SHANGHAI/BEIJING — Shanghai halted transportation links, recalled ships and shut tourism spots including Shanghai Disney Resort on Sunday as it braced for Typhoon Bebinca, in what could be the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Chinese financial hub since 1949.

The Category 1 typhoon, packing maximum sustained wind speeds near its center of around 144 kph, was about 500 kilometers southeast of Shanghai as of 1 p.m.  It is expected to make landfall along China’s eastern coast after midnight on Monday.

The strongest storm to make landfall in Shanghai in recent decades was Typhoon Gloria in 1949, which tore through the city with gusts of 144 kph. Shanghai was last threatened by a direct hit in 2022 by the powerful Typhoon Muifa, which instead landed 300 kilometers away in the city of Zhoushan, in Zhejiang province.

Shanghai is typically spared the strong typhoons that hit farther south in China, including Yagi, a destructive Category 4 storm that roared past southern Hainan province last week. But Shanghai and neighboring provinces are taking no chances with Category 1 Bebinca.

Resorts in Shanghai, including Shanghai Disney Resort, Jinjiang Amusement Park and Shanghai Wild Animal Park, have been temporarily closed while most ferries have been halted to and from Chongming Island – China’s third-biggest island known as “the gateway to the Yangtze River.”

More than 600 flights to and from Shanghai were also canceled, according to local media.

In Zhejiang, ships have been recalled while several parks in the provincial capital Hangzhou announced closures.

Bebinca’s arrival will coincide with the Mid-Autumn festival, a nationwide three-day holiday when many Chinese travel or engage in outdoor activities.

China’s Ministry of Water Resources on Saturday issued a Level-IV emergency response — the lowest level in China’s four-tier emergency response system — for potential flooding in Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. 
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Yangon, Myanmar — The death toll in Myanmar in the wake of Typhoon Yagi has jumped to 74, state media reported on Sunday, a day after its junta made a rare request for foreign aid.

Floods and landslides have killed almost 350 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which hit the region last weekend, according to official figures.

In Myanmar, the floods “resulted in 74 deaths and 89 people missing” as of Friday evening, the Global New Light of Myanmar said.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing, it said, adding that the floods had destroyed more than 65,000 houses and five dams, heaping further misery on the country where war has raged since the military’s 2021 coup.

The junta’s previous death toll was 33, with more than 235,000 people displaced, according to figures released Friday.

Swathes of farmland have been inundated in central regions, including around the sprawling, low-lying capital Naypyidaw.

There have been reports of landslides in hilly areas but with roads and bridges damaged and phone and internet lines down, compiling information has been difficult.

The Sittaung and Bago rivers, which flow through central and southern Myanmar, were both still above dangerous levels Sunday, state media said, although water levels were expected to fall in the coming days.

Authorities in Myanmar had opened 82 “relief camps” to house displaced people, according to state media.

Thailand’s weather office warned Sunday of further heavy rain in provinces along the Mekong river.

Request for aid

The floods have heaped more misery on Myanmar, where more than 2.7 million people have already displaced by conflict.

Myanmar’s junta chief made a rare request for foreign aid to deal with the floods, state media reported Saturday.

The military has previously blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad.

Last year it suspended travel authorizations for aid groups trying to reach around a million victims of powerful Cyclone Mocha that hit the west of the country.

On Saturday the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Myanmar and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told AFP they could not currently comment on the junta’s request.

Heavy monsoon rains lash Southeast Asia every year, but human-made climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Climate change is causing typhoons to form closer to the coast, intensify faster and stay longer over land, according to a study published in July. 
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BEIJING — China’s economy softened in August, extending a slowdown in industrial activity and real estate prices as Beijing faces pressure to ramp up spending to stimulate demand.

Data published by the National Bureau of Statistics Saturday showed weakening activity across industrial production, retail sales and real estate this month compared to July.

“We should be aware that the adverse impacts arising from the changes in the external environment are increasing,” said Liu Aihua, the bureau’s chief economist in a news conference.

Liu said that demand remained insufficient at home, and the sustained economic recovery still confronts multiple difficulties and challenges.

China has been grappling with a lagging economy post-COVID, with weak consumer demand, persistent deflationary pressures and a contraction in factory activity.

Chinese leaders have ramped up investment in manufacturing to rev up an economy that stalled during the pandemic and is still growing slower than hoped.

Beijing also has to deal with increasing pressure to implement large-scale stimulus measures to boost economic growth.

While industrial production rose by 4.5% in August compared to a year ago, it declined from July’s 5.1% growth, according to the bureau’s data released.

Retail sales grew 2.1% from the same time last year, slower than the 2.7% increase last month.

Fixed asset investment rose by 3.4% from January to August, down from 3.6% in the first seven months.

Meanwhile, investment in real estate declined by 10.2% from January to August, compared to last year.

The figures released Saturday come after trade data for August saw imports grow just 0.5% compared to a year ago.

The consumer price index rose 0.6% in August, missing forecasts according to data released Monday. Officials attributed the higher CPI to an increase in food prices due to bad weather.

But the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose by just 0.3% in August, the slowest in over three years.
…

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Yangon, Myanmar — Myanmar’s junta chief made a rare request Saturday for foreign aid to cope with deadly floods that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have endured three years of war.

Floods and landslides have killed almost 300 people in Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which dumped a colossal deluge of rain when it hit the region last weekend.

In Myanmar more than 235,000 people have been forced from their homes by floods, the junta said Friday, piling further misery on the country where war has raged since the military seized power in 2021.

“Officials from the government need to contact foreign countries to receive rescue and relief aid to be provided to the victims,” Min Aung Hlaing said on Friday, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

“It is necessary to manage rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures as quickly as possible,” he was quoted as saying.

The junta gave a death toll on Friday of 33, while earlier in the day the country’s fire department said rescuers had recovered 36 bodies.

A military spokesman said it had lost contact with some areas of the country and was investigating reports that dozens had been buried in landslides in a gold-mining area in the central Mandalay region.

Aid restrictions

Myanmar’s military has previously blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad.

Last year it suspended travel authorizations for aid groups trying to reach around a million victims of powerful Cyclone Mocha that hit the west of the country.

At the time the United Nations slammed that decision as “unfathomable.”

AFP has contacted a spokesperson for the U.N. in Myanmar for comment.

After cyclone Nargis killed at least 138,000 people in Myanmar in 2008, the then-junta was accused of blocking emergency aid and initially refusing to grant access to humanitarian workers and supplies.

Military trucks carried small rescue boats to flood-hit areas around the military-built capital Naypyidaw on Saturday, AFP reporters said.

On Friday hundreds of villagers waded or swam through chin-high waters to safety following floods around the capital.

Some told AFP they had sheltered in trees overnight to escape the raging flood waters below.

State media said flooding in the area around the capital had caused landslides and destroyed electricity towers, buildings, roads, bridges and houses.

More than 2.7 million people were already displaced in Myanmar by conflict triggered by the junta’s 2021 coup.
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washington — Recent moves by Pyongyang have focused attention on what will be one of the first major foreign policy challenges facing the next U.S. president: how to deal with North Korea’s rapidly developing nuclear threat.

In a set of rapid-fire developments on Friday:

— North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an “exponential increase” in the size of his nation’s nuclear arsenal, according to the state-run news agency KCNA. He made the same call in speeches on Tuesday and on the last day of 2022.

— State media released photos for the first time of the Nuclear Weapons Institute where North Korea processes uranium for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The photos, which showed a sophisticated array of centrifuges, were made public as Kim toured the facility.

— North Korea announced that it had tested a new type of 600 mm multiple rocket launcher the previous day. South Korea said on Thursday that North Korea test-fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the waters off the eastern coast.

The developments came in the context of enhanced military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, which is believed to be helping Pyongyang to develop its weapons capabilities in exchange for munitions used in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The threat from North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs has been growing steadily and virtually unchecked over the course of several U.S. administrations,” said Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea.

“Whoever the next U.S. president is, she or he will face a more sophisticated and dangerous North Korean threat.”

Revere said in an interview that the winner of the U.S. election would have to find ways to weaken the link between Moscow and Pyongyang “and demonstrate to Beijing that its ‘partnership without limits’ with Russia is a dangerous and ill-advised path that will yield no benefits” for China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping declared in May a “new era” in opposition to the U.S. and reaffirmed the “no limits” partnership that was first announced just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

While China has held back on providing Russia with arms for its war effort, the United States has accused it of delivering electronic components and other dual-use items that are keeping Moscow’s arms industry afloat.

Pyongyang, for its part, denies participating in any arms transfers to Russia, an act that would violate United Nations sanctions.

But a report this week by Conflict Armament Research, a U.K.-based group that tracks weapons in armed conflicts, said parts from four North Korean missiles have been found in Ukraine.

The missiles, examined by Kyiv, are either KN-23 or KN-24, known as Hwasong-11 short-range missile series, and thought to have been used in attacks in July and August, the report said.

Pyongyang-Moscow military ties have also been expanded to include tourism, trade, and economic and technical cooperation.

This makes the use of sanctions less effective as a policy tool to counter North Korea’s nuclear buildup, according to Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration.

“That’s not as much leverage now as it was before because of the Russian-North Korean relationship,” said Samore. “The U.S. doesn’t have very strong economic leverage that it can use with North Korea.”

With few obvious policy options available, the two presidential candidates – former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris – have largely confined themselves to criticizing each other’s approach without laying out any specific plans to roll back the North Korean threat.

At Tuesday night’s televised debate, Harris criticized Trump for exchanging “love letters with Kim Jong Un” during his presidency while Trump disapproved of the current administration’s handling of the issue, saying, “Look at what’s going on in North Korea.”

During his presidency, Trump held three summits with Kim but the diplomatic effort ultimately failed when Trump refused Kim’s demand for sanctions relief in exchange for a partial rollback of his nuclear program.

There have been no formal talks between the two countries since, although the Biden administration insists it is open to negotiations without preconditions, a policy that Harris could be expected to continue if elected.

The Biden administration also maintains that its goal remains the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, even as many experts suggest it is time to acknowledge that Pyongyang will not give up its weapons and say the international community should focus on containment.

Samore predicted that a Harris administration would continue to say that “as an ultimate objective … the U.S. seeks denuclearization in the long term.”

A second Trump administration, he theorized, may say “denuclearization is no longer possible” and “accept North Korea as a nuclear power.”

Robert Rapson, who served as charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said much would depend on how the winner of the election decides to work with regional allies South Korea and Japan.

“In the likely absence of any grand outreach towards Pyongyang, Harris will have to carefully manage the relationship with ally Seoul, with a focus for the foreseeable future on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula,” he said.

He added that it was “uncertain at this moment” whether Trump would feel compelled to reach out to Kim and whether he would diminish the value of the alliances with South Korea and Japan.

Eunjung Cho contributed to this report.
…

washington — China is among the foreign governments that retaliate against people for engaging with the United Nations, according to a report released this week by the U.N. Secretary-General.

The report highlights how hard Beijing tries to silence its critics, according to Sophie Richardson, an expert on human rights in China.

“These [U.N.] mechanisms are some of the only ones available to people inside China, at least on paper, to provide any modicum of redress or justice for the human rights abuses either they’ve endured or the communities they work with have endured,” Richardson told VOA.

“That’s why you see the Chinese government go to extraordinary lengths to silence people who are simply trying to take reports to some of these human rights experts or bodies,” Richardson said.

A former China director at Human Rights Watch, Richardson is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

The annual report chronicles government retaliation against people for engaging with the U.N. In addition to China, other countries named in the report include Colombia, India, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Russia.

“In my perfect world, governments that get referenced in these reprisals reports shouldn’t be members of the Human Rights Council,” said Richardson, who is based in Washington. China is a current member of the council in Geneva.

China’s Washington embassy, as well as its U.N. offices in New York and Geneva, did not reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment for this story.

One of the incidents included in the report’s China section is harassment against two members of the international legal team supporting Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy publisher.

Lai is on trial in Hong Kong on national security charges that are widely viewed as politically motivated. The 76-year-old is in prison following convictions in other cases that supporters also view as sham cases.

Members of Lai’s legal team have faced death and rape threats, as well as attempts by unknown sources to hack their email and bank accounts, according to the report.

Sebastien Lai thanked the U.N. for shedding light on his father’s case.

“These intimidation tactics will not succeed. I will not rest until my father is freed,” he said in a statement.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, a barrister leading Jimmy’s international legal team, also condemned the attacks.

The reprisals “are personally unpleasant and distressing,” Gallagher said in a statement. “But they are also an attack on the legal profession and on the international human rights system.”

The reprisals make it harder for Jimmy Lai to use U.N. mechanisms to achieve justice in his case, Gallagher said.

Hong Kong’s government has tried to argue that the legal team interfered in Hong Kong’s judicial process by bringing his case to U.N. human rights mechanisms, according to the report.

“It’s just so nakedly in tension with its obligations under international law,” Richardson said.

On Thursday, Lai’s international legal team submitted an urgent appeal to the U.N. special rapporteur on torture. The appeal raised several concerns, including that the elderly publisher has been in solitary confinement since late 2020 and that the British national has been denied access to independent medical care, according to a statement from his legal team.

Lai’s trial began in December 2023. It was initially expected to last around 80 days but is now expected to resume in November.

Press freedom groups have called the trial a sham, and the U.S. and British governments have called for his immediate release. Hong Kong officials, however, have said he will receive a fair trial.

Other incidents cited in the U.N. report include the case of Cao Shunli, a Beijing-based human rights defender who was arrested following an attempt to engage in a universal periodic review of China’s human rights record at the Human Rights Council. Cao died in custody in 2014.

Another case is that of the Beijing-based activists Li Wenzu and Wang Quanzhang, who are married. The couple have faced significant retaliation, including police surveillance and evictions, and their son is unable to enroll in school due to pressure from state authorities, the report said.

“If one reads these cases, you get a sense of what risks — what unbelievable risks — people are taking to do this kind of work,” Richardson said.

The report doesn’t mention specific incidents involving Uyghurs or Tibetans, but Richardson says their absence underscores how difficult it is for some groups to access U.N. mechanisms in the first place, as well as how some people may be too scared to report such incidents to the U.N.

The Chinese government has engaged in severe human rights abuses against both ethnic groups, according to myriad reports. Multiple governments and international human rights organizations have accused Beijing of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs, which the Chinese government rejects.
…

Taipei, Taiwan — An expected visit to Hawaii by the head of China’s Southern Theater Command next week will come just days after a high-ranking Pentagon official attended a defense conference in Beijing.

The visits, analysts said, are part of an effort to expand high-level exchanges between the U.S. and China and boost top-level military-to-military communication. It is unclear, though, how much the exchanges will do to help avoid miscommunication and keep tensions in the Indo-Pacific under control, they added.

Earlier this week, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Sam Paparo, and the head of the PLA, or People’s Liberation Army, Southern Theater Command, General Wu Yanan, held a video call for the first time in years.

The Chinese defense ministry said the two commanders had an “in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern” while Paparo urged the Chinese military “to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond.”

Wu is expected to attend a defense conference held by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii next week, U.S. defense officials have confirmed to VOA.

Meanwhile, Michael Chase, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, is holding defense policy coordination talks with Chinese defense officials while attending the annual Xiangshan Security Dialogue held in Beijing this week.

A meeting that took place on the sidelines of the Xiangshan forum was designed to “underscore the United States’ shared vision for the region,” according to a U.S. Department of Defense readout Thursday.

The Biden administration has been working to restore communication between Chinese and American militaries since the U.S. president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California last November.

Chase’s visit to Beijing this week and Wu’s expected reciprocal visit next week follow a first meeting between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, last month.

During that meeting, Zhang said maintaining military security is “in line with the common interests of both sides” and Sullivan highlighted the two nations’ shared responsibility to “prevent competition from veering into conflict or confrontation.”

Some analysts see a potential for further communication and engagement between the two militaries.

“I won’t rule out the possibilities that Beijing and Washington may look to establish a hotline between the two militaries, and whether that mechanism could be extended to the theater command level remains to be seen,” Lin Ying-Yu, a military expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone.

While the resumption of top-level communication allows Beijing and Washington to avoid miscalculations, other experts say it is unclear whether China and the U.S. can establish a more sustainable mechanism to cope with potential crises.

“While having contact and knowing your interlocutors are positive things during non-crisis times, the real test is whether these contacts can hold back any unintended escalation when incidents happen,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

Chong said since theater commanders from the U.S. and China oversee implementing rather than formulating policies, it is unclear whether the latest development can become established protocols.

“If there’s a persistence of [maintaining military-to-military communication], then it would suggest that it has become a policy,” he told VOA by phone.

Tensions remain high over contentious issues

Tensions remain high between China and the U.S. over a range of issues, including the repeated collision between Chinese and Philippine vessels near disputed reefs in the South China Sea and Beijing’s increased maneuvers in waters and airspace near Taiwan and Japan.

During the Xiangshan forum, Lieutenant General He Lei, the former vice president of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, characterized the Philippines’ attempt to safeguard its territorial claims in the South China Sea as “a unilateral change of the status quo” while accusing the U.S. of undermining security across the Taiwan Strait by selling weapons to Taiwan.

“The Chinese people and the People’s Liberation Army will never allow any external forces to interfere in China’s internal affairs or invade China’s territory,” he told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN in an interview.

Some analysts say there are limits to what military-to-military communications can do to ease tensions over what are essentially political disagreements.

“The military tension is only a manifestation of their political differences over Taiwan and the South China Sea, so if their disagreements are not resolved, the military tension is very unlikely to see a permanent resolution,” Yun Sun, China program director at the Stimson Center in Washington, told VOA by phone.

With less than two months until the U.S. presidential election, Chong in Singapore said Beijing and Washington’s recent efforts may be an attempt to lay the foundation for bilateral military-to-military communication to be continued after the November election.

“On the Democrat side, if some of the current team stays [after November], perhaps we would see this momentum continue,” he told VOA.

“On the Republican side, things are a bit messier, because you have those who prefer the isolationist approach, those who advocate a containment approach in Asia, and people who talk about competing against China to win,” Chong added.

Sun said if Donald Trump wins the election in November, Beijing will expect instability in bilateral relations and be prepared for the military relationship to be affected.
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Taipei, Taiwan — The U.S.-China technology war is playing out in the smartphone market in China, where global rivals Apple and Huawei released new phones this week. Industry experts say Apple, which lacks home-field advantage, faces many challenges in defending its market share in the country.

The biggest highlight of the iPhone 16 is its artificial intelligence system, dubbed Apple Intelligence, while the Huawei Mate XT features innovative tri-fold screen technology.  But at a starting price of RMB 19,999, about $2,810, the Mate XT will cost about three times as much as the iPhone 16.

According to data from VMall, Huawei’s official shopping site, nearly 5.74 million people in China preordered the Mate XT as of late Thursday, 5½ days after Huawei began accepting preorders.

But in a survey conducted on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo by Radio France International, half of the 9,200 respondents said they would not purchase a Mate XT because the price is prohibitive. An additional 3,500 said they are not in the market for a new phone now.

“I suggest that Huawei release some products that ordinary people can afford,” a Weibo user wrote under the name “Diamond Man Yang Dong Feng.”

The iPhone 16 is not available for preorder until Friday, but some e-commerce vendors in China have promised to deliver the new devices to consumers within half a day to two days of sale.

In the competition between Apple and Huawei, iPhone 16 has some inherent disadvantages, said Shih-Fang Chiu, a senior industry analyst at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.

“Apple’s strength is information security and privacy, but this is difficult to achieve in the Chinese market, where the government can control the data in China’s market to a relatively high degree. In the era of AI mobile phones, this will bring challenges to Apple’s development in the Chinese market,” Chiu said.

Apple’s AI service on its iPhone 16 will roll out at a gradual pace in different languages, first in English and other languages later this year. The Chinese version will not be available until 2025.

There are other challenges Apple faces as well, Chiu added, such as regulatory controls, consumer sentiment favoring local brands and weakening spending power amid China’s economic slowdown.

According to Counterpoint Research’s statistics, Huawei held a market share of 15% in the second quarter of 2024, surpassing Apple’s 14% market share. That compares with Apple’s 17.3% share in 2023 as reported by the industry research firm International Data Corporation China, or IDC China.

Ryan Reith, the program vice president for IDC’s Mobile Device Tracker suite, said in a written response to VOA that the iPhone 16 has not made significant hardware upgrades and that AI applications alone are not attractive because consumers have GPT and other AI solutions.

AI applications are also another hurdle. Analyst Chih-Yen Tai said iPhone 16’s AI services involve personal data collection, information application and cloud computing, which will require collaboration with Chinese service providers.

That, along with the ban on Chinese civil servants and employees at state-owned enterprises from using their iPhone at work in recent years, will affect the sales of Apple products, said Tai, the deputy director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Evaluation at Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research in Taipei.

“China’s patriotism has led to a strong number of preorders” for Huawei’s tri-fold phones, Tai said.

“The competitors in China will sell the idea [to consumers] that iPhones will soon be edged out of the premium smartphone market. So, in the next stage, the affordable iPhone versions will be the key to whether it [Apple] can return to China or its previous glorious sales era,” Tai said.

Tzu-Ang Chen, a senior consultant in the digital technology industry in Taipei, said use of Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system surpassed that of Apple’s iOS in China in the first quarter of this year, representing China’s determination to “go its own way” and create “one world, two systems.”

“The U.S.-China technology war has extended to smartphones,” Chen said. “IPhone sales in China will get worse and worse, obviously because Huawei is doing better, and coupled with patriotism, Apple’s position in the hearts of 1.4 billion people will never return.”

He said that as China seeks to develop pro-China markets among member countries of the Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, China-made mobile phones may become their first choice.

VOA’s Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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HO CHI MINH CITY — Analysts say this week’s visit to Washington by Vietnamese Defense Minister Phan Van Giang shows advances in cooperation between the two countries, despite rising Vietnamese nationalism that may indicate rising anti-American sentiment in Vietnam.

A U.S.-based analyst told VOA on September 12 that Giang’s trip set the groundwork for Hanoi to potentially purchase military cargo planes from the United States this year.

Giang met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on Monday. [September 9] Both leaders “reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Vietnam partnership,” the Defense Department said in a statement, and noted the one-year anniversary of the elevation of the countries’ ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the highest tier in Hanoi’s diplomatic hierarchy.

The leaders also underscored the importance of working together to address the lasting impacts of the U.S.-Vietnam War. Austin announced that the U.S. would budget $65 million over the next five years to complete the decontamination of Bien Hoa airbase of dioxin, bringing the total from department to $215 million. The airbase was the primary storage site for the toxic chemical Agent Orange during the U.S.-Vietnam War and remains an environmental and public health hazard for those nearby.

Andrew Wells-Dang, who leads the Vietnam War Legacies and Reconciliation Initiative at the United States Institute of Peace, told VOA by phone on September 5 that diplomatic visits are key to advancing war-remediation efforts, including finding and identifying the remains of missing soldiers. He said that along with the U.S. visit of Deputy Defense Minister Vo Minh Luong in July, visits from authorities provide “opportunity for them to have high level support.”

Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington and an expert on Southeast Asia, said joint war-reconciliation efforts also set the groundwork for defense cooperation more broadly.

“The United States is very pleased with the growth in bilateral defense relations, and it started from very low levels and was built on humanitarian missions,” Abuza said during the August 29 call.

“We’ve just continued to build on that,” he added.

Cargo planes

Reuters reported in July that Hanoi was considering purchasing Lockheed Martin C-130 cargo planes from the U.S., according to unnamed sources.

The U.S.-based analyst, who asked that his name to be withheld because he has not been cleared to discuss the topic, said the C-130 deal was discussed but not finalized during Giang’s visit. The analyst said the deal was held back by the “massive [U.S.] bureaucracy” and because solidifying the purchase during the Washington visit would be “too inflammatory for the Chinese.”

Ian Storey, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, noted Vietnam’s delicate diplomatic balancing act, illustrated by Giang’s travel itinerary before the Washington trip.

“Vietnam aims to keep its relations with the major powers in balance,” he wrote in an email on August 30. “As such, Vietnamese Defense Minister Phan Van Giang visited Russia and China in August.”

Storey added that the purchase of C-130 planes would not pose a threat to China in its maritime territorial disputes with Vietnam.

“C-130 aircraft would enable the Vietnamese to transport troops and supplies to its occupied atolls in the South China Sea, but these assets are non-strategic and won’t shift the dynamics in the South China Sea,” he wrote.

Nguyen The Phuong, a maritime security expert at the University of New South Wales Canberra, said the C-130 purchase would be a “symbolic move.”

“Vietnam will try to explore more areas of security and defense cooperation between Vietnam and the United States to upgrade to a higher, more meaningful level,” he told VOA on August 30. “The C-130 would be the symbol of that kind of evolving relationship,” he said.

Phuong said a C-130 is a likely entry point as there is still mistrust between the former foes regarding lethal weapons, and the deal would not rankle China too much.

“It could be quite advantageous for Vietnam,” he said of a potential C-130 purchase. “Vietnam can improve its relationship with the United States, and at the same time, we could not anger China because Vietnam would just buy non-lethal weapons.”

Rising nationalism

Although there are positive signs to improving Hanoi-Washington relations, there have also been recent instances of anti-Western sentiment that could be an impediment to the countries relations, Phuong said.

Fulbright University Vietnam, which has significant backing from the United States, is facing accusations of fomenting a “color revolution,” similar to the popular uprisings in former Soviet republics.

On August 21, Vietnam National Defense TV aired a critique of Fulbright for allegedly not displaying the Vietnamese flag at a graduation ceremony and facilitating a color revolution.

The report has since been taken down, but Phuong said the Fulbright issue and other recent incidents show tension between Vietnam’s conservative and liberal factions.

“It’s a presentation of a continuous struggle between different factions, one conservative and one liberal,” Phuong said.

Abuza said that Vietnamese authorities may be attempting to tighten control ahead of the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

“Next April is the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon,” he said. “The Vietnamese want to control that narrative 100%. There are a lot of sensitivities.”

Along with the Fulbright incident, Phuong pointed to recent uproar around Vietnamese celebrities who were pictured with the South Vietnam flag while traveling to the United States. In addition, a Vietnamese high school student faced cyber bullying and was summoned by police after posting in September that he wanted to leave the country and would “probably never see the [Communist] Party positively again.”

“There’s extreme nationalism in Vietnam at the moment,” Phuong said. “It’s against Western values.”
…

washington — In a testament to the global influence of U.S. politics, this week’s televised debate between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris broke through an intensely busy news cycle in South Asia to garner extensive coverage across most major news outlets.  

The pivotal showdown between the two contenders vying to succeed Joe Biden as U.S. president resonated with audiences across the region, overcoming a nine- to 10-hour time difference from Washington and competing with a barrage of pressing domestic headlines:    

In India, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi made a high-profile visit to the United States. In Bangladesh, interim leader Muhammad Yunus delivered his second major speech to the nation. And in Pakistan, the National Assembly speaker suspended security officials over the controversial arrest of five lawmakers in the Parliament building. 

Yet amid this flurry of regional developments, leading newspapers and TV stations from Karachi to Dhaka provided considerable coverage of the debate, reflecting heightened regional interest in the outcome of the U.S. presidential contest.       

“The news cycle in these countries is so fast, and the issues they are dealing with internally are so intense that probably their focus has shifted from what is happening elsewhere,” said Awais Saleem, a former Pakistani journalist now a professor at Lamar University in the U.S. state of Texas.    

“Nonetheless, [the U.S. election] is still keenly observed and keenly watched because whatever happens in the U.S. invariably has an effect in other parts of the world, and South Asia is no exception,” Saleem said.     

India  

Take India, the region’s most populous country and largest media market. Major Indian outlets, such as NDTV and CNN’s local affiliate, dedicated significant coverage to the debate, even while prioritizing Gandhi’s remarks in Washington. Aaj tak, another leading channel, had a correspondent reporting on the debate from the spin room in Philadelphia.      

Large-circulation newspapers provided more substantial coverage, even while relying on international wire services for content.     

The Times of India, India’s largest newspaper, featured a video analysis of the debate on its homepage. The Hindu, another major paper, ran multiple articles, including one focusing on Trump’s pledge to end the Ukraine war and another on Hollywood’s “applause” for Harris.      

While much of the coverage was routine, some stood out. In addition to broadcasting the debate live, NDTV produced at least 10 stories and segments dedicated to what it termed a “fiery presidential showdown.” These included highlights and key quotes, and major takeaways.      

While Indians are as divided over Trump and Harris as Americans, most local outlets widely reported on the American media’s verdict that Harris had outperformed Trump.      

Ahead of the debate, many Indians were skeptical of Harris, said Ashutosh, a veteran Indian journalist and co-founder of Satya Hindi. To find out how Harris did, Satya Hindi devoted a 30-minute segment featuring a U.S.-based Indian American academic, Ashutosh said.      

The verdict: Harris won the debate.      

“There now is a feeling that Kamala Harris is not a weak candidate,” said Ashutosh, who goes by one name.      

India, like other South Asian countries, lacks an American-style tradition of live election debates. The concept intrigues many but faces cultural and political obstacles, experts say.    

On Satya Hindi, another guest, journalist Shravan Garg, questioned their feasibility.  Would Indian TV channels “dare” to host live debates and would politicians “agree” to participate, he asked.      

Atul Singh, founder and editor-in-chief of Fair Observer, an international citizen journalism and civic education platform, said Indian interest in U.S. elections has surged in recent years, spurred by globalization and more recently by the Indian ancestry of Harris and Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance.       

But he said the level of interest varies across the country. States with stronger ties to the U.S., such as Gujarat, a source of migration to the U.S., and Maharashtra, a manufacturing hub for exports to the U.S., are gripped by U.S. election fever. In more rural regions such as Bihar, with fewer connections to the U.S., enthusiasm is far more subdued.      

“So it depends on which part of the country you’re in,” Singh said. “I’d say some areas in India simply don’t care, and others, the ones that are part of the global economy, are absolutely obsessed.”     

Pakistan, Bangladesh   

In neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh, the debate received far less coverage despite comparable public interest.     

Geo TV, Pakistan’s leading TV news channel, ran an international segment on the debate, reporting on the candidates’ “combative demeanor.” A wire story on its website noted that foreign policy “largely took a backseat.”     

Leading English language newspaper Dawn highlighted the debate as its top international story, reporting how Harris put Trump “on the defensive at a combative presidential debate.” A wire fact check about the debate was included among its “must read stories” on its homepage      

Express Tribune, another leading newspaper, picked up multiple wire service stories about the debate, posting three short video compilations on its websites, including a video of viral memes generated by Trump’s comment that migrants were eating people’s cats and dogs in Ohio.     

Atif Khan, a Pakistani journalist, said Harris’ unexpected emergence as the Democratic nominee helped boost Pakistani public interest in the U.S. presidential election.     

“Every political discussion on television now involves a mention of the U.S. election,” Khan said. “There is talk about Trump. There is talk about Kamala Harris.”     

While Pakistani media generally don’t cover elections in neighboring countries, some local outlets are already planning their U.S. election coverage and trying to secure U.S. visas for their reporters, he said.     

“Pakistanis think that a change of president will inevitably have direct implications for not just Pakistan but also the region,” he said.     

Underscoring the Pakistani media’s interest, Saleem, the Lamar University professor, noted receiving weekly invitations from various outlets to discuss the U.S. election campaign.      

Bangladesh  

In Bangladesh, the debate’s coverage was overshadowed by continuing reverberations from the August 5 collapse of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.     

While interim leader Yunus’ speech dominated headlines on Wednesday, leading outlets provided more substantive coverage of the debate, drawing on international wire stories and analysis.      

Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s largest media outlet, called the debate, “the most important moment” before the November 5 election.      

Daily Star, one of the most reputable outlets, ran at least four stories, including a fact check and a video analysis.      

Daily Ittefaq, a Bengali language newspaper, ran a summary of U.S. media accounts of the debate, reporting that even the conservative Fox News had declared Harris the winner.     

Singh, founder of Fair Observer, said the post-Hasina political turmoil in Bangladesh likely contributed to the relatively thin coverage.     

“They’ve got their own fish to fry,” he said.     

But, he added, political elites in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – all dependent on the International Monetary Fund, the global finance agency, largesse – are keenly watching the U.S. election campaign.      

“They are in economic crisis, so they follow the election for practical reasons,” he said.  

VOA’s Bangla, Deewa and Uru services contributed to this article.  
…

Islamabad — Gunmen in central Afghanistan killed at least 14 Shiite Muslims in an overnight attack that was claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State group, multiple sources said Friday.

The Interior Ministry spokesperson in Kabul, Abdul Matin Qani, told the local TOLO news channel that assailants targeted a group of civilians in the Afghan province of Daykundi on Thursday. He did not, however, immediately share any details about the number of casualties or the nature of the attack.

The media outlet quoted area residents and sources as confirming that the violence had resulted in the deaths of at least 14 people and injuries to four others.

The Islamic State group said through its Amaq news agency that “soldiers” of its Afghan offshoot, the Islamic State Khorasan, also known as IS-K, were behind the shooting. It claimed that “15 Shiite [Muslims] were killed and six others wounded.”

Daykundi residents said the victims had gathered to welcome pilgrims returning from the Shiite holy site of Karbala in Iraq.

Richard Bennett, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Afghan human rights situation, denounced Thursday’s violence.

“Yesterday’s appalling ISKP-claimed killings of #Hazara from #Daykundi…. bears hallmarks of int’l crimes,” Bennett said Friday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’m alarmed about the spate of ISKP-claimed attacks. Need for prevention, protection & [international] accountability #Afghanistan,” he wrote, using an acronym for IS-K.

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan three years ago and say their counterterrorism operations have since “almost decimated” IS-K in the country. However, U.S. officials and recent United Nations reports dispute the claims, identifying IS-K as a growing terrorism threat to the region and beyond.

Earlier this month, IS-K claimed a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital that killed six people. In May, the group took responsibility for an attack by gunmen in the central Bamiyan province that killed three Spanish tourists and their local translator. In March, IS-K claimed that it was behind an attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed 145 Russians.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid reiterated in a statement last week that “concerns raised by Western countries and institutions regarding the presence and escalating threat” of IS-K in Afghanistan were “unfounded and driven by propaganda.”

Mujahid claimed that “the entire Afghan territory remains firmly under the control of the Islamic Emirate, leaving no room for independent or external groups to operate.” The Taliban refer to their administration as the Islamic Emirate.

No country has officially recognized the Taliban government in Kabul, mainly because of human rights concerns and extensive restrictions the Islamist Taliban have placed on women’s access to education, work, and public life at large.
…

HANOI, Vietnam — The death toll in the aftermath of a typhoon in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.  

Flood waters from the swollen Red River in the capital, Hanoi, were beginning to recede, but many neighborhoods remained inundated and farther north experts were predicting it could still be days before any relief is in sight.  

Typhoon Yagi made landfall Saturday, starting a week of heavy rains that have triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly in Vietnam’s mountainous north.  

Across Vietnam, 103 people are still listed as missing and more than 800 have been injured.  

Most fatalities have come in the province of Lao Cai, where a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu on Tuesday. Eight villagers turned up safe on Friday morning, telling others that they had left before the deluge, state-run VNExpress newspaper reported, but 48 others from Lang Nu have been found dead, and another 39 remain missing.   

Roads to Lang Nu have been badly damaged, making it impossible to bring in heavy equipment to aid in the rescue effort.  

Some 500 personnel with sniffer dogs are on hand, and in a visit to the scene on Thursday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised they would not relent in their search for those still missing.  

“Their families are in agony,” Chinh said.  

Coffins were stacked near the disaster site in preparation for the worst, and villager Tran Thi Ngan mourned at a makeshift altar for family members she had lost.  

“It’s a disaster,” she told VTV news. “That’s the fate we have to accept.”  

In Cao Bang, another northern province bordering China, 21 bodies had been recovered by Friday, four days after a landslide pushed a bus, a car and several motorcycles into a small river, swollen with floodwaters. Ten more people remain missing.  

Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall.  

The effects of the typhoon, the strongest to hit Vietnam in decades, were also being felt across the region, with flooding and landslides in northern Thailand, Laos and northeastern Myanmar.  

In Thailand, 10 deaths have been reported due to flooding or landslides, and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra flew to the north on Friday to visit affected people in the border town of Mae Sai. Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation warned of a continuing risk of flash floods in multiple areas through Wednesday, as new rain was expected to increase the Mekong River’s levels further.  

International aid has been flowing into Vietnam in the aftermath of Yagi, with Australia already delivering humanitarian supplies as part of $2 million in assistance.  

South Korea has also pledged $2 million in humanitarian aid, and the U.S. Embassy said Friday it would provide $1 million in support through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.   

“With more heavy rain forecast in the coming days, USAID’s disaster experts continue to monitor humanitarian needs in close coordination with local emergency authorities and partners on the ground,” the embassy said in a statement. “USAID humanitarian experts on the ground are participating in ongoing assessments to ensure U.S. assistance rapidly reaches populations in need.”  

The typhoon and ensuing heavy rains have damaged factories in northern provinces like Haiphong, home to electric car company VinFast, Apple parts suppliers and other electronic manufacturers, which could affect international supply chains, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a research note.  

“Though 95 percent of businesses operating in Haiphong were expected to resume some activity on September 10, repair efforts will likely lower output for the next weeks and months,” CSIS said. 
…

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — When an uprising ousted Sri Lanka’s president, many saw it as the end of his powerful family’s hold on the island nation after more than 12 years of rule.

Now, as Sri Lanka prepares to elect a new leader, Namal Rajapaksa is running for president. The 38-year-old is the son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the nephew of the ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Namal Rajapaksa is presenting himself as an agent of change, but many see his bid for presidency as an attempt by the controversial political dynasty to regain power.

By mid-2022, the clan’s political career seemed in ruins. Some of its members were forced into hiding in military camps after angry protesters stormed their residences. Others simply gave up their seats in the government as people blamed them for hurtling the country of more than 20 million people into an economic crisis.

Two years later, the family — shunned and pushed to political wilderness — is trying make a comeback via the Rajapaksa heir apparent who is styling himself as someone who could deliver Sri Lanka into a prosperous future.

But for Namal Rajapaksa, it’s more than just a political choice — it’s a deeply personal one. He wants to shed the widespread allegations that the Rajapaksa clan ran the country as a family business that led to the economy crashing in 2022 — as well as the guilty verdict on corruption charges against them.

“The corruption charges are not something common to my family or to myself. If you look at all politicians in this country or in the world, including our region … all have been accused of being corrupt,” Namal told the Associated Press on a recent afternoon. “People will understand, you know, because if you look at the current stage, everyone is blaming each other.”

Sri Lanka was once an economic hope in South Asia, before it plunged into an economic crisis in 2022 when unsustainable debt and the COVID-19 pandemic led to a severe shortage of essentials. The crisis morphed into a popular uprising, with angry street protesters taking over the president’s and prime minister’s offices and other key buildings, forcing Gotabaya to flee the country and later resign.

Many blamed the Rajapaksas.

The family still had a big parliamentary majority, and voted Ranil Wickremesinghe to serve the remainder of the presidential term. Wickremesinghe ensured them protection in return for their support to pass laws in Parliament, enabling the clan to mark a return in politics.

“We didn’t run away, we never ran away. It’s just that some people thought we were hiding,” said Namal.

Namal’s prospects for a political comeback appear grim, as the main contest appears to be between three other candidates: Wickremesinghe, the parliamentary opposition leader and a left-leaning politician with a powerful alliance.

Alan Keenan, senior consultant on Sri Lanka at the International Crisis Group, said the younger Rajapaksa’s bid for the presidency is a test run that would establish “his position as the heir apparent” of the political dynasty.

“I think they [the Rajapaksas] know that Namal will not win. But his candidature effectively reasserts the family’s ownership of the party,” Keenan said.

The Rajapaksa family has been a mainstay in Sri Lankan politics for decades. They influenced nearly everything — from bureaucracy to courts, police, business and sports.

Namal Rajapaksa’s father was a prime minister and then a two-term president from 2005 to 2015. Even though Mahinda Rajapaksa was adored by the country’s majority Buddhist Sinhalese for defeating the ethnic Tamil separatists after a 26-year bloody civil war, allegations of human rights violations and corruption led to his defeat in 2015.

The family, however, returned more powerful four years later, when Mahinda’s brother was elected president. Gotabaya Rajapaksa whipped up majority Buddhist Sinhalese sentiments after the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, blamed on Islamic extremist groups, killed 290 people.

But the family’s popularity quickly eroded under a tanking economy and alienation among ethnic Tamils, Muslims and other minorities.

With hopes to reinvent himself as a young, modern leader removed from his family’s tainted past, Namal Rajapaksa’s efforts mirror that of his father, who still enjoys considerable support among some voters who credit him for crushing the Tamil separatists.

Like his father, Namal Rajapaksa wears the trademark outfit that highlights his Buddhist Sinhalese culture, with a maroon scarf around his neck, a sarong and a white robe. During campaigns he can be seen touching his father’s feet in reverence, a practice most locals consider noble. He is also promising to free the island nation from its debt crisis, create more jobs and eradicate corruption by digitizing the administrative systems.

Still, many in Sri Lanka are done with the family, and public opposition to Rajapaksa’s candidacy is particularly palpable among the Tamil community that makes up about 11% of Sri Lanka’s population.

The group was crushed in a 2009 government offensive headed by Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa to end the separatist civil war that broke out in 1983 and left at least 100,000 on both sides, with many more missing. Though not all Tamils were part of or supported the rebel group, their defeat has effectively become a political defeat to the community. They also blame the Rajapaksas for alleged human rights violations against civilians during the war.

Vellaiyan Sivaprakash, a Tamil who works as an auditor in central Sri Lanka, said he constantly lived in fear of violence during the Rajapaksa rule and doubted whether he could live in Sri Lanka anymore.

“Their rule was like a monarchy and they behaved like princes and treated us like slaves,” Sivaprakash said. “They should never come back to power.”

Rajapaksas still have a large chunk of supporters who appreciate their role in ending the war and in big infrastructure projects including a road network, an airport and a seaport built on high-interest Chinese loans.

Even though many of them believe Namal Rajapaksa has no chance of winning, they are banking on his future prospects.

“I will vote for Namal because I got my job under his father’s government. He is still young and one day he can be the president,” said R. M. Lasantha, who works as a pipe fitter at the state-owned petroleum corporation.

Some Sri Lankans say it would take the Rajapaksas at least a decade to make a political comeback.

“Their name is associated with corruption and bankruptcy, so rebuilding [their image] is a major challenge,” said Manilal Ranasinghe, who works in the tourism industry.

“At the same time,” Ranasinghe said, “we know that Sri Lankans have a short memory.”
…

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea offered a rare glimpse into a secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium as state media reported Friday that leader Kim Jong Un visited the area and called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” increase the number of his nuclear weapons.

It’s unclear if the site is at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but it’s the North’s first disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010. While the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the U.S. and its allies, the images North Korea’s media released of the area could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced.

During a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of weapon-grade nuclear materials, Kim expressed “great satisfaction repeatedly over the wonderful technical force of the nuclear power field” held by North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

KCNA said that Kim walked around the control room of the uranium enrichment base and a construction site that would expand its capacity for producing nuclear weapons. North Korean state media photos showed Kim being briefed by scientists while walking along long lines of tall gray tubes, but KCNA didn’t say when Kim visited the facilities and where they are located.

KCNA said Kim stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges to “exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defense,” a goal he has repeatedly stated in recent years. It said Kim ordered officials to push forward the introduction of a new-type centrifuge, which has reached its completion stage.

Kim said North Korea needs greater defense and preemptive attack capabilities because anti-North Korea “nuclear threats perpetrated by the U.S. imperialists-led vassal forces have become more undisguised and crossed the red-line,” KCNA said.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it strongly condemned North Korea’s unveiling of a uranium-enrichment facility and Kim’s vows to boost his country’s nuclear capability. A ministry statement said North Korea’s “illegal” pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of U.N. bans is a serious threat to international peace. It said North Korea must realize it cannot win anything with its nuclear program.

North Korea first showed a uranium enrichment site in Yongbyon to the outside world in November 2010, when it allowed a visiting delegation of Stanford University scholars led by nuclear physicist, Siegfried Hecker, to tour its centrifuges. North Korean officials then reportedly told Hecker that 2,000 centrifuges were already installed and running at Yongbyon.

Satellite images in recent years have indicated North Korea was expanding a uranium enrichment plant at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Nuclear weapons can be built using either highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has facilities to produce both at Yongbyon. It’s not clear exactly how much weapons-grade plutonium or highly enriched uranium has been produced at Yongbyon and where North Korea stores it.

“For analysts outside the country, the released images will provide a valuable source of information for rectifying our assumptions about how much material North Korea may have amassed to date,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Overall, we should not assume that North Korea will be as constrained as it once was by fissile material limitations. This is especially true for highly enriched uranium, where North Korea is significantly less constrained in its ability to scale up than it is with plutonium,” Panda said.

In 2018, Hecker and Stanford University scholars estimated North Korea’s highly enriched uranium inventory was 250 to 500 kilograms, sufficient for 25 to 30 nuclear devices.

The North Korean photos released Friday showed about 1,000 centrifuges. When operated year-round, they would be able to produce around 20 to 25 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, which would be enough to create a single bomb, according to Yang Uk, a security expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

The new-type centrifuge Kim wants to introduce is likely an advanced carbon fiber-based one that could allow North Korea to produce five to 10 times more highly enriched uranium than its existing ones, said Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.

Some U.S. and South Korean experts speculate North Korea is covertly running at least one other uranium-enrichment plant. In 2018, a top South Korean official told parliament that North Korea was estimated to have already manufactured up to 60 nuclear weapons. Estimates on how many nuclear bombs North Korea can add every year vary, ranging from six to as many as 18. 
…

Singapore — Pope Francis wrapped up an arduous 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Friday, defying health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore.

The 87-year-old pontiff flies home to Rome from Singapore, completing his longest trip in duration and distance since he became head of the world’s estimated 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 13 years ago.

The Argentine pope has relied on a wheelchair since 2022 because of knee pain and sciatica. He had a hernia operation in June 2023, and earlier this year he battled flu and bronchitis.

Occasionally, during his four-nation trip, the pope struggled to keep his eyes open when listening to late-night liturgical readings or to remain engaged during formal military parades.

But he was clearly energized by more freewheeling exchanges — cheerfully goading young people to shout out their agreement with his calls to help those in need.

In a lively final inter-religious meeting with young Singaporeans, the pope urged them to respect other beliefs, avoid being slaves to technology and to get out of their comfort zones.

“Don’t let your stomach get fat, but let your head get fat,” the pope said, raising a laugh from his audience.

“I say take risks, go out there,” he said. “A young person that is afraid and does not take risks is an old person.”

The historic tour, initially planned for 2020 but postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, has included 43 hours of flight time and a distance of 32,000 kilometers.

But neither the pace — 16 speeches and up to eight hours of time difference — nor the heat, nor multiple meetings have forced any rescheduling of his international odyssey.

On a trip that took him to the outer edges of the church’s world, the pope delivered a sometimes uncomfortable message for leaders not to forget the poor and marginalized.

In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority state, he visited the Istiqlal Mosque to deliver a joint message against conflict and climate change.

In sweltering Papua New Guinea, he donned a bird of paradise headdress in a remote, jungle village where he told inhabitants to halt violence and renounce “superstition and magic.”

Addressing political and business leaders, he insisted that the country’s vast natural resources should benefit the entire community — a demand likely to resound in a nation where many believe their riches are being stolen or squandered.

And in staunchly Roman Catholic East Timor, he addressed nearly half the population, drawing about 600,000 rapturous believers in the tropical heat to a celebration of mass on the island’s coast.

Francis addressed East Timor’s leaders, hailing a new era of “peace” since independence in 2002.

But he also called on them to do more to prevent abuse against young people, in a nod to recent Catholic Church child abuse scandals.

In the affluent city-state of Singapore, the pope called for “special attention” to be paid to protecting the dignity of migrant workers.

“These workers contribute a great deal to society and should be guaranteed a fair wage,” he said.

There are an estimated 170 million migrant workers around the world. Most live in the Americas, Europe or Central Asia.

But the Argentine pope was otherwise full of praise for the “entrepreneurial spirit” and dynamism that built a “mass of ultra-modern skyscrapers that seem to rise from the sea” in his final destination.

Sandra Ross, 55, a church administrator in Singapore, said she was still “feeling the warmth and joy” after attending mass led by the pope.

“I was deeply touched by Pope Francis’ courage and dedication to his mission, despite his health challenges. His spirit and enthusiasm are truly inspiring,” she said.
…

washington — This week’s U.S. televised debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris broke through an intensely busy news cycle in South Asia to garner attention across most major news outlets.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi visited the United States. Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, delivered his second major speech to the nation. And Pakistan suspended security officials over the controversial arrest of lawmakers from Parliament.

Despite these significant developments and a nine- to 10-hour time difference from Washington, the pivotal showdown between the two contenders to succeed Joe Biden as U.S. president still drew high interest, underscoring the significance of U.S. electoral politics for the region.

“The news cycle in these countries is so fast and the issues they are dealing with internally are so intense that probably their focus has shifted from what is happening elsewhere,” said Awais Saleem, a former Pakistani journalist who is now a professor at Lamar University in the U.S. state of Texas.

“Nonetheless, [the U.S. election] is still keenly observed and keenly watched, because whatever happens in the U.S. invariably has an effect in other parts of the world, and South Asia is no exception,” Saleem said. 

India

Take India, the region’s most populous country and largest media market. Major Indian outlets, such as NDTV and CNN’s local affiliate, dedicated significant coverage to the debate, even while prioritizing Gandhi’s remarks in Washington. Aaj Tak, another leading channel, had a correspondent reporting on the debate from the spin room in Philadelphia.

Large-circulation newspapers provided more substantial coverage, even while relying on international wire services for content.

The Times of India, India’s largest newspaper, featured a video analysis of the debate on its website. The Hindu, another major paper, ran multiple articles, including one focusing on Trump’s pledge to end the Ukraine war and another on Hollywood’s “applause” for Harris.

While much of the coverage was routine, some stood out. In addition to broadcasting the debate live, NDTV produced at least 10 stories and segments dedicated to what it termed a “fiery presidential showdown.” These included highlights, key quotes and major takeaways.

While Indians are as divided over Trump and Harris as Americans, most local outlets widely reported on the American media’s verdict that Harris had outperformed Trump.

Ahead of the debate, many Indians were skeptical of Harris, said Ashutosh, a veteran Indian journalist and co-founder of news outlet Satya Hindi. To find out how Harris did, Satya Hindi devoted a 30-minute segment featuring a U.S.-based Indian American academic, Ashutosh said.

The verdict: Harris won the debate.

“There now is a feeling that Kamala Harris is not a weak candidate,” said Ashutosh, who goes by one name.

India, like other South Asian countries, lacks an American-style tradition of live election debates. The concept intrigues many but faces cultural and political obstacles, experts say.

On Satya Hindi, another guest, journalist Shravan Garg, questioned their feasibility. He asked whether Indian TV channels would “dare” to host live debates and whether politicians would “agree” to participate.

Atul Singh, founder and editor-in-chief of Fair Observer, an international citizen journalism and civic education platform, said Indian interest in U.S. elections has surged in recent years, spurred by globalization and more recently by the Indian ancestry of Harris and Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.

But he said the level of interest varies across the country. States with stronger ties to the U.S., such as Gujarat, a source of migration to the U.S., and Maharashtra, a manufacturing hub for exports to the U.S., are gripped by U.S. election fever. In more rural regions such as Bihar, with fewer connections to the U.S., enthusiasm is far more subdued.

“So it depends on which part of the country you’re in,” Singh said. “I’d say some areas in India simply don’t care, and others, the ones that are part of the global economy, are absolutely obsessed.”

Pakistan

In neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh, the debate received far less coverage despite comparable public interest.

Geo TV, Pakistan’s leading TV news channel, ran an international segment on the debate, reporting on the candidates’ “combative demeanor.” A wire story on its website noted that foreign policy “largely took a backseat.”

Leading English language newspaper Dawn highlighted the debate as its top international story, reporting how Harris put Trump “on the defensive at a combative presidential debate.” A wire fact check about the debate was included among its “must read stories” on its homepage.

Express Tribune, another leading newspaper, picked up multiple wire service stories about the debate, posting three short video compilations on its websites, including a video of viral memes generated by Trump’s comment that migrants were eating people’s cats and dogs in Ohio.

Atif Khan, a Pakistani journalist, said Harris’ unexpected emergence as the Democratic nominee helped boost Pakistani public interest in the U.S. presidential election.

“Every political discussion on television now involves a mention of the U.S. election,” Khan said. “There is talk about Trump. There is talk about Kamala Harris.”

While Pakistani media generally don’t cover elections in neighboring countries, some local outlets are already planning their U.S. election coverage and trying to secure U.S. visas for their reporters, he said.

“Pakistanis think that a change of president will inevitably have direct implications for not just Pakistan but also the region,” he said.

Underscoring the Pakistani media’s interest, Saleem, the Lamar University professor, noted receiving weekly invitations from various outlets to discuss the U.S. election campaign.

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the debate’s coverage was overshadowed by continuing reverberations from the August 5 collapse of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.

While interim leader Yunus’ speech dominated headlines on Wednesday, leading outlets provided more substantive coverage of the debate, drawing on international wire stories and analysis.

Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s largest media outlet, called the debate “the most important moment” before the November 5 election.

Daily Star, one of the most reputable outlets, ran at least four stories, including a fact check and a video analysis.

Daily Ittefaq, a Bengali language newspaper, ran a summary of U.S. media accounts of the debate, reporting that even the conservative Fox News had declared Harris the winner.

Singh, founder of Fair Observer, said the post-Hasina political turmoil in Bangladesh likely contributed to the relatively thin coverage.

“They’ve got their own fish to fry,” he said.

But, he added, political elites in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – all dependent on International Monetary Fund largesse – are keenly watching the U.S. election campaign.

“They are in economic crisis, so they follow the election for practical reasons,” he said.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Michael McCaul’s office recently released detailed findings of an investigation into the chaotic August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has been criticized for poor planning.

Speaking with Saba Shah Khan of VOA’s Urdu Service, McCaul, a Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, denied that the latest probe was a “political exercise” that coincides with a tight presidential race. He said its purpose was to ensure that “an evacuation will never happen like this again.”

On Tuesday, the committee’s ranking Democrat, Representative Gregory Meeks from New York, issued a statement criticizing the report as a collection of “cherry-picked witness testimony” that excludes “anything unhelpful to a predetermined, partisan narrative about the Afghanistan withdrawal.”

“The Majority did not involve the Minority in this report, nor have they even provided a draft copy to us,” he wrote.

In the following interview, McCaul accuses White House officials of “stonewalling” the investigation and mentions his September 3 decision to subpoena Secretary of State Antony Blinken for testimony even though findings of the full report were released Monday.

“We’re still not finished with the investigation,” McCaul told VOA on Tuesday.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller last week issued a statement to The Hill stating that Blinken was unable to testify on the dates requested and offered “reasonable alternatives” to comply with McCaul’s request.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: Why is the Foreign Affairs Committee report on U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan being released now? With less than two months left to Election Day, some would say the report is politically driven.

U.S. Representative Michael McCaul: It’s been three years since the … chaotic evacuation. The first year, the majority — at that time, the Democrats — did nothing to investigate. So, I’ve had two years to put this very comprehensive, complete, historic account of what happened together. In the meantime, we served many subpoenas. We’ve had to threaten contempt proceedings. And I would have liked to have had this done a year ago. The administration has been, you know, stonewalling us and slowing down the delivery of the report. In fact, we’re still not finished with the investigation.

VOA: In light of the report, what do you think the Biden administration could have done differently to avoid the chaos and mayhem that unfolded during the withdrawal?

McCaul: That’s one of the key takeaways here. The military is on the ground doing their job. That’s to pull out by July [as dictated by a predetermined date of withdrawal negotiated by the prior administration]. The intelligence community sees what’s happening. They report this information. It gets a little bit manipulated when it gets to the higher level. And then it is amplified that everything’s fine in Afghanistan, when, in fact, on the ground, the conditions are getting very bad.

The State Department is required by law to come out with an evacuation plan called the NEO [Noncombatant Evacuation Operations]. They kept resisting this because they thought evacuation means failure. So, they wait until the very day that the Taliban is overrunning Kabul before they finally initiate an evacuation plan. That is why it was so chaotic. That is why the 13 servicemen and women were left behind — with Taliban, by the way — to work with them to help Afghans get out.

VOA: The report says that [President Joe] Biden kept Zalmay Khalilzad on as special representative [for Afghanistan reconciliation from September 2018 to October 2021], making it clear Biden embraced the [February 2020] Doha Accord. Sir, was that a good decision?

McCaul: The complaint I had — and Zal and I, you know, I’ve known him for a long time, and I have respect for him — but he did not include the Afghan government in the Doha talks. So, it was just between Zal Khalilzad and the Taliban. That sent a terrible message to the Afghan government. They felt like they were sidelined. … The Doha Agreement had conditions. Most important is the Taliban cannot hit U.S. forces. They were continuing to do that. But according to President Biden’s press guy [former State Department spokesperson Ned Price], Doha was “immaterial” as to the evacuation. He was going to go to zero — that means zero troops, zero contractors, zero air power — one way or the other. That was going to happen. He made that decision on day one.

VOA: The [Doha] negotiations and the decision to leave Afghanistan was made during the Trump administration. Chairman, do you think….

McCaul: … that isn’t accurate, because the Taliban were in violation of the Doha conditions. Twenty-five hundred troops were left on the ground — General [Kenneth] McKenzie and [Mark] Milly said that was sufficient to stabilize, along with 6,500 NATO and air power and contractors. That they could stabilize both Bagram and HKIA [Hamid Karzai International Airport] when it went to zero. That’s when it changed.

VOA: The date of withdrawal was decided by the Trump administration…

McCaul: … if conditions were met, which they weren’t …

VOA: … do you think that it is fair to hold the Biden administration solely responsible for the failure?

McCaul: And we don’t. We actually fault Zal Khalilzad. We list a lot of top D.O.D. [Department of Defense] and State Department officials that Congress, in a resolution, will condemn for their actions. Zal Khalilzad, he’s a dear friend, but by not letting the Afghan government participate — to me, that was a major error. And a lot of this, by not executing a plan of action to get out and evacuate, according to the top generals and the intelligence community, was the fatal flaw, leaving behind Americans, Afghan allies, and most importantly, the women.

VOA: The report also says that the U.S. did not keep track of whether the Taliban were following the Doha Agreement. In your opinion, how could the U.S. have made Taliban comply?

McCaul: In my opinion, they were in violation at the time the president made the decision to go to zero. But according to his press spokesperson, that was immaterial to the withdrawal. It was going to happen one way or the other. What people don’t understand is it’s not just the military being pulled out, it’s the air cover, it’s the contractors. When everything is pulled out, the Afghan army was virtually defenseless.

VOA: It is also said in the report that Afghanistan is a hotbed of terrorist activities. Can U.S. leave Taliban to their doings? And what is the way forward?

McCaul: It’s very, very dangerous. I was the chairman of Homeland Security Committee. What we’re seeing now, and we saw it before, is the Haqqani [network and] Taliban protecting Zawahiri, [the] number two Al-Qaeda [figure], who was taken by drone strike not too long after the evacuation. We know that they were collaborating — ISIS-K and Taliban — because United States is a common enemy.

Most disturbingly is Bagram, the prisons in Bagram. They [the Taliban] released thousands of ISIS prisoners that have now gone to the Khorasan region — that’s Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan — [for] external operations. Just recently, the FBI indicated to us that eight of them have been detained in the United States coming across the southwest border. … So, when Americans think Afghanistan is some faraway, distant land, it is all interconnected and it does threaten the homeland.

VOA: What is the way forward? What do you think the U.S. strategy should be to handle this?

McCaul: Number one, we don’t want to see this happen again. This was not a political exercise for me. As a [former] federal prosecutor, I just wanted to get to the facts and the evidence, wherever that took me. I didn’t have conclusions in advance. … So, to answer your question, we want to propose a new way to do this legislatively, through Congress, so that an evacuation will never happen like this again. Saigon was bad. This is worse.

VOA: The report quotes a study that 118 girls were sold as child brides in Afghanistan, in a village. And, in the same village, 116 parents are waiting for a buyer. So, my question to you is that it seems like there is no hope for women and girls in Afghanistan. What is your suggestion? And what can the U.S do?

McCaul: I mean, can you imagine being 25 years old as a woman and never lived under Sharia law, and now you have to go backwards to the stone age? And that’s essentially what has happened there. I got four busloads of the American School of Music girls out through Abbey Gate, because I knew the Taliban — the way they feel about women and music — their days would be numbered. Now, it’s very difficult. Do you normalize the Taliban? Do you treat them as a foreign terrorist organization?

I think any aid or assistance we give to Afghanistan has to be conditioned on treatment of women and children. And they should be allowed to go to school, they should be allowed to go outside their homes, they should not be beaten. Just fundamental rights.

This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service.
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American and Chinese diplomats and military officials are talking ahead of the U.S. presidential elections as tensions simmer in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching reports. Contributor: Jeff Seldin. Narrator: Elizabeth Cherneff.
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quetta/islamabad — A police officer in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province shot and killed a man Thursday who was being held in custody on blasphemy allegations.

The fatal shooting happened inside a highly protected police station in the provincial capital of Quetta, a day after the victim, a Muslim, was arrested for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.

A senior local police officer, Muhammad Baloch, told reporters that they had arrested the policeman involved in the shooting and registered a murder case against him. He did not name the detainee.

On Wednesday, witnesses reported that when the blasphemy suspect, Abdul Ali, was taken into custody in the Kharotabad neighborhood, a mob of dozens of residents quickly surrounded the police detention facility and demanded that he be handed over to them so they could kill him.

Police officials reported the protesters also had thrown a grenade at the building, but the resulting blast did not cause any casualties. They said the violence forced them to transfer Ali to the police station in the central garrison area of Quetta, where he was fatally shot “inside the lockup by an on-duty policeman” on Thursday.

Activists of a religious party later prevented Ali’s family from burying him in his hometown of Pishin, about 50 kilometers from Quetta, forcing those attempting to carry out the burial to flee the graveyard along with the body.

In Islamabad, the national capital, an Islamic party senator, Abdul Shakoor Khan, while speaking in the upper house of parliament, expressed solidarity with the alleged killer. Khan vowed to help get him a lawyer for his legal battle.

“We will not tolerate anyone issuing blasphemous remarks against the Holy Prophet,” Khan said.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in majority-Muslim Pakistan, where mere allegations have led to mobs lynching scores of suspects, even some in police custody. Insulting the Quran or Islamic beliefs is punishable by death under the country’s blasphemy laws, though no one has ever been officially executed.

Thursday’s killing of a blasphemy suspect in custody by a police officer, however, is the first of its kind in Pakistan.

In early June, a 73-year-old Pakistani man from the minority Christian community died in a hospital a week after being violently attacked by a mob following blasphemy accusations in his native Sargodha district in central Punjab province.

Days later, on June 20, a Muslim man from Punjab was visiting the scenic Swat Valley in the northwestern Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when a mob violently lynched him for allegedly desecrating Islam’s holy book, the Quran.

Domestic and international rights groups have long sought reforms in the blasphemy laws, arguing they are often misused to settle personal vendettas or to target Pakistani minority communities.

Hundreds of suspects, mostly Muslims, are languishing in jails in Pakistan because of fear of retaliation from religious groups deters judges from moving their trials forward.
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washington — The United States announced sanctions on Thursday on Cambodian businessman and ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat as well as several entities over alleged abuses related to workers who were trafficked and forced to work in online scam centers.

The move comes at a delicate phase in relations between the United States and Cambodia, which has moved ever closer to Washington’s strategic rival China despite U.S. efforts to woo its new leader Hun Manet, son of longtime strongman Hun Sen.

Ly Yong Phat was appointed Hun Sen’s personal adviser in 2022.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the sanctions targeted Ly’s L.Y.P. Group Co. conglomerate and O-Smach Resort.

It said it was also sanctioning Cambodia-based Garden City Hotel, Koh Kong Resort, and Phnom Penh Hotel for being owned or controlled by Ly.

Bradley Smith, the Treasury’s acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the move was made to “hold accountable those involved in human trafficking and other abuses, while also disrupting their ability to operate investment fraud schemes that target countless unsuspecting individuals, including Americans.”

Cambodia and other countries in Southeast Asia have emerged in recent years as the epicenter of a multibillion-dollar criminal industry targeting victims across the world with fraudulent crypto and other schemes, often operating from fortified compounds run by Chinese syndicates and staffed by trafficked workers.

The Treasury statement said scammers leverage fictitious identities and elaborate narratives to develop trusted relationships and deceive victims.

In many cases, this involves convincing victims to invest in virtual currency, or in some cases, over-the-counter foreign exchange schemes, it said.

The statement said traffickers force victims to work up to 15 hours a day and, in some cases, “resell” victims to other scam operations or subject them to sex trafficking.

It noted that the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report this year highlighted abuses in O’Smach and Koh Kong and that official complicity in trafficking crimes remained widespread, resulting in selective and often politically motivated enforcement of laws.

Americans have been targeted by many of the scams. In 2022, in the U.S alone, victims reported losses of $2.6 billion from pig butchering – a type of long-term scam – and other crypto fraud, more than double the previous year, according to the FBI.

The Treasury reportsaid that for more than two years the O-Smach Resort has been investigated by police and publicly reported on “for extensive and systemic serious human rights abuse.”

It said victims reported being lured there with false employment opportunities, having phones and passports confiscated upon arrival and being forced to work scam operations.

“People who called for help reported being beaten, abused with electric shocks, made to pay a hefty ransom, or threatened with being sold to other online scam gangs,” it said, adding that there had been two reports of victims jumping to their death from buildings within the resort.

The report said local authorities had conducted repeated rescue missions, including in October 2022 and March 2024, freeing victims of various nationalities, including Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai and Vietnamese.

The U.S state department said in June that Cambodian government officials were complicit in trafficking and that some officials owned facilities used by scam operators.

Spokespeople for Cambodia’s government and foreign ministry did not answer phone calls or respond to messages seeking comment when asked about the sanctions.

The U.S. and other governments have repeatedly engaged with Cambodia to put an end to the scam centers.

Washington had considered sanctions for months, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters. They said the decision was initially expected earlier this year but had been delayed.

A change of leadership to West Point-educated Hun Manet last year was seen by U.S. officials as an opportunity to mend ties with Cambodia, but despite U.S. efforts, its ties with China have steadily grown. Beijing sent warships to Cambodia this year and is backing the expansion of a key naval base.
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WASHINGTON — More than six months after a crucial security deal between Washington and some Pacific Island nations was signed into law, key features of the Compacts of Free Association have not been implemented, raising questions in the region about U.S. commitment to its Pacific partners in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.

In March, the passage of the Compacts of Free Association, or COFA, extended $7 billion in economic aid over 20 years to three Pacific Island nations: Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands. Additionally, COFA says Washington provides for their defense and can deny China access to their territorial waters, a maritime area larger than the continental United States.

Since then, however, some parts of the deal have yet to be implemented, including services and health benefits for veterans who live on the islands. Currently, veterans must travel to nearby islands such as Guam or as far away as Hawaii to get the help they need.

“The Biden-Harris administration has failed” to deliver veterans services to these Pacific Island nations, said Arkansas Republican Bruce Westerman, who is chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, during an oversight hearing on COFA this week.

The U.S. State Department also has yet to establish a mandatory new office dedicated to diplomacy with the three islands.

In addition, Washington’s federal programs and services agreement with Palau has not been renewed, and the current agreement expires on September 30. Federal services in limbo range from welfare benefits and food stamp programs to the U.S. Postal Service and veterans’ health benefits.

“Many of our veterans living in Palau are suffering,” Hersey Kyota, Palau’s ambassador to the U.S., told the Indian and Insular Affairs Subcommittee in the oversight hearing, Tuesday. Palau is home to around 20,000 people; with that small population, it has the highest per capita rate of U.S. military volunteers.

Kyota said at least three Palauan veterans have died by suicide since January. “They need medication; they need to travel to Guam or Hawaii, but most of them do not have enough resources to pay for their own ticket,” he said.

Andrew Harding of the Heritage Foundation said the delays play to Beijing’s advantage.

“The implementation process is failing,” Harding told VOA. “If we really want to prove that we are the preferred partner in the Pacific, especially to our COFA partners, we can’t have these types of questions be raised.”

Greg Brown, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said, “This doesn’t look good. Now, it’s hurry up and wait, and who are we waiting for? We’re waiting for ourselves. We’re waiting for the Americans.”

At the hearing on Tuesday, Anka Lee, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, acknowledged the critical need for U.S. engagement with Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

“We know that the PRC is aggressive. They are pushing very hard, and we have to compete with them toe to toe,” he said to lawmakers, using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

During the oversight hearing, Taylor Ruggles, the senior COFA adviser at the U.S. State Department, blamed some of the delay on communication issues between the White House and Congress and a focus on rolling out additional embassies in other Pacific Island nations such as Vanuatu. He said there’s an interagency meeting this week to get all the federal agencies together to move the process forward. That meeting, the second this year, is scheduled for Thursday. The first was held in April.

Dr. Miguel H. Lopez, assistant undersecretary for health at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said this week the department would “provide a comprehensive model of care” to Pacific veterans that is equal to treatment veterans receive in the continental United States.

Ambassadors to Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands told lawmakers at the hearing that they received letters from the Veterans Administration Monday night, just hours before the oversight hearing.

“The [veterans] agreement calls for a one-year duration. We’re within six to seven months now, and we have not heard anything,” said Jack Soram, the Federated State of Micronesia ambassador to the United States.

“We don’t have that much time. Veterans need this help,” said Representative Ed Case, a Democrat from Hawaii.
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Pope Francis is in Singapore for the final leg of his tour of Asia and Oceania. It has been the longest and farthest trip of his tenure, taking in four countries and covering more than 30,000 kilometers. He has delivered a message of interfaith harmony throughout, and as Adam Hancock has been finding out, that theme will be prominent during his stay in the Southeast Asian financial hub.
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Seoul — South Korea approved the construction of two nuclear reactors on its east coast Thursday, reversing a previous administration’s anti-nuclear policy as Seoul now works to expand its atomic energy capabilities.

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission approved permits to build the Shin Hanul 3 and 4 reactors after it “confirmed the safety” of the project in southeast Uljin city.

“No factors have been found at the reactor construction site that could cause geological disasters such as subsidence or ground collapse,” it said.

Each reactor will have a capacity of 1.4 gigawatts, and they are scheduled to be built by 2033.

Seoul sought to phase out nuclear energy under the leadership of Moon Jae-in, whose government aimed to make South Korea completely nuclear-free by 2084.

But since Yoon Suk Yeol took office in 2022, his government has ambitions to increase the share of power generated from nuclear energy to 36 percent by 2038, up from the current 30 percent.

The new reactors will “contribute to the development of cutting-edge technologies such as AI by providing a stable supply of clean and reliable energy,” said Sung Tae-yoon, Yoon’s chief of staff for policy.

The development could also “help the country secure reactor construction bids overseas,” he told reporters.

The approval came eight years after Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Company first submitted the permit request. The process was suspended in 2017 amid the then-government’s push to reduce the country’s dependence on nuclear energy.

Thursday’s decision was criticized by Korean activist group Energy Justice Actions as an “irresponsible move that threatens the safety of the people, in opposition to the global trend towards an energy shift” towards renewable resources.

The two new reactors will be Uljin’s ninth and tenth, the group said, calling such a concentration a “global rarity.”
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