BANGKOK — Human rights advocates say at least some of the eight ethnic minority Uyghurs who remain in Thailand’s custody since authorities deported 40 others to China last month are at risk of the same fate.
After weeks of denying it was planning to repatriate any of the 48 Chinese Uyghurs it had held since arresting them for illegal entry in 2014, Thailand abruptly turned 40 of them over to China on Feb. 27.
The United States, United Nations and international rights groups strongly condemned Thailand for sending Uyghurs back to China. They say it violates Thailand’s international treaty obligations and, as of 2023, its own domestic law against deporting people to countries where they face a good chance of being abused or tortured.
The United States and others have accused Beijing of genocide over its treatment of the Turkic-speaking Muslim minority Uyghurs in China’s western Xinjiang province. The United Nations says their treatment may amount to crimes against humanity. Beijing denies the allegations.
The Thai and Chinese governments have said nothing about the eight Uyghurs who were not sent back to China last month. The two governments have ignored VOA requests for comment.
But rights groups tell VOA they have confirmed that all eight remain in Thai custody — three in immigration detention without charge, with the other five serving prison sentences since 2020 for robbery and attempted escape from a detention center.
They say the five in prison face the greatest risk of being deported once their prison terms end.
“After they complete their sentence, they have to come back to the immigration detention centers. That is … worrisome, because if there [is] the push from the Chinese again, these five people might be the most vulnerable group of people that will be deported again,” Kannavee Suebsang, an opposition lawmaker and deputy chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice and Human Rights, told VOA.
He said their sentences are due to end in 2029.
Rights groups, though, say the five could face a forced return to China much earlier than that if they are added to the lists of prisoners pardoned by Thailand’s king on royal holidays each year.
‘We are very concerned’
In a statement addressing the Feb. 27 deportations posted online the day after, the Thai government said China had in fact asked for the return of 45 “Chinese nationals,” referring to the Uyghurs. Krittaporn Semsantad, program director for the Peace Rights Foundation, a Thai rights group, says that number appears to include the five Uyghurs still in prison in Thailand — a sign, she believes, that China wants them returned as well.
“So, yes, we are very … concerned,” she told VOA. “It could be very high risk and very high chance that these five will be sent back after they finish their sentence.”
For the eight Uyghurs still in Thai custody, “the danger is not passed yet,” agreed Polat Sayim, an ethnic Uyghur living in Australia and the executive committee vice chair of the World Uyghur Congress.
Chalida Tajaroensuk, who heads Thailand’s People’s Empowerment Foundation, another local rights group, echoed their concerns.
She told VOA she visited the five Uyghurs in prison the day after the 40 were deported and said they were terrified of being forced back to China as well.
“They are afraid, and they also cried. They don’t want to go back,” she said.
‘We need to closely monitor’
The rights groups told VOA that their sources in the Thai government and inside its detained centers have told them the other three Uyghurs also remain in Thailand, in the custody of the Bureau of Immigration.
Neither China nor Thailand has explained why they were not deported along with the 40 last month. Unlike the five Uyghurs in prison, Kannavee and the rights groups say these three, who also hail from China, claimed to have come from other countries when they were first caught in Thailand, which may have helped to spare them from being sent back.
“But still we need to also closely monitor about the situation of the three, because they [have] already been disclosed, I mean their information has been disclosed that they are [from] the same group of the Uyghurs,” said Kannavee, who previously worked for the U.N.’s refugee agency in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand.
He was referring to the more than 300 Uyghurs Thailand caught entering the country illegally in 2014 as they sought to make their way to Turkey, where some had relatives, and other countries.
Of that group, Thailand deported 173 mostly women and children to Turkey in 2015 but sent 109, most of them men, back to China days later. Those sent back to China have not been heard from since.
Following the rebukes over last month’s deportations, the Thai government said Beijing had assured it that the Uyghurs would be treated well and that Bangkok could send envoys to check up on them regularly.
Rights groups and opposition lawmakers such as Kannavee, though, say they take little comfort in Beijing’s promises and still hope to persuade the Thai government to let the eight Uyghurs who remain in its custody settle elsewhere.
‘We don’t have a country’
Thai officials initially claimed that no other country had offered to take in the Uyghurs but later acknowledged that some had, without naming them, and that Thailand turned them down for fear that China might retaliate.
The Reuters news agency has reported that Australia, Canada and the United States all offered to resettle the Uyghurs.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told VOA on Sunday it had been working with Thailand for years to avoid their return to China, “including by consistently and repeatedly offering to resettle the Uyghurs in other countries, including, at times, the United States.”
Sayim, of the World Uyghur Congress, said those countries should keep their offers open for the eight Uyghurs Thailand still holds, and continue putting pressure on the Thai government to accept.
“We don’t have [a] country. That’s why we have to ask European countries if they can help. … Always we asking [the] U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, Australia if they could make a decision and take them,” he said. “The Thai government shouldn’t give these people back to China. They know it’s not good when they go back.”
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Militants attack train, take hostages in Pakistan’s Balochistan
ISLAMABAD — Militants attacked a cross-country passenger train Tuesday in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province, taking many hostages.
Authorities say the Jaffar Express was traveling north from Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, to Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when it came under intense fire hours after departure.
The train was carrying roughly 450 passengers, including security personnel.
Citing security sources, state broadcaster PTV reported militants were holding passengers hostage in the train, which was trapped inside a tunnel. A clearance operation was ongoing.
The Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, quickly claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement to media, the banned separatist militant outfit said it had blown up tracks and taken passengers hostage.
Emergency situation
Earlier, Pakistan Railways officials confirmed to VOA that the train driver had been injured.
“Mobile and wireless signals are not working, and unfortunately we are not able to get in touch with the crew,” railway deputy controller Muhammad Sharifullah in Quetta told VOA.
Provincial spokesperson Shahid Rind said security forces, a rescue train and ambulances had been dispatched. Located in barren, mountainous terrain, the scene of the attack is hard to reach.
An emergency has been declared at the government hospital in Sibbi to receive the injured.
BLA surges
According to the Global Terrorism Index 2025 released last week, Pakistan experienced a 45% increase in terrorism deaths last year, compared with 2023. That is the largest year-to-year rise in more than a decade. The BLA emerged as one of the top two militant groups driving the increase.
The separatist group has been fighting a deadly insurgency against the Pakistani state, accusing the government of robbing the province of its rich natural resources. The group also opposes Chinese investment in the province.
Pakistan and China reject the claims that their joint ventures are depriving ethnic Baloch from economic opportunities and their share of the province’s mineral wealth.
Recent attacks
Since the beginning of the year, the BLA has ramped up attacks on security forces and settlers and workers primarily from the eastern Punjab province.
Earlier this month, a female suicide bomber detonated her explosive devices near a military convoy in Balochistan’s Kalat district, killing at least one security personnel and injuring four others.
Last month, BLA insurgents ambushed a bus transporting paramilitary forces in Kalat and killed 18 of those on board.
Just days later, a roadside bomb blast killed 11 coal miners in the city while the BLA took credit for attacking a military vehicle securing a supply convoy for a mining company operated by China. Pakistani authorities reported that the convoy was passing through Kalat when it came under attack, resulting in injuries to eight security personnel.
VOA’s Urdu Service’s Murtaza Zehri in Quetta contributed to this report.
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Gunmen attack hotel in Somalia, killing at least 5
WASHINGTON — Gunmen stormed a hotel in the Somali city of Beledweyne on Tuesday, leaving at least five people dead and triggering an ongoing siege, according to witnesses and a Somali lawmaker.
In an interview with VOA Somali, federal lawmaker Dahir Amin Jesow said local elders and government officials were meeting at the Qahira Hotel in central Somalia.
“They attacked the hotel at dawn this morning, with an explosion and then gunmen stormed it. At least five people including two well-respected elders were killed, and five others were injured,” Jesow said.
A VOA reporter in the town said at least six people have been confirmed dead, while the siege continues.
The reporter said Somali security forces backed by Djiboutian soldiers, who are part of the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somaila, AUSSOM, and units of Ethiopian soldiers could be seen surrounding the hotel.
Local media reports say the death toll may be higher — up to 10 fatalities, including five al-Shabab militants, who were involved in the assault, and government soldiers.
Plumes of smoke from the explosions could be seen throughout the town, and an eyewitness said there has been ongoing gunfire.
“We can still hear sporadic gunfire from the hotel as some militants are still resisting and fighting with the security forces,” said Mohamed Qoone, a resident who witnessed the attack.
Video circulating on social media shows parts of the Qahira Hotel reduced to rubble.
The Islamist militant group al-Shabab immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, the group said it had killed more than 10 people.
The group frequently conducts bombings and gun assaults in Somalia, aiming to topple the government and impose its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
This attack follows an operation conducted by Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) just hours earlier, which resulted in the deaths of 16 al-Shabab militants, including key leaders and fighters.
According to NISA, “The operation dealt a significant blow to al-Shabab, eliminating key members of the group. In addition to the fatalities, the operation also led to the destruction of combat vehicles used by the militants.”
Somali government soldiers, supported by local clan militias and the U.S. military, are conducting operations against al-Shabab in central Somalia, focusing on the Middle Shabelle and Hiran regions.
VOA’s Sahra Abdi Ahmed contributed to this report.
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‘Nervous and rushed’: Massive Fukushima plant cleanup exposes workers to high radiation and stress
OKUMA, Japan — The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s radiation levels have significantly dropped since the cataclysmic meltdown 14 years ago Tuesday.
Workers walk around in many areas wearing only surgical masks and regular clothes.
It’s a different story for those who enter the reactor buildings, including the three damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They must use maximum protection — full facemasks with filters, multi-layered gloves and socks, shoe covers, hooded hazmat coveralls and a waterproof jacket, and a helmet.
As workers remove melted fuel debris from the reactors in a monumental nuclear cleanup effort that could take more than a century, they are facing both huge amounts of psychological stress and dangerous levels of radiation.
The Associated Press, which recently visited the plant for a tour and interviews, takes a closer look.
Cleaning 880 tons of melted fuel debris
A remote-controlled extendable robot with a tong had several mishaps including equipment failures before returning in November with a tiny piece of melted fuel from inside the damaged No. 2 reactor.
That first successful test run is a crucial step in what will be a daunting, decades-long decommissioning that must deal with at least 880 tons of melted nuclear fuel that has mixed with broken parts of internal structures and other debris inside the three ruined reactors.
Akira Ono, chief decommissioning officer at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, says even the tiny sample gives officials a lot of information about the melted fuel. More samples are needed, however, to make the work smoother when bigger efforts to remove the debris begin in the 2030s.
A second sample-retrieval mission at the No. 2 reactor is expected in coming weeks.
Operators hope to send the extendable robot farther into the reactor to take samples closer to the center, where overheated nuclear fuel fell from the core, utility spokesperson Masakatsu Takata said. He pointed out the target area as he stood inside the inner structure of the No. 5 reactor, which is one of two reactors that survived the tsunami. It has an identical design as No. 2.
Hard to see, breathe or move
Radiation levels are still dangerously high inside the No. 2 reactor building, where the melted fuel debris is behind a thick concrete containment wall. Earlier decontamination work reduced those radiation levels to a fraction of what they used to be.
In late August, small groups took turns doing their work helping the robot in 15- to 30-minute shifts to minimize radiation exposure. They have a remotely controlled robot, but it has to be manually pushed in and out.
“Working under high levels of radiation (during a short) time limit made us feel nervous and rushed,” said Yasunobu Yokokawa, a team leader for the mission. “It was a difficult assignment.”
Full-face masks reduced visibility and made breathing difficult, an extra waterproof jacket made it sweaty and hard to move, and triple-layered gloves made their fingers clumsy, Yokokawa said.
To eliminate unnecessary exposure, they taped around gloves and socks and carried a personal dosimeter to measure radiation. Workers also rehearsed the tasks they’d perform to minimize exposure.
The mission stalled early on when workers noticed that a set of five 1.5-meter pipes meant to push the robot into the reactor’s primary containment vessel had been arranged in the wrong order.
A camera on the robot also failed because of high radioactivity and had to be replaced. The workers’ highest individual radiation dose was more than the overall average but still far below anything approaching a 100-millisievert five-year dose limit.
Even so, a growing number of workers are concerned about safety and radiation at the plant, said Ono, the decommissioning chief, citing an annual survey of about 5,5,00 workers.
In 2023, two workers splashed with contaminated sludge at a water treatment facility suffered burns and were hospitalized, though they had no other health problems.
Making sure it’s safe
Yokokawa and a plant colleague, Hiroshi Ide, helped in the 2011 emergency and work as team leaders today. They say they want to make the job safer as workers face high radiation in parts of the plant.
On the top floor of the No. 2 reactor, workers are setting up equipment to remove spent fuel units from the cooling pool. That’s set to begin within two to three years.
At the No. 1 reactor, workers are putting up a giant roof to contain radioactive dust from decontamination work on the top floor ahead of the removal of spent fuel.
To minimize exposure and increase efficiency, workers use a remote-controlled crane to attach pre-assembled parts, according to TEPCO. The No. 1 reactor and its surroundings are among the most contaminated parts of the plant.
What’s next?
Workers are also removing treated radioactive wastewater. They recently started dismantling the emptied water tanks to make room to build facilities needed for the research and storage of melted fuel debris.
After a series of small missions by robots to gather samples, experts will determine a larger-scale method for removing melted fuel, first at the No. 3 reactor.
Experts say the hard work and huge challenges of decommissioning the plant are just beginning. There are estimations that the work could take more than a century. The government and TEPCO have an initial completion target of 2051, but the retrieval of melted fuel debris is already three years behind, and many big issues remain undecided.
Ide, whose home in Namie town, northwest of the plant, is in a no-go zone because of nuclear contamination, still has to put on a hazmat suit, even for brief visits home.
“As a Fukushima citizen, I would like to make sure the decommissioning work is done properly so that people can return home without worries,” he said.
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Uganda says special forces deploy in South Sudan capital amid tensions
NAIROBI, KENYA — Uganda’s military chief said Tuesday his country had deployed special forces in South Sudan’s capital Juba to “secure it” as tensions between President Salva Kiir and his First Vice President Riek Machar stoke fears of a return to civil war.
Tensions have been growing in recent days in South Sudan, an oil producer, after Kiir’s government detained two ministers and several senior military officials allied with Machar. One minister has since been released.
The arrests in Juba and deadly clashes around the northern town of Nasir are seen as jeopardizing 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar that cost nearly 400,000 lives.
“As of two days ago, our Special Forces units entered Juba to secure it,” Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, said in a series of posts on the X platform overnight into Tuesday.
“We the UPDF (Ugandan military), only recognize one President of South Sudan, H.E. Salva Kiir … any move against him is a declaration of war against Uganda,” he said in another post.
South Sudan government information minister and the military spokesperson did not pick up phone calls seeking comment.
After the civil war erupted in South Sudan in 2013, Uganda deployed its troops in Juba to bolster Kiir’s forces against Machar. They were eventually withdrawn in 2015.
Ugandan troops were again deployed in Juba in 2016 after fighting reignited between the two sides but they also were eventually withdrawn.
Uganda fears a full-blown conflagration in its northern neighbor could send waves of refugees across the border and potentially create instability.
Kainerugaba did not say whether the latest deployment was in response to a request from Kiir’s government or how long the troops would remain in South Sudan.
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Dalai Lama says his successor to be born outside China
NEW DELHI — The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.
Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in “Voice for the Voiceless,” which was reviewed by Reuters and is being released on Tuesday.
He had previously said the line of spiritual leaders might end with him.
His book marks the first time the Dalai Lama has specified that his successor would be born in the “free world,” which he describes as outside China. He has previously said only that he could reincarnate outside Tibet, possibly in India where he lives in exile.
“Since the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama – that is, to be the voice for universal compassion, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and the symbol of Tibet embodying the aspirations of the Tibetan people – will continue,” the Dalai Lama writes.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled at the age of 23 to India with thousands of other Tibetans in 1959 after a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Beijing insists it will choose his successor, but the Dalai Lama has said any successor named by China would not be respected.
China brands the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause, as a “separatist.”
When asked about the book at a press briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said the Dalai Lama “is a political exile who is engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion.
“On the Tibet issue, China’s position is consistent and clear. What the Dalai Lama says and does, cannot change the objective fact of Tibet’s prosperity and development.”
Beijing said last month it hoped the Dalai Lama would “return to the right path” and that it was open to discussing his future if he met such conditions as recognizing that Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of China, whose sole legal government is that of the People’s Republic of China. That proposal has been rejected by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in India.
Supporters of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause include Richard Gere, a follower of Tibetan Buddhism, and Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
His followers have been worried about his health, especially after knee surgery last year. He told Reuters in December that he might live to be 110.
In his book, the Dalai Lama says he has received numerous petitions for more than a decade from a wide spectrum of Tibetan people, including senior monks and Tibetans living in Tibet and outside, “uniformly asking me to ensure that the Dalai Lama lineage be continued.”
Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death. The current Dalai Lama was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two.
The book, which the Dalai Lama calls an account of his dealings with Chinese leaders over seven decades, is being published on Tuesday in the U.S. by William Morrow and in Britain by HarperNonFiction, with HarperCollins publications to follow in India and other countries.
The Dalai Lama, who has said he will release details about his succession around his 90th birthday in July, writes that his homeland remains “in the grip of repressive Communist Chinese rule” and that the campaign for the freedom of the Tibetan people will continue “no matter what,” even after his death.
He expressed faith in the Tibetan government and parliament-in-exile, based with him in India’s Himalayan city of Dharamshala, to carry on the political work for the Tibetan cause.
“The right of the Tibetan people to be the custodians of their own homeland cannot be indefinitely denied, nor can their aspiration for freedom be crushed forever through oppression,” he writes. “One clear lesson we know from history is this: if you keep people permanently unhappy, you cannot have a stable society.”
Given his advanced age, he writes, his hopes of going back to Tibet look “increasingly unlikely.”
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Only seven countries met WHO air quality standards in 2024, data shows
SINGAPORE — Only seven countries met World Health Organization air quality standards last year, data showed on Tuesday, as researchers warned that the war on smog would only get harder after the United States shut down its global monitoring efforts.
Chad and Bangladesh were the world’s most polluted countries in 2024, with average smog levels more than 15 times higher than WHO guidelines, according to figures compiled by Swiss air quality monitoring firm IQAir.
Only Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Estonia and Iceland made the grade, IQAir said.
Significant data gaps, especially in Asia and Africa, cloud the worldwide picture, and many developing countries have relied on air quality sensors mounted on U.S. embassy and consulate buildings to track their smog levels.
However, the State Department has recently ended the scheme, citing budget constraints, with more than 17 years of data removed last week from the U.S. government’s official air quality monitoring site, airnow.gov, including readings collected in Chad.
“Most countries have a few other data sources, but it’s going to impact Africa significantly, because often times these are the only sources of publicly available real-time air quality monitoring data,” said Christi Chester-Schroeder, IQAir’s air quality science manager.
Data concerns meant Chad was excluded from IQAir’s 2023 list, but it was also ranked the most polluted country in 2022, plagued by Sahara dust as well as uncontrolled crop burning.
Average concentrations of small, hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 hit 91.8 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/cu m) last year in the country, slightly higher than 2022.
The WHO recommends levels of no more than 5 mg/cu m, a standard met by only 17% of cities last year.
India, fifth in the smog rankings behind Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, saw average PM2.5 fall 7% on the year to 50.6 mg/cu m.
But it accounted for 12 of the top 20 most polluted cities, with Byrnihat, in a heavily industrialized part of the country’s northeast, in first place, registering an average PM2.5 level of 128 mg/cu m.
Climate change is playing an increasing role in driving up pollution, Chester-Schroeder warned, with higher temperatures causing fiercer and lengthier forest fires that swept through parts of Southeast Asia and South America.
Christa Hasenkopf, director of the Clean Air Program at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute (EPIC), said at least 34 countries will lose access to reliable pollution data after the U.S. program was closed.
The State Department scheme improved air quality in the cities where the monitors were placed, boosting life expectancy and even reducing hazard allowances for U.S. diplomats, meaning that it paid for itself, Hasenkopf said.
“(It) is a giant blow to air quality efforts worldwide,” she said.
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Ukraine to present peace plan in US talks
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — U.S. and Ukrainian officials began talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia with the Ukrainian side expected to present a partial ceasefire plan with Russia.
The Ukrainian plan includes halting long-range missiles strikes and a truce covering the Black Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not take part in Tuesday’s meetings, with Ukraine represented by his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and military commander Pavlo Palisa.
Zelenskyy said on X ahead of the talks that Ukraine hopes for “practical outcomes.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz led the U.S. delegation amid President Donald Trump’s push to broker a swift end to the war that began in early 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Rubio said Monday the United States hopes to resolve the pause in aid to Ukraine.
He said the U.S. is in a listening mode and aims to understand what concessions Ukraine might be willing to make.
“The Ukrainians are already receiving all defensive intelligence information as we speak. I think all the notion of the pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously, I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio told reporters aboard a military plane before landing in Jeddah.
“We’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them [Ukrainians],” Rubio said, adding that there is no military solution to the war, and that both Russia and Ukraine need to “do difficult things.”
Later on Monday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Rubio in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.
Salman held a separate meeting with Zelenskyy in Riyadh earlier in the day.
Mineral deal?
Trump has voiced interest in making continued military aid conditional on access to Ukraine’s raw materials.
More than four dozen minerals, including several types of rare earths, nickel and lithium, are considered critical to the U.S. economy and national defense. Ukraine has large deposits of uranium, lithium and titanium.
But Rubio clarified that securing a deal on Ukraine’s mineral resources was not the primary focus of Tuesday’s talks.
“There’s still more details to work out, and at this point, we’re probably — rather than a memorandum of understanding — just wanting to sign a specific agreement. And that would take a little bit more time,” he told reporters.
“I wouldn’t prejudge tomorrow by whether or not we have a minerals deal. … It’s an important topic, but it’s not the main topic on the agenda,” Rubio added.
Rubio also credited Britain and France for playing a constructive role in talks with Ukraine.
He told VOA that there have been no discussions about China playing a role in postwar peacekeeping and reconstruction in Ukraine.
This marks Rubio’s second visit to Saudi Arabia since taking office. He and other senior U.S. officials held talks with Russian officials in Riyadh on February 18. He is scheduled to travel to Canada on Wednesday for meetings with G7 foreign ministers.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Former Philippine leader Duterte arrested on an ICC warrant over drug killings
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by police at Manila’s international airport Tuesday on order of the International Criminal Court in connection with a case of crime against humanity filed against him, the Philippine government said.
Duterte was arrested after arriving from Hong Kong and police took him into custody on orders of the ICC, which has been investigating the massive killings that happened under the former president’s deadly crackdown against illegal drugs, President Ferdinand Marcos’ office said in a statement.
The Manila office of the International Police received an official copy of the arrest warrant from the global court and the notice for an arrest warrant was served to the former president, the government said.
It was not immediately clear where Duterte was taken by the police. The government said the 79-year-old former leader was in good health and was examined by government doctors.
“He’s now in the custody of authorities,” the government said.
The ICC began investigating drug killings under Duterte from Nov. 1, 2011, when he was still mayor of the southern city of Davao, to March 16, 2019, as possible crimes against humanity. Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the Rome Statute in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability.
The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court’s investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing the ICC — a court of last resort — didn’t have jurisdiction.
Appeals judges at the ICC ruled in 2023 the investigation could resume and rejected the Duterte administration’s objections. Based in The Hague, the Netherlands, the ICC can step in when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute suspects in the most heinous international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded Duterte in 2022 and became entangled in a bitter political dispute with the former president, has decided not to rejoin the global court. But the Marcos administration has said it would cooperate if the ICC asks international police to take Duterte into custody through a so-called Red Notice, a request for law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and temporarily arrest a crime suspect.
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Coffee theft surges in the US as prices for the beans soar
Theft of truck loads of green coffee beans is surging in the United States, the world’s largest importer of the commodity, as prices for the beans increased to all-time highs in the last year, according to transportation companies.
The issue was discussed by market participants over the weekend in Houston, where the U.S. National Coffee Association held its annual conference.
The U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of the beverage. Since coffee is only produced in warmer geographies, it has to import nearly 100% of what it uses and transport millions of bags from ports to roasting plants, mostly via trucks.
“There were dozens of thefts in the last year, something that would happen only rarely in the past,” said Todd Costley, logistic sales coordinator for Hartley Transportation, a freight broker in Pembroke, New Hampshire.
Theft of coffee has been reported in producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, usually in farms where the beans are temporarily stored after the harvest. Those sites are more vulnerable because they are isolated.
Armed men took 500 bags of coffee worth around $230,000 from a farm in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state in January, according to the local police.
In the U.S., the thefts have been done by organized gangs who disguise as transportation companies.
Costley said those fake companies are in the market trying to get small contracts from importers by offering better prices or immediate availability of trucks.
“Importers should be careful about who they hire,” he said. “Once they get the coffee, they disappear.”
Each truck load has about 19,958 kg of green beans, which at current market value is worth around $180,000.
Some market participants believe the gangs then try to sell the beans to smaller roasters, which are feeling the pain from sky-high prices.
Some importers have started attaching tracking devices to the coffee bags, in an effort to protect their shipments.
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VOA Uzbek: Empowering Central Asian craft makers and artists
The Central Asia Program at George Washington University recently had a special exhibition for Central Asian women and art during the International Women’s Day celebrations.
Carpets and other items woven by Afghan women at home sell well in U.S. markets, businesspeople who spoke to VOA said. One vendor said online sales aren’t bad.
Click here for the full story in Uzbek.
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VOA Mandarin: DRC wants mineral deal with US, potential check on China’s dominance
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a speech last week, vowed to take “historic action” to “dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths.” The latest announcement came as the Democratic Republic of Congo approached the United States to strike a Ukraine-like minerals deal. Experts say the U.S .could offer a viable alternative to the DRC and check China’s influence while ensuring access to critical minerals for Washington. But they caution that a mineral agreement is also fraught with challenges.
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
your ad hereVOA Mandarin: China escalates pressure against Taiwan during two Sessions
During China’s Two Sessions, Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan. On Sunday, a People’s Liberation Army delegate warned that “Taiwan independence is a dead end,” and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s claim that “Taiwan’s only designation at the UN is China’s Taiwan Province” was echoed by several Taiwanese celebrities on Weibo. In response, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council took an unusually tough stance, condemning these celebrities and vowing to investigate them under relevant regulations.
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Music flows in Roberta Flack’s ‘Celebration of Life’ memorial with Stevie Wonder and Al Sharpton
NEW YORK — A public memorial service bursting with choral music and the Berklee College of Music’s Nebulous String Quartet, with Stevie Wonder and the Rev. Al Sharpton also on the bill, celebrated the life and legacy of Grammy-winning singer and pianist Roberta Flack.
Flack’s songs “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” made her a global star in the 1970s and beyond. She died last month at age 88.
Wonder was among the artists scheduled to perform during the service at a historic Harlem church, while Sharpton was to deliver the eulogy, according to the memorial program.
Flack was an influential performer with an intimate vocal and musical style that ranged easily between soul, jazz and gospel.
Her “Celebration of Life” memorial was livestreamed at www.RobertaFlack.com and on YouTube.
Here are some highlights:
For the memory of a singing legend, an historic location
Flack’s memorial was open to the public at The Abyssinian Baptist Church. Founded in 1808, it is one of the oldest Black Baptist churches in the U.S.
The church was decorated for the ceremony with stunning white and yellow bouquets and filled quickly beforehand. At the center, a screen showed a young Flack at the piano and played highlights of her career.
It was a fitting location: Flack grew up with church gospel and her mother played organ at the Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. As a teen, she began accompanying the church choir on piano.
The program featured a powerful quote from Flack.
“Remember: Always walk in the light,” it read. “If you feel like you’re not walking in it, go find it. Love the Light.”
A celebration of a life in music … with music
“Many of us are here today because she has touched not just our hearts, but she also touched our souls,” said the Rev. Dr. Kevin R. Johnson, the senior church pastor who led the service.
Choir performances including a rousing rendition of “Amazing Grace” came in between a video recollection of Flack’s life and scripture readings.
“That’s what we call church, y’all,” Johnson said at the close of one choral performance.
Organ and piano riffs played off and on in the background.
“She just sang the song. She let you hear the lyrics. She let you understand the beauty. But I also want you to understand that this woman was also a pure genius,” Santita Jackson, daughter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a friend of Flack, told the near-capacity crowd.
Actor Phylicia Rashad remembered first seeing Flack perform when she was a student at Howard University — to an audience that grew rapt by her quiet, steady voice.
Flack lived comfortably with her genius and without having to proclaim it to people, Rashad said.
“She wore that like a loose fitting garment and lived her life attending to that which she cared for most: music, love and humanity,” Rashad said.
What are some of Flack’s best-known songs?
Flack leaves behind a rich repertoire of music that avoids categorization. Her debut, “First Take,” wove soul, jazz, flamenco, gospel and folk into one revelatory package, prescient in its form and measured in its approach.
She will likely be remembered for her classics. Those include “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” her dreamy cover of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” written by English folk artist Ewan MacColl for his wife Peggy Seeger. It marked the beginning of Flack’s mainstream success when it was used in a love scene between Clint Eastwood and Donna Mills in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.”
But most will think of “Killing Me Softly with His Song” when Flack’s name comes up in conversation. She first heard Lori Lieberman’s “Killing Me Softly with His Song” while on a plane and immediately fell in love with it. While on tour with Quincy Jones, she covered the song, and the audience fell in love with it, too, as they’d continue to for decades.
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UK charity calls to close gender employment gap for disabled
NAIROBI — A British charity for the disabled, citing World Bank data, says the world could gain trillions annually in Gross Domestic Product if women were employed at the same rate as men. Failure to close gender employment gaps reduces a country’s economic growth by 20% on average, according to the data.
In many countries, women face multiple challenges when seeking employment or starting a business. Gender discrimination alone can drive women into poverty, but the risk increases if paired with disabilities.
In recognition of International Women’s Day, Sightsavers International, a British nongovernmental agency that aims to prevent avoidable blindness and ensure equality for the visually impaired, cited the World Bank’s figures showing that global GDP would increase from $106 trillion to $127 trillion if women were employed at the same rate as men.
Michelle Madau, a 41-year-old beautician from Zimbabwe, is living with osteogenesis imperfecta, a brittle-bone disease. Despite her disorder, she helps people like her learn how to run a business.
“I am mentoring the upcoming beauticians who are disabled and I am availing myself, making sure I am there when needed, speaking to them, helping them build up their own businesses,” Madau said. “Of course, not all of them are in the beauty industry; whichever line of business I am familiar with, I am always there to assist them because I also want to see them win, just like I am winning right now.”
Lydia Rosasi, 29, works at the office of the Kenyan government spokesperson, where she assists people living with blindness, deafness and other disabilities in accessing government communications.
She says she bettered herself to stand out in the job market.
“For me, one of the greatest pillars in terms of navigating this double bias has been education and skills development. This has been the crucial thing that has kept me afloat as I go through these challenges,” Rosasi said. “For example, in 2021, I joined the IT Bridger Academy and at that time the digital skills were gaining a lot of prominence in the job market. So it gave me confidence and the capabilities that opened my doors. And then I have found supportive mentors and leaders who have been very important.”
Many African women struggle to get jobs, either because they were married off or became mothers at a young age, leaving them unable to finish their studies. Others encounter discrimination or sexual violence in their workplaces.
Experts say empowering girls with education and allowing them to finish school is one way to reduce the gender employment gap.
Lianna Jones works on economic empowerment at Sightsavers. She says closing the gender gap requires policy reforms and cultural change.
“In terms of closing the gender gap in employment and entrepreneurship, this requires coordinated interventions at multiple levels,” Jones said. “At the policy level, we need to eliminate discriminatory laws and regulations that restrict women’s economic participation. Women with disabilities need specialized approaches that address both gender- and disability-related barriers simultaneously, and lastly, we need to challenge social norms to engage with community leaders, men, and boys.”
According to Equal Measures 2030, a coalition of national, regional and global leaders from feminist networks, civil society and international development, women in at least 77 countries are prohibited from working in the same jobs or sectors as men. In Africa, only five countries have a full set of laws mandating workplace equality for women.
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US stocks drop sharply as Trump hedges on recession
All three major U.S. stock indexes dropped sharply in Monday morning trading, with investors worried about the uncertainty of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on key trading partners and then his refusal to rule out the possibility of a U.S. recession in the coming months.
The key Dow Jones average of 30 blue chip stocks dropped more than 1%, with the broader S&P 500 index falling 2 percentage points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq barometer off more than 3 percentage points.
The S&P 500 finished Friday with a 3.1% weekly drop, its biggest such decline in six months, and the index is down 7.4% from its all-time high set on Feb. 19.
Trump imposed new 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian exports to the U.S. last week and then days later paused the duties until April 2, leaving it uncertain what might happen then.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC News over the weekend, “There’s going to be no recession in America,” but Trump hedged.
“I hate to predict things like that,” the U.S. leader told Fox News. “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.” He then added, “It takes a little time. It takes a little time.”
On Monday, the sell-off of big-tech stocks continued. The stock of electric carmaker Tesla, whose chief executive is billionaire Elon Musk, a key Trump adviser, slid more than 8%.
Other key technology stocks such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia and Meta Platforms all dropped by more than 2%.
The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, has already given some signals of weakening, mostly through surveys showing increased pessimism from consumers, whose purchases account for 70% of the country’s economic output. A widely followed collection of real-time indicators compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests the U.S. economy may already be shrinking.
Analyst David Mericle at the Goldman Sachs investment company cut his 2025 year-over-year estimate for U.S. economic growth from 2.2% to 1.7%, largely because Trump’s tariffs look like they will be bigger than he was previously forecasting. He said he sees a one-in-five chance of a recession over the next year.
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Tibetans scuffle with police outside the Chinese Embassy in India as they mark uprising anniversary
NEW DELHI — Dozens of Tibetan protesters clashed with police outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday as Tibetans living in exile marked the 66th anniversary of their uprising against China that was crushed by Chinese forces.
As in past years, police blocked the protesters from entering the embassy and briefly detained some of them after wrestling them to the ground. Hundreds also marched in the north Indian town of Dharamshala, the seat of the exiled Tibetan government and home of Dalai Lama, their 89-year-old spiritual leader.
Separately, about a hundred Tibetan women gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, an area designated for protests close to Parliament. The protesters shouted anti-China slogans, carried Tibetan flags and played the national anthems of Tibet and India.
India considers Tibet to be part of China, although it hosts the Tibetan exiles. The 1959 independence uprising was quelled by the Chinese army, forcing Dalai Lama and his followers into exile in India.
Many had their faces painted in colors of the Tibetan national flag. The demonstrators observed a minute of silence to remember Tibetans who lost their lives in the struggle against China. Monks, activists, nuns and schoolchildren marched across the town with banners reading, “Free Tibet” and “Remember, Resist, Return.”
Penpa Tsering — the president of the Central Tibetan Administration, as the exiled Tibetan government calls itself — accused China’s leadership of carrying out a “deliberate and dangerous strategy to eliminate the very identity of the Tibetan people.”
“This marks the darkest and most critical period in the history of Tibet,” Tsering told the gathering. “As we commemorate the Tibetan National Uprising Day, we honor our brave martyrs, and express solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside Tibet who continue to languish under the oppressive Chinese government.”
The Tibetan government-in-exile in India accuses China of denying the most fundamental human rights to people in Tibet and trying to expunge the Tibetan identity.
China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but the Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent until China occupied it in 1950.
The Dalai Lama denies China’s claim that he is a separatist and says he only advocates substantial autonomy and protection of Tibet’s native Buddhist culture.
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Court-martial convenes for Pentagon leaker already facing years behind bars
Bedford, Massachusetts — A military court-martial convened on Monday for Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who was sentenced in federal court to 15 years in prison for leaking highly classified military documents after the most consequential national security breach in years.
Teixeira pleaded guilty last year to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act. He faces additional military charges of disobeying orders and obstructing justice in the court-martial, held at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.
Military prosecutors said the court-martial is appropriate given that obeying orders is the “absolute core” of the military. Teixeira’s lawyers argued that further action would amount to prosecuting him twice for the same offense.
The leaks exposed to the world unvarnished secret assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including information about troop movements in Ukraine, and the provision of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira also admitted posting information about a U.S. adversary’s plans to harm U.S. forces serving overseas.
Before he was sentenced in November in U.S. District Court in Boston, Teixeira showed little emotion as he stood in court and apologized for his actions. The 22-year-old previously admitted he illegally collected some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and shared them with other users on the social media platform Discord.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for all the harm that I brought and caused,” Teixeira said. “I understand all the responsibility and consequences fall upon my shoulders alone and accept whatever that will bring.”
Afterward, Teixeira hugged one of his attorneys, looked toward his family and smiled before being led from court. His family left without commenting to reporters, but his mother and others submitted letters to the court seeking leniency.
“I know Jack deeply regrets his actions and is ready to accept his punishment for his part in this situation,” his mother, Dawn Dufault, wrote. “While I understand the severity of his charges and the importance of ensuring justice, I implore you, Your Honor, to consider Jack’s true nature and his unique challenges, as I have observed over the years.”
The security breach raised alarm over the country’s ability to protect its most closely guarded secrets and forced the Biden administration to scramble to try to contain the diplomatic and military fallout. The leaks also embarrassed the Pentagon, which tightened controls to safeguard classified information and disciplined members found to have intentionally failed to take required action about Teixeira’s suspicious behavior.
Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts. He worked as a cyber transport systems specialist, which is essentially an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks. He remains in the Air National Guard in an unpaid status, an Air Force official said.
Teixeira’s lawyers described him as an autistic, isolated individual who spent most of his time online, especially with his Discord community, and never meant to harm the United States. “His intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” they wrote. “He needed someone to share the experience with.”
Prosecutors countered that Teixeira did not suffer from any intellectual disability and that his post-arrest diagnosis of “mild, high-functioning” autism was of “questionable relevance.”
Authorities said he first typed out classified documents he accessed and then began sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings.
Prosecutors also said he tried to cover his tracks before his arrest. Authorities found a smashed tablet, laptop and an Xbox gaming console in a dumpster at his house.
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Philippines’ Duterte says he will accept arrest if ICC issues warrant
HONG KONG/MANILA — Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said in Hong Kong that he was ready for possible arrest amid reports the International Criminal Court (ICC) was poised to issue a warrant over his years-long “war on drugs” that killed thousands.
The “war on drugs” was the signature campaign policy that swept Duterte to power in 2016 as a maverick, crime-busting mayor, who delivered on promises he made during vitriolic speeches, to kill thousands of narcotics dealers.
The office of the current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Monday no official communication had been received from Interpol yet, but indicated Duterte could be handed over.
“Our law enforcers are ready to follow what law dictates, if the warrant of arrest needs to be served because of a request from Interpol,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro told reporters.
It was not immediately clear how long Duterte would stay in China-ruled Hong Kong – which is not a party to the ICC. Duterte was in the city to speak at a campaign rally attended by thousands of Filipino workers, hoping to boost support for his senatorial candidates in upcoming Philippine midterm elections.
“Assuming it’s (warrant) true, why did I do it? For myself? For my family? For you and your children, and for our nation,” Duterte told the rally, justifying his brutal anti-narcotics campaign.
“If this is truly my fate in life, it’s OK, I will accept it. They can arrest me, imprison me.
“What is my sin? I did everything in my time for peace and a peaceful life for the Filipino people,” he told the cheering crowds in Hong Kong’s downtown Southorn Stadium, appearing with his daughter, the Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte.
An elite Hong Kong police unit for protecting VIPs was stationed in the vicinity of the hotel where Duterte is staying, according to a Reuters witness.
The Hong Kong government’s security bureau and police gave no immediate response to a request for comment.
The Philippines presidential office dismissed speculation that Duterte might evade the law by visiting Hong Kong, while appealing to Duterte’s supporters to allow the legal process to take its course.
During a congressional hearing last year into his bloody crackdown on drugs, Duterte said he was not scared of the ICC and told it to “hurry up” on its investigation.
The firebrand Duterte unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s founding treaty in 2019 when it started looking into allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings.
More recently, the Philippines has signaled it is ready to cooperate with the investigation in certain areas.
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China vows utmost efforts for ‘peaceful reunification’ with Taiwan
BEIJING — China will exert utmost efforts to realize “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan, but will take all necessary steps to safeguard China’s territorial integrity, its foreign ministry said on Monday.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory despite the objection of the government in Taipei. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
Last week, on the sidelines of China’s annual meeting of parliament, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters that Taiwan would never be a “country,” and to support “Taiwan independence” was to interfere in China’s internal affairs.
China is “willing to do our utmost to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity,” said Mao Ning, spokesperson at the foreign ministry, when asked about Wang’s remarks on Taiwan.
“At the same time, China will take all necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity and resolutely oppose Taiwan independence and external interference,” Mao said.
In recent years, Beijing has ramped up its military pressure against the island, including holding several rounds of war games, keeping alive the prospect of the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
The United States is Taiwan’s key arms supplier even in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, but there is no defense treaty, unlike in the case of Japan and South Korea.
The United States must cease its arms sales to Taiwan and stop all military contacts with the island, Mao told reporters.
“The Taiwan issue is the core of China’s core interests and the first insurmountable red line in Sino-U.S. relations,” she warned.
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Indian slums get ‘cool roofs’ to combat extreme heat
AHMEDABAD, India — Hundreds of roofs in the informal settlements of India’s western Gujarat state have been painted in a reflective, white coating over the last two months to try to keep their occupants cooler as the hottest time of year approaches.
The effort, which involves 400 households in Ahmedabad, is part of a global scientific trial to study how indoor heat impacts people’s health and economic outcomes in developing countries – and how “cool roofs” might help.
“Traditionally, home is where people have come to find shelter and respite against external elements,” said Aditi Bunker, an epidemiologist at the University of Heidelberg in Switzerland who is leading the project, supported by the UK-based Wellcome Trust.
“Now, we’re in this position where people are living in precarious housing conditions, where the thing that was supposed to be protecting them is actually increasing their exposure to heat.”
As climate change has made India’s summers more extreme, Ahmedabad has suffered temperatures in excess of 46 C (115 F) in recent years.
In the Vanzara Vas slum in the Narol area of the city, which has more than 2,000 dwellings, most of them airless, one-room homes, residents that are part of the project, such as Nehal Vijaybhai Bhil, say they have already noticed a difference.
“My refrigerator doesn’t heat up anymore and the house feels cooler. I sleep so much better and my electricity bill is down,” said Bhil, whose roof was painted in January.
Across the world, heatwaves that, prior to the industrial revolution, had a 1-in-10 chance of occurring in any given year are nearly three times as likely, according to a 2022 study in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
By painting roofs with a white coating that contains highly reflective pigments such as titanium dioxide, Bunker and her team are sending more of the sun’s radiation back to the atmosphere and preventing it from being absorbed.
“In a lot of these low socioeconomic homes, there’s nothing to stop the heat transfer coming down — there’s no insulation barrier from the roof,” Bunker said.
Before joining Bunker’s experiment, Arti Chunara said she would cover her roof with plastic sheets and spread grass over them.
Some days, she and her family sat outside for most of the day, going into the house only for two to three hours when the heat was bearable.
The trial in Ahmedabad will run for one year, and scientists will collect health and indoor environment data from residents living under a cool roof – and from those who do not.
Other study sites are in Burkina Faso, Mexico and the island of Niue in the South Pacific, spanning a variety of building materials and climates.
Early results from the Burkina Faso trial, Bunker said, show that cool roofs reduced indoor temperature by between 1.2 C in tin- and mud-roofed homes, and 1.7 C in tin-roofed homes over two years, which subsequently lowered residents’ heart rates.
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Philippines says acts in national interest in South China Sea
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — China should recognize that the Philippines is an independent and sovereign state whose actions and decisions are driven entirely by national interest and not at the direction of other countries, Manila’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
The Philippines’ foreign ministry also said the “real issue is China’s refusal to abide by international law” and how its “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive behavior at sea” have affected Filipino communities.
“We call on countries to be circumspect and to avoid actions and words that only contribute to tensions in the region,” it said in a statement responding to comments from China that Manila was being directed by external forces.
At a press conference on March 7, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said the Philippines’ actions in the South China Sea were not independent but part of a “screenplay written by external forces,” to smear China.
The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the foreign ministry’s statement.
The Philippines has embarked on what it calls a transparency initiative to shed light on China’s actions in the South China Sea, including embedding journalists on maritime patrols and resupply missions.
Its approach has resonated with allies, including the United States, who support the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that found China’s vast South China Sea claims had no legal basis. China rejects that finding.
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Secret Service shoots man near White House
Police in Washington are investigating the shooting of a man Sunday by U.S. Secret Service personnel near the White House.
A Secret Service spokesperson said a day before the shooting, police had shared information about “a suicidal individual” who may have been traveling to Washington from the state of Indiana.
Secret Service personnel spotted the person’s car near the White House and someone matching the person’s description walking in the area.
The spokesperson said the person brandished a firearm as officers approached, and that Secret Service personnel fired shots during “an armed confrontation.”
Authorities have not identified the person who was taken to a local hospital after being shot.
No Secret Service personnel were injured, the agency said.
President Donald Trump was in Florida at the time of the shooting.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters
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North Korea warns of ‘accidental’ war risk from US-South Korea drills
Seoul, South Korea — North Korea on Monday condemned joint U.S.-South Korean military drills as a “provocative act,” warning of the danger of sparking war with “an accidental single shot,” days after Seoul’s air force mistakenly bombed a village on its own territory.
“This is a dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot,” said Pyongyang’s foreign ministry, as quoted by state media.
The joint U.S.-South Korea “Freedom Shield 2025” exercise was set to kick off on Monday, and will involve “live, virtual, and field-based training,” according to a U.S. statement.
The exercise will run until March 21, the statement said.
Military cooperation between Seoul and Washington regularly invites condemnation from Pyongyang, where the government sees such moves as preparation for an invasion, and often carries out missile tests in response.
The latest exercise comes after two South Korean Air Force fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs on a village during a joint training exercise with U.S. forces on March 6.
Fifteen people, including civilians and military personnel, were wounded in that incident, South Korea’s National Fire Agency said.
Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been at one of their lowest points in years, with the North launching a flurry of ballistic missiles last year in violation of UN sanctions.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The United States stations tens of thousands of soldiers in the South, in part to protect Seoul against Pyongyang.
The large-scale Freedom Shield exercises are one of the allies’ biggest annual joint exercises.
In its statement on Monday, North Korea’s foreign ministry dubbed the exercises “an aggressive and confrontational war rehearsal.”
Last week, Pyongyang slammed the United States for “political and military provocations” over the visit of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to the South Korean port of Busan.
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