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September
As U.N. mulls Myanmar action, Malaysia pushes ASEAN to review peace plan
Written by Nur Yasmin
Southeast Asian nations must decide if they are going to push ahead with a so-far failed five-point peace plan for Myanmar or "decide what's next" before their leaders meet in November, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said on Monday.
Myanmar has been in crisis since the army ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in February last year, detaining her and other officials and launching a bloody crackdown on protests and dissent.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, has been leading peace efforts.
"Between now and the ASEAN summit in November ASEAN must seriously review if the five-point consensus is still relevant, and if it should be replaced with something better," Abdullah said. "By the time we meet in November, we must ask that hard question and we must have the answer during that time."
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders for the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Abdullah also said he hoped the 15-member U.N. Security Council would not fail the people of Myanmar.
The U.N. Security Council is considering a British-drafted resolution - circulated on Friday - that would demand an end to all violence in Myanmar, urges an immediate end to the transfer of arms to Myanmar and threatens U.N. sanctions.
It would also called on the Myanmar junta to release all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, implement the ASEAN peace plan and allow a democratic transition.
However, the Security Council has long been split on Myanmar with diplomats saying China and Russia would likely shield the country from any strong action and negotiations on the British draft resolution are likely to take some time.
To be adopted, a Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain. (Reuters)
September
Myanmar military threatens jail for online 'likes' for opponents
Written by Nur Yasmin
Myanmar's ruling junta on Tuesday warned the public against showing moral support for a "terrorist" resistance movement, threatening jail terms of up to 10 years just for liking or sharing its content on social media.
Myanmar has been plagued by violence since the military seized power early last year, with clashes on multiple fronts between junta forces and militias allied with a shadow government and pro-democracy groups.
The junta's information minister and spokesperson Zaw Min Tin said "terrorists" were seeking funds to kill innocent people in their campaign to destabilise the country, so support for them would be dealt with severely.
He said social media endorsements of the National Unity Government (NUG) or its armed affiliates, the People's Defence Forces (PDF), could lead to prison terms of three to 10 years, and worse for those providing even small amounts of money.
"If you donate money or support terrorists and their acts, you will face harsher punishments. We're doing this to protect innocent civilians," he told a televised news briefing, which included a presentation detailing the penalties for aiding resistance groups.
Since the coup, opponents of the military have used social media platforms to try to communicate their message more widely, with citizen journalists often posting images of protests and alleged atrocities by the army.
The United Nations has accused the junta of mass killings and crimes against humanity in its crackdown on opponents since its coup last year. Thousands have been arrested and many imprisoned during secret trials.
It recently executed four democracy activists, accusing them of facilitating attacks by militia groups.
International calls have grown for deeper engagement with NUG and for it to be included in any peace process in Myanmar, which the junta refuses to allow, citing the need to restore order.
The U.N. Human Rights office in a report last week called for the military to be isolated further and said it had failed to govern the country in a meaningful and sustainable way, or resolve a "profound financial sector crisis". (Reuters)
September
Pacific islands a key U.S. military buffer to China's ambitions, report says
Written by Nur Yasmin
China sees the Pacific islands as an area of significant strategic interest and the United States should strengthen its commitment to north Pacific island states, now in talks to renew a defence compact, to maintain a vital military buffer, a report released Tuesday by a U.S. Congress-funded think tank said.
China had made progress in the Pacific on geostrategic goals it has been unable to achieve elsewhere, said the report for the United States Institute for Peace, whose co-authors include former senior military officials.
This was cause for concern but not alarm, the report added, saying the U.S. should bolster support for island states in the north Pacific where it had the strongest historical ties.
The report comes ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and a dozen Pacific island leaders next week, as Washington seeks to compete for influence with Beijing.
The Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Palau are sovereign nations known as Freely Associated States (FAS), after signing compacts in the late 1980s that give the U.S. defence responsibility and the right to military bases.
The compacts, which expire in 2023 and 2024, are being renegotiated, and the report warned that these states could look to China for funding if negotiations fail.
"The vast FAS territorial seas, which span much of the northern Pacific, are an important strategic buffer between U.S. defense assets in Guam and Hawaii and East Asian littoral waters," said the report, whose authors include Philip Davidson, a former commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and David Stilwell, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state.
If Beijing were to succeed in bringing one of these states into its sphere, "it would imperil U.S. military capabilities in a strategically vital geographic command area and open the door to a broader reordering of regional architecture with implications well beyond the Pacific region," it said.
A U.S. missile defence test range in the Marshall Islands is critical to U.S. space and missile-defense capabilities, it added.
Across the Pacific region, China is seeking to enhance its access to ports and Exclusive Economic Zones, frustrate efforts by the United States to project military power, increase intelligence gathering and surveillance capabilities, reduce Taiwan's diplomatic partners, and promote the Chinese model of political and economic development, the report said.
"China views the Pacific Islands as an area of significant strategic interest," it said.
Washington needs to provide an alternative to Chinese economic assistance to "counter Beijing's efforts to capitalize on regional perceptions of neglect and abandonment".
More resources were needed to monitor China's increasing activity in the FAS, where Chinese research vessels with "military utility" have been spotted without permission.
The Federated States of Micronesia recently agreed to develop new U.S. military facilities, and Palau requested the U.S. build airstrips, ports and bases, which "Washington should consider seriously to the extent that it aligns with defense needs," the report said. (Reuters)
September
Ukraine's Zelenskiy says he discussed 'security issues' with Turkey's Erdogan
Written by Nur Yasmin
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke on the telephone with his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss "current security issues", the Ukrainian leader posted on Twitter without elaborating. (Reuters)
September
Russian-installed officials in Kherson say they will hold vote on joining Russia
Written by Nur Yasmin
Russian-installed officials in the Kherson region of Ukraine said they have decided to hold a referendum later this week on joining Russia and have urged the Kremlin to give its permission as soon as possible, the separatist head of the region said on Tuesday.
In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed head of Kherson, said he hoped Kherson would become "a part of Russia, a fully-fledged subject of a united country".
Russian forces control around 95% of Ukraine's Kherson territory in the south of country.
Later on Tuesday, Russian news agencies reported the vote would take place between Sept. 23-27, in line with similar votes lined up in other areas of Ukraine controlled by Russian forces.
Officials in parts of Ukraine controlled by Russian forces, including the two breakaway Russian-backed regions of the Donbas - the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) - have stepped up preparations for long-discussed votes to join Russia this week in what appeared to be a coordinated move.
Saldo said Kherson joining Russia would "secure our region" and be a "triumph of historical justice".
"I am sure that the Russian leadership will accept the results of the referendum," he added.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said the issue is a matter for the local Russian-installed officials and citizens of the regions to decide.
Saldo's remarks echoed those made by Kremlin ally and former President Dmitry Medvedev earlier on Tuesday, in which he called for the Kremlin to let the separatists join Russia.
Shortly after Saldo's announcement about plans for a vote in Kherson, the head of Russia's parliament said he would support the regions joining Russia.
"Today, we need to support the republics with which we have signed mutual assistance agreements," Russia's state Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said, referring to agreements signed between Moscow and the DPR and LPR that paved the way for the Kremlin to dispatch tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February. (Reuters)
September
Polluters must pay, says UN chief, urges taxes to help climate victims
Written by Nur Yasmin
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged rich countries to tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and use that money to help countries harmed by the climate crisis and people who are struggling with rising food and energy prices.
Addressing world leaders at the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, the climate activist secretary-general stepped up his attacks on oil and gas companies, which have seen their profits explode by tens of billions of dollars this year.
"The fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns," he said.
"Polluters must pay," he added.
While Guterres again pushed developed countries to tax the fossil fuel windfall profits, this time he also used his platform to spell out where the money should be spent.
"Those funds should be redirected in two ways: to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis; and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices," he told the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
Britain has passed a 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producers in the North Sea, while the European Union plans to raise more than 140 billion euros to shield consumers from soaring energy prices by taxing windfall profits from oil companies and electric generators. U.S. Democratic lawmakers have discussed a similar idea, though it faces long odds in a divided Congress.
While these plans focus on redirecting windfall profits to domestic consumers, the secretary general advocated for a tax that would be directed to the world's most climate vulnerable countries, which have been embracing the idea.
He also said multilateral development banks "must step up and deliver" and that helping poor countries adapt to worsening climate shocks "must make up half of all climate finance."
Guterres added: "Major economies are their shareholders and must make it happen."
The secretary general also broadened his criticism of oil and gas companies to enabling industries that he said helps keep carbon pollution growing, such as banks and other financial institutions that invest in those companies and the public relations and advertising industries.
"Just as they did for the tobacco industry decades before, lobbyists and spin doctors have spewed harmful misinformation," Guterres said. "Fossil fuel interests need to spend less time averting a PR disaster – and more time averting a planetary one." (Reuters)
September
Trump lawyers don't want to say if he declassified documents in FBI search
Written by Nur Yasmin
Former President Donald Trump's lawyers resisted revealing whether he declassified materials seized in an August FBI search of his Florida home as the U.S. judge appointed to review the documents planned his first conference on the matter on Tuesday.
Judge Raymond Dearie on Monday circulated a draft plan to both sides that sought details on documents Trump allegedly declassified, as he claimed publicly and without evidence, though his lawyers have not asserted that in court filings.
In a letter filed ahead of Tuesday's hearing, Trump's lawyers argued it is not time and would force him to reveal a defense to any subsequent indictment - an acknowledgement that the investigation could lead to criminal charges.
Dearie, a senior federal judge in Brooklyn, was selected as an independent arbiter known as a special master. He will help decide which of the more than 11,000 documents seized in the Aug. 8 search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home should be kept from the Justice Department's criminal investigation into the alleged mishandling of the documents.
Dearie will recommend to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon which documents may fall under attorney-client privilege or an assertion of executive privilege, which allows a president to withhold certain documents or information.
It is unclear whether the review would go forward as instructed by Cannon, the Florida judge appointed to the bench by Trump in 2020 who ordered the review.
Trump is under investigation for retaining government records, some marked as highly classified, at the resort in Palm Beach, his home after leaving office in January 2021. He has denied wrongdoing, and said without providing evidence that he believes the investigation is a partisan attack.
The Justice Department on Friday appealed a portion of Cannon's ruling, seeking to stay the review of roughly 100 documents with classified markings and the judge's restricting FBI access to them.
Federal prosecutors said the special master review ordered by the judge would hinder the government from addressing national security risks and force the disclosure of "highly sensitive materials."
On Tuesday, Trump's legal team filed its response to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, opposing the government's request and calling the Justice Department's investigation "unprecedented and misguided."
In their 40-page filing, Trump's attorneys said the court should not take the Justice Department at its word that the roughly 100 documents in question are in fact still classified, and said the special master should be permitted to review them as a step towards "restoring order from chaos."
In Cannon's order appointing Dearie as special master, she asked him to conclude his review by the end of November. She instructed him to prioritize the documents marked classified, though her process calls for Trump's counsel to review the documents, and Trump's lawyers may not have the necessary security clearance.
The Justice Department has described the special master process as unnecessary, as it has already conducted its own attorney-client privilege review and set aside about 500 pages that could qualify. It opposes an executive privilege review, saying any such assertion over the records would fail.
The August FBI search came after Trump left office with documents that belong to the government and did not return them, despite numerous requests by the government and a subpoena.
It is still unclear whether the government has all the records. The Justice Department has said some classified material still could be missing after the FBI recovered empty folders with classification markings from Mar-a-Lago. (Reuters)
September
Maldives hopes for first U.S. embassy late this year or early next
Written by Nur Yasmin
The Maldives hopes to see the United States open a first embassy in the country at the end of the year, or early next, and the Indian Ocean state hopes to reopen its embassy in Washington by the end of this year, the Maldivian foreign minister said on Sunday.
U.S. diplomatic dealings with the Maldives are currently handled through the U.S. embassy in politically troubled Sri Lanka, while the Maldives is represented in the United States via its mission to the United Nations.
Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid told an event in New York hosted by a U.S. think tank that he believes relations between the Maldives and Washington "have never been this strong."
He said the Maldives was looking for property to house an embassy in Washington and added: "It is our target that we will have our embassy up and running by the end of the year."
"Hopefully by the end of this year, or early next year, we will have the United States embassy up and running in the Maldives, which is historic," he said.
Shahid said the Maldives had an embassy in Washington after independence in 1965 but this had to be closed due to budgetary reasons. He said he reopened the embassy in 2007 in his previous stint as foreign minister, but it was closed again after a change of government in 2008.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the plan to open a U.S. embassy in the Maldives during a visit to the country in 2020, saying the nation had increasingly important role in the Indo-Pacific, where the United States is vying for influence with China.
In July, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate a career foreign service officer, Hugo Yue-Ho Yon, to be ambassador to the Maldives. (Reuters)
September
Sri Lanka to present debt restructuring, IMF bailout plans to creditors
Written by Nur Yasmin
Crisis-hit Sri Lanka will make a presentation to its international creditors on Friday, laying out the full extent of its economic troubles and plans for a debt restructuring and multi-billion dollar International Monetary Fund bailout.
Years of economic mismanagement combined with the COVID-19 pandemic have left Sri Lanka in its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, causing it to default on its sovereign debt.
The country's Ministry of Finance said in a statement via legal firm Clifford Chance that an online call on Sept. 23 would be open to all its external creditors and be "an interactive session" in which participants can ask questions.
Sri Lanka's woes came to a head in July when then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned after violent public protests.
His replacement Ranil Wickremesinghe has managed to reach a preliminary deal with the IMF that if formalised would provide the country $2.9 billion in loans over four years.
"Authorities intend to update their external creditors on the most recent macroeconomic developments, the main objectives of the reform package agreed with the IMF ... and the next steps of the debt restructuring process," the statement dated Sept. 17 said.
Debt crisis veterans cite uniquely difficult elements in Sri Lanka.
The impoverished population that forced Rajapaksa to flee still needs to accept Wickremesinghe, seen by many as of the same political ilk, and who faces a bristling opposition.
The country's borrowings are so complex that estimates of the total range from $85 billion to well over $100 billion. Perhaps most challenging of all, competing regional powers China, India and Japan must also find common ground on how to reduce debt they are owed by Colombo. (Reuters)
September
Typhoon batters western Japan with record rain, killing two
Written by Nur Yasmin
Typhoon Nanmadol, one of the biggest storms to hit Japan in years, killed at least two people and brought ferocious winds and record rainfall to the west of the country on Monday, causing transport disruptions and forcing manufacturers to suspend operations.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delayed his departure to New York for the U.N. General Assembly this week to assess the damage from Japan's 14th typhoon of the season.
"I postponed my scheduled departure from today to take stock of the damage caused by the typhoon and to take all possible measures for recovery," Kishida told reporters on Monday evening, adding that he would leave on Tuesday morning if conditions permit.
Nanmadol made landfall near Kagoshima city late on Sunday before battering the western island of Kyushu and roaring onto the main island of Honshu on Monday morning.
A river in Kyushu's Miyazaki prefecture overflowed, flooding fields and roads, footage from public broadcaster NHK showed. Other video showed a riverside house half hanging over a torrent, the tin roof ripped off a gas station, and a toppled billboard leaning over a street from the top of a building.
"We need to remain highly vigilant for heavy rains, gales, high waves and storm surges," a Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) official told a news conference.
Local media said one man was found dead inside his car, which was submerged up to its roof in the middle of a field, while another man died after being caught in a landslide.
One other person remains missing, and at least 115 people have been injured, NHK said.
About 286,000 households were without electricity on Monday afternoon, down from some 340,000 households earlier on the day, the trade ministry said.
Kyushu Railway Co (9142.T) said it had halted operations of both high-speed and regular trains, while Japan Airline Co Ltd (9201.T) and ANA Holdings (9202.T) cancelled about 800 flights, NHK reported.
The storm made landfall again in Shimane prefecture in western Honshu after tracking the coastline earlier on Monday, and was heading east at about 35 km per hour (22 miles per hour), the JMA said.
Up to 300 mm (11.8 inches) of rain was expected in central Japan's Tokai region, the nation's industrial heartland, over the 24-hour-period to Tuesday evening, it said.
Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) has suspended night shifts on 24 lines at 12 of its domestic plants on Monday, a company spokesperson said, adding that the company planned to make up for the lost production with overtime and operations on holidays.
Intermittent bouts of heavy rain lashed Tokyo but businesses in the capital were largely operating as normal.
Most schools were closed on Monday anyway for a public holiday. (Reuters)