Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed that the Canadian Armed Forces are planning to airlift out civilians trapped in Sudan. “We have assets in the region,” he said April 25, but there were “very limited places where those airlifts can happen from.” Potential CAF platforms in the region include a Boeing CC-177 Globemaster III transport and a frigate and supply ship.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had had “a long and meaningful phone call” today with his Chinese countertpart, Xi Jinping, their first since Russia invaded Ukraine. China is trying to position itself as a potential peacemaker but Zelenskyy has reiterated that “there can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises.” China’s foreign ministry said Xi told Zelenskyy that “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the political basis of China-Ukrainian relations.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says his government has decided to quit the International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. That meant that South Africa, which has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, would have had to detain him when he meets Ramaphosa and their Brazilian, Chinese and Indian counterparts for an upcoming summit.

A defence policy review which sees the U.S. as no longer the key Indo-Pacific player was released today by the Australian government. Written by a former Australian Defence Force chief and a former defence minister, it calls for fundamental changes to the ADF to counter modern and emerging threats, but at the expense of capability acquisition and base infrastructures.