VIENTIANE: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos challenged Chinese Premier Li Qiang over recent clashes in the South China Sea at regional summit talks on Thursday, as fears grow that conflict could erupt in the disputed waterway.
Li met the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at their gathering in Laos after a day of discussions dominated by the Myanmar civil war.
Recent months have seen a spate of violent clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in waters around disputed reefs and islands in the South China Sea.
Marcos raised the issue in the meeting with Li, arguing that “you cannot separate economic cooperation from political security,” a Southeast Asian diplomat who attended the meeting told reporters.
The Li summit was largely focused on trade, and came the same day the premier met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who said Beijing has agreed to lift sanctions on the lucrative lobster industry.
But Marcos told the meeting that ASEAN and China cannot pretend that all is well on the economic front when there are tensions on the political front, the Southeast Asian diplomat said.
Marcos also said that both sides should hasten talks on a code of conduct in the sea.
On Wednesday, ASEAN leaders repeated longstanding calls for restraint and respect for international law in the South China Sea, according to a draft summit chairman’s statement seen by AFP.
The growing frequency and intensity of clashes in the disputed waterway are fueling fears that the situation could escalate.
“The South China Sea is a live and immediate issue, with real risks of an accident spiralling into conflict,” Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong told his fellow leaders in Wednesday’s summit.
Beijing claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, a waterway of immense strategic importance through which trillions of dollars in trade transits every year.
But several ASEAN members — the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brunei — also have competing claims to various small islands and reefs.
The meeting with Li comes after a slew of violent clashes, particularly with the Philippines around the Spratly Islands.
Chinese coast guard and other vessels have rammed, water-cannoned and blocked Philippine government vessels.
And earlier this month, Vietnam issued an angry condemnation after some of its fishermen were attacked and robbed off the Paracel Islands by what it called “Chinese law enforcement forces.”
Beijing responded that the islands are its sovereign territory and its personnel were taking action to stop “illegal fishing” by the Vietnamese.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Thursday and is expected to raise the South China Sea when he holds talks with ASEAN leaders on Friday.
Daniel Kritenbrink, the top US diplomat for East Asia, accused China of taking “escalatory and irresponsible steps designed to coerce and pressure many in the South China Sea.”
China has for years sought to expand its presence in contested areas of the South China Sea, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.
It has built artificial islands armed with missile systems and runways for fighter jets, and deployed vessels that the Philippines says harass its ships and block its fishers.
ASEAN leaders also met Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea on Thursday, and will hold a three-way summit with them and Li.
Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
https://arab.news/zahm6
Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Li met the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at their gathering in Laos after a day of discussions dominated by the Myanmar civil war
Brazil’s Lula hopes ‘justice is served’ in Bolsonaro trial
- The country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to put former leader Jair Bolsonaro on trial
- That case could torpedo his hopes of making a Donald Trump-style political comeback
The country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to put Bolsonaro on trial in a case that could torpedo his hopes of making a Donald Trump-style political comeback.
It will be the first trial of an ex-leader accused of attempting to take power by force since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985 following two decades of military dictatorship.
Bolsonaro was not in court for the unanimous ruling by the five-judge panel, but in comments to reporters he slammed the allegations as “unfounded.”
“It seems they have something personal against me,” he said.
If convicted, the 70-year-old former army captain, who had nurtured hopes of standing in elections next year, risks a jail term of over 40 years, and political banishment.
Bolsonaro, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, is accused of leading a “criminal organization” that conspired to keep him in power regardless of the outcome of the 2022 election.
He lost to leftist rival Lula by a razor-thin margin.
Investigators say that after Bolsonaro’s defeat, but while he was still in office, the coup plotters planned to declare a state of emergency so that new elections could be held.
He is also accused of being aware of a plot to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes — a Bolsonaro foe and one of the judges in the current case.
“I only hope that justice is served,” Lula told reporters on Thursday during a state visit to Japan.
“It’s obvious the former president tried to stage a coup, he knows he tried to assassinate me, he knows he tried to assassinate the vice president and everyone knows what he did,” he said.
Moraes, who has called Bolsonaro a “dictator,” was the first judge to give his findings in Wednesday’s hearing.
“There are reasonable indications from the prosecution pointing to Bolsonaro as the leader of the criminal organization,” he said.
Analysts say it is unlikely Bolsonaro will be placed in preventive custody, and he will probably stand trial as a free man to avoid perceptions of election interference.
Bolsonaro will be the second former Brazilian president in under a decade to face a criminal trial.
In July 2017, then ex-president Lula was found guilty of corruption.
He spent a year and a half in prison but had his conviction annulled by the Supreme Court and went on to win back the top office.
Bolsonaro is charged with attempting a “coup d’etat,” the “attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law” and “armed criminal organization,” among other crimes.
The prosecution says the plot did not come to fruition due to a lack of support from the army high command.
Seven alleged conspirators will be tried alongside the ex-president, including former ministers and an ex-navy commander.
Bolsonaro insists he is the victim of a political plot to obstruct his return to power.
A supporter in Sao Paulo, 44-year-old financial supervisor Cleber Fonseca, said he thought this amounted to a “political persecution” as “so far, no evidence has been shown.”
Bolsonaro’s political future had already appeared in doubt before Wednesday’s ruling.
He has been disqualified from holding public office until 2030 for having sought to cast doubt on Brazil’s electronic voting system. He had been hoping to have the ban overturned in time to stand in next year’s election.
A conviction for plotting to subvert Brazil’s democracy would likely force the political right to find a new candidate.
Dubbed the “Trump of the tropics” after the US president, his political idol, Bolsonaro has been the target of multiple investigations since his turbulent years as leader of Latin America’s biggest economy.
The latest investigation yielded a dossier of nearly 900 pages.
It also mentions the disturbances of January 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro’s backers stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court demanding the military oust Lula a week after his inauguration.
Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and says he condemned the “violent acts” committed that day.
He has consistently compared his fate to that of his “friend” Trump, who returned to the White House this year despite his own legal troubles and after a similar storming of the US Capitol by his supporters in January 2021.
“I am not dead yet,” he told reporters Wednesday in Brasilia, insisting the candidate for the right in next year’s vote “will be Bolsonaro.”
Police investigating the alleged coup plot confiscated Bolsonaro’s passport last year.
US religious freedom panel urges sanctions against India’s external spy agency
- Panel says India is seeing rising minority abuse, India dismisses report as biased, politically motivated
- Commission urges Vietnam to be designated as country of particular concern, panel’s recommendations not binding
WASHINGTON: A US panel on religious freedom said on Tuesday the treatment of minorities in India is deteriorating and it recommended sanctions be imposed on India’s external spy agency over its alleged involvement in plots to assassinate Sikh separatists.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also said in its annual report that communist-ruled Vietnam had stepped up efforts to regulate and control religious affairs. It recommended Vietnam be designated a “country of particular concern.”
“In 2024, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate as attacks and discrimination against religious minorities continued to rise,” the commission said in the report released on Tuesday.
Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities” during last year’s election campaign, it said.
India dismissed the report on Wednesday, calling it part of a pattern of “biased and politically motivated assessments.”
“The USCIRF’s persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society reflect a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
Washington has sought to build close ties with both India and Vietnam given their shared concerns about China’s rising influence in Asia. Analysts say that as result Washington has overlooked human rights issues.
Since 2023, India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists in the US and Canada has emerged as a wrinkle in US-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, in a foiled plot. India labels Sikh separatists as security threats and has denied involvement.
Modi, in April last year, referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” who have “more children.”
US State Department reports on human rights and religious freedom have noted minority abuses in recent years. New Delhi calls them “deeply biased.”
Modi, who has been prime minister since 2014, denies discrimination and says his government’s policies like electrification drives and subsidy schemes help all communities.
Rights advocates point to rising hate speech, a citizenship law the UN called “fundamentally discriminatory,” anti-conversion legislation, opens new tab that critics say challenges freedom of belief, the revoking, opens new tab of Muslim majority Kashmir’s special status and the demolition of properties owned by Muslims.
The panel recommended the US government designate India as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom violations and impose targeted sanctions against Yadav and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy service.
The commission is a bipartisan US government advisory body that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations.
But it is unlikely the US government will sanction RAW as the panel’s recommendations are not binding.
On Vietnam, the panel said a new decree issued this month allowed Vietnamese authorities to further demand financial records from religious organizations and suspend religious activities for what the report said were vaguely worded “serious violations.”
As of December, the US panel’s Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List included over 80 prisoners whom the Vietnamese government punished for religious activities or religious freedom advocacy.
The Vietnamese embassy had no immediate comment.
South Korea faces uphill battle to contain massive wildfires as the death toll rises to 26
- Multiple wildfires have been raging across South Korea’s southeastern regions since last Friday
- The government has mobilized thousands of people, dozens of helicopters and other equipment to extinguish the blazes
CHEONGSONG, South Korea: Helicopters dumped water over a burning forest in South Korea on Thursday as authorities struggled to contain the country’s worst-ever wildfires, which have killed 26 people, forced at least 37,000 others to flee their homes and destroyed more than 300 structures.
Multiple wildfires have been raging across South Korea’s southeastern regions since last Friday. The government has mobilized thousands of people, dozens of helicopters and other equipment to extinguish the blazes, but officials said strong winds are hampering their efforts.
Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop said “a small amount” – less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) – of rain was expected in the area on Thursday, not enough to play a meaningful role in extinguishing the wildfires.
The fatalities include a pilot whose helicopter crashed during efforts to contain a fire and four firefighters and other workers who died after being trapped by fast-moving flames driven by strong winds.
Authorities haven’t disclosed details of the civilian dead, except that they are mostly in their 60s and 70s. They suspect human error caused several of the wildfires, including cases where people started fires while clearing overgrown grass from family tombs or with sparks during welding work.
The wildfires have burned 36,010 hectares (88,980 acres) of land in the southeast, the government’s disaster response center said in a report Thursday. Observers say that’s the worst figure of its kind in South Korea. The report said the blazes have also injured 30 people, eight of them seriously, destroyed 325 buildings and structures and forced more than 37,180 people to evacuate.
As of Thursday morning, the center said authorities were mobilizing more than 9,000 people and about 120 helicopters to battle the wildfires.
In Cheongsong, one of the fire-hit areas, thick plumes of smoke were bellowing from Juwang Mountain. Helicopters repeatedly hovered over the mountain, dropping water. The amount of smoke later appeared to have diminished.
At a Buddhist temple near the mountain, workers covered a stone pagoda and other structures with fire-resistant materials, while firefighters poured water on sites near the temple.
“Damages are snowballing,” acting President Han Duck-soo said in a televised address on Wednesday. “There are concerns that we’ll have wildfire damages that we’ve never experienced, so we have to concentrate all our capabilities on putting out the wildfires this week.”
The hardest-hit areas include Andong city and the neighboring counties of Uiseong and Sancheong, and the city of Ulsan.
On Wednesday night, strong winds and smoke-filled skies forced authorities in the southeastern city of Andong to order evacuations in two villages, including Puncheon, home to the Hahoe folk village – a UNESCO World Heritage Site founded around the 14th-15th century. Hikers were advised to leave the scenic Jiri Mountain as another fire spread closer.
Officials said earlier this week that firefighters had extinguished most of the flames from the largest wildfires in key areas, but wind and dry conditions allowed them to spread again.
Destroyed in the blazes were houses, factories, vehicles and some historic structures. In Uiseong, about 20 of the 30 structures at the Gounsa temple complex, which was said to be originally built in the 7th century, have been burned. Among them were two state-designated “treasures” – a pavilion-shaped building erected overlooking a stream in 1668, and a Joseon dynasty structure built in 1904 to mark the longevity of a king.
The Korea Forest Service has raised its wildfire warning to the highest level, requiring local governments to assign more workers to emergency response, tighten entry restrictions for forests and parks, and recommend that military units withhold live-fire exercises.
Things to know about the limited ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine brokered by the US
- Russia conditioned its part in opening Black Sea shipping on the US lifting sanctions, which Kyiv dismissed
- While the benefits to Russia are clear, Ukrainian officials questioned how the Black Sea deal announced Tuesday would profit them
KYIV, Ukraine: After three days of intense negotiations, the Trump administration, Ukraine and Russia agreed to a limited ceasefire in which the key details, including what was covered and how it will start, were disputed by the warring sides, indicating the road to a complete truce will be long and mired with contention.
The negotiations focused on easing Black Sea shipping and halting long-range strikes on energy infrastructure, relatively low-hanging fruit that both sides had experience in negotiating before the US brokered indirect talks.
While much is yet unknown, here is a breakdown of the key elements of the partial ceasefire and what is at stake in the coming weeks as talks continue.
The limited ceasefire began with a rocky start
Conflicting statements emerged immediately after the talks on Tuesday. Both sides differed on the start time of halting strikes on energy sites and accused the other of violating the ceasefire.
Russia also conditioned its part in opening Black Sea shipping on the US lifting sanctions, which Kyiv dismissed.
Russian officials have greeted the results of the talks with optimism, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described it as a good start, though some Ukrainian officials have expressed discontent.
“Something tells me this is more advantageous for the enemy,” Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak told the Interfax Ukraine news agency.
Stopping fighting around Black Sea shipping routes
The US said Tuesday it had reached a tentative agreement with Ukraine and Russia to stop fighting and ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea in separate talks with the two sides.
Details of the deal were not released, including how or when it was to be implemented and monitored, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the UN and Turkiye was halted by Russia one year later, in July 2023.
Russia said the Black Sea deal announced Tuesday could only be implemented after sanctions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial institutions involved in food and fertilizer trade were lifted and their access to the SWIFT system of international payments was ensured.
Zelensky said Moscow was lying about the terms of the agreement, despite the US later saying it would help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports.
It’s unclear how the Black Sea deal would benefit Ukraine
While the benefits to Russia are clear, Ukrainian officials questioned how the Black Sea deal announced Tuesday would profit them. It isn’t clear, for instance, if it would also halt attacks on Ukrainian ports.
“Personally, I don’t think this will significantly boost our export capacity. Frankly speaking, thanks to Ukrainian naval drones, we have considerably expanded our capabilities in the Black Sea,” Ukrainian lawmaker Zhelezniak said.
That’s because Ukraine took matters into its own hands after Russia backed out in 2023 of the earlier deal to ensure safe Black Sea shipping. Ukraine carved out a trade route requiring ships to sail near the coast lines of Bulgaria and Romania, guided by the Ukrainian Navy. At the same time, Ukrainian forces launched a campaign of sea drone attacks to further push back Russia’s fleet.
“Unfortunately,” Zhelezniak said, the new deal “worsens our position in terms of influence in the Black Sea.”
Trading blame over halting of energy strikes
The ceasefire also included a halt to long-range strikes on energy infrastructure, but sharp differences emerged immediately after Tuesday’s announcement over when the halt to fighting would begin.
Moscow said the ceasefire had started on March 18 and accused Kyiv of violating the terms by striking energy sites inside Russia, a charge that Ukraine’s General Staff denied on Wednesday.
The Kremlin later posted a list of the types of facilities covered by the limited ceasefire.
It included refineries, oil and gas pipelines, oil storage facilities, including pump stations, power-generating and transmitting infrastructure, as well as power plants, substations, transformers, distribution switchgear, nuclear power plants and hydropower plant dams.
Canadian Prime Minister Carney calls Trump’s auto tariffs a ‘direct attack’ on his country
- Autos are Canada’s second largest export, and Carney noted it employs 125,000 Canadians directly and almost another 500,000 in related industries
- The tax hike on auto imports starting in April means automakers could face higher costs and lower sales
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday that US President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs are a “direct attack” on his country and that the trade war is hurting Americans, noting that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low.
Trump said earlier Wednesday that he was placing 25 percent tariffs on auto imports and, to underscore his intention, he stated “This is permanent.”
“This is a very direct attack,” Carney responded. “We will defend our workers. We will defend our companies. We will defend our country.”
Carney said he needs to see the details of Trump’s executive order before taking retaliatory measures. He called it unjustified and said he will leave the election campaign to go to Ottawa on Thursday to chair his special Cabinet committee on US relations.
Carney earlier announced a CA$2 billion ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump’s tariffs.
Autos are Canada’s second largest export, and Carney noted it employs 125,000 Canadians directly and almost another 500,000 in related industries.
“Canada will be there for auto workers,” he said.
Trump previously granted a one-month exemption on his stiff new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada for US automakers.
The president has plunged the US into a global trade war — all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty.
The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its USconsumer confidence index fell 7.2 points in March to 92.9, the fourth straight monthly decline and its lowest reading since January of 2021.
“His trade war is hurting American consumers and workers and it will hurt more. I see that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low,” Carney said earlier while campaigning in Windsor, Ontario ahead of Canada’s April 28 election.
The tax hike on auto imports starting in April means automakers could face higher costs and lower sales.
Trump previously 25 percent tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products — as well as all of America’s trading partners — on April 2.
“He wants to break us so America can own us,” Carney said. “And it will never ever happen because we just don’t look out for ourselves we look out for each other.”
Carney, former two-time central banker, made the earlier comments while campaigning against the backdrop of the Ambassador Bridge, which is considered the busiest US-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25 percent of all trade between the two countries. It plays an especially important role in auto manufacturing.
Carney said the bridge carries $140 billion Canadian dollars ($98 billion) in goods every year and CA$400 million ($281 million) per day.
“Now those numbers and the jobs and the paychecks that depend on that are in question,” Carney said. “The relationship between Canada and the United States has changed. We did not change it.”
In the auto sector, parts can go back and forth across the Canada-US border several times before being fully assembled in Ontario or Michigan.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, whose province has the bulk of Canada’s auto industry, Ford said auto plants on both sides the border will shut simultaneously if the tariffs go ahead.
“President is calling it Liberation Day. I call it Termination Day for American workers. I know President Trump likes tell people ‘Your fired!” I didn’t think he meant US auto workers when he said it,” Ford said.
Trump has declared a trade war on his northern neighbor and continues to call for Canada to become the 51st state, a position that has infuriated Canadians.
Canadians booed Trump repeatedly at a Carney election rally in Kitchener, Ontario.
The new prime minister, sworn in March 14, still hasn’t had a phone call with Trump. It is unusual for a US president and Canadian prime minister to go so long without talking after a new leader takes office.
“It would be appropriate that the president and I speak given the action that he has taken. I’m sure that will happen soon,” Carney said.
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said the tariffs will damage American auto workers just as they will damage Canadian auto workers.
“The message to President Trump should be to knock it off,” Poilievre said. “He’s changed his mind before. He’s done this twice, puts them on, takes them off. We can suspect that may well happen again.”
