US, Canada warships pass through Taiwan Strait

US, Canada warships pass through Taiwan Strait
US and a Canadian warship have passed through waters separating Taiwan and China, a week after Beijing held large-scale military drills in the sensitive passage. (AFP)
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Updated 21 October 2024
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US, Canada warships pass through Taiwan Strait

US, Canada warships pass through Taiwan Strait
  • US and its allies regularly cross through the 180-kilometer (112-mile) Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status

TAIPEI: A US and a Canadian warship have passed through waters separating Taiwan and China, a week after Beijing held large-scale military drills in the sensitive passage.
The United States and its allies regularly cross through the 180-kilometer (112-mile) Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering Beijing.
China’s Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but it claims the island as part of its territory and has said it will not renounce the use of force to bring it under its control.
“The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76) and Royal Canadian Navy Halifax-class frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on Oct. 20,” the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement.
“Higgins and Vancouver’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the United States’ and Canada’s commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle.”
China said Monday that the US and Canadian actions had disrupted “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
“The PLA Eastern Theater Command organized naval and air forces to monitor and remain on alert throughout the transit, handling the situation according to laws and regulations,” military spokesperson Captain Li Xi said in a statement.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said Monday the US and Canadian ships traveled “from south to north” of the strait and the situation in the surrounding sea and airspace “remained normal.”
Beijing sent a record number of military aircraft as well as warships and coast guard vessels to encircle Taiwan on October 14 in the fourth round of major drills in just over two years.
Taiwan deployed “appropriate forces” and put outlying islands on heightened alert in response to the exercises, which Beijing said were a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces.”
Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taipei in recent years, deploying on a near-daily basis warplanes and other military aircraft as well as ships around the island.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said Monday it had detected 14 Chinese military aircraft and 12 navy vessels in the 24 hours to 6:00 am.


Trump says Zelensky wants ‘deal’ to stop Ukraine war

Trump says Zelensky wants ‘deal’ to stop Ukraine war
Updated 32 sec ago
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Trump says Zelensky wants ‘deal’ to stop Ukraine war

Trump says Zelensky wants ‘deal’ to stop Ukraine war
  • French President Emmanuel Macron hosted three-way talks with Zelensky and Trump at the Elysee Palace on Saturday
Paris: US president-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky was keen for a deal to end his country’s war with Russia, after the pair met in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted three-way talks with Zelensky and Trump at the Elysee Palace on Saturday, almost three years into Moscow’s invasion and ahead of Trump taking office in January.
“Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse.”
Zelensky’s meeting with Trump was his first face-to-face encounter with the tycoon-turned-politician since his November election victory.

US President Joe Biden monitoring ‘extraordinary events’ in Syria: White House

US President Joe Biden monitoring ‘extraordinary events’ in Syria: White House
Updated 30 min 47 sec ago
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US President Joe Biden monitoring ‘extraordinary events’ in Syria: White House

US President Joe Biden monitoring ‘extraordinary events’ in Syria: White House
  • President-elect Donald Trump declares, in a social media post, ‘THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT’

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden is keeping a close eye on “extraordinary events” transpiring in Syria, the White House said late Saturday, after a war monitor said President Bashar Assad fled the country and rebels declared they have taken the capital.

“President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement on social media.

President-elect Donald Trump said that Assad had “fled his country” after losing the backing of Russia.

“Assad is gone,” he said on his Truth Social platform Sunday. “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer.”  

Earlier, Trump said Saturday that the US military should stay out of the escalating conflict in Syria as a shock opposition offensive closes in on the capital, declaring in a social media post, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”

With world leaders watching the rapid militant advance against Syria’s Russian- and Iranian-backed president, Bashar Assad, Biden’s national security adviser separately stressed that the Biden administration had no intention of intervening.

“The United States is not going to ... militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war,” Jake Sullivan told an audience in California.

He said the US would keep acting as necessary to keep the Daesh — a violently anti-Western extremist group not known to be involved in the offensive but with sleeper cells in Syria’s deserts — from exploiting openings presented by the fighting.

Insurgents’ stunning march across Syria sped faster Saturday, reaching the gates of Damascus and government forces abandoning the central city of Homs. The government was forced to deny rumors that Assad had fled the country.

Trump’s comments on the dramatic militant push were his first since Syrian militants launched their advance late last month. They came while he was in Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral.

In his post, Trump said Assad did not deserve US support to stay in power.

Assad’s government has been propped up by the Russian and Iranian military, along with Hezbollah and other Iranian-allied militias, in a now 13-year-old war against opposition groups seeking his overthrow. The war, which began as a mostly peaceful uprising in 2011 against the Assad family’s rule, has killed a half-million people, fractured Syria and drawn in a more than a half-dozen foreign militaries and militias.

The insurgents are led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which the US has designated as a terrorist group and says has links to Al-Qaeda, although the group has since broken ties with Al-Qaeda.

The insurgents have met little resistance so far from the Syrian army, the Russian and Iranian militaries or allied militias in the country.

The Biden administration says Syrian opposition forces’ capture of government-held cities demonstrates just how diminished those countries are by wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon.

“Assad’s backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah — have all been weakened and distracted,” Sullivan said Saturday at an annual gathering of national security officials, defense companies and lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

“None of them are prepared to provide the kind of support to Assad that they provided in the past,” he later added.

The US has about 900 troops in Syria, including US forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Daesh group.

Gen. Bryan Fenton, head of US Special Operations Command, said he would not want to speculate on how the upheaval in Syria would affect the US military’s footprint in the country. “It’s still too early to tell,” he said.

What would not change is the focus on disrupting Daesh operations in Syria and protecting US troops, Fenton said during a panel at the Reagan event.


White House on guard against Daesh resurgence in Syria

White House on guard against Daesh resurgence in Syria
Updated 08 December 2024
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White House on guard against Daesh resurgence in Syria

White House on guard against Daesh resurgence in Syria
  • The main priority is to ensure “that the fighting in Syria not lead to a resurgence of Daesh,” Sullivan said
  • Trump, who visited Paris on Saturday, warned against US involvement in Syria, saying the country is “a mess” and “not our friend”

LOS ANGELES, United States: The White House said Saturday that US priorities in Syria now are to ensure the country’s conflict does not encourage a resurgence of the Daesh militant group or lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
Spillover “is a concern,” said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, with particular worry about the so-called Daesh, also known as Daesh.
In previous phases of Syria’s long-running civil war, “at its worst, we saw the explosion of Daesh onto the scene,” he said at a conference in Simi Valley, California run by the Reagan National Defense Forum.
The main priority is to ensure “that the fighting in Syria not lead to a resurgence of Daesh,” Sullivan said. “We are going to take steps ourselves, directly and working with the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurds, to ensure that does not happen.”
Militant forces are in the midst of a lightning offensive and say they have begun to encircle Syria’s capital Damascus.
Sullivan said the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden is working to ensure allies Israel, Jordan, Iraq and others in the region, “who would potentially face spillover effects from Syria, are strong and secure, and we’re in touch with them every day.”
Washington is also alert to stopping a “humanitarian catastrophe, both in terms of civilians, access to life-saving necessities, and in terms of the protection of religious and ethnic minorities in Syria,” Sullivan said.
“Of course, an event like this happens and Daesh immediately looks to take advantage. We have seen reports of Daesh trying... to reconstitute to a certain extent.”
So the United States will seek to “contain the potential violence and instability,” protect allies and ensure that Daesh not “get new oxygen out of this” that could lead them to threaten US or allies’ interests, Sullivan added.
Sullivan’s remarks come as Washington prepares for a transition of power next month back to former president Donald Trump, who defeated Biden in November’s election.
Trump, who visited Paris on Saturday, warned against US involvement in Syria, saying the country is “a mess” and “not our friend.”
“THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Sullivan, addressing Trump’s remarks, agreed, saying “the United States is not going to... militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war.”
 

 


South Korea’s former defense minister arrested after martial law fiasco

South Korea’s former defense minister arrested after martial law fiasco
Updated 08 December 2024
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South Korea’s former defense minister arrested after martial law fiasco

South Korea’s former defense minister arrested after martial law fiasco
  • Late Saturday Yoon survived an impeachment motion in parliament despite huge street protests outside

SEOUL: South Korea’s former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun has been arrested over his role in a martial law declaration that plunged the country into turmoil, local media reported Sunday.
Kim had already resigned after the brief imposition of martial law late Tuesday by President Yoon Suk Yeol, which saw soldiers and helicopters sent to parliament.
Yoon was forced to rescind the order hours later and parliament voted down his decree.
Kim had already been slapped with a travel ban.
Police have launched an investigation into Yoon and others for alleged insurrection.
The prosecutors’ office was not immediately available for comment on Kim’s arrest, reported by the Yonhap news agency and other local media outlets Sunday morning.
Late Saturday Yoon survived an impeachment motion in parliament despite huge street protests outside.
Opposition parties proposed the impeachment motion, which needed 200 votes in the 300-member parliament to pass, but a near-total boycott by Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) doomed it to failure.
The PPP said after the vote that it had blocked the impeachment to avoid “severe division and chaos,” adding that it would “resolve this crisis in a more orderly and responsible manner.”
Party leader Han Dong-hoon said that the party had “effectively obtained” Yoon’s promise to step down, and said until this happened he would “be effectively excluded from his duties,” leaving the prime minister and party to manage state affairs.
The impeachment outcome disappointed the huge crowds — numbering 150,000 according to police, one million according to organizers — demonstrating outside parliament for Yoon’s ouster.
 

 


Clintons urge voters agitated by today’s politics to remain involved in public service

Clintons urge voters agitated by today’s politics to remain involved in public service
Updated 08 December 2024
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Clintons urge voters agitated by today’s politics to remain involved in public service

Clintons urge voters agitated by today’s politics to remain involved in public service
  • The Clintons spoke during a panel discussion with journalist Laura Ling, who the former president helped free in 2009 when she was detained in North Korea with another journalist

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas: Voters dejected by the presidential election results need to find a way to give back and remain involved, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday as they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Clinton presidential library.
The former president urged audience members in a packed theater to remain engaged and find ways to communicate with those they disagree with despite a divisive political time. The two spoke about a month after former President Donald Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
“We’re just passing through, and we all need to just calm down and do something that builds people up instead of tears them down,” Bill Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who was defeated by Trump in the 2016 election, said she understands the next couple of years are going to be challenging for voters who don’t agree with the decisions being made.
“In addition to staying involved and staying aware, it’s important to find something that makes you feel good about the day because if you’re in a constant state of agitation about our political situation, it is really going to shorten your life,” she said.
The Clintons spoke during a panel discussion with journalist Laura Ling, who the former president helped free in 2009 when she was detained in North Korea with another journalist. The event was held as part of a weekend of activities marking the 20th anniversary of the Clinton Presidential Library’s opening in Little Rock. The library is preparing to undergo an update of its exhibits and an expansion that will include Hillary Clinton’s personal archives.
Hillary Clinton said part of the goal is to modernize the facility and expand it to make it a more open, inviting place for people for convene and make connections.
When asked about advice he would give for people disappointed by the election results, Bill Clinton said people need to continue working toward bringing people together and improving others’ lives.
“If that’s the way you keep score, then you ought to be trying to run up the score,” he said. “Not lamenting the fact that somebody else is winning a different game because they keep score a different way.”
“And in addition, figure out what we can do to win again,” Hillary Clinton added, eliciting cheers.
The program featured a panel discussion with cast members of the hit NBC show “The West Wing” and former Clinton White House staffers.
The weekend amounted to a reunion of former Clinton White House staffers, supporters and close friends, including former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and adviser James Carville.
McAuliffe said he and Carville ate Friday at Doe’s Eat Place, a downtown restaurant that was popular with Clinton aides and reporters during Clinton’s 1992 White House run. He said he viewed the library and its planned expansion as important for the future.
“This is not only about the past, but it’s more importantly about the future,” McAuliffe said. “We just went through a very tough election, and people are all saying we’ve got to get back to the Clinton model.”