TAIPEI: The US unveiled a new $256 million representative office in Taiwan’s capital on Tuesday, a de facto embassy that underscores Washington’s strategic ties with the democratic, self-ruled island as it faces escalating tensions with China.
Washington cut diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1979 but remains the island’s strongest ally and sole foreign arms supplier. It opened the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) to conduct relations between the two sides after severing ties.
In comments certain to rile Beijing, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said the new complex was a reaffirmation of both sides commitment to a “vital relationship.”
“The friendship between Taiwan and the US has never been more promising. The great story of Taiwan-US relations remains to be filled with the efforts of those that will one day occupy this building,” Tsai said.
So long as both sides stood together, nothing could come between them, she added.
The new complex, a significant upgrade from the low-key military building the AIT had used for decades, will serve as the representative office later this summer, said AIT Director Kin Moy.
Marie Royce, US Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, said at a ceremony to mark the unveiling that the complex was a symbol of the strength and vibrancy of the US-Taiwan partnership.
“We have faced many trials along this journey, but we have risen to the challenge at every turn, knowing that our shared commitment to democracy would see us through,” said Royce, who is the highest-ranking State Department official to visit Taiwan since 2015.
The sprawling new site occupies 6.5 hectares, including Chinese gardens, in Taipei’s Neihu district. AIT’s Taipei office has nearly 500 American and local employees, while its Kaohsiung branch has more than 30 staff.
The ceremony was attended by scores of high-ranking Taiwan officials as well as senior business executives, including Morris Chang, the former chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), the world’s biggest contract chip maker.
China claims self-ruled Taiwan under its “one China” policy and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring what it sees as a wayward province under its control.
China’s hostility toward Taiwan has grown since President Tsai was elected in 2016. Beijing suspects Tsai wants to push for formal independence, which would cross a red line for Communist Party leaders in Beijing.
Widely read Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times said on Tuesday China needed to warn Taiwan and the United States against provocation.
“The mainland must continue to build up its deterrence against Taiwanese authorities, making them know that the US cannot be their savior,” it said in an editorial on the opening of the new office.
Taiwan recently lost two diplomatic allies after they switched ties to China, while some international companies have changed their websites to show the island’s designation as being part of China.
China has also stepped up military drills, sending bombers and jet fighters on exercises near the island that Taipei has denounced as intimidation.
Taiwan has lobbied Washington to sell it more advanced equipment, including new fighter jets, to bolster its defenses.
US unveils de facto embassy in Taiwan amid China tensions
US unveils de facto embassy in Taiwan amid China tensions
UK’s Sunak hurt and angry over Reform volunteer’s racial slur
“My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing Paki,” Sunak told broadcasters
STOCKTON-ON-TEES, England: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was hurt and angry that a supporter of Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party had been recorded making a racial slur about him, saying it was too important for him not to speak out.
Sunak, Britain’s first ethnic-minority prime minister, was responding to comments broadcast by Channel 4 News, by a man named as Andrew Parker calling Sunak a “f… Paki” — a British racial slur for people of South Asian descent.
Sunak was born in the southern English port city of Southampton in 1980 to Hindu parents of Punjabi Indian descent.
“My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing Paki. It hurts and it makes me angry, and I think he has some questions to answer,” Sunak told broadcasters on Friday.
“I don’t repeat those words lightly, I do so deliberately because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is.”
Parker provided a statement to Channel 4 News, in response to them saying they would broadcast the video that was taken without his knowledge, saying that no one at Reform was aware of his personal views on immigration.
“I would therefore like to apologize profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention,” he said.
“I offered to help the Reform Party on their canvassing as I believe that they are the only party that offer the UK voter a practical solution to the illegal immigration problem that we have in the UK.”
In the Channel 4’s video, Parker says: “I’ve always been a Tory (Conservative) voter but what annoys me is that f… Paki we’ve got in. What good is he? You tell me, you know. He’s just wet. F… useless.”
Farage said in a statement late on Thursday, when the comments were first broadcast, that he was dismayed by the language. On Friday he said on Twitter: “We now learn that he is an actor by profession.
“This whole episode does not add up.”
Reuters could not immediately reach Parker for comment. Channel 4 News said in a statement that they covertly filmed Parker and did not know him before they met him as a Reform volunteer.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was hurt and angry that a supporter of Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party had been recorded making a racial slur about him, saying it was too important for him not to speak out. (AFP/File)
Russian military says it took control of settlement of Rozdolivka in eastern Ukraine
- Russia’s “Southern” military grouping had taken up what it called more favorable positions
MOSCOW: Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Rozdolivka in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Friday.
The ministry said in a statement that Russia’s “Southern” military grouping had taken up what it called more favorable positions after pushing Ukrainian forces out of the settlement, which is located in the Donetsk region.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield report and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
‘Turn mosques into pubs’: UK campaigner airs Islamophobic views in secret recording
- Canvasser for Nigel Farage’s Reform Party: Migrants should be used for ‘target practice’
- ‘If you don’t know about Islam, it is the most disgusting cult out,’ he tells undercover reporter
London: A campaigner for Nigel Farage, the Reform Party leader in the UK, has called for mosques to be “turned into Wetherspoons pubs,” The Times reported on Friday.
The comments add to wider controversy over the behavior of Reform candidates and officials.
An undercover reporter from Channel 4 filmed the canvasser, Andrew Parker, in Clacton, the seat Farage is targeting at next week’s general election.
Parker gives advice to the reporter ahead of meeting voters in the coastal town. “Use the word ‘illegal.’ Emphasise ‘illegal’ especially if you open the door and there’s a bunch of P***s,” he said.
Parker added: “I tell you what, if you don’t know about Islam, it is the most disgusting cult out. We’re kicking all the Muslims out of the mosques and turning them into Wetherspoons.”
In one conversation with a resident on a doorstep, he called for the army to use migrants for “target practice” as a method to end illegal immigration.
“You’ve got Deal (barracks), haven’t you. The place near Dover. Army recruitment. Get the young recruits there, yeah, with guns on the beach, target practice … just shoot them,” he said.
Parker also referred to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a “f***ing P***” in the footage aired by Channel 4.
Farage described the comments as “appalling” and said Reform will end its association with Parker.
The sentiments “expressed by some in these exchanges bear no relation to my own views, those of the vast majority of our supporters or Reform UK policy,” Farage added.
Parker told Channel 4: “I would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform Party are aware of my personal views on immigration.
“I have never discussed immigration with either Nigel Farage or the Reform Party and any comments made by me during those recordings are my own personal views on any subject I commented on.
“At no time before I was sent out to canvass did I discuss my personal views with any representative of the Reform Party or Nigel Farage.”
Bangladesh prepares to send 1,300 drivers to Dubai this year
- Plan is to employ 2,000 Bangladeshi drivers annually from next year
- UAE is main source of remittance inflows to Bangladesh
DHAKA: Bangladesh is preparing to send 1,300 taxi and motorcycle drivers to Dubai by the end of 2024, the government has said, as the UAE plans to recruit hundreds more in subsequent years.
More than 1.2 million Bangladeshi nationals live and work in the UAE, which has the second-highest base of workers from Bangladesh after Saudi Arabia. Most of them are employed in the construction, manufacturing and service sectors, including transportation.
State Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury and the UAE’s ambassador to Dhaka, Abdulla Ali Al-Hamoudi, discussed the employment of drivers on Thursday, following the minister’s talks with Dubai transportation stakeholders last month.
“One of them was a meeting with Dubai Taxi. As a result of that meeting, Dubai Taxi Corp. has already started recruiting skilled workers,” Chowdhury said.
“The United Arab Emirates will hire 1,300 taxi and motorcycle drivers from Bangladesh this year. Among them, there are 1,000 motorcycle drivers and 300 taxi drivers.”
The number is going to increase in subsequent years.
“(The UAE) will hire at least 2,000 taxi and motorcycle drivers from next year,” Chowdhury said.
Shariful Hasan, associate director of the Migration Program at BRAC — Bangladesh’s largest development organization — told Arab News that the new recruitment plan was a “positive” development.
“There is a good demand for Bangladeshi drivers in the Middle Eastern countries. A significant number of Bangladeshis are already working in Dubai with much goodwill,” he said.
“As we have plenty of skilled drivers, Bangladesh can meet this demand easily … I believe that in the coming days, Bangladeshi drivers will be recruited in more numbers in the Middle Eastern countries.”
The UAE is the leading source of remittance inflows to Bangladesh, with $3.65 billion remitted between July 2023 and April 2024, 52 percent more than in the equivalent period a year earlier.
Since 2013, the UAE has been recruiting only skilled workers from Bangladesh, which according to Hasan was the right approach.
“Instead of sending 1.3-1.4 million unskilled laborers annually, it’s much better to send 150,000-200,000 skilled workers,” he said.
“These skilled workforces will earn a better salary and build a better image for the country.”
War of words rages at UN over women, gender rights
- UN rights chief Volker Turk has long warned of “systematic” efforts to strip women of their hard-won rights.
- A range of African countries also figure among those taking part in efforts to remove language on gender rights from UN texts
Geneva: After warning of increasing attacks on women and gender rights around the world, the UN finds itself a key arena for a war of words over how those rights are defined.
UN rights chief Volker Turk has long warned of “systematic” efforts to strip women of their hard-won rights.
Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council last week, he highlighted extreme cases like Afghanistan and Iran, but warned the pushback was happening worldwide.
“No country is immune from regression in women’s rights,” he said, also decrying “ongoing discrimination and exclusion on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The UN itself has meanwhile become a key battleground in the fight.
Diplomats describe growing efforts to remove references to women’s rights or to sexual orientation and gender identity that had long gone uncontested in resolutions and texts across the UN system.
“What we’re seeing is a concerted effort to push back on issues related to gender and sexual orientation and gender identity in ... the work of international organizations in Geneva broadly,” said a woman diplomat based in Geneva, who asked not to be named.
Gurchaten Sandhu, program director at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), described “coordinated efforts” of various actors “to push back on equality.”
“There is a heightened sense of paranoia” around any gender-related terms used in UN texts, he told AFP.
The United Nations working group on discrimination against women and girls presented a report to the rights council this week highlighting an “escalating gender backlash” and a clear “resurgence of a conservative and retrogressive narrative in international fora.”
Reacting to the report, Russian representative Ilia Barmin told the council Thursday that his country regretted that the text contained “controversial concepts,” including on the right to reproductive and sexual health.
“There is no such right in international law,” he insisted, adding that Russia also opposed the inclusion of “new categories of human rights” in the report, like “the right to bodily autonomy.”
The rights council is not the only UN forum where words are being hotly debated.
The World Health Organization’s decision-making assembly last month was for instance forced for the first time to take a resolution to a vote instead of adopting it by consensus due to opposition over gender-related terminology.
A conservative alliance of countries, including Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia, balked at the term “gender-responsive” in the text, although they ultimately failed in their bid to change it.
And last year, the UN labor agency’s budget barely passed amid a dramatic standoff over references — which had gone uncontested in previous budgets — to discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The tensions have especially pitted mainly Western countries against conservative, largely Muslim states.
But Sandhu warned it would be “a mistake to think it’s coming from one direction.”
A range of African countries also figure among those taking part in efforts to remove language on gender rights from UN texts.
So too do Russia and China, although observers suggested their motivations are less about conviction than a desire to build alliances and to upset Western opponents.
Others highlight the Vatican’s role.
“The earliest reference to ‘gender ideology’ as a dangerous, subversive phenomenon that needed to be stopped came from the Vatican,” said Erin Kilbride, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.
Pope Francis earlier this year doubled down on the issue, publishing a document listing gender theory among the world’s “grave violations of human dignity.”
Lobbying by “anti-rights groups” is also on the rise at the UN, the woman diplomat said.
The groups, typically funded by Gulf states, Russia and influential US religious movements, had become “increasingly vocal and coordinated,” she warned.
They were pushing talking points on traditional gender roles, anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ rights on countries, which then use them in UN debates, she added.
A Western diplomat, who asked not to be named, decried “a very strong offensive.”
There is a group of countries, he warned, “intent on felling a whole host of social rights gained over the past 30 years.”
