China threatens retaliation if Taiwan president Tsai and US House speaker McCarthy meet

China threatens retaliation if Taiwan president Tsai and US House speaker McCarthy meet
Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen is scheduled to transit through New York on March 30 before heading to Guatemala and Belize. (AFP)
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Updated 29 March 2023

China threatens retaliation if Taiwan president Tsai and US House speaker McCarthy meet

China threatens retaliation if Taiwan president Tsai and US House speaker McCarthy meet
  • Diplomatic pressure against Taiwan has ramped up recently, with Beijing poaching Taipei’s dwindling number of diplomatic allies

BEIJING: China has threatened “resolute countermeasures” over a planned meeting between Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen and US House speaker Kevin McCarthy during an upcoming visit in Los Angeles by the head of the self-governing island democracy.

Diplomatic pressure against Taiwan has ramped up recently, with Beijing poaching Taipei’s dwindling number of diplomatic allies while also sending military fighter jets flying toward the island on a near daily basis. Earlier this month, Honduras established diplomatic relations with China, leaving Taiwan with only 13 countries that recognize it as a sovereign state.

Tsai framed the trip as a chance to show Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values on the world stage, as she left Taiwan Wednesday afternoon to begin her 10-day tour of the Americas.

“I want to tell the whole world democratic Taiwan will resolutely safeguard the values of freedom and democracy, and will continue to be a force for good in the world, continuing a cycle of goodness, strengthening the resilience of democracy in the world,” she told reporters before she boarded the plane. “External pressure will not obstruct our resolution to engage with the world.”

Tsai is scheduled to transit through New York on March 30 before heading to Guatemala and Belize. On April 5, she’s expected to stop in Los Angeles on her way back to Taiwan, at which time the meeting with McCarthy is tentatively scheduled.

The US stops are the most closely watched of her trip.

Spokesperson for the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office Zhu Fenglian at a news conference Wednesday denounced Tsai’s stopover on her way to diplomatic allies in Central America and demanded that no US officials meet with her.

“We firmly oppose this and will take resolute countermeasures,” Zhu said. The US should “refrain from arranging Tsai Ing-wen’s transit visits and even contact with American officials, and take concrete actions to fulfill its solemn commitment not to support Taiwan independence,” she said.

Transit visits through the United States during broader international travel by the Taiwanese president have been routine over the years, senior US officials in Washington and Beijing have underscored to their Chinese counterparts.

In such unofficial visits in recent years, Tsai has met with members of Congress and the Taiwanese diaspora and has been welcomed by the chairperson of the American Institute in Taiwan, the US government-run nonprofit that carries out unofficial relations with Taiwan.

Tsai transited through the United States six times between 2016 and 2019 before slowing international travel with the coronavirus pandemic. In reaction to those visits, China lashed out rhetorically against the US and Taiwan.

However, the planned meeting with McCarthy has triggered fears of a heavy-handed Chinese reaction amid heightened frictions between Beijing and Washington over US support for Taiwan, trade and human rights issues.

Following a visit by then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in 2022, Beijing launched missiles over the area, deployed warships across the median line of the Taiwan Strait and carried out military exercises in a simulated blockade of the island. Beijing also suspended climate talks with the US and restricted military-to-military communication with the Pentagon.

McCarthy, R-Calif., has said he would meet with Tsai when she is in the US and has not ruled out the possibility of traveling to Taiwan in a show of support.

Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island’s decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step US leaders say they don’t support. Pelosi, D-Calif., was the highest-ranking elected American official to visit the island since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997. Under the “One China” policy, the US acknowledges Beijing’s view that it has sovereignty over Taiwan, but considers Taiwan’s status as unsettled. Taipei is an important partner for Washington in the Indo-Pacific.

US officials are increasingly worried about China attempting to make good on its long-stated goal of bringing Taiwan under its control by force if necessary. The sides split amid civil war in 1949 and Beijing sees US politicians conspiring with Tsai’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party to make the separation permanent and stymy China’s rise as a global power.

The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has governed US relations with the island, does not require Washington to step in militarily if China invades but makes it American policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent any unilateral change of status by Beijing.

Tensions spiked earlier this year when President Joe Biden ordered a Chinese spy balloon shot down after it traversed the continental United States. The Biden administration has also said US intelligence findings show that China is weighing sending arms to Russia for its ongoing war in Ukraine, but has no evidence Beijing has done so yet.

China, however, has provided Russia with an economic lifeline and political support, and President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met in Moscow earlier this month. That was the first face-to-face meeting between the allies since before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago.

The Biden administration postponed a planned visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken following the balloon controversy but has signaled it would like to get such a visit back on track.


EU makes fresh attempt to overcome yearslong crisis over migrants

EU makes fresh attempt to overcome yearslong crisis over migrants
Updated 11 sec ago

EU makes fresh attempt to overcome yearslong crisis over migrants

EU makes fresh attempt to overcome yearslong crisis over migrants
  • Europe’s asylum system collapsed eight years ago after well over a million people entered, most fleeing conflict in Syria
  • EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson says Thursday’s meeting is “extremely important” to resolve what has “been a marathon” issue for Europe
BRUSSELS: European Union interior ministers on Thursday made a fresh attempt to overcome one of the bloc’s most intractable political problems as they weighed new measures for sharing out responsibility for migrants entering Europe without authorization.
Europe’s asylum system collapsed eight years ago after well over a million people entered — most of them fleeing conflict in Syria — and overwhelmed reception capacities in Greece and Italy, in the process sparking one of the EU’s biggest political crises.
The 27 EU nations have bickered ever since over which countries should take responsibility for people arriving without authorization, and whether other members should be obliged to help them cope.
Arriving for the meeting in Luxembourg, the EU’s top migration official, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said it was an “extremely important day” to resolve what has “been a marathon” issue for Europe.
“Of this marathon, we have maybe 100 meters left. So, we are so close to actually find an agreement today,” Johansson said. “I expect the member states to be able to do the final extra meters to reach the agreement.”
“If we are not united, we are all losers,” she said.
Under the existing rules, countries where migrants first arrive must interview and screen them and process the applications of those who might want to apply for asylum. But Greece, Italy and Malta maintain that the burden of managing the numbers of people coming in is too onerous.
Later attempts to impose quota systems on countries to share out the migrants were challenged in court and finally abandoned. EU countries now seem to agree that the assistance they provide must be mandatory but can take the form of financial and other help rather than migration sharing schemes.
The EU’s presidency, currently held by Sweden, has proposed a system under which countries who do not want to take migrants in could pay money instead. Figures of around 20,000 euros ($21,400) per migrant have circulated in the runup to the meeting. It remains unclear if the idea will be accepted.
Diplomats said ahead of the meeting that an agreement is only likely if big member countries France, Germany and Italy back the plan. A deal requires the support of a “qualified majority” — roughly two thirds of the 27 members but crucially also making up about two thirds of the EU population.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the compromise on the table “is very difficult for us.” She said that “I am fighting for us to have a Europe of open borders,” and warned that “should we fail today ... that would be the wrong signal.”
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that he had come with compromise proposals and that plenty of work remains to be done on what is a “very difficult” issue.
“What we want to do is completely change the situation on migration,” Darmanin said.
His Spanish counterpart, Fernando Grande-Marlaska — whose country has struggled to deal with an influx of people trying to enter from North Africa through Spanish islands in the Atlantic — warned that “if we don’t reach that agreement, I think that all of us will be losers.”
Even if a political agreement is reached Thursday, the member countries must still negotiate a full deal with the European Parliament, which has a different view of solidarity — one that requires countries to draw up detailed “annual migrant support plans” in case of emergency.
Lawmakers have warned that this is a last chance to solve the conundrum before EU-wide elections in a year, when migration is likely once again to be a hot-button issue.
Should the EU fail, the project might have to be abandoned or completely overhauled as it’s taken up by the next European Commission — the bloc’s executive branch — and the new members of parliament after next June’s polls.
“If we miss this chance to make it right, I don’t think we will have another,” Spanish Socialist lawmaker Juan Fernando López Aguilar, a leader on migration policy, said in April. “The kind of a message would be: ‘Hey, listen, it’s not going to happen. Not this time. Ever.’
The long-festering dispute has led to the collapse of Europe’s asylum system. Unable to agree, the EU has tried to outsource its migrant challenge, making legally and morally questionable deals with countries like Turkiye or Libya, which many people transit through on their way to Europe.

UNICEF concerned by Taliban move to bar international groups from Afghan education sector

UNICEF concerned by Taliban move to bar international groups from Afghan education sector
Updated 7 min 47 sec ago

UNICEF concerned by Taliban move to bar international groups from Afghan education sector

UNICEF concerned by Taliban move to bar international groups from Afghan education sector
  • Latest restriction on NGOs in Afghanistan after ban imposed in December on Afghan female staff
  • Around 17,000 teachers, including 5,000 women, work in UNICEF’s education activities
ISLAMABAD: UNICEF said Thursday it is deeply concerned by reports of the Taliban pushing out international organizations from Afghanistan’s education sector and ordering them to hand over their activities to local nongovernmental groups.
It’s the latest restriction on NGOs operating in the country after the ban imposed in December on Afghan female staff, allegedly because they weren’t wearing the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, correctly and weren’t complying with gender segregation in the workplace. In April, the ban was extended to the UN
A WhatsApp voice note, purportedly from a senior education official in Kabul, says all international organizations have a one-month deadline to transfer their education work to local groups.
The Education Ministry was not immediately available to verify the voice note, but aid agency officials said they are aware of the message and are taking it seriously. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
The ban on Afghan female staff working at the UN was also relayed through a WhatsApp voice note, purportedly from a senior Taliban figure.
“As the lead agency for education in Afghanistan, UNICEF is deeply concerned by reports that over 500,000 children, including over 300,000 girls, could lose out on quality learning through community-based education within a month if international non-governmental organizations working in the field of education are no longer allowed to operate and if handovers to national NGOs are done without comprehensive assessment and capacity building,” the agency said in a statement.
“UNICEF is seeking to better understand the reported directive, and what it could mean for the nationwide program that provides learning opportunities for children in some of the most remote and rural areas of Afghanistan.”
Around 17,000 teachers, including 5,000 women, work in UNICEF’s education activities.
UNICEF is meeting the Education Ministry in Kabul for further information.
Aid sources said some provinces have ordered the immediate suspension of all foreign-led education activities after officials reportedly told Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada that foreigners are creating their own Education Ministry and not coordinating their work with the Taliban.
The latest voice note says the new measure affects all international organizations, even if they are Islamic, and that only ministry-approved Afghan NGOs that agree to ministry conditions can take on education work. The order also affects school construction.
In April, the Taliban closed education centers and institutes supported by NGOs in the country’s south until further notice. The centers were mostly for girls, who are banned from going to school beyond sixth grade.
The ministry did not provide an explanation for the closures at the time. But an education department spokesman in Kandahar said the decision was made in response to complaints.
Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover of August 2021 and the economic collapse that followed it.

Italy ‘must not be left alone’ on migration: Germany’s Scholz

Italy ‘must not be left alone’ on migration: Germany’s Scholz
Italy, Greece and the other Mediterranean countries are receiving a huge influx of migrants . (AFP)
Updated 7 min 34 sec ago

Italy ‘must not be left alone’ on migration: Germany’s Scholz

Italy ‘must not be left alone’ on migration: Germany’s Scholz
  • Italy, Greece and the other Mediterranean countries are receiving a huge influx of migrants
  • Scholz called for a “joint distribution of responsibility and competences between EU Member States”

ROME: Italy cannot be abandoned to deal alone with migrant arrivals, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday ahead of a meeting in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“Italy, Greece and the other Mediterranean countries are facing a huge challenge as the number of people arriving at their borders is increasing,” Scholz said in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“We cannot leave Italy and the other countries alone, we must adopt an approach of solidarity and responsibility,” the chancellor added.
Meloni, who heads a hard-right coalition, vowed in her election campaign last year to clamp down on migrant arrivals, but the number of people crossing to Italy by boat has risen significantly since the start of 2023.
Some 52,300 people landed in Italy between January 1 and June 7, compared to 21,200 during the same period in 2022, according to figures from the Interior Ministry.
Scholz called for a “joint distribution of responsibility and competences between EU Member States”, pointing out that Germany took in “more than a million” Ukrainian war refugees in 2022 as well as “230,000 refugees from other countries”.
Italy, which has long been on the frontline of migration from North Africa, says other European Union countries should do more to help, particularly by taking in some of the arrivals.
EU interior ministers were meeting Thursday in Luxembourg to attempt to reach an agreement on a long-stalled revision of the bloc’s rules to more equally share asylum seekers and migrants.
But diplomats have cautioned that the odds of a deal were still 50-50, with more countries adopting hard-line policies on the issue.


Blast tears through mosque at funeral of deputy governor in northern Afghanistan

Blast tears through mosque at funeral of deputy governor in northern Afghanistan
Updated 44 min 36 sec ago

Blast tears through mosque at funeral of deputy governor in northern Afghanistan

Blast tears through mosque at funeral of deputy governor in northern Afghanistan
  • The deputy governor of Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan province was killed by a car bomb on Tuesday
KABUL, June 8 : An explosion took place inside a mosque in northern Afghanistan on Thursday during the funeral of the provincial deputy governor who was killed in an attack this week, a provincial official said.
Mahzudeen Ahmadi, the head of the information office of northern Badakshan province, said the explosion had caused casualties but did not clarify how many. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a car bomb on Tuesday that killed the deputy governor. (Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar Writing by Charlotte Greenfield Editing by Peter Graff)

Philippines on alert as Mayon volcano spews ash

Philippines on alert as Mayon volcano spews ash
Updated 08 June 2023

Philippines on alert as Mayon volcano spews ash

Philippines on alert as Mayon volcano spews ash
  • Mayon is considered one of the most volatile of the country’s 24 active volcanoes
  • Five years ago, Mayon displaced tens of thousands of people after spewing millions of tons of ash, rocks and lava

MANILA: Philippine scientists said that a “hazardous eruption” of a volcano in the archipelago could be days or weeks away, and urged the evacuation of nearby residents from their homes.
Hundreds of families living around Mount Mayon in central Albay province are expected to be moved to safer areas after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alarm.
Mayon, a near-perfect cone located about 330 kilometers southeast of the capital Manila, is considered one of the most volatile of the country’s 24 active volcanoes.
The seismology agency said it observed three fast-moving avalanches of volcanic ash, rock and gases, known as pyroclastic density currents (PDCs), on Mayon’s slopes on Thursday.
There are “increased chances of lava flows and hazardous PDCs... and of potential explosive activity within weeks or even days,” the agency said, raising the alert level from two to three on a scale of zero to five.
“All necessary preparations are being done,” said Eugene Escobar, the Albay provincial disaster management agency’s officer-in-charge.
Rommel Negrete, an officer for the agency, said residents would be evacuated from Anoling village on the volcano’s slopes.
Meanwhile, Taal volcano, located about 50 kilometers south of Manila, has been releasing sulfur dioxide this week, blanketing surrounding areas in smog and prompting warnings for people to stay indoors.
Steam-rich plumes have been recorded rising two kilometers into the sky, the seismology agency said on Thursday. It has left the alert level at one.
Earthquakes and volcanic activity are not uncommon in the Philippines due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where tectonic plates collide deep below the Earth’s surface.
Five years ago, Mayon displaced tens of thousands of people after spewing millions of tons of ash, rocks and lava.
The most powerful explosion in recent decades was the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila, which killed more than 800 people.
It sent out an ash cloud that traveled thousands of kilometers in a matter of days and was blamed for damaging nearly two dozen aircraft.