SEOUL: Seoul’s presidential Blue House rejected criticism on Tuesday that next month’s Winter Games had been hijacked by North Korea, saying the event will help defuse tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
Some opposition politicians and conservatives in South Korea have criticized North Korea’s participation in the Games to be held in the South Korean alpine resort town of Pyeongchang, dubbing them the “Pyongyang Olympics.”
“Just one month ago, acute tensions gripped the Korean peninsula, but the administration’s efforts to tackle the crisis through dialogue has led to North Korea’s participation in the Olympics,” Blue House spokesman Park Soo-hyun told a news conference.
“We’re confident that the Olympics will be a stepping stone to bring peace to the Korean peninsula, to Northeast Asia and the world.”
After a months-long standoff over the North’s nuclear and missile tests, the two Koreas agreed during their first formal talks in nearly two years that the South will help arrange for the North to join in the Games.
Some specific plans, however, including fielding a joint women’s ice hockey team and marching under a united flag, have proven controversial, with conservatives and younger South Koreans upset that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is stealing the spotlight.
The administration of South Korea’s liberal president, Moon Jae-in, is under pressure over its offer to send athletes to a North Korean ski resort for joint training. Experts say the move risks giving Kim’s regime legitimacy and some much needed cash.
Seoul officials are on a three-day trip to the North starting Tuesday to inspect the resort’s facilities and the newly built Kalma Airport nearby that may be used to fly in the South Korean skiers, who are not expected to attend the Games.
Moon’s approval rating has fallen to a four-month low at 66 percent, a poll showed on Monday, due to a backlash over the decision regarding the combined hockey team.
Later Tuesday, the North said it would send a 15-strong ice hockey team to the South on Thursday for joint training with South Korean players, together with a group of officials who are due to inspect Olympics facilities, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said.
The two Koreas also finalized venues for joint orchestra performances which will take place on Feb. 8 at Gangneung, near Pyeongchang, and on Feb. 11 in Seoul, according to the ministry.
Small but vocal groups of demonstrators staged a protest at Seoul’s central train station on Monday where a North Korean delegation had arrived to see the concert venues, burning a picture of Kim. One sign at the protest read: “We’re opposed to Kim Jong Un’s Pyongyang Olympics!.”
North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, in charge of inter-Korean affairs, called the picture-burning protest a “shuddering, hideous crime,” urging Seoul to apologize and punish those involved.
“We will never tolerate hideous acts of the conservative hooligans who insulted the sacred dignity and symbol of the DPRK, and the dishonest behavior of the South Korean authorities who connived at such acts,” said a spokesman of the organization via the official KCNA news agency on Tuesday.
The official was referring to North Korea by its full name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“We cannot but take a serious consideration of our follow-up measures regarding the Winter Olympics.”
Separately, North Korea announced on Tuesday it will mark Feb. 8 as a new anniversary for the founding of its military.
The anniversary, previously held on April 25 and marked with a large military parade, will now take place just one day before the Olympics begins.
The South Korean military said a detailed analysis was needed to understand the North’s intention behind the date change.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute south of Seoul, said the anniversary change may be an effort by Kim to distinguish himself from his father and grandfather, emboldened by last year’s progress on the nuclear and missile programs.
“He could also be seeking to steal the show from the South by holding a grand anniversary event just before the Olympics begin, and unveiling weapons like new intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Cheong said.
South Korea rejects ‘Pyongyang Olympics’ criticism
South Korea rejects ‘Pyongyang Olympics’ criticism
Trump administration moves to restore some terminated foreign aid programs, sources say
- According to Stand Up For Aid, an advocacy group of current and former US officials, WFP contracts canceled on Lewin’s orders last weekend for Lebanon, Syria, Somalia and Jordan totaled more than $463 million
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to reinstate at least six recently canceled US foreign aid programs for emergency food assistance, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The quick reversal of decisions made just days ago underscored the rapid-fire nature of Trump’s cuts to foreign aid. That has led to programs being cut, restored then cut again, disrupting international humanitarian operations.
USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Jeremy Lewin, who has previously been identified as a member of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, asked staff in an internal email to reverse the terminations.
He asked to restore awards to the World Food Programme in Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador, five sources familiar with the matter said.
The administration has also resumed four awards to the International Organization for Migration in the Pacific region, two sources familiar with the matter said.
“Sorry for all the back and forth on awards,” Lewin said on Tuesday in the internal email seen by Reuters. “There are a lot of stakeholders and we need to do better about balancing these competing interests — that’s my fault and I take responsibility,” he added.
Reuters reported on Monday that the Trump administration had ended life-saving aid programs for more than a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Syria, totaling over $1.3 billion.
According to Stand Up For Aid, an advocacy group of current and former US officials, WFP contracts canceled on Lewin’s orders last weekend for Lebanon, Syria, Somalia and Jordan totaled more than $463 million.
Many of the terminated programs had been granted waivers by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following an initial round of cuts to foreign aid programs. The State Department said those did not reflect a final decision.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about restoring the awards.
A ‘DEATH SENTENCE’
The decision to restore some aid followed pressure from inside the administration and from Congress, two sources said.
The World Food Programme said on Monday that the US notified the organization it was eliminating emergency food assistance funding in 14 countries, warning: “If implemented, this could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation.”
The US did not restore aid to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and to Yemen, most of which is controlled by Islamist militants of the Iran-backed Houthi movement. Washington has been the largest aid donor to both countries, which have suffered years of devastating war.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Tuesday told reporters that the United States had concerns that WFP funding for Yemen and Afghanistan was benefiting the Houthis and the Taliban.
“There were a few programs that were cut in other countries that were not meant to be cut that have been rolled back and put into place,” Bruce said, adding that the administration remains committed to foreign aid.
Among the cuts over the weekend were $169.8 million for the WFP in Somalia, covering food assistance, nutrition for malnourished babies and children and humanitarian air support. In Syria, $111 million was cut from WFP food assistance.
The cuts have been the latest piece of the Trump administration’s drive to dismantle USAID, the main US humanitarian aid agency.
The administration has canceled billions of dollars in foreign aid since the Republican president began his second term on January 20 in an overhaul that officials described as marked by chaos and confusion.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats on Tuesday wrote a letter to Rubio regarding plans to restructure the State Department, including by folding in USAID, which they said was “unconstitutional, illegal, unjustified, damaging, and inefficient.”
US families accuse Palestinian-American billionaire of facilitating Hamas attacks
- A March 10 article in the Jerusalem Post cited unnamed diplomatic sources as saying that Masri had served as a close adviser to Adam Boehler, US President Donald Trump’s envoy seeking release of hostages held in Gaza
- In a Reuters interview in October 2020, when he was 59, Masri spoke in favor of Gulf Arab ties with Israel, condemned by Palestinian leaders, saying they could be an opportunity to apply fresh pressure to halt Jewish settlement in occupied land
WASHINGTON: American families of victims of the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel filed a lawsuit on Monday against a prominent Palestinian-American businessman, Bashar Masri, charging that he provided assistance in constructing infrastructure that allowed Hamas militants to carry out their cross-border rampage. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for Washington, D.C., is thought to be the first case of a US citizen being accused of providing major support for the attacks that triggered a wider Middle East conflict and upended the region.
Masri’s office called the lawsuit “baseless.”
According to a statement announcing the lawsuit, properties Masri owned, developed and controlled, including two luxury hotels and the leading industrial zone in Gaza – the Gaza Industrial Estate — “concealed tunnels underneath them, and had tunnel entrances accessible from within the properties, which Hamas used in terrorist operations before, on and after October 7th.”
HIGHLIGHTS
• Lawsuit targets Palestinian-American businessman Bashar Masri
• Says properties he owned and controlled concealed attack tunnels
• Lawsuit says defendants facilitated construction and concealment of tunnels
• Lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 200 victims
“Defendants facilitated the construction and concealment of those tunnels and even built above-ground solar panel installations that they then used to supply Hamas with electricity to the tunnels,” it said. The October 7 attacks killed some 1,200 Israelis, including more than 40 Americans, and prompted Israeli retaliation against Gaza that has since killed more than 50,000 Palestinians.
The lawsuit, which targets Masri and his companies, was filed on behalf of nearly 200 American plaintiffs, including survivors and relatives of victims.
“Our goal is to expose those who have aided and abetted Hamas and to try and bring accountability to individuals and companies that have presented a legitimate and moderate image to the Western world but have actively and knowingly helped Hamas,” Lee Wolosky of the Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP law firm, lead attorney representing the plaintiffs, said in the statement.
It said GIE was originally established with the help of US taxpayer funding via the US Agency for International Development to promote economic growth in the region.
It said of that “as a result of defendants’ deception,” Hamas’ tunnel network was built with the help of infrastructure and energy projects financed by international institutions, including the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
Masri’s office called the allegations against him and his businesses false and said he would seek their dismissal in court. It said Masri had been involved in development and humanitarian work for the past decades and “unequivocally opposes violence of any kind.”
“Neither he nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy,” it said in a statement.
Doing any big projects in Gaza prior to the war would have required tacit approval by, and some level of cooperation with, the Hamas authorities. The group built its extensive tunnel network across practically the entire territory, including under private homes and businesses.
A March 10 article in the Jerusalem Post cited unnamed diplomatic sources as saying that Masri had served as a close adviser to Adam Boehler, US President Donald Trump’s envoy seeking release of hostages held in Gaza, and had flown on Boehler’s private jet as he shuttled across the region.
It called Masri “a seasoned entrepreneur” who “shares a business-minded approach with Trump, making him a natural fit in the administration’s economic vision for the region.”
The State Department and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment when asked about the newspaper report.
In a Reuters interview in October 2020, when he was 59, Masri spoke in favor of Gulf Arab ties with Israel, condemned by Palestinian leaders, saying they could be an opportunity to apply fresh pressure to halt Jewish settlement in occupied land.
When speaking to Reuters in 2020, Masri said Palestinians must not give up hope. “Our enemies want us to give up hope. If we give up hope, they have exactly what they want, and there will be no Palestine, and no Palestinian people,” he said.
Trump signs executive orders to boost coal, a reliable but polluting energy source
- “Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy,” Trump says
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a series of executive orders aimed at boosting the struggling coal industry, a reliable but polluting energy source that’s long been in decline.
Under the four orders, Trump uses his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising US power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars.
Trump also directed federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on US lands.
Trump, a Republican, has long promised to boost what he calls “beautiful” coal to fire power plants and for other uses, but the industry has been in decline for decades.
“I call it beautiful, clean coal. I told my people, never use the word coal unless you put beautiful, clean before it,” Trump said at the White House signing ceremony where he was flanked by coal miners in hard hats. Several wore patches on their work jackets that said “coal.”
“Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy,” Trump said. “It’s cheap, incredibly efficient, high density, and it’s almost indestructible.”
Trump’s orders also direct Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “acknowledge the end” of an Obama-era moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands and require federal agencies to rescind policies transitioning the nation away from coal production. And they seek to promote coal and coal technology exports, and accelerate development of coal technologies.
Trump has long championed coal
Trump, who has pushed for US “energy dominance” in the global market, has long suggested that coal can help meet surging electricity demand from manufacturing and the massive data centers needed for artificial intelligence.
“We’re ending Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal once and for all,” he said Tuesday. “All those plants that have been closed are going to be opened, if they’re modern enough, (or) they’ll be ripped down and brand new ones will be built. And we’re going to put the miners back to work.”
In 2018, during his first term, Trump directed then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take “immediate steps” to bolster struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants, calling it a matter of national and economic security.
At that time, Trump also considered but didn’t approve a plan to order grid operators to buy electricity from coal and nuclear plants to keep them open. Energy industry groups — including oil, natural gas, solar and wind power — condemned the proposal, saying it would raise energy prices and distort markets.
The national decline of coal
Energy experts say any bump for coal under Trump is likely to be temporary because natural gas is cheaper, and there’s a durable market for renewable energy such as wind and solar power no matter who holds the White House.
Trump’s administration has targeted regulations under the Biden administration that could hasten closures of heavily polluting coal power plants and the mines that supply them.
Coal once provided more than half of US electricity production, but its share dropped to about 16 percent in 2023, down from about 45 percent as recently as 2010. Natural gas provides about 43 percent of US electricity, with the remainder from nuclear energy and renewables such as wind, solar and hydropower.
The front line in what Republicans call the “war on coal” is in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana, a sparsely populated section of the Great Plains with the nation’s largest coal mines. It’s also home to a massive power plant in Colstrip, Montana, that emits more toxic air pollutants such as lead and arsenic than any other US facility of its kind, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA rules finalized last year could force the Colstrip Generating Station to shut down or spend an estimated $400 million to clean up its emissions within the next several years. Another Biden-era proposal, from the Interior Department, would end new leasing of taxpayer-owned coal reserves in the Powder River Basin.
Changes and promises under Trump
Trump vowed to reverse those actions and has named Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright to lead a new National Energy Dominance Council. The panel is tasked with driving up already record-setting domestic oil and gas production, as well as coal and other traditional energy sources.
The council has been granted sweeping authority over federal agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation. It has a mandate to cut bureaucratic red tape, enhance private sector investments and focus on innovation instead of “unnecessary regulation,” Trump said.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, meanwhile, has announced a series of actions to roll back environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants.
In all, Zeldin said he’s moving to roll back 31 environmental rules, including a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for US action against climate change.
Coal industry applauds, but environmental groups warn of problems
Industry groups praised Trump’s focus on coal.
“Despite countless warnings from the nation’s grid operators and energy regulators that we are facing an electricity supply crisis, the last administration’s energy policies were built on hostility to fossil fuels, directly targeting coal,” said Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association.
Trump’s executive actions “clearly prioritize how to responsibly keep the lights on, recognize the enormous strategic value of American-mined coal and embrace the economic opportunity that comes from American energy abundance,” Nolan said.
But environmental groups said Trump’s actions were more of the same tactics he tried during his first term in an unsuccessful bid to revive coal.
“What’s next, a mandate that Americans must commute by horse and buggy?” asked Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Coal plants are old and dirty, uncompetitive and unreliable,” Kennedy said, accusing Trump and his administration of remaining “stuck in the past, trying to make utility customers pay more for yesterday’s energy.”
Instead, she said, the US should do all it can to build the power grid of the future, including tax credits and other support for renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
EU Commission to discuss trade, US tariff strategy with industries
BRUSSELS: The European Commission has invited the sectors most impacted by US tariffs to an in-person meeting on Thursday, an invitation letter seen by Reuters showed, as the commission weighs new trade partnerships and further countermeasures.
The meeting led by the Commission industry chief Stephane Sejourne will include participants from the steel and autos industries. The meeting follows calls held by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with executives in the metals, pharmaceutical and auto industries.
The meeting is meant to find out what impact EU companies are already seeing in the “short and medium term” and the best responses in terms of “sector-specific policies as well as counter-tariffs and non-tariff counter measures,” the invitation letter said.
On top of reciprocal tariffs, Washington has introduced sector-specific duties on steel, aluminum and vehicles.
The Commission is concerned about the forthcoming measures on “pharmaceuticals, copper, semiconductors, lumber, energy products, and certain minerals” and knock-on effects across supply chains. The Commission pointed to possible extra tariffs that may hit some EU companies that still use Venezuelan oil “directly or indirectly.”
As the Commission looks to diversify its trade away from the US, it is seeking input from industry on the best tools to use whether they be free trade or partnerships.
“The two-hour meeting will be an opportunity to share views on the impact of the tariffs on various industrial sectors as well as the measures the EU could take to mitigate their effect,” the letter said.
US scholar in Thailand jailed pending trial on charges of insulting the monarchy
- Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University in northern Thailand, has specialized in studying the power and influence of the military
- Insulting the monarchy in Thailand is an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison
BANGKOK: A US political science scholar accused by the Thai military of insulting the Southeast Asian nation’s monarchy — an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison — was jailed on Tuesday pending trial.
Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University in the northern province of Phitsanulok, was first summoned by police last week to hear the charges against him, including violating the Computer Crime Act, which covers online activity.
Chambers, a 58-year-old Oklahoma native with a doctorate in political science from Northern Illinois University, has studied the power and influence of the Thai military, which plays a major role in politics. It has staged 13 coups since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, most recently 11 years ago.
Chambers reported to the police on Tuesday to formally acknowledge the charges and was then taken to a provincial court for a pretrial detention hearing, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a legal advocacy group.
The court denied Chambers release on bail, allegedly because of “the severity of potential punishment,” his status as a foreigner and the police’s objection to granting it, the lawyers group said.
The group said another request to allow bail would be filed to an appeals court on Wednesday. No trial date has been set.
The officer who answered the phone at the police station handling the case said he could not comment, and referred the matter to his chief, who did not answer a call to his phone.
It is not unusual for Thai courts to deny bail in cases of insulting the monarchy, popularly known as “112” after its article number in the criminal code.
The US-based academic freedom project Scholars at Risk said in a statement that Chambers in late 2024 made comments in a webinar about a restructuring of the military that could have been the cause of the complaint made against him by the 3rd Army Area, covering Thailand’s northern region.
However, Chambers’ wife, Napisa Waitoolkiat, dean of the faculty of social sciences at Naresuan University, said the evidence presented by the authorities was not the words of her husband but came from the website operated by ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, a think tank in Singapore that broadcast the webinar.
Thai Lawyers for Human Right said the charges stemmed from the text of the invitation to the October 2024 webinar, titled “Thailand’s 2024 Military and Police Reshuffles: What Do They Mean?” and that the charge sheet contained the Thai translation of the invitation’s description of the event.
Napisa also said her husband was not summoned for questioning by police before he was presented with the warrant for his arrest, as is typical in such cases.
“It just feels like they wanted to deter Paul from doing his work and research, which often touches on topics like the economics of the Thai army,” she told The Associated Press over the phone.
Thai law envisages 3-15 years imprisonment for anyone who defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the regent. Critics say it is among the harshest such laws anywhere and has also been used to punish critics of the government and the military.
The monarchy has long been considered a pillar of Thai society and criticizing it used to be strictly taboo. Conservative Thais, especially in the military and courts, still consider it untouchable.
However, public debate on the topic has in the past decade grown louder, particularly among young people, and student-led pro-democracy protests starting in 2020, began openly criticizing the institution. That led to vigorous prosecutions under the previously little-used law.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights has said that since early 2020, more than 270 people — many of them student activists — have been charged with violating the law.
