negative margins, and have been squeezed recently by tepid domestic demand.

US sanctions have created additional hurdles for refiners, including difficulties selling refined products under their correct place-of-origin markings.

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The man was also charged with two other offences and is to appear ​in court in Darwin on Tuesday, police said.

Police in Australia’s Northern Territory say they have ⁠charged a man with murder in the killing of an Indigenous girl, days after the five-year-old’s death sparked protests in an outback town.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, was also ⁠charged with two other offences that cannot be publicly disclosed for legal reasons over the killing of Kumanjayi Little Baby, the name by which the victim is known in ⁠line with Indigenous custom, police said in a statement on Sunday.

“This is a horrific event and a horrific set of circumstances, and our thoughts remain strongly with the family,” Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole said in televised remarks from Alice Springs.

Lewis was charged on Saturday evening and will appear in court in the territory’s capital, Darwin, on Tuesday, police said.

The girl’s killing sparked protests by roughly 400 Indigenous people near Alice Springs late on Thursday following the capture of the suspect after he was found and beaten unconscious by locals. Lewis has past convictions for physical assault and had recently been released ⁠from prison.

An angry crowd clashed with police as Lewis was treated in hospital after his arrest. The protesters demanded officers hand over the suspect so they could punish him themselves.

Police used tear gas to ⁠disperse the protesters, and several people were arrested over what authorities described as a riot, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The girl disappeared from an Indigenous community camp, sparking a vast, days-long search on foot, horseback and by helicopter of the surrounding dense bushland. The victim’s body was found on Thursday.

“This is the tragic outcome we were all desperately hoping against. No words can measure up to the immensity of the grief her family is going through,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Robin Granites, a spokesman for the family and an elder of the Warlpiri Indigenous group, said in a statement: “It is time now for sorry business, to show respect for our family and have space for grieving and remembering.”

Australia has ⁠struggled for decades to reconcile with its Indigenous people, who ⁠have inhabited the land for about 50,000 years and were brutally suppressed during British colonial rule. Indigenous Australians account for 3.8 percent of the population and face discrimination, poor health and education outcomes, and high incarceration rates.

Thousands, including ‌the victim and her family, live in camp communities where housing and services are often inadequate. A fifth of Alice Springs citizens are Indigenous.

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