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July
Philippines' Marcos vows farms and tax overhauls in ambitious address
Written by Nur Yasmin
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Monday promised tax reforms, a faster infrastructure upgrade and to turn his country into an investment destination, while pledging to transform agriculture to drive growth and reduce reliance on food imports.
In an ambitious policy speech to Congress screened live on television, Marcos, the son of the strongman overthrown in a 1986 revolt, said he would create jobs and support growth by improving tourism and by modernising agriculture, using scientific methods and an "infusion of fresh and new blood".
Marcos said the global food price crisis had shown how the Philippines, a major rice importer, was vulnerable to sustained price rises and insufficient supply, and would need to become more resilient to climate change.
Among the measures he would introduce was suspension of farmers' debts to allow them to boost output.
"A moratorium will give the farmers the ability to channel their resources in developing their farms, maximising their capacity to produce, and propel the growth of our economy," he said.
In a speech that lasted 1 hour, 18 minutes, Marcos promised to expedite long overdue infrastructure works, including airports and railways, and to embrace renewable energy and be tough on firms that damaged the environment.
He said his government would reexamine nuclear power, a plan started by his late father and namesake in the 1970s.
Marcos Jr also promised the Philippines, a U.S. defence ally that has recently become closer to China, would remain independent in its foreign policy.
In a reference to the Philippines' historic run-ins with Beijing in the South China Sea, he said he would "not preside over any process that will abandon even a square inch of territory", drawing lengthy applause from Congress.
His administration would implement solid fiscal policy management and was targeting 6.5% to 7.5% gross domestic product growth this year, he said. Before the pandemic, the Philippines was among Asia's fastest growing economies.
It would also improve education, healthcare and working conditions for doctors and nurses and ensure a better water and power supply across the nation of more than 7,600 islands, he said.
"The state of the nation is sound," Marcos said. (Reuters)
July
Poor in India can dream, says its first tribal president
Written by Nur Yasmin
India's first president from a marginalised tribal community, Droupadi Murmu, said on Monday after being sworn in that her election was an "achievement of every poor person in the country".
Murmu's elevation to India's highest constitutional post has been seen as an important gesture of goodwill by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the communities that make up more than 8% of its 1.4 billion people ahead of a general election due by 2024.
Murmu, a former teacher and state minister from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role of president. She was born into a poor family of the Santhal tribe from the eastern state of Odisha.
Members of parliament and of state legislatures elected Murmu last week for a five-year term after she was nominated by the BJP.
"My election is proof of the fact that the poor in India can have dreams and fulfil them too," Murmu, 64, said in a speech in parliament after taking the oath of office.
"It is a matter of great satisfaction for me that those who have been deprived for centuries and those who have been denied the benefits of development, those poor, downtrodden, backwards and tribals are seeing their reflection in me."
Modi hailed Murmu's swearing-in a "watershed moment for India, especially for the poor, marginalised and downtrodden".
India's president acts as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces but the prime minister holds executive powers.
The president can play an important role during political crises, such as when a general election is inconclusive, by deciding which party is in the best position to form a government. (Reuters)
July
Senegalese island keeps coastal erosion at bay with stakes in the sand
Written by Nur Yasmin
Simple wooden structures padded with coconut tree fronds are helping residents of Diogue island in southern Senegal to win back stretches of sandy beach from the Atlantic swells that threaten much of the West African coast.
In some areas, half-submerged tree stumps and crumbling abandoned buildings show the impact of the waves - and the ongoing degradation of coastline, where 56% of West Africa's economic activity is generated and around a third of its population live, according to the World Bank.
"The ocean was so far away that we used to hear it without seeing it," said Angele Diatta, head of the women's association in Diogue Diola village on the island in the mouth of the Casamance river, where the higher tides sometimes sweep through homes.
West Africa has many of these low-lying deltas, making its coastal ecosystems among the most vulnerable to sea level rise, erosion, saltwater intrusion and flooding, the U.N.'s global panel of climate scientists said in its latest report.
On Diogue, a method of driving clusters of stakes into the wet shore is helping to protect some beaches on the island. These areas have expanded by around 30 metres (98 ft) since 2019, according to the project's organisers.
"Whenever we gain ground, we can extend the structure, add more sticks, as they say little by little the bird makes its nest," said local primary school teacher Gilbert Bassene, who has been helping maintain the handmade beach defences.
In early July, he and the initiative's founder Patrick Chevalier used red string and a marked stick to measure how much sand had accumulated next to one of the structures and wove dry coconut branches through its stakes to help trap more sediment.
These semi-permeable groynes are based on a model pioneered in Canada, where beaches were protected without accelerating sediment loss elsewhere, according to a 2002 analysis by University of Quebec scientists.
"With the little that we have, we can achieve extraordinary work," Bassene said on the palm-fringed beach, where children had gathered to watch him work.
Nevertheless better coastal management is needed on the regional level in West Africa, where "despite the interventions, rates of coastal erosion within the individual countries continue to rise," a 2020 study published in the Journal of Coastal Conservation found.
Communities are already suffering the fall-out.
Coastal degradation cost Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Togo a total of $3.8 billion in 2017, according to the World Bank, which supports an ongoing project to relocate 10,000 people from Saint-Louis, a northern Senegalese city that spans a thin peninsula between the Senegal River and ocean.
Some people on Diogue believe they face a similar fate. "It's not easy to admit but one day the village will have to move," village chief Cherif Diatta said. (Reuters)
July
China confirms warnings to U.S. on Pelosi's possible Taiwan visit
Written by Nur Yasmin
China delivered sterner warnings to U.S. officials about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's possible visit to Taiwan, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday, confirming a report by the Financial Times (FT).
The FT report, published on Saturday, cited six people familiar with the Chinese warnings as saying they were significantly stronger than the threats that Beijing has made in the past when it was unhappy with U.S. actions or policy on Taiwan, which is claimed by China.
The private rhetoric suggested a possible military response, the FT cited several people familiar with the situation as saying.
The White House National Security Council and the State Department declined to comment on the FT report.
"We are seriously prepared," spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a regular briefing on Monday, when asked for comment about the contents of the report.
When asked what kind of response China was "seriously prepared for" and if it would be a military or a diplomatic response Zhao said: "If the U.S. side is bent on going its own way, China will take strong measures to resolutely respond and counteract."
"The United States should be held responsible for any serious consequences," he added.
China has been stepping up military activity around Taiwan seeking to pressure the democratically elected government there to accept Chinese sovereignty. Taiwan's government says only the island's 23 million people can decide their future, and while it wants peace will defend itself if attacked.
The Financial Times reported last week that Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan in August.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said he plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping by the end of the month. Biden appeared to cast doubt on the reported Pelosi trip to Taiwan.
"I think that the military thinks it's not a good idea right now, but I don't know what the status of it is," Biden told reporters. (Reuters)
July
China approves Genuine Biotech's HIV drug for COVID patients
Written by Nur Yasmin
China on Monday gave conditional approval to domestic firm Genuine Biotech's Azvudine pill to treat certain adult patients with COVID-19, adding another oral treatment option against the coronavirus.
The availability of effective COVID vaccines and treatments is crucial in laying the groundwork for China's potential pivoting from its "dynamic COVID zero" policy, which aims to eliminate every outbreak - however small - and relies on mass testing and strict quarantining.
The Azvudine tablet, which China approved in July last year to treat certain HIV-1 virus infections, has been given a conditional green light to treat adult patients with "normal type" COVID, the National Medical Products Administration said in a statement.
"Normal type" COVID is a term China uses to refer to coronavirus infections where there are signs of pneumonia, but the patients haven't reached a severe stage.
China in February allowed the use of Pfizer's oral treatment Paxlovid in adults with mild-to-moderate COVID and high risk of progressing to a severe condition. In 2020, it approved the use of Lianhuaqingwen capsules, a traditional Chinese medicine-style formula, to alleviate symptoms of COVID such as fever and cough.
In a late-stage clinical trial, 40.4% of patients taking Azvudine showed improvement in symptoms seven days after first taking the drug, compared with 10.9% in the control group, Henan province-based Genuine Biotech said in a statement earlier this month, without providing detailed readings.
Other Chinese companies developing potential oral COVID treatments include Shanghai Junshi Biosciences (688180.SS) and Kintor Pharmaceutical (9939.HK). (Reuters)
July
South Korean government, police clash on oversight
Written by Nur Yasmin
A bid by South Korea's government to increase police oversight has sparked a protest by some officers, which drew criticism on Monday from a top minister who referred to the role the security forces played in the past to support authoritarian rule.
The dispute comes as a new conservative government is settling in and trying to limit the impact of some changes made by the previous liberal government, including on the sharing of powers and responsibilities between the police and prosecutors.
Nearly 50 chiefs of police stations from across the country met on Saturday, with 150 joining online, in a protest against a government plan to create an interior ministry bureau to oversee police affairs.
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min criticised the officers for defying a warning from the national police chief against the meeting.
"Police have physical and legal force and can even possess weapons," Lee told a news conference.
"It is extremely dangerous that these groups who are capable of arming themselves gather arbitrarily, in defiance of orders from their superiors, and protest government measures."
Lee referred to a group of elite military commanders behind a 1979 coup in which dictator Chun Doo-hwan seized power before launching a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests during his eight-year rule.
But the minister added: "Of course, many years have passed and plotting a coup is unimaginable."
South Korea police and prosecutors have a decades old rivalry that developed as South Korea emerged from war in the 1950s and later endured periods of harsh military rule before establishing democracy.
Many dictators used the police to suppress democracy movements while prosecutors have had an important role in levying criminal charges against former leaders.
The new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, is a former prosecutor-general who aims to tighten the government grip on the police.
Ryu Sam-young, the police official who called the Saturday protest meeting, reiterated on Monday that an existing public-private panel to oversee the police should be reinforced, instead of the proposed new ministry bureau, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Responding to the interior mister's reference to a coup, Ryu said he had gone "too far".
Calls to Ryu's office went unanswered.
'NECESSARY STEPS'
The dispute comes as Yoon's approval ratings plunged to about 33% in a Realmeter poll released on Monday, from 54% in late May shortly after taking office, amid inflation and economic worries and controversy over the employment of aides' relatives in the presidential office.
Lee later told parliament the planned bureau would focus on administrative tasks and would have no legal authority to meddle in police investigations. He said police officers broke the law by disobeying orders not to attend the protest meeting.
Some previous governments have criticised the national prosecutors' office as too politically powerful and have sought to divide its authority to investigate matters and indict offenders, provoking opposition from prosecutors.
Yoon himself was forced to step down from the role of chief prosecutor last year after resisting a push by then President Moon Jae-in to rein in prosecutors, which police supported.
Yoon, asked about the police protest, said the interior ministry and the national police agency would take "necessary steps". He did not elaborate.
Tension over the dispute could escalate as lower-level police officers plan a protest meeting this weekend. (Reuters)
July
U.S. envoy heads to Middle East to push Yemen peace talks
Written by Nur Yasmin
The U.S. special envoy for Yemen leaves for Saudi Arabia and Jordan on Monday to continue Washington's diplomatic efforts to back a United Nation's mediated truce in Yemen, the U.S. State Department said.
Tim Lenderking "will continue our efforts to help advance peace," the department said in a statement on the trip, which follows U.S. President Joe Biden's trip to the region earlier this month. (reuters)
July
Russia says grain deal stands despite missile attack on Ukraine's Odesa
Written by Nur Yasmin
Russia on Monday brushed aside Western and Ukrainian alarm that a missile strike by its forces on Ukraine's port of Odesa could derail a U.N.-brokered deal aimed at easing global food shortages by resuming grain exports from the Black Sea region.
The Kremlin said Saturday's strike - denounced by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as "barbarism" - had only targeted military infrastructure and would not impact the grain export arrangements in the deal reached on Friday in Istanbul.
A global wheat shortage and soaring European energy prices are some of the most far-reaching effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, threatening millions in poorer countries with hunger and prompting fears in Europe over heating supplies this winter.
As the war enters its sixth month, the Ukrainian military reported widespread Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine overnight. It said Moscow continued to prepare for an assault on Bakhmut in the industrial Donbas region, which Russia aims to seize on behalf of separatist proxies.
Near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city located in the country's northeast, three people were trapped under the rubble of a cultural centre in the town of Chuhuyiv and a fourth person was wounded, Zelenskiy's office said.
Ukraine said on Monday its forces had used U.S-supplied HIMARS rocket systems to destroy 50 Russian ammunition depots since receiving the weapons last month. Russia did not immediately comment but its Defence Ministry said its forces had destroyed an ammunition depot for HIMARS systems.
Reuters could not independently verify the Russian or Ukrainian statements.
GRAIN EXPORTS
Friday's agreement on grain exports aims to allow safe passage in and out of Ukrainian ports, blocked by Russia's Black Sea fleet since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion. A U.N. official called the deal a "de facto ceasefire" for the ships and facilities covered.
The Ukrainian military said two Kalibr missiles fired from Russian warships hit the area of a pumping station at the port and two others were shot down by air defence forces. They did not hit the grain storage area or cause significant damage.
Russia said its forces had hit a Ukrainian warship and a weapons store in Odesa with precision missiles.
"These strikes are connected exclusively with military infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
"They are in no way related to infrastructure that is used for the export of grain. This should not affect - and will not affect - the beginning of shipments."
Ukraine, a major world grain supplier, said earlier that preparations to resume grain shipments were ongoing.
Peskov also signalled that Russian natural gas exports to Europe - restarted last week at reduced volumes - may soon increase.
Diplomats from the European Union, which has joined the United States in imposing sanctions on Russia but has continued to buy its gas, were set to discuss targets on Monday for member states to cut their gas use. Russia has reduced supplies to Europe, blaming the sanctions.
Peskov said the installation of a turbine repaired by Canada would enable gas to be supplied to Europe in "corresponding volumes", adding that other repairs were needed to the pipeline, which was shut down for 10 days this month during maintenance.
Global wheat prices rose sharply on Monday due to uncertainty over the grain agreement, erasing most of the falls seen on Friday when traders had anticipated an easing of supply shortages.
Zelenskiy's economic adviser, Oleh Ustenko, said Ukraine could export 60 million tonnes of grain over the next nine months, but it would take up to 24 months if its ports' operations were disrupted.
REFERENDUMS
As well as the eastern Donbas region, Russia has set its sights on large swathes of southern Ukraine, where it has occupied two regions north of the Black Sea peninsula Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russian news agency RIA said the two regions, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, might hold referendums in early September on joining Russia, quoting Vladimir Rogov, member of the Russia-appointed Zaporizhia provincial government.
Ukraine's military reported progress in a counter-offensive in Kherson, however, saying its forces had moved within firing range of Russian targets. Kyiv has said it is steadily moving back into the region. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
Britain said Russian commanders continue to face a dilemma - whether to bolster their defences around Kherson and nearby areas or resource their offensive in the east.
Moscow has charged 92 members of Ukrainian armed forces with crimes against humanity and proposed a new international tribunal that would handle the investigation, Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia's investigative committee, said in remarks published overnight.
The announcement comes after the United States and more than 40 other nations agreed on July 14 to coordinate investigations into suspected war crimes in Ukraine, mostly concerning alleged actions by Russian forces and their proxies.
Moscow denies responsibility for the food crisis, blaming the sanctions for slowing its food and fertiliser exports and Ukraine for mining the approaches to its ports.
Under Friday's deal pilots will guide ships along safe channels.
Officials from Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey will monitor ships moving through the Black Sea to Turkey's Bosporus Strait and on to markets. All sides agreed on Friday there would be no attacks on them.
Putin calls the war a "special military operation" aimed at demilitarising Ukraine and rooting out dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and the West call this a baseless pretext for an aggressive land grab. (Reuters)
July
World Court rejects Myanmar's objections, Rohingya genocide case will proceed
Written by Nur Yasmin
World Court judges on Friday dismissed objections by Myanmar to a genocide case brought against it for its treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority, paving the way for the case to proceed. (Reuters)
July
World Court says it has jurisdiction, Myanmar genocide case to proceed
Written by Nur Yasmin
The World Court on Friday rejected Myanmar's objections to a genocide case over its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority, paving the way for the case to be heard in full.
Myanmar, now ruled by a military junta that seized power in 2021, had argued that Gambia, which brought the suit, had no standing to do so at the top U.N. court, formally known as the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
But presiding Judge Joan Donoghue said the 13 judge panel found that all members of the 1948 Genocide Convention can and are obliged to act to prevent genocide, and the court has jurisdiction in the case.
"Gambia, as a state party to the Genocide convention, has standing," she said, reading a summary of the ruling.
The court will now proceed to hearing the merits of the case, a process that will take years.
Gambia, which took up the cause after its then-attorney general visited a refugee camp in Bangladesh, argues that all countries have a duty to uphold the 1948 Genocide Convention. It is backed by the 57-nation Organisation for Islamic Cooperation in a suit aiming to hold Myanmar accountable and prevent further bloodshed.
A separate U.N. fact-finding mission concluded that a 2017 military campaign by Myanmar that drove 730,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh had included "genocidal acts".
While the court's decisions are binding and countries generally follow them, it has no way of enforcing them.
In a 2020 provisional decision it ordered Myanmar to protect the Rohingya from genocide, a legal victory that established their right under international law as a protected minority.
However Rohingya groups and rights activists say there has been no meaningful attempt to end their systemic persecution and what Amnesty International has called a system of apartheid.
Rohingya are still denied citizenship and freedom of movement in Myanmar. Tens of thousands have now been confined to squalid displacement camps for a decade.
The junta has imprisoned democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who defended Myanmar personally in 2019 hearings in The Hague. (Reuters)