SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to a single felony charge for publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that secures his freedom and concludes a drawn-out legal saga that raised divisive questions about press freedom and national security. 

The plea was entered Wednesday morning in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific. He arrived at court shortly before the hearing was to begin and did not take questions. 

Though the deal with prosecutors required him to admit guilt to a single felony count, it would also permit him to return to his native Australia without spending any time in an American prison. He had been jailed in the United Kingdom for the last five years, fighting extradition to the United States on an Espionage Act indictment that could have carried a lengthy prison sentence in the event of a conviction. 

The abrupt conclusion enables both sides to claim a degree of victory, with the Justice Department able to resolve without trial a case that raised thorny legal issues and that might never have reached a jury at all given the plodding pace of the extradition process.  

WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling website that Assange founded in 2006, applauded the announcement of the deal, saying it was grateful for “all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.” 

The deal, disclosed Monday night in a sparsely detailed Justice Department letter, represents the latest and presumably final chapter in a court fight involving the eccentric Australian computer expert who has been celebrated by supporters as a transparency crusader but lambasted by national security hawks who insist that his disdain for government secrecy put lives at risks, and strayed far beyond the bounds of traditional journalism duties. 

The U.S. Justice Department agreed to hold the hearing on the remote island because Assange opposed coming to the continental U.S. and because it’s near Australia, where he will return. 

The guilty plea resolves a criminal case brought by the Trump administration Justice Department in connection with the receipt and publication of war logs and diplomatic cables that detailed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prosecutors alleged that he conspired with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain the records and published them without regard to American national security, including by releasing the names of human sources who provided information to U.S. forces. 

But his activities drew an outpouring of support from press freedom advocates who heralded his role in bringing to light military conduct that might otherwise have been concealed from view. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists. 

The indictment was unsealed in 2019, but Assange’s legal woes long predated the criminal case and continued well past it. 

Weeks after the release of the largest document cache in 2010, a Swedish prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Assange based on one woman’s allegation of rape and another’s allegation of molestation. Assange has long maintained his innocence, and the investigation was later dropped. 

He presented himself in 2012 to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he claimed asylum on the grounds of political persecution, and spent the following seven years in self-exile there, hosting a parade of celebrity visitors and making periodic appearances from the building’s balcony to address supporters. 

In 2019, his hosts revoked his asylum, allowing British police to arrest him. He remained locked up for the last five years while the Justice Department sought to extradite him, in a process that encountered skepticism from British judges who worried about how Assange would be treated by the American criminal justice system. 

Ultimately, though, the resolution sparing Assange prison time in the U.S. is a repudiation of sorts of years of ominous warnings by Assange and his supporters that the American criminal justice system would expose him to unduly harsh treatment, including potentially the death penalty — something prosecutors never sought. 
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ISLAMABAD — Thousands of people in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan took to the streets Tuesday to celebrate their national team’s first-ever entry into the cricket World Cup semifinals by beating Bangladesh.

Video from several cities, many bordering Pakistan, showed joyous rallies in the streets early in the morning, with reports of celebratory gunfire by fans in some areas, including the capital, Kabul.  

The celebrations erupted shortly after the Afghan team completed a dramatic eight-run victory over the Bangladeshi side in a rain-affected, low-scoring match in St. Vincent in the West Indies late Monday.

“It’s something of a dream for us as a team…it’s unbelievable. I don’t have the words to describe my feelings,” Rashid Khan, the Afghan team captain, said after the match. “I’m sure it’s going to be a massive celebration back home. It’s a massive achievement for us. The country will be very proud.” 

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul telephoned Khan and congratulated him on the landmark victory, his office said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Authorities in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar officially ordered residents to celebrate the cricket team’s success inside their homes and avoid taking to the streets and roads for security reasons.

Hibatullah Akhundzada, the reclusive supreme leader of the Taliban, lives and governs the country from Kandahar, issuing edicts based on his strict interpretation of Islamic law, which includes restrictions on women’s and girls’ rights and freedom of movement.

Afghanistan scored 115 runs in their allotted 20 overs, but weather conditions led Bangladesh to chase a revised target of 114 runs in 19 overs under relevant cricketing rules.  

Khan and Afghan pacer Naveen ul Haq displayed a brilliant bowling performance, bagging four wickets each and dismissing the Bangladeshi team for 105 in 17.5 overs.  

Afghanistan will now face South Africa in the first semi-final in Tarouba, West Indies. Its historic semifinal appearance came two days after it surprised the world by scoring its first-ever victory over Australia, the cricketing superpower, in the Twenty20 World Cup jointly hosted by the United States and West Indies.  

The Afghan victory has eliminated Australia from the tournament. After losing its crucial match to India earlier on Monday, Australia needed Bangladesh to defeat Afghanistan to advance to the semifinals.

Cricket began to gain popularity in Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taliban in 2001 by a U.S.-led military invasion of the country. Afghans, who had been living in refugee camps in Pakistan, are credited with bringing the game to their impoverished South Asian nation.  

Afghanistan joined the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2017. Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the national team has mostly trained and played outside the country.

The international community has not formally recognized the Taliban government mainly for restricting Afghan women’s access to education, employment, sports, and public life at large. The curbs have prompted some countries to boycott bilateral cricket competitions with Afghanistan.  

Australia has declined to play Afghanistan several times.  

This past March, Australian cricketing officials canceled a three-match series due to take place in the United Arab Emirates in August. They referenced government advice that the situation for women and girls was deteriorating in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

The rare World Cup success of the national team and the resulting celebrations in Afghanistan contrast with the country’s deepening economic, humanitarian, and human rights crises caused by years of war and natural disasters.
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Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — Mongolians go to the polls Friday in parliamentary elections, with the ruling party expected to hold its majority despite voter fatigue over corruption and concern about inflation and the state of the economy.

People across the vast, sparsely-populated nation of 3.4 million will elect 126 members of the State Great Khural, a democratic exercise in a country surrounded by authoritarian powers China and Russia.

Streets across the capital Ulaanbaatar are decked out with vibrant multi-colored posters advertising candidates from across the political spectrum, from pro-market liberals to hardline nationalists, populist businessmen and environmentalists.

Analysts widely expect the ruling Mongolian People’s Party, led by Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, to retain the majority it has enjoyed since 2016, allowing it to govern the resource-rich country for the next four years.

It can credit much of its success to a boom in coal mining that fueled double digit growth and dramatically improved standards of living for many Mongolians, analysts say.

But that belies deep frustrations with the state of the economy, battered by two years of double-digit inflation — still stubbornly high at seven percent — as well as what is seen as widespread corruption.

On Sunday, as loudspeakers blared out from a packed ruling party rally in downtown Ulaanbaatar’s National Park, retired miner Tumurkhuyag Bayanmunkh, 46, complained that the politicians were “all the same.”

“The parliament is full of wealthy people who promise changes and improvements, but they forget us the next day,” Bayanmunkh told AFP as his grandchildren played nearby.

“I worked in the mine for 25, 26 years but I can’t afford anything,” he explained. “A few elites benefit from the (mining) sector, not the ordinary people.”

The ruling party has promised to crack down on corruption since unrest in late 2022, when hundreds took to the streets of Ulaanbaatar to protest against “coal theft” by officials linked to state coal firms.

But under its rule, Mongolia has plummeted in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

“The middle class is shrinking, real incomes are stagnating, and people very much feel like they’re not getting the benefits of the mining wealth that is coming to this country,” Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva, an analyst and former adviser on the National Security Council of Mongolia, told AFP.

The ruling party has also presided over a plummeting in press freedom rankings as well as notable declines in the rule of law, campaigners say.

The arrest and trial of high-profile journalist Naran Unurtsetseg sent ripples through Ulaanbaatar’s relatively small community of journalists, compounding fears over a growing crackdown on freedom of speech.

According to the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists, the country’s main press NGO, 20 journalists are now under some kind of formal investigation for their reporting.

And a survey by the Sant Maral Foundation, Mongolia’s top independent polling body, suggested more than a third of Mongolians now believe the country is “changing into a dictatorship.”

Sunday’s rally was largely attended by older Ulaanbaatar residents, illustrating a stark generational divide in a country with an overwhelming young population, with an average age of 26 and where almost two thirds are under 35.

Twenty-six-year-old IT worker Norovbanzad Ganbat told AFP she was unimpressed by the choices on offer.

“Young people don’t vote for (the MPP),” she said.

Many people her age are giving up on Mongolia altogether, choosing to go to South Korea or the United States in search of a better life, Ganbat said.

“I don’t want that. I want to live and work happily in my country. I want young people to be valued more,” she said.

“Young people are undervalued — after we complete higher education, our degree, knowledge and talent is undervalued. The average salary is too low,” she told AFP.

The successor to the Communist party that ruled Mongolia with an iron grip for almost 70 years, the governing MPP remains popular, particularly among rural, older voters, and commands a sprawling campaigning apparatus across Mongolia.

It has benefited from a divided opposition Democratic Party, whose pro-market policies in the last decade remain widely blamed for the country’s grinding income inequality. 
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washington — The number of Americans studying in China has dropped dramatically in recent years from around 11,000 in 2019 to 800 this year, and the slump is so bad that some China scholars worry the United States could lose a generation of “China experts” as a result.

David Moser, an American who has lived and worked in China for more than three decades and is the former academic director of China Educational Tours (CET) in Beijing, said that “I haven’t seen an American student in years.”

CET, which was launched in 1982, is a Washington-based organization that recruits American students for short-term language and culture studies in China. Moser said that his position as academic director recently went away and that the organization continues to struggle to get more students to return to China.

CET once carried out short-term study-abroad programs in several cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin and Hangzhou. Now, the program is only available in Beijing and Shanghai. Harbin’s page on the website shows that programs are “suspended until spring 2025.”

“We have already lost a very crucial generation who would need to be continuing right now in China with studies or whatever,” Moser said, “so that 10 years from now, they would already be … very experienced China hands [experts].”

During the 2011-12 school year, the number of American students in China was around 15,000. Since then, with Xi Jinping’s rise as China’s leader and growing frictions between the two countries, the number has declined, dropping dramatically after the pandemic to about 200 at its lowest point.

Loss of understanding

Moser said the lack of talented people who understand China is undoubtedly a huge loss for the United States.

“You really need people who understand the two academic systems, the two college systems, and the way these things work in order to not make a huge mistake,” he said.

Compared with China, however, CET’s projects in Taiwan are in full swing.  

Moser said CET started its first summer study abroad program at National Taiwan University in 2022, which attracted more than 120 American students. He said a program was set up in Taiwan because too few American students wanted to go to China. 

He said he believed that starting around 2008, when Beijing held its first Olympics, China’s pollution and human rights violations turned some American students away, and that the trend has not reversed. 

China’s strict lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic was also a crucial turning point. At that time, many foreigners, including American students, left China. After the Chinese government suddenly lifted the lockdown at the end of 2022, most foreigners did not immediately return. 

China’s increasingly aggressive posture on the international stage under Xi, and its hostile propaganda against the West at home, is likely to have prevented foreign talents from visiting China for cultural and business exchanges.  

A revised counterespionage law that took effect on July 1, 2023, has also made many Americans hesitant to travel to China, let alone study there. 

As U.S.-China relations deteriorate, official academic exchanges have also been coldly received. Former U.S. President Donald Trump suspended all Fulbright exchange programs to China and Hong Kong in July 2020.  

After the counterespionage law negatively affected China, the Chinese government sought to extend goodwill at the level of people-to-people exchanges. Xi announced during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco in November 2023, “In order to expand exchanges between the people of China and the United States, especially the younger generation, China is willing to invite 50,000 American young people to come to China for exchanges and studies in the next five years.”

High school students visit 

In January 2024, more than 20 students from Muscatine High School in Iowa visited Beijing, Hebei and Shanghai. In March, 24 students from Lincoln High School and Steilacoom High School in Washington state also boarded a plane from San Francisco to Beijing. 

Wenzhou University and Kean University in New Jersey signed an agreement to jointly establish Wenzhou-Kean University in May 2006. At the time, Xi was the party secretary of Zhejiang, home province of Wenzhou, and he attended the signing ceremony in 2006.

In a letter to Kean’s president on June 7, Xi encouraged universities in the two countries to strengthen exchanges and cooperation. However, three days later,  four American teachers who were giving short-term courses at Beihua University in Jilin, China, were stabbed by a Chinese man. Chinese officials quickly deleted the relevant content on social media, and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson called the incident an “accident” that would not affect relations between the two countries.  

Meghan Burke, a former sociology professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, said that although the attack on American teachers was a shocking and unexpected incident, she still hoped that it would not affect Americans’ confidence in studying and traveling in China. 

“I think it’s always been there, but I think with the pandemic, there was some really racially loaded misinformation and fears that I wouldn’t be surprised if that came into play in some students’ and some families’ decisions about where they were willing to go abroad,” she said.  

Asked about the 800 American students in China today, Burke said that was a big regret for the United States.  

“Language is key to understanding culture. So, any limitations on learning Mandarin or other Chinese languages only hold back our ability to have a broader and more complex intercultural understanding and international perspective that I think benefits everyone who is involved in those conversations,” Burke said. 

In contrast, 300,000 Chinese students are studying in the United States.  

“Asymmetry is bad for China, but it’s much worse for the United States because asymmetry is in one direction, which is towards us,” Moser said. “The Chinese have very good knowledge of the U.S., of its culture, of its government, everything.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s Taliban are touting a United Nations invitation to an international conference in Qatar later this month, viewing it as an acknowledgment of their administration’s growing significance globally.

The two-day U.N. meeting between the Taliban and international envoys on Afghanistan is set for June 30 in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state, amid sharp criticism from human rights groups for excluding Afghan women representatives.

It will be the third session of what is known as the “Doha process,” and the fundamentalist de facto Afghan rulers have agreed to attend for the first time.

“The Doha meeting will be held in the coming days, and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has been officially invited to attend,” Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi announced in a video statement released by his office on Monday.

The Taliban returned to power nearly three years ago and established their hardline male-only government in Kabul, named the Islamic Emirate, which has yet to be recognized by the international community.

“We have developed good relations with neighboring and regional countries and are also actively pursuing positive and cordial ties with Western and U.S. governments,” Muttaqi said while addressing his ministry staff in the Afghan capital.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched the Doha process a year ago to establish a unified international approach to engagement with the Taliban, who have banned Afghan girls from education beyond the sixth grade and many women from public and private workplaces.

Guterres did not invite de facto Afghan rulers to the first Doha conference in May 2023, and they refused to take part in the second this past February, citing the participation of Afghan civil society representatives and human rights activists.

U.N. officials have defended the upcoming rare dialogue with the Taliban, promising that special envoys from about 25 countries at the meeting will “forcefully” raise restrictions on women’s and girls’ rights, among other human rights concerns.

On Friday, Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, emphasized the importance of the world community opening a direct dialogue with the Taliban, suggesting it could create opportunities for Afghan women to participate in future talks.

“They would tell them [the Taliban] that, ‘Look, it doesn’t work like this, and we should have women around the table and also provide them with access to the business,’” she told reporters in New York after briefing a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Afghan situation.

Speaking at the meeting, Otunbayeva said that her mission had met with hundreds of Afghans, especially women, around the country in the run-up to the third Doha meeting.

“These consultations revealed a broad agreement that it was important for the de facto authorities to attend the meeting but that there should also be no recognition of the de facto authorities until the issues of women’s rights, girls’ education, and an acceptable constitution were broadly addressed,” the UNAMA chief said.

Otunbayeva stated that the U.N. would consult Afghan civil society and rights representatives in Afghanistan and abroad before the June 30 meeting. She noted that U.N. political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo and envoys from various countries will meet separately with Afghan rights activists in Doha on July 2, a day after the meeting with the Taliban ends.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have sharply criticized the U.N. for inviting the Taliban to the Doha talks rather than holding them accountable for “crimes” against Afghan women and girls.

“Excluding women risks legitimizing the Taliban’s abuses and triggering irreparable harm to the U.N.’s credibility as an advocate for women’s rights and women’s meaningful participation,” Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch, said of the third planned Doha meeting.

Otunbayeva said the Doha meeting would mainly focus on private sector business, the Afghan banking sector, and counternarcotics, issues she attributed to women’s rights in the country.

The Taliban have vehemently defended their governance, claiming it is aligned with Afghan culture and their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. The hardline group seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan after nearly two decades of engagement in the war with the then-insurgent Taliban.

Guterres chaired the previous Doha meetings, but the coming session will be hosted by DiCarlo. She traveled to Kabul in May and invited Muttaqi to attend the talks. The Taliban have not yet confirmed whether their foreign minister will lead the delegation at the meeting.

“We are trying to establish a process and preserve an important mechanism of consultation. We must be realistic about how much each meeting in this process can deliver, especially at this early stage where confidence and trust are insufficient,” stressed Otunbayeva in her speech to the U.N. Security Council on Friday.
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Manila — The Philippines on Monday denounced Beijing’s “aggressive and illegal use of force” during last week’s South China Sea clash between its navy and the Chinese coast guard.

Chinese sailors wielding knives, sticks and an axe foiled a Filipino attempt a week ago to resupply marines stationed on a derelict warship that was deliberately grounded atop the disputed shoal to assert Manila’s territorial claims.

A Filipino soldier lost a finger in the clash, with Manila also accusing the Chinese coast guard of looting guns and damaging inflatable boats and other equipment.

“We are not downplaying the incident. It was an aggressive and illegal use of force,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro told a news conference.

It was the latest and most serious incident in a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine ships in recent months as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims to nearly all of the strategically located waterway.

“We will not give up an inch, not even a millimeter of our territory to any foreign power,” Teodoro said, restating President Ferdinand Marcos’ South China Sea policy.

Teodoro said Manila will continue to resupply its warship at Second Thomas Shoal without asking for permission or consent from any other state.

Second Thomas Shoal lies about 200 kilometers from Philippine’s Palawan island and more than 1,000 kilometers from China’s nearest major landmass, Hainan island.

Beijing insisted its coast guard behaved in a “professional and restrained” way and blamed Manila for the clash.

In previous confrontations Chinese forces have used water cannon and military-grade lasers and collided with Filipino resupply vessels and their escorts.

“We see the latest incident in Ayungin (Second Thomas Shoal) not as a misunderstanding or an accident. It is a deliberate act of the Chinese officialdom to prevent us from completing our mission,” Teodoro said. 

Marcos, addressing the sailors who took part in the resupply mission, said Sunday the country “will not be intimidated or oppressed by anyone” but will “continue to exercise our freedoms and rights in support of our national interest, in accordance with international law.”
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NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to an emboldened opposition for “consensus” Monday, as parliament opened following an election setback that forced him into a coalition government for the first time in a decade.

Expected in the first session, which will run until July 3, is a preview of Modi’s plans for his third term and the likely formal appointment of Rahul Gandhi as leader of the opposition, a post vacant since 2014.

Modi’s first two terms in office followed landslide wins for his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allowing his government to drive laws through parliament with only cursory debate.

But now analysts expect the 73-year-old Modi to moderate his Hindu-nationalist agenda to assuage his coalition partners, focusing more on infrastructure, social welfare and economic reforms.

“To run the country, a consensus is of utmost importance,” Modi said in a speech shortly before entering parliament, calling on the opposition to play a constructive role.

“People expect their representatives to debate and discuss issues which are important to the country… they don’t expect disturbances or hindrances in the parliamentary proceedings,” he said.

“People want substance, not slogans.”

Modi led lawmakers in taking the oath as his cheering supporters thumped their desks in support, and opposition members waved the constitution in protest.

He said he was “proud to serve” India.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Monday called for a “peaceful and productive” session, but Indian media said they expected lively debate with a far stronger opposition.

“All set to spar,” one headline in the Hindustan Times read Monday.

“Resurgent opposition set to push government,” said the Indian Express front page.

Rahul Gandhi, 54, defied analyst expectations to help his Congress party nearly double its parliamentary numbers, its best result since Modi was swept to power a decade ago.

Gandhi is the scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades and is the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.

Parliamentary regulations require the opposition leader to come from a party that commands at least 10 percent of the lawmakers in the 543-seat lower house.

The post has been vacant for 10 years because two dismal election results for Congress — once India’s dominant party — left it short of that threshold.
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SYDNEY — State and federal police in Australia are coordinating an investigation into an attack by a masked gang on the Melbourne office of a Jewish lawmaker.  

Windows were smashed, and fires were lit, and the slogan “Zionism is fascism” was painted in red over a picture of the face of Josh Burns, a member of Australia’s House of Representatives.

Investigators in the state of Victoria believe a group of at least five people broke windows, spray-painted anti-Semitic slogans and threw red paint into Burns’ office.

Police have confirmed the masked group also started two small fires. No one was hurt in Wednesday’s attack, but residents living in apartments above the lawmaker’s office in Melbourne had to be evacuated. No arrests have yet been made.

A chorus of politicians and community groups has condemned the vandalism.  

The Anti-Defamation Commission, a Jewish campaign group, said it was an “assault on our democracy and our sense of safety.”  

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Australian radio that it was a distressing escalation of tensions that have been inflamed since the start of Israel’s war with Gaza in October. 

Burns said the assault on his office was “premeditated, reckless and dangerous” and that he had been targeted in the past by vandals defacing his election posters.

He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the abuse has been escalating.

“Since the war in the Middle East began on Oct. 7, you know, my staff have been at the receiving end of some pretty horrendous comments and abuse on the phones,” he said. “You know, I really do not want to see an escalation in political violence in Australia. We do not want to see a conflict on the other side of the world to be arriving here on our communities and our streets and in our neighborhoods. We want to remain the wonderful and peaceful multicultural Australia, where people are respected and free to live their lives in the Australian way.”    

Australia has said Israel has the right to defend itself after the Oct.. 7 attack by Hamas militants.

Australia advocates a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist within internationally recognized borders.   

Earlier this month, pro-Palestinian graffiti was daubed on the offices of senior government officials, including Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

Police in Victoria state have been monitoring suspected crimes incited by the conflict in Gaza. Around 200 incidents have been reported, and 60 people have been arrested for alleged criminal damage and offensive behavior. Official data has shown that of the incidents reportedly linked to religious affiliation, 88 related to antisemitic attacks and 16 involved Islamophobia.  

A Victorian police spokesperson has said previously that there was “no place in our community for hate crimes of any kind.”
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SEOUL, South Korea — A major fire broke out at a South Korean lithium battery factory on Monday, authorities said, with one person confirmed dead and 21 others unaccounted for as the blaze continued to rage.

The lithium battery plant is owned by Aricell, a South Korean primary battery manufacturer. It is located in Hwaseong, just south of the capital Seoul.

“We are still unable to go inside and carry out rescue operation. We will carry it out once we get the fire under control,” firefighter Kim Jin-young told media.

“Twenty-one workers are unaccounted for now. We are planning to track their whereabouts with their contacts provided from the company,” Kim added.

One person was killed, and another suffered serious burns, he added.

Images shared by the Yonhap news agency showed huge plumes of billowing grey smoke rising into the sky above the factory, with orange flames inside the building. Dozens of fire engines were seen outside.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol issued emergency instructions to authorities, telling them to “mobilize all available personnel and equipment to focus on searching for and rescuing people,” his office said.

The president also warned authorities that they should “ensure the safety of fire fighters considering the rapid spread of fire”.

Firefighting and rescue efforts were ongoing, and the cause of the fire was unknown.

South Korea is a major producer of batteries, including those used in electric vehicles.

Its battery makers supply EV makers around the world, including Tesla.
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Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said Monday that China “has no right to punish” Taiwanese people for their views or advocacy, after Beijing warned “diehard” supporters of the island’s independence could face the death penalty.

China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to bring the island under its control.

Beijing has stepped up pressure on Taipei in recent years and held military drills around the self-ruled island days after Lai’s inauguration last month.

On Friday, Beijing published new judicial guidelines that included the death penalty for “particularly serious” cases involving “diehard” supporters of Taiwanese independence, state media reported.

When asked to comment on the guidelines, Lai said: “I want to emphasize that democracy is not the source of crime. Autocracy is the crime.”

“China has no right to punish the people of Taiwan just because of what they advocate. China has no right to pursue cross-border prosecution of Taiwanese people.”

Lai warned that relations between the two sides would become “more and more alienated” if China does not “face up to the existence of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name) and conduct exchanges and dialogues with Taiwan’s democratically elected and legitimate government.”

“This is the correct way to enhance the well-being of people on both sides” of the Taiwan Strait, he said.

Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has long asserted Taiwanese sovereignty, and Beijing has not conducted top-level communications with Taipei since 2016, when his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen came to power.

China has branded Lai a “dangerous separatist” and denounced his inaugural speech as a “confession of Taiwan independence.”

During that speech, Lai signaled an openness to resuming dialogue with Beijing, calling for both sides to develop exchanges.

China, however, has appeared to rebuff those overtures.

It continues to maintain a near-daily presence of naval vessels and warplanes around the island, and Taiwan’s military said Monday that 23 Chinese warplanes and seven naval vessels had been detected in the last 24 hours.
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New York — Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived Sunday in New York to undergo knee treatment, drawing a warm and festive welcome from thousands of followers.

His office in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, his adopted home, announced earlier this month that the 88-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader would travel to the United States to undergo “medical treatment” on his knees, but no further details have been released.  

Followers, many wearing traditional Tibetan outfits, waited outside the Dalai Lama’s Manhattan hotel in crushing heat hoping to catch a glimpse of the man.

“Once we saw him, it felt really powerful. And everyone was, like, emotional because he’s, like, our leader,” said one of them, 18-year-old U.S.-born Tenzin Pasang, who has now seen the Dalai Lama three times.

“So it’s very nice to see him in New York,” she said.

She welcomed the spiritual leader by joining in a performance of a traditional Tibetan dance.

Last week a group of senior U.S. lawmakers including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi met with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, sparking heavy criticism from China.

That visit followed passage of a bill by the U.S. Congress that seeks to encourage Beijing to hold talks with Tibetan leaders — frozen since 2010.

Many exiled Tibetans fear Beijing will name a rival successor to the Dalai Lama, bolstering control over a land it poured troops into in 1950.

The Dalai Lama was just 23 when he escaped the Tibetan capital Lhasa in fear of his life after Chinese soldiers eviscerated an uprising against Beijing’s forces, crossing the snowy Himalayas into India.

He stepped down as his people’s political head in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government chosen democratically by some 130,000 Tibetans around the world.
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Islamabad — Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership has decided to launch a new multi-faceted nationwide counterterrorism campaign amid the country’s deteriorating security situation.

A high-powered meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gave the go ahead for operation “Azm-e-Istehkam,” or Resolve for Stability, to “combat the menaces of extremism and terrorism in a comprehensive and decisive manner,” said a statement issued by the prime minister’s office.

The announcement came as Pakistan faces near daily attacks targeting security personnel and amid mounting pressure from China to ensure the security of its workers. Several Chinese nationals were killed in an attack earlier this year.

“The fight against extremism and terrorism is Pakistan’s war and is absolutely essential for the nation’s survival and well-being,” the official statement said.

Along with an intensified military push, Azm-e-Istehkam will have a diplomatic push.

“In the politico-diplomatic domain, efforts will be intensified to curtail the operational space for terrorists through regional cooperation,” said the statement after the Apex Committee on the National Action Plan reviewed the ongoing counterterrorism campaign and internal security in the country.

Pakistan has a history of courts freeing terror attack suspects because of a lack of evidence. The new campaign aims to counter that through legislative actions.

“The renewed and full-blown kinetic efforts of the armed forces will be augmented by full support from all Law Enforcement Agencies, empowered by effective legislation to address legal voids that hinder effective prosecution of terrorism-related cases and award of exemplary punishments to them,” according to the statement.

Chinese concerns

The new counterterrorism operation comes as Islamabad attempts to convince Beijing it is taking the security of Chinese nationals extremely seriously.

“The forum also reviewed measures to ensure foolproof security for Chinese nationals in Pakistan.” Saturday’s statement said. “Following the Prime Minister’s approval, new Standard Operating Procedures [SOPs] were issued to relevant departments, which will enhance mechanisms for providing comprehensive security to Chinese citizens in Pakistan.”

This comes after Liu Jianchao, minister of the Central Committee of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, told a bilateral political forum in Islamabad last week that Pakistan’s poor security was a hurdle in bringing Chinese investment to the cash-strapped South Asian nation.

“As people often say confidence is more precious than gold, in the case of Pakistan, the primary factor shaking the confidence of Chinese investors is the security situation,” Liu told a gathering that representatives from major Pakistani political parties attended. It was held as part of the third meeting of the Pakistan-China Joint Consultative Mechanism of Political Parties on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The corridor, commonly known as CPEC, is a flagship project of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative and focuses primarily on energy and infrastructure.

Five Chinese nationals working on the China-funded Dasu hydropower project and their Pakistani driver were killed in March when a suicide bomber rammed the convoy with an explosives-laden vehicle.

At least a dozen more Chinese nationals have been killed in Pakistan in targeted attacks in the last few years.

After the March attack, Pakistan ramped up efforts to enhance the protection of Chinese nationals, including the formation of a new security unit in the capital. A special military unit already exists for the protection of Chinese projects in Pakistan. It is supported by local law enforcement agencies.

Terrorism landscape

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal that maintains data on terror attacks in the region, Pakistan has witnessed over 300 terrorism-related deaths so far this year.

Dozens of Pakistani security personnel, including officials, have died in the first half of 2024 in militant attacks and counterterrorism operations. On Friday, five Pakistani soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device blew up their vehicle in the Kurram tribal district near Afghanistan.

Last year, Pakistan recorded a six-year high in terrorism fatalities with most of the attacks concentrated in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces that border Afghanistan.

Islamabad blames the rise in terror attacks on Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan that it says has sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban have rejected evidence of cross-border terror attacks provided by Pakistan as an effort to malign Kabul.

Reports gathered by the United Nations and research groups based in the United States indicate the Afghan Taliban have maintained ties with foreign militants.

Past operations

Pakistan launched massive military operations against terrorists between 2009 and 2017 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. While the operations managed to kill and flush thousands of militants to Afghanistan and dismantle their cells within Pakistan, they also caused a mass displacement of citizens and millions of dollars in damage to property and infrastructure.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has lately seen a wave of Jirga, or consultative public gatherings, where locals have expressed serious concerns over growing militant violence and frequent counterterrorism operations.

Pakistani military spokesperson Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told the media last month that security forces had conducted more than 13,000 intelligence-based operations this year, mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
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Bangkok — A Thai court has set a mid-July extradition hearing date for Vietnamese dissident Y Quynh Bdap, who was arrested in Thailand earlier this month at Vietnam’s request, Thai officials have told VOA.

Rights advocates are meanwhile urging Thailand not to force Bdap back home, fearing for his safety, and say his arrest continues the “swap mart” they claim the region’s governments are running by returning each other’s wanted dissidents.

Bdap had been living in Thailand since 2018 to evade Vietnamese authorities for fear of arrest over this human rights work. Thai police arrested him in Bangkok on June 11 for alleged immigration offenses acting on a call from Vietnam for his return.

A Thai court issued the arrest warrant “upon the request for extradition made by the Vietnamese authority, from the ruling of the Vietnamese court that Mr. Bdap was guilty on the charge of terrorism,” Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura told VOA.

Maj. Gen. Khemmarin Hassiri, an adviser to Thailand’s deputy police chief, said the criminal courts have scheduled an extradition hearing for Bdap on July 15.

Vietnam wants Bdap for his alleged role fomenting a riot last year that left nine people, including four local police officers, dead, according to state media. A Vietnamese court convicted him on related terrorism charges in absentia in January and sentenced him to 10 years in jail.

The Vietnamese government has also labeled his group, Montagnards Stand for Justice, which advocates for the rights of the mostly Christian ethnic minorities of the country’s central highlands, a terrorist organization.

Bdap denied the allegations against him and the group in a brief video recorded in Thailand days before his arrest and later posted online by United Nations special rapporteur on human rights defenders Mary Lawlor. In the clip, he says he fears his imminent arrest and urges the U.N., rights groups and foreign governments to protect him.

Clarion calls

Since his arrest, rights groups have issued statements urging Thailand not to send Bdap back to Vietnam.

Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the arrest flies in the face of Thailand’s legal obligations to protect refugees.

“The situation has now gone from bad to worse as he is facing imminent extradition to face prosecution in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has long persecuted Christian Montagnards belonging to independent house churches, supporters of nonviolent demands for independence or autonomy, and people objecting to the transfer of land and forests traditionally used by highlanders to Vietnamese businesses and settlers,” Sunai told VOA.

“Human Rights Watch has no information on Y Quynh Bdap’s possible involvement in the riots but is gravely concerned about his safety and his receiving a fair trial in Vietnam,” he added.

Y Phic Hdok, who cofounded Montagnards Stand for Justice with Bdap and is now in the United States after fleeing Vietnam eight years ago, said his friend would be in grave danger if handed over to Vietnam.

“I urge the Thai government to respect international human rights standards and reject Vietnam’s unlawful extradition request,” he told VOA. “It will be a risk for his life if he will be deported.”

Christopher MacLeod, a Canadian lawyer working to save Bdap from being extradited, echoed the concern.

“I worry for his life and safety,” he told VOA, including his “mistreatment and abuse in prison, and [about] the message it would send, the chilling effect it would have on anyone else who wants to speak to religious freedom and tolerance.”

MacLeod said Bdap’s arrest came a day after he had a meeting at the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok about his application to resettle in Canada as a political refugee. The embassy did not reply to VOA’s request to confirm the meeting or to comment on the case.

Past as prologue

Thailand’s handling of past refugee cases also has advocates concerned.

While Thailand has at times allowed foreign dissidents wanted by their home countries to resettle elsewhere, even after arresting them, it also has a track record of forcing them back to repressive regimes, including China and Cambodia. Activists wanted by Hanoi have also gone missing while hiding in Thailand in recent years only to show up days or weeks later in custody back in Vietnam, raising concerns about possible state-sponsored kidnapping.

Thai dissidents taking refuge from their own government in neighboring countries have also gone missing or turned up dead under mysterious circumstances in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

“Especially in the region, there has been — I don’t know if it’s formal, but certainly the informal — trading and return of political dissidents from one country to the other,” MacLeod said.

“I worry that that is playing itself out in this instance,” he added, referring to Bdap.

In a recent report, Human Rights Watch recounts 25 confirmed or suspected cases of such transnational repression of activists and dissidents across the region between 2014 and 2023, a nine-year stretch of military-run or -aligned governments in Thailand.

Sunai said the civilian administration that took office following national elections last year risks following in their footsteps.

“The current administration of PM [Prime Minister] Srettha Thavisin carries on the legacy of military rule and maintains the pattern of transnational repression, in which Thai authorities helped neighboring governments take unlawful actions against refugees and dissidents seeking shelter in Thailand,” he said.

Treaty talks

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk raised the issue during his latest global update to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva last week.

He spoke of an “emerging pattern” of transnational repression in Southeast Asia and of signs that the trend was going global.

Thailand and Vietnam are also in the midst of negotiations on a formal extradition treaty. Khemmarin said those talks would likely continue on a future visit to Vietnam by senior Thai officials, possibly next month.

MacLeod said a treaty could make the problem of transnational repression worse by making it easier and faster for the two countries to exchange dissidents, leaving other governments, rights groups or the U.N. less time and chance to intervene.

Thailand’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, which is leading the treaty talks, did not reply to VOA’s questions about a possible deal.

The Vietnamese Embassy did not reply to VOA either.

As for Bdap’s case, Thai government spokesperson Chai Watcharong told VOA that Thailand would “take into consideration all relevant factors and concerns including the safety of the alleged offender. The court shall decide whether the alleged offences requested for extradition are considered extraditable.”

“It is better at this stage not to prejudge the court’s decision,” he added.
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NORTH SOUND, Antigua — Hardik Pandya blasted Bangladesh with a 27-ball half-century and Kuldeep Yadav’s three wickets finished off India’s win at the Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday.

Pandya struck four boundaries and three sixes in an unbeaten 50 to lead India to 196-5.

Yadav then took 3-19 in four overs to limit Bangladesh to 146-8.

India moved to the top of Group 1 in the Super Eight with two wins from two matches. Afghanistan moved to two points after it beat Australia by 21 runs later Saturday, but stay behind Australia in third place on net run rate. Bangladesh remained winless.

Put into bat, India started quick as captain Rohit Sharma scored 23 off 11 balls. Virat Kohli added 37 off 28, hitting three sixes. The duo put on 39 off 22 balls for India’s best opening stand in the tournament.

Sharma was caught in the fourth over off Shakib al Hasan, while Kohli put on another 32 off 27 balls with Rishabh Pant for the second wicket.

Tanzim Hasan Sakib struck twice in the ninth over, getting Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav for 6 as India slumped to 77-3.

But Rishabh Pant anchored one end with 36 off 24, including four fours and two sixes, putting on 31 off 19 balls with Shivam Dube.

Despite Pant’s dismissal in the 12th over, Dube’s prowess against spin came in handy — he hit three sixes, scoring 34 off 24 balls.

But it was Pandya who took charge in the death overs. India scored 62 runs in the last five overs.

Pandya was named player of the match.

“We have played some really good cricket (to win five straight games),” he said. “We have executed our plans well, but as a group we can still improve. We sometimes lose wickets in a bunch, but apart from that things are looking good.”

Bangladesh’s reply made a steady start. Openers Litton Das (13) and Tanzid Hasan (29) added 35 off 27 until Pandya got the breakthrough in the fifth over.

The Tigers were at 66-2 in the 10th over and scoring slower. The chase unravelled when Yadav came on to bowl. He trapped Hasan lbw, and dismissed Towhid Hridoy for 4 and claimed the big wicket of Shakib for 11.

Bangladesh lost three wickets for 32 runs across 24 balls and didn’t recover.

Pace bowlers Jasprit Bumrah (2-13) and Arshdeep Singh (2-30) helped to seal India’s fifth win over Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup.

Afghanistan stuns Australia

Afghanistan kept its Twenty20 World Cup semifinal hopes alive by stunning previously unbeaten Australia by 21 runs in a thrilling encounter at St. Vincent later on Saturday.

Despite a second successive hat-trick by Australian bowler Pat Cummins, Afghanistan posted 148-6 after being asked to bat first on a tricky pitch at the Arnos Vale Ground.

Afghanistan pair Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran put on 118 for the highest opening partnership against Australia in a T20 match before Australia’s bowlers rallied late, including Cummins’ second career hat-trick — just two days after his first.

Australia then stumbled with the bat and were all out for 127, with only Glenn Maxwell (59 off 41 balls) coming to grips with the superb Afghanistan bowling attack and the deteriorating wicket.

Man of the match Guldabin Naib took four wickets in an inspired spell in the middle overs to stall Australia’s chase before Azmatullah Omarzai had final wicket Adam Zampa caught in the deep in the final over to complete a stunning win amid jubilant celebrations among the Afghan players and team management.

The victory moves Afghanistan to two points in Group 1 and level with Australia, but behind on net run rate. India leads the group on four points, with Bangladesh bottom on zero points but still with a chance of qualifying for the semifinals.

The final group standings will be decided on Monday when Afghanistan plays Bangladesh at St. Vincent and Australia play India Monday at St. Lucia.
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Shanghai, China — The German vice-chancellor assured China on Saturday that the “doors” remained “open” to discuss EU surcharges on Chinese electric vehicles, without reassuring Beijing which promised to “firmly defend” its manufacturers.

Also, the Minister of Economy and Climate, Robert Habeck is making a visit that seems like a last chance to avoid a trade war between the Old Continent and the second world power, an important economic partner of Germany.

A task further complicated by the political context, the German leader reproached China on Saturday for its economic support for Russia against a backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine, stressing it was “harming” relations between Beijing and Brussels.

China regularly denounces these upcoming surcharges on electric vehicles as being “purely protectionist.”

“These are not punitive customs duties,” Habeck assured Zheng Shanjie, director of the Chinese Economic Planning Agency (NDRC) Saturday, according to a recording sent to AFP by the Chinese Embassy in Germany.

“This is not a punishment,” he insisted.

Up to 28% increase

Without compromise by July 4, the European Commission will impose up to 28% increase in customs duties on imports of Chinese electric vehicles, accusing Beijing of having, according to it, distorted competition by massively subsidizing this sector.

These surcharges would become definitive from November.

“For Europe, I can say that the doors are open and the invitation or offer for discussion has been made several times. Now it must be accepted,” Habeck said at a news conference in Shanghai.

From Brussels, Olof Gill, the EU spokesperson, assured that European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentao “had a frank and constructive call on Saturday regarding the anti-subsidy investigation of the EU on electric cars produced in China.”

“Both sides will continue to engage at all levels in the coming weeks,” he added.

China vows to defend ‘rights’

Earlier Saturday, the tone had been firm on the Chinese side.

“If the EU shows sincerity, China wants to start negotiations as soon as possible” on the surcharges, Trade Minister Wang told him, according to the English-speaking state television CGTN.

“But if the EU persists in this course, we will take all necessary measures to defend our interests. This will include lodging a complaint with the dispute settlement mechanism of the World Trade Organization (WTO). We will firmly defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.”

Beijing had already announced Monday that it had launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of pork and pork products from the European Union.

German and European manufacturers are strongly affected by cheaper Chinese competition. Imports of Chinese electric vehicles into Germany increased tenfold between 2020 and 2023.

China argues that the success of its electricity sector is due to innovation and efficient supply chains, not subsidies.

“(EU) protectionism will not protect (its manufacturers’) competitiveness and will only slow down the global fight against climate change and the promotion of a green transition,” Zheng told Habeck.

“We expect Germany to show leadership within the EU and take the right measures,” implying the cancellation of surcharges, he insisted, according to the New China agency.

Habeck blames Beijing

Such an epilogue seems improbable, with Habeck again blaming Beijing on Saturday for the surge in its trade with Moscow.

“The Russian war of aggression and Chinese support for the Russian government are already harming trade and economic relations between Europe and China,” he said he told his Chinese interlocutors.

China has pledged not to supply weapons to Russia and calls for respect for the territorial integrity of all countries — including Ukraine. But China has never condemned Moscow for its invasion.

Habeck assured Saturday that many “dual-use” goods (both civil and military) were used by Russia after passing through “third countries” — implying China.

“We therefore cannot accept” that the Russian invasion is supported with these products, insisted the German vice-chancellor, calling on Beijing to ban their export to its Russian neighbor.

German car manufacturers still fear a major trade conflict with Beijing, which would undermine their activity in this crucial market. For Mercedes, Volkswagen or BMW, China represents up to 36% of sales volumes.
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taipei, taiwan — Taiwan’s defense ministry said Saturday it had detected 41 Chinese military aircraft around the island in a 24-hour window, a day after Beijing said “diehard” advocates of Taiwan’s independence could face the death penalty.  

China claims self-ruled democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has said it would never renounce the use of force to bring it under Beijing’s control. 

It has stepped up pressure on Taipei in recent years and held war games around the island following last month’s inauguration of new Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te. 

On Saturday, Taipei’s defense ministry said it had detected 41 Chinese military aircraft and seven naval vessels operating around Taiwan during the 24-hour period leading up to 6 a.m. (2200 GMT). 

“Thirty-two of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to a line bisecting the 180-kilometer (110-mile) waterway that separates Taiwan from China. 

The ministry added that it had “monitored the situation and responded accordingly.” 

The latest incursion came after China published judicial guidelines Friday that included the death penalty for “particularly serious” cases of “diehard” supporters of Taiwanese independence, state media reported. 

On May 25, Taiwan detected 62 Chinese military aircraft around the island in a 24-hour window, the highest single-day total this year, as China staged military drills following the inauguration of Lai, who Beijing regards as a “dangerous separatist.” 
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NEW DELHI — India and Bangladesh on Saturday moved to bolster their defense relationship and signed agreements for expanding cooperation in maritime security, ocean economy, and space and telecommunication sectors, as New Delhi presents itself as a regional power and a counterweight to China.

The agreements were signed during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India, the first foreign leader to visit New Delhi since Narendra Modi became the country’s prime minister for a third term two weeks ago.

Modi welcomed Bangladesh’s decision to join his Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative to expand and facilitate regional cooperation of India’s maritime neighbors. He said the deals with Dhaka were part of his country’s pursuit of a neighborhood-first approach.

Bangladesh also enjoys good ties with China, its major trade partner mostly for raw materials. But maintaining a close relationship with Beijing is challenging for Bangladesh, which also balances diplomatic and trade relationships with India and the United States, China’s main rivals.

Bangladesh’s garment industry, which brings in more than 80% of foreign currency from exports, is heavily dependent on China for raw materials.

Hasina told reporters in New Delhi that the two countries decided to boost the sharing of river waters and cooperation in the power and energy sectors.

She also met Indian industry leaders and invited them to invest in Bangladesh, which plans to develop bigger ports, waterways rail, and road connectivity. India loaned Bangladesh $8 billion in the last eight years, to help expand that infrastructure.

Since Hasina’s Awami League party came to power in 2009, she has acted to address New Delhi’s concern about Indian militant groups taking shelter in Bangladesh.

However, an agreement on sharing the waters of the River Teesta remains elusive. The question of illegal immigration from Bangladesh to India also has dogged bilateral ties for years.

India is Bangladesh’s largest export destination in Asia. Trade between the two countries touched $15.9 billion in the financial year 2022-23.

New Delhi mainly exports cotton, motor vehicles, sugar, iron, steel, aluminum, electrical and electronic equipment to Bangladesh. It imports cereal, pulp paper and board, cement and raw hides from Bangladesh.
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ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN — Economic analysts in Kazakhstan say the government is using a formulation for setting the poverty line that fails to capture the number of people living below a humane standard of living. The result, they say, lowers the amount of assistance provided to the poor.

Kazakhstan sets the poverty line at about $70 a month, slightly over $2 a day. That results in an official poverty rate of 5.1% of the population. The World Bank, in a March report, More, Better and Inclusive Jobs in Kazakhstan, said that using its poverty line of $3.65 a day for lower middle-income countries (although the World Bank actually classifies Kazakhstan as upper middle-income) puts the poverty rate at about 10% in 2018.

Meruert Makhmutova, an economist and director of the Almaty-based Public Policy Research Center, said Kazakhstan should adopt the World Bank standard, which she said would result in more people receiving government assistance.

“The switch to $3.65 a day would automatically increase the number of the poor and the government would have to provide targeted social assistance to a greater number of people,” Makhmutova said. “As a result, the government, failing to admit the real scale of poverty, reduces budget spending on social assistance to poor citizens.”

The official Kazakh poverty level is close to the World Bank’s extreme poverty line of $2.15 a day, but Andrey Chebotarev, an Almaty-based economist and director of the Alternativa center for topical research, told VOA that figure is not applicable in Kazakhstan because of climate.

“It’s hard to just survive on the street in Kazakhstan in winter because the weather and climate make it impossible,” he told VOA, referring to winter temperatures that could drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius.

“We need to assess poverty differently,” he said.

Makhmutova also disputed methods authorities use to set the minimum wage and gauge the unemployment level.

Until recently, the minimum wage has been set arbitrarily without consideration of personal incomes or the real cost of living in the country. It was set around $190 a month for 2024, even though the average monthly wage was $890 at the end of last year.

“The government doesn’t use the average wage for setting the minimum wage, that’s why the minimum wage doesn’t grow substantially and its growth in the past few years doesn’t even match the inflation rate,” Makhmutova said.

Baglan Kasenov, the head of the Kazakh Labor and Social Protection Ministry’s department for labor and social partnership, told VOA the Kazakh government had adopted a new methodology to set the minimum wage starting next year. It conforms to International Labor Organization recommendations, he said, and will be based on the median wage and productivity, reaching 50% of the median wage in future. The median wage, where half of workers receive less than that and half receive more, was about $560 a month last year.

The joblessness rate is another contentious issue in Kazakhstan, as authorities, Chebotarev said, now categorize people, for example, farming their kitchen gardens and working without pay in family businesses as “self-employed,” which is new.

Makhmutova said the move “masks unemployment”; the number of jobless has been constant at around 450,000 people or under 5% in the past few years, whereas the number of self-employed is around 2.1 million, according to the government.

“As for unemployment, it’s a Kazakh invention of global scale because we have invented 2 million self-employed and blame everything on them,” Chebotarev said. “Our estimates of unemployment should be revised … but no one in government wants to consider self-employed as jobless.”

World Bank report questioned

Use of the government figures has resulted in criticism of the World Bank report, which claimed that despite declining economic growth, Kazakhstan’s poverty rate had dropped.

Makhmutova questioned the World Bank’s report because it based its analysis on “irrelevant” official Kazakh income and unemployment statistics – figures that are derived from the wrong method to assess poverty as well as being out of date.

She told VOA the report “is not objective in the first place because it relies on statistics provided by the labor ministry which avoids the assessment of the real scale of poverty and unemployment.”

In addition, although the report was published this year, “the latest statistical data on poverty is from 2018, which is why it is irrelevant for the assessment of the current situation,” she said, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and high inflation after Russia invaded Ukraine as having worsened living standards and increased poverty in Kazakhstan since 2018.

In response to Makhmutova’s criticism, the World Bank said it welcomes “critique and debate” over its reports, adding that the report “used the latest available data as is standard in World Bank reports for analysis.”
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