Biden promises to address areas of concern, Xi greets ‘old friend’ as US-China talks open

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks virtually with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from the White House in Washington, U.S. November 15, 2021. (REUTERS)
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Updated 16 November 2021
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Biden promises to address areas of concern, Xi greets ‘old friend’ as US-China talks open

  • Xi told Biden the two sides need to improve communication
  • Biden would have preferred to meet Xi in person, but the Chinese leader has not left his country since before the start of the coronavirus pandemic

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping stressed their responsibility to the rest of the world to avoid conflict as the heads of the two top global economies opened their closely watched talks on Monday.
Calling Biden an “old friend,” Xi said the two sides must increase communication and cooperation to solve the many challenges they face. Biden promised to address areas of concern, including human rights and other issues in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Maybe I should start more formally, although you and I have never been that formal with one another,” Biden said from a conference table in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, smiling broadly as the Chinese president appeared on a large screen in the room. “You and I have talked about this — all countries have to play by the same rules of the road.”
The US-China bilateral relationship “seems to me to have a profound impact not only in our countries, but quite frankly the rest of the world,” Biden said.
Xi, speaking through an interpreter, said: “As the world’s two largest economies and the permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the United States need to increase communication and cooperation.”
The talks, which were initiated by Biden and began shortly after 7:45 p.m. on Monday (0045 GMT Tuesday), were intended to make the relationship less acrimonious https://www.reuters.com/world/china/top-pain-points-between-us-china-xi-....
The early moments of the two leaders’ dialogue was observed by a small group of reporters before the heads of state and top aides spoke privately in a meeting US officials expected to stretch for several hours.
The United States and China disagree on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, trade and competition rules, Beijing’s expanding nuclear arsenal and its stepped-up pressure on Taiwan, among other issues.
US officials have downplayed expectations for any concrete agreements between both sides, including on trade, where China is lagging in a commitment to buy $200 billion more in US goods and services. Not on Biden’s agenda are US tariffs on Chinese goods that Beijing and business groups hope to be scaled back.
The White House has declined to answer questions on whether the United States will send officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. Activists and US lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to boycott the Games.
“Both sides are trying to establish the call’s goal as creating stability in the relationship, both through their collegial language and overall framing of the conversation and the importance of the relationship,” said Scott Kennedy, China expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The question is whether they’ll reach agreement on anything, or at least, agree to disagree and avoid escalatory steps.”

COMPETING VISIONS
Xi, looking ahead to the Olympics and a Communist Party congress next year where he is expected to secure an unprecedented third term, is also keen to avoid heightened tensions with the United States.
But he is expected to push back over Washington’s efforts to carve out more space for Taiwan in the international system. China claims the self-ruled island as its own. Beijing has vowed to bring the island back under mainland control, by force if necessary.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular briefing on Monday: “It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway, strengthen dialogue and cooperation, effectively manage differences, properly handle sensitive issues, and explore ways of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.”
Xi and Biden last week outlined competing visions, with Biden stressing the US commitment to a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” which Washington says faces increasing Chinese “coercion,” while Xi warned against a return to Cold War tensions.
A tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily on Monday called Taiwan “the ultimate red line of China.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that Washington and its allies would take unspecified “action” if China were to use force to alter the Taiwan status quo, further muddying the long-held US policy of “strategic ambiguity” as to whether the United States would respond militarily.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Blinken in a call on Saturday against sending the wrong signals Biden and China’s Xi will hold virtual meeting to Taiwan pro-independence forces.
Taiwan is not the only flashpoint. Democrats in the US Congress want Biden to make nuclear risk reduction measures with China a top priority, after the Pentagon reported that Beijing was significantly expanding its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Beijing argues its arsenal is dwarfed by those of the United States and Russia, and says it is ready for dialogue if Washington reduces its nuclear stockpile to China’s level.
“This is President Biden’s opportunity to show steel, show strength on America’s side, to make it clear that we are going to stand by our allies and that we will not endorse or condone the malign behavior that China has engaged in,” said Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, who served as ambassador to Japan under former President Donald Trump.


Three men to go on trial next year over fires linked to UK PM Starmer

Updated 7 sec ago
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Three men to go on trial next year over fires linked to UK PM Starmer

LONDON: Three men all linked to Ukraine will go on trial next April accused of involvement in a series of arson attacks on houses and a vehicle in London connected to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a London court heard on Friday.
Over five days last month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader. Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, is charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life. Fellow Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 34, and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, are accused of conspiracy to commit arson.
Lavrynovych and Carpiuc appeared by video-link at London’s Old Bailey court on Friday where Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb set the trial for April 27 next year. Pochynok was not present for the hearing.
In earlier hearings, prosecutors said the motive for the arsons was unclear.
The men will enter formal pleas at a hearing in October, but the lawyers for Carpiuc and Pochynok said their clients denied involvement.
Counter-terrorism police have led the investigation but none of the men have been charged with offenses under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act, which was brought in to target hostile state activity.
Police said the first fire involved a Toyota RAV4 car that Starmer used to own and sold to a neighbor. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer previously resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns.
Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”
Earlier this week a fourth man, aged 48, who had been arrested at London Stansted Airport in connection with the arson, was released on police bail.

Canada and China agree to ‘regularize communications’

Updated 40 min 19 sec ago
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Canada and China agree to ‘regularize communications’

MONTREAL: Canada and China have agreed to regularize channels of communication, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday, after a period of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“Mark Carney, spoke with the Premier of China, Li Qiang. The leaders exchanged views on bilateral relations, including the importance of engagement, and agreed to regularize channels of communication between Canada and China,” it said in a statement.
They also discussed trade and “committed their governments to working together to address the fentanyl crisis.”
Ties between Beijing and Ottawa have been tense in recent years following the arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in 2018.
Li told Carney that “in recent years, China-Canada relations have faced unnecessary disturbances and encountered serious difficulties,” Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
He added that China is “willing to work with Canada to jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade” in the face of growing unilateralism and protectionism, Xinhua reported, noting that the call came at Carney’s request.
Both countries have been targeted by US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and have condemned them.


UN rights chief demands US withdraw sanctions on ICC judges

Updated 29 min 32 sec ago
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UN rights chief demands US withdraw sanctions on ICC judges

  • Volker Turk: ‘I call for the prompt reconsideration and withdrawal of these latest measures’

GENEVA: The United Nations human rights chief on Friday demanded the United States lift sanctions it imposed on four International Criminal Court judges, saying they were contrary to the rule of law.

“I am profoundly disturbed by the decision of the Government of the United States of America to sanction judges of the International Criminal Court,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

“I call for the prompt reconsideration and withdrawal of these latest measures,” he said.

“Attacks against judges for performance of their judicial functions, at national or international levels, run directly counter to respect for the rule of law and the equal protection of the law – values for which the US has long stood.

“Such attacks are deeply corrosive of good governance and the due administration of justice,” he said.

The US on Thursday imposed sanctions on four ICC judges.

Two of the targeted judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin, took part in proceedings that led to an arrest warrant issued last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The two other judges, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, were part of the court proceedings that led to the authorization of an investigation into allegations that US forces committed war crimes during the war in Afghanistan.


Lufthansa to restart Tel Aviv flights on June 23

Updated 06 June 2025
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Lufthansa to restart Tel Aviv flights on June 23

  • Lufthansa suspended its flights to Israel’s main airport following a May 4 rocket attack launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and extended the suspension several times since

BERLIN: Germany’s Lufthansa airline group said Friday it would restart flights to and from Tel Aviv on June 23, having suspended them early last month amid the ongoing regional conflict.

The group said in a statement that the decision would affect Lufthansa, Austrian, SWISS, Brussels Airlines Eurowings, ITA and Lufthansa Cargo but that “for operational reasons,” the individual airlines would only resume services “gradually.”

“The decision is based on an extensive security analysis and in coordination with the relevant authorities,” it added.

The group suspended its flights to Israel’s main airport following a May 4 rocket attack launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and extended the suspension several times since.

The missile landed near a car park at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and injured six people, the first time a missile had penetrated the airport perimeter.

The Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza began in October 2023 with Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month Gaza ceasefire that ended in March, but began again after Israel resumed its military campaign in the territory.

The Israeli army has reported several such launches in recent days, with most of the projectiles being intercepted.


Japan allows longer nuclear plant lifespans

Updated 06 June 2025
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Japan allows longer nuclear plant lifespans

  • The world’s fourth-largest economy is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050 but remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels
  • Many of the country’s nuclear reactors were taken offline after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown

TOKYO: A law allowing nuclear reactors to operate beyond 60 years took effect in Japan on Friday, as the government turns back to atomic energy 14 years after the Fukushima catastrophe.

The world’s fourth-largest economy is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050 but remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels – partly because many nuclear reactors were taken offline after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown.

The government now plans to increase its reliance on nuclear power, in part to help meet growing energy demand from artificial intelligence and microchip factories.

The 60-year limit was brought in after the 2011 disaster, which was triggered by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan.

Under the amended law, nuclear plants’ operating period may be extended beyond 60 years – in a system similar to extra time in football games – to compensate for stoppages caused by “unforeseeable circumstances,” the government says.

This means, for example, that one reactor in central Japan’s Fukui region, suspended for 12 years after the Fukushima crisis, will now be able to operate up until 2047 – 72 years after its debut, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

But operators require approval from Japan’s nuclear safety watchdog for the exemption. The law also includes measures intended to strengthen safety checks at aging reactors.

The legal revision is also aimed at helping Japan better cope with power crunches, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked energy market turmoil.

Japan’s Strategic Energy Plan had previously vowed to “reduce reliance on nuclear power as much as possible.”

But this pledge was dropped from the latest version approved in February, which includes an intention to make renewables the country’s top power source by 2040.

Under the plan, nuclear power will account for around 20 percent of Japan’s energy supply by 2040 – up from 5.6 percent in 2022.

Also in February, Japan pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent in the next decade from 2013 levels, a target decried by campaigners as far short of what was needed under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.

Japan is the world’s fifth largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide after China, the United States, India and Russia.