STANDARD PRACTICE Speaking shortly before Taiwan’s announcement of Tsai’s trip, a senior US administration official said that her expected transits are standard practice and China should not use them as a pretext for aggressive action toward the democratically governed island. But the senior US official told reporters on a callContinue Reading
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Monday (Mar 20) signed into law a Bill requiring the release of intelligence materials on potential links between the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. “We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19’s origins …, includingContinue Reading
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Monday (Mar 20) signed a bill that requires Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify information related to the origins of COVID-19, the White House said. Biden said he shared Congress’ goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin ofContinue Reading
NO SIGN OF UNREST In his call for protests, Trump raised concerns with law enforcement that supporters might engage in violence similar to the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. New York Mayor Eric Adams told reporters police were monitoring social media and keeping an eye out forContinue Reading
MOSCOW: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on Monday (Mar 20) where he was expected to press Beijing’s role as a potential peacemaker in the Ukraine conflict while Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped for support against Western pressure. Xi’s three-day trip to Russia – his first in nearly four yearsContinue Reading
BEIJING: China’s embassy in Britain on Sunday (Mar 19) condemned a visit this week by British lawmakers to Taiwan, saying they were insisting on visiting the island despite China’s strong opposition. Taiwan’s Presidential Office said the group of six lawmakers from the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group would meet President TsaiContinue Reading
The ICC issued an arrest warrant on Friday against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, a highly symbolic move that isolates the Russian leader further. While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a number of trips to the battlefield to boostContinue Reading
BEIJING: President Xi Jinping heads to Russia on Monday (Mar 20) hoping to deliver a breakthrough on Ukraine as China seeks to position itself as a peacemaker. Freshly reappointed for a third term in power, Xi is pushing a greater role for China on the global stage, and was crucial inContinue Reading
“Over the years we have worked together with our diplomatic allies to support their national development plans in elevating the welfare of their people,” he added. “Despite the shadow of the big bully in the neighbourhood, Taiwan will not budge,” Wu said, in a clear reference to China. “It willContinue Reading
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in Russia from Mar 20 to 22 for a state visit after he was invited by President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday (Mar 17). This will be Xi’s first trip to Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine. Xi last visited Russia inContinue Reading