Globe Trot: Remembering an anniversary China's leaders would rather forget

CHINA: Here’s the scene in Hong Kong on the 25th anniversary today of the massacre at Tiananmen Square. Beijing and other cities that were part of the mass crackdown have no commemoration, as they officially don’t acknowledge the uprising happened. NPR’s Louisa Lim ably taps into The People’s Republic of Amnesia (and with a book by the same name just out today), recounting how 1989 changed China even while Chinese leaders rewrote history.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription normally required) profiles the Tiananmen uprising’s student leaders, 25 years later. And WORLD features an interview with Bob Fu, also one of those leaders, now head of U.S.-based ChinaAid.

Our reporter in China witnessed a crackdown this week on a large house church in Chengdu, with police beating and trying to arrest several after church leaders were outspoken about their pro-life convictions.

FRANCE: French President François Hollande won’t go hungry this week as he dines with 18 heads of state ahead of Friday’s 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy—including separate dinners Thursday night with estranged heads of state U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. With much focus on Ukraine, Obama today attends a G7 summit (the G8, minus Russia) in Brussels ahead of Friday’s remembrances along the French coast, where the president could encounter Putin.

MALI: Renewed fighting in Mali underscores the threat of African-based terrorist groups, particularly to Christians.

GLOBAL: Open Doors has released a list of the top 10 countries for violence against Christians. Not surprisingly, Nigeria tops that list. Syria and Egypt also are well known for attacks on Christians since the 2010 Arab Spring revolutions began. A surprise is Kenya, which Open Doors included because of the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, where non-Muslims were singled out and shot.

TERRORISM: A Rand report out today highlights the growing threat of Islamic jihadist groups to the West, and its author calls President Obama’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by 2016 “a risky step” that “may embolden Islamic extremists.”

AFGHANISTAN: Ahead of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. Marine Corps is retiring its IED detection dogs, and about 50 need to be adopted.