Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen is in the international headlines tonight after announcing two unofficial stops in the US during her upcoming trip to visit Central American allies.
Tsai is scheduled to be in New York on March 30th on her way to Central America and is also expected to make a return trip through Los Angeles on March 5th.
The 10-day trip is, of course, set to be a gesture of goodwill to both Belize and Guatemala, two of the countries' few remaining allies in the Americas. It will see the president meet with her Belizean counterpart John Briceno on Monday, April 3rd and Guatemala's Prime Minister Alejandro Giammattei two days earlier on April 1st.
While in Belize as President Tsai will also meet with Cabinet as well as deliver an address at a Joint Sitting of Parliament. She will also attend an exhibition of micro, small, and medium enterprises to highlight the Taiwan-funded Women's Economic Empowerment Project.
Tsai's trip comes in the wake of Honduras's decision to ditch Taiwan and switch to China.
This will be the President's second visit to Belize.
Belize Loses To Guatemala on Home Turf In Nations League
It was hyped as the biggest sporting event that Belize had witnessed in a decade, and Friday night's Nation's League matchup at a packed FFB stadium in Belmopan lived up to the hype - even though Belize did not emerge victorious.
It was a well played, hard fought match where the Belize team acquitted itself competently but, in the end could not match Guatemala's firepower. The final score was Guatemala 2, Belize 1 - this, after Guatemala scored the first two goals of the match.
Here are highlites from the CONCACAF YouTube page - starting with the first attempt on goal, from Belize's Eugene Martinez, who very nearly floated in a header - but it was stopped by Guatemala's goalkeeper:
Belize's only goal - a header off a corner kick - was scored by midfielder Jordy Polanco. But, the Jaguars never got that equalizer and the visiting Guatemalans emerged with three three points from the win.
Belize then travelled to the Dominican Republic to play their squad. That game just concluded and Belize lost two to nil.
A Close Finish In Junior Cross Country
And among the weekend's other major sporting events was the 22nd riding of the BEL Junior Cross Country.
It's a 70 mile race from San Ignacio to Belize City featuring 30 riders under the age of 18.
Here's the very animated call from the Cycling Federation's motorbike, delivered by Andrew Ordonez as the two lead riders entered the city for a dramatic sprint finish at the Marion Jones Stadium:
Notably, there was a dispute about the order of finish, because second place finisher Jaylen Briceno said that the winner, Delton Rojas bumped him in the sprint. After review, his protest was declined and Rojas was crowned as the winner.
