ASEAN holds summit in Laos as Thailand floats new plan for Myanmar

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Vientiane, Laos — Southeast Asian leaders met in Laos on Wednesday for a summit expected to find ways of tackling a worsening civil war in Myanmar, with Thailand set to propose a new path for a political solution after a regional peace effort made scant progress.

Chaos has prevailed in Myanmar since a 2021 military coup sparked a nationwide rebellion and a civil war that has ravaged the nation of 55 million. The ruling junta has so far refused to hold talks with its opponents, whom it calls terrorists.

Thailand offered this week to host an “informal consultation” of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in December to try to find a way out of the intractable conflict that has displaced millions of people.

“We want to see a political solution,” Nikorndej Balankura, a spokesperson of Thailand’s foreign ministry, told reporters.

“Thailand is ready to coordinate with all other member countries so there would be a concerted ASEAN effort that could lead to peace in Myanmar.”

Thailand’s initiative would complement existing ASEAN peace efforts, but may not immediately involve countries beyond the region, he added.

The proposal, floated at Tuesday’s meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers, comes as the bloc runs low on options to tackle the Myanmar crisis.

There has been no progress on its “Five-Point Consensus” peace plan unveiled months after the coup, or a drive by Indonesia to persuade anti-junta groups to start dialog.

In previous months, Thailand has suggested that Myanmar’s other influential neighbors, China and India, might play a role in the peace effort, but the latest plan is limited to the ASEAN bloc.

Any decision on whether Myanmar’s ruling generals or their opponents would be invited to the informal talks would be up to ASEAN chair Laos and the other member states, Nikorndej added.

Myanmar’s civil war and troubles in the disputed South China Sea are key issues set to dominate the ASEAN leaders’ meeting in Vientiane, which will be followed by two days of summits with premiers and top diplomats from regional and world powers.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese premier Shigeru Ishiba, Chinese premier Li Qiang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are among those set to attend.

Opening Wednesday’s summit, Laos Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone said ASEAN faced many challenges and had its own ways to tackle them.

“Laos deems that ASEAN’s past successes are due to our understanding of each other,” he said. “We help each other, and co-operate with each other, with an ASEAN way and principles. ”

Ahead of Blinken’s trip, the United States’ top diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, told reporters there had been “virtually zero progress” in efforts to get Myanmar’s junta to reduce violence, free political prisoners and talk to the democratic opposition.

“The secretary will continue to emphasize to partners in the region that we must keep up pressure on the regime,” he said, of Blinken’s visit.

Since ASEAN has barred the Myanmar generals from its summits until they can meet requirements of the peace plan, the country is represented in Laos by a senior foreign ministry official.

Nikorndej said Myanmar’s representative urged ASEAN foreign ministers on Tuesday to understand and sympathize with the military government and use more “moderate language” in discussing the crisis.

ASEAN must not bend to accommodate the junta’s demands, including recognizing its own five-step “roadmap” for what is expected to be a one-sided election, however, former Thai diplomat Korbsak Chutikul warned.

“Care must be exercised not to be roped into going along with Myanmar’s own five-point plan, like to hold elections next year for a semblance of legitimacy,” Korbsak said.
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Daughter of Singapore’s founding father dies at 69

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SINGAPORE — The estranged sister of Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong died on Wednesday at 69, after being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy in 2020.

The death of Lee Wei Ling, a doctor, was announced by her younger brother Lee Hsien Yang on Facebook.

The siblings are the children of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and have been embroiled in a public dispute around what to do with their late father’s house after the elder Lee died in 2015.

The former PM Lee, now a senior minister in the cabinet, wrote on Facebook that despite the rift between him and his siblings, “I held nothing against Ling, and continued to do whatever I could to ensure her welfare.”

He described his sister as a fighter who was “fiercely loyal to friends, sympathized instinctively with the underdog, and would mobilize actively to do something when she saw unfairness, or suspected wrongdoing.”

The late doctor earned the prestigious President’s scholarship and topped her cohort in medical school. Lee never married and stayed with her parents until their deaths.

She helped set up Singapore’s National Neuroscience Institute and served as its director for 11 years. She also regularly contributed columns to the national newspaper, The Straits Times.

Senior minister Lee said his sister had diagnosed herself before the doctors did. “She took it with her usual fortitude and stoicism and posted about it as one of those things in life to be borne and endured. She knew what it meant, and made the most of the time she had, even as her health declined,” he wrote.

When announcing her illness, Wei Ling wrote: “My immediate reaction to the news was ‘ren’, or endure in Chinese, of which the traditional character has a knife above a heart. I have been practicing ‘ren’ since I was in Chinese school, recognizing that life has many unpleasant, unavoidable situations.”
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Razor-thin margins: Why Wisconsin is crucial in the 2024 presidential race

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Wisconsin, a Midwestern U.S. state known for its dairy farms and beer production, has emerged as a crucial battleground in the 2024 presidential election. With a history of extremely close races, Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes could determine who becomes the next president. The state’s unique mix of urban and rural voters, along with key issues like the economy and abortion rights, make it a microcosm of the nation’s political divide.
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China stock market stalls for lack of further stimulus measures

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TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s stock rally resumed Tuesday after the weeklong National Day holiday but lost some steam on mainland markets after a press conference by the country’s economic planning agency disappointed hopes for more fiscal stimulus measures.

In Hong Kong, the day ended with chunky losses of nearly 10%. 

Early in the day, the Shanghai Composite Index rose more than 10%, the Shenzhen Component Index was up more than 12%, and the ChiNext Index rose 18%, continuing a rise that began late last month with the announcement of stimulus measures, ranging from rate cuts to looser curbs on house buying.

The rally stalled, however, as the National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference intended to further boost market confidence, failed to announce any specific stimulus measures.

By day’s end, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 4.59%, the Shenzhen Component Index was up 9.17%, and the ChiNext Index rose 17.25% to mark its largest-ever, single-day increase. But in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index traded low throughout the day, returning the gains registered before the National Day holiday and closing down 9.41%.

Investors hoped the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s state economic planning body, would roll out more detailed stimulus measures at the Tuesday briefing.

Chairman Zheng Shanjie told reporters that he had “full confidence” the economy would reach its official full-year growth target of about 5%. He said China will introduce policies to specifically strengthen or stabilize five aspects in the early stage, including the economic downturn, insufficient domestic demand, the difficulties of some enterprises, the continued weakness of the property market and the capital markets.

Chin-Yoong Wong, a professor of economics at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman in Malaysia, said the NDRC’s target issues are “very to the point but insufficient in implementation,” because the NDRC has not proposed precise and feasible countermeasures, and the scale of implementation is unclear.

Wong said much of what has been promised by the NDRC includes spending plans that were already in place “rather than additional fiscal stimulus for China’s economic downturn.”

He said the NDRC has talked a lot about boosting consumer confidence but has not issued any specific practical policies to achieve that, leaving shareholders to question whether the talk will be backed with action.

Liu Meng-Chuh, director of the First Research Division at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research in Taipei, said external factors are contributing to the volatility of China’s stock markets.

He told VOA, “On the one hand, China’s [favorable policies] are not so strong; [on the other hand], the U.S. economy is not so bad, so maybe much international hot money has begun to flow back [to the U.S.].”

However, Liu believes that there is still room for development in green industries and infrastructure for an aging society.

He said that China’s urban population is about 60% to 70% of its entire population, which is lower than the average of about 80% in mature economies, meaning that the dividends of China’s “urbanization” have not yet been exhausted. But he stressed that the feasibility has to be well-assessed to avoid repeating mistakes made in the past.

Tsai Ming-Fang, a professor of industrial economics at Tamkang University, said China’s foreign relations are not improving, causing foreign trade issues that are difficult to solve, such as the new tariffs imposed by Canada and the European Union on Chinese electric vehicles. 

Tsai said the stimulus measures in the past two weeks are not designed to revive the economy but to beautify the data to achieve the economic growth target of 5% this year, which may allow some shareholders and even foreign investors to liquidate their positions and take profits. 

“China’s only goal now is to reach the economic growth rate of 5%,” Tsai said. “Many problems arise from the drastic changes in Chinese laws [in recent years], which have led to a lack of confidence of manufacturers in China.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Cameroon citizens want proof their 91-year-old president is alive

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Yaounde, Cameroon — Cameroon government officials said the central African state’s 91-year-old president, Paul Biya, is in good health, contrary to information circulating on social and mainstream media.

Biya has not been seen in public since his official visit to China more than 1 month ago. Citizens say they want proof that their longtime leader is well.

Biya is in excellent health, according to a statement issued Tuesday by Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, director of the Civil Cabinet.  

Ayolo said Biya is in Geneva, Switzerland, where he has been granting audiences and working for the development of Cameroon.   

The statement comes after social media reports on Tuesday said Biya was dead but gave no details as to where and when the long-serving leader had died. 

Biya was last seen in Beijing over a month ago during a China-Africa leaders forum. In the meantime, some citizens said they do not believe Biya is alive.   

One of those is Gloria Wirkom, a businessperson in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.  

“He is our president, and if there is something wrong with him, we have the right to know,” she said. “So we are pleading with the government of Cameroon to let us know the health state [state of health] of our president.” 

Wirkom said she does not trust government officials’ declarations that Biya is in good health. Wirkom said she will believe Biya is alive only when she sees him.

On Cameroon State TV, government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi said he unequivocally affirms that the rumors of Biya’s death are pure imagination. 

Sadi said the day after the China-Africa summit, Biya stayed briefly in Europe, and that wherever he might be, Biya is attentive to the well-being of Cameroonians. 

Akongnwi Neba, a merchant, said it is wrong for the government to wait until a rumor spreads before explaining where Biya is.  

“We are asking the government to prove to us where he [Biya] is,” said Neba. “We need to know his whereabouts, whether he is alive or dead. It is our right as citizens of the country to know where our president is.” 

Cameroon officials have not said whether Biya will appear in public in Geneva. VOA could not independently confirm whether Biya was in the Swiss city.    

Biya is the oldest leader in the world. He has ruled Cameroon for more than four decades, and his supporters have been holding public rallies asking him to be a candidate in elections expected in October 2025. Biya has not said whether he will run for president again.  
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FBI arrests Afghan man officials say plotted Election Day attack in US

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washington — The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the United States, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that he and a juvenile co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents. 

Tawhedi, who entered the U.S. in 2021 on a special immigrant visa, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets, and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan. 

“Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. 

After he was arrested, the Justice Department said, Tawhedi told investigators he had planned an attack for Election Day that would target large gatherings of people. 

Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization. 

It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. 
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Biden cancels Germany, Angola trip to oversee Hurricane Milton response

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President Joe Biden postponed his trip to Germany and Angola Tuesday to oversee the response to Hurricane Milton, which is heading toward Florida just days after Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern United States. Patsy Widakuswara reports. Jose Pernalete contributed to this report.
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Burkina Faso suspends VOA broadcasts

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washington — Authorities in Burkina Faso on Monday suspended Voice of America for three months over comments made by one of the network’s journalists. 

The junta also temporarily banned local news outlets from using any international media reports, the reports said.  

Burkina Faso’s superior council for communication, also known as CSC, accused VOA of demoralizing troops in Burkina Faso and nearby Mali in a broadcast on September 19, according to media reports. The interview was later aired by a privately owned local radio station, according to Reuters.  

In the communique that banned local news outlets from using any international media reports, the CSC said it noted the “dissemination of information of a malicious and biased nature” by national outlets using international media reports.  

In the communique, which did not specifically mention VOA, the CSC said such reports tend to “insidiously apologize for terrorism.”  

The phone number listed online for the CSC was not working. VOA attempted to request comment via an online form on the CSC website, but it returned an error message.  

VOA and its parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Burkina Faso’s Foreign Ministry did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment for this story.  

Earlier suspension  

This would not be the first time VOA has been suspended in Burkina Faso.  

Authorities suspended VOA and the BBC in April following the broadcast of news stories about a Human Rights Watch report accusing the Burkinabe army of abuses against civilian populations.

“VOA stands by its reporting about Burkina Faso and intends to continue to fully and fairly cover events in that country,” VOA’s then-acting director John Lippman said in a statement about the April suspension.  

Military leaders in Burkina Faso seized power in a coup in September 2022. Since then, media watchdogs have documented a decline in media freedoms, with media outlets suspended and foreign correspondents expelled.  

In 2021, Burkina Faso ranked 37 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 shows the best media environment. This year, Burkina Faso ranked 86.  
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US stresses desire for peaceful resolution of Taiwan disputes

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WASHINGTON — A top U.S. official said the United States expects differences across the Taiwan Strait to be resolved peacefully and opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo as Taiwan prepares to celebrate the founding of the Republic of China on Thursday.

The People’s Republic of China, or PRC, celebrates its national day on October 1, marking the founding of the country in 1949. Taiwan chooses October 10, known as Double Ten Day, to celebrate the founding of the ROC in 1912, just months after an uprising that began on October 10, 1911.

The PRC typically closely monitors speeches from Taiwan’s leaders during Double Ten Day celebrations. Since Taiwan’s democratically elected President Lai Ching-te took office in May, Beijing has increased military pressure on Taiwan, deeming Lai a “separatist.”

On Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said that the U.S.’s “fundamental interest is in the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” reiterating that Washington’s longstanding One China policy remains unchanged, “guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances.”

“We oppose unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We do not support Taiwan independence, and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved peacefully,” Kritenbrink told VOA during a briefing.

Speaking at an event Saturday, Lai noted that the PRC celebrated its 75th anniversary on October 1, and in a few days, it would be the ROC’s 113th birthday.

“In terms of age, it is absolutely impossible for the People’s Republic of China to be considered the motherland of the people of the Republic of China. On the contrary, the ROC may be the motherland of the people of the PRC who are over 75 years old,” Lai told an audience in Taipei.

PRC officials have remained largely muted on Lai’s remarks, but some analysts say that could be because Beijing is preparing to launch another round of military exercises after Lai delivers his Double Ten Day speech.

U.S. officials have referred inquiries to “President Lai’s office for any commentary on his specific comments.”

European visit

Meanwhile, former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will visit the Czech Republic this month, a visit seen as sensitive since Beijing has repeatedly denounced the democratic leader as a “separatist.”

In Beijing on Tuesday, a spokesperson from the PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked to comment on Tsai’s planned visit to Prague.

“We firmly oppose anyone who seeks “Taiwan independence” visiting countries with diplomatic ties with China under any pretext. We urge the Czech Republic and relevant countries to earnestly abide by the One China principle and respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Tuesday.

Taiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communists took power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang nationalists in a civil war, prompting the nationalists’ relocation to the island.

The U.S. does not maintain an official relationship with Taiwan but provides defense equipment to the self-ruled democracy under the Taiwan Relations Act.

Treaty of Aigun

In a TV interview in September, Lai remarked that if China’s claims over Taiwan are genuinely rooted in concerns about territorial integrity, it should also seek to reclaim the land it ceded to Russia in the 19th century.

He referenced the 1858 Treaty of Aigun, through which China, under the Qing dynasty, gave up a vast area of land — now part of Russia’s Far East — to the Russian Empire, establishing much of the modern border along the Amur River.

The Treaty of Aigun, along with the 1860 Convention of Peking, saw China relinquish 600,000 square kilometers — an area almost the size of Ukraine — to the Russian Empire, enabling Russia to establish a naval base at Vladivostok. Many Chinese people still brood over this period of history, harboring lingering resentment over the fact that the land once belonged to China before being annexed by Russia.

In 2023, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources mandated that new maps use Chinese names for Vladivostok — Haishenwai — as well as several other cities in the region.
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UN Rights Council says human rights in DR Congo on a downward spiral

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GENEVA   — Human rights experts warn the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, already troubled for decades, is on a downward spiral again as armed clashes, attacks on schools and hospitals, sexual violence and other forms of abuse escalate. 

Kicking off a discussion of the DRC at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged the international community to pay more attention to the plight of Congolese civilians victimized by a “volatile mix of escalating violence, regional and international interests, exploitative businesses and weak rule of law.”

He said the number of victims of human rights violations is growing, with armed groups fighting in the eastern provinces responsible for most of these violations, including “deadly attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.” 

He said sexual violence is spreading despite efforts to prevent and investigate cases.

“The armed groups take people prisoners, subject women and girls to sexual slavery.  Many of them have been killed after being raped. These cases, of course, have not all been reported. This is atrocious,” he said.

“Human rights violations committed by the defense and security forces during their military operations against armed groups, also remain of concern,” he said noting that hate speech and other incitement to discrimination and violence “are fueling the conflict and increasing political tensions across the country.”

Türk appealed to countries of influence to use their power to ensure the fighting stops, stating that “any role played by Rwanda in supporting the M23 in North Kivu, and by any other country supporting armed groups active in the DRC, must end.” 

Responding to Türk’s comments, DRC Minister of Human Rights Chantal Shambu  Mwavita said her government has made great progress in protecting human rights, in spite of challenges posed by the war in the east. 

Alluding to Rwanda, she pointed her finger at so-called “negative forces” supporting the armed groups from the outside. She “called on the international community to condemn these actions strongly and to impose targeted sanctions on Rwanda for its destabilizing role.”   

Mwavita said the war in the eastern provinces is closely linked to the seizure and illegal exploitation of her country’s natural resources by Rwanda and other countries. 

She also demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops from DRC territory.  

North Kivu and surrounding provinces of the eastern DRC have been wracked by violence for decades, as armed groups battle for control of the region’s rich natural resources.

Rwanda has denied supporting the M23 rebels, with Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe renewing that denial on Saturday. The minister, who was attending a two-day “Francophonie” summit in Paris, accused his Congolese counterpart of refusing to sign “an agreed deal” to resolve the M23 rebel conflict in the DRC.

On Tuesday, Rwanda’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, James Ngango, also expressed concern about the escalation of abuse and human rights violations in the eastern DRC, “particularly sexual violation and violation against children in the region affected by armed conflict and inter community conflicts,” he said.

He said Rwanda remains committed to dialogue and the regional peace processes. He said, “No military solution can address the root causes of the conflict in eastern DRC.”

It is unclear whether the DRC’s demand for the withdrawal of Rwandan forces will be met, nor is it clear if and when MONUSCO, the U.N.’s peacekeeping force, will withdraw from the country as demanded by the government of Felix Tshisekedi.

The U.N. says the peacekeepers, who were supposed to leave by the end of the year, apparently have been given a reprieve. Several thousand soldiers remain in North and South Kivu and Ituri provinces.

Bintou Keita, special representative of the secretary-general in the DRC and head of MONUSCO, made little reference to the potential consequences for the stability of the DRC once U.N. peacekeepers leave the country.

However, she painted a worrying picture of human rights in the DRC due to “the deteriorating security situation” in the eastern provinces from attacks on civilians, “causing loss of human lives and mass displacements of peoples towards Kinshasa and Kisangani.”

“The M23, in the quest for territorial gains, extended its hold on territories towards Lubero Kanyabayonga, which was captured in late June after intense fighting. Hospitals and IDP sites were deliberately targeted by M23. Several civilians fled their homes, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis,” she said.

She affirmed that MONUSCO “will continue to provide its support to the DRC … in strict conformity with the U.N. human rights due diligence policy, including support for the establishment of the human rights compliance framework.”

Keita added, “The return of peace to the DRC will come about through pooled military and non-military efforts to find lasting solutions, both national and regional.”

Conflict in the DRC has come at a high price. The United Nations said the country is struggling with twin humanitarian crises — an internal displacement crisis and a food crisis. It reports that 7.2 million people currently are internally displaced, and nearly 26 million face acute hunger.
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France’s minority government survives no-confidence vote, 2 weeks after taking office

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PARIS — France’s minority government survived a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, two weeks after taking office, getting over the first hurdle placed by left-wing lawmakers to bring down new conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier. 

The vote was a key test for Barnier, whose Cabinet is forced to rely on the far right’s good will to be able to stay in power. 

The no-confidence motion was brought by a left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front. It received 197 votes, far from the 289 votes needed to pass. The far-right National Rally group, which counts 125 lawmakers, abstained from voting. 

Following June-July parliamentary elections, the National Assembly, France’s powerful lower house of parliament, is divided into three major blocs: the New Popular Front, French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist allies and the far-right National Rally party. None of them won an outright majority. 

The no-confidence motion was brought by 192 lawmakers of the New Popular Front, composed of the hard-left France Unbowed, Socialists, Greens and Communists. 

Barnier’s cabinet is mostly composed of members of his Republicans party and centrists from Macron’s alliance who altogether count just over 200 lawmakers. 

Left-wing lawmakers denounced the choice of Barnier as prime minister as they were not given a chance to form a minority government, despite securing the most seats at the National Assembly. This government “is a denial of the result of the most recent legislative elections,” the motion read.
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New book says Trump secretly sent COVID tests to Putin

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Washington — Then-president Donald Trump secretly sent COVID test kits to Vladimir Putin despite a U.S. shortage during the pandemic, and spoke multiple times with the Russian leader after leaving office, says an explosive new book by Bob Woodward. 

The upcoming opus, War, also chronicles some of President Joe Biden’s own acknowledged missteps and his struggle to prevent escalation of conflict in the Middle East, including exasperation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over futile efforts to get Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire. 

In excerpts published Tuesday by The Washington Post, where he is an associate editor, Woodward lays out damning details and actions by Trump, who the writer says has retained a personal relationship with Putin even as Trump campaigns for another presidential term and the Russian president conducts a war against Ukraine, a U.S. ally. 

With the coronavirus ravaging the world in 2020, Trump sent a batch of test kits to his counterpart in Moscow. Putin accepted the supplies but sought to avoid political fallout for Trump, urging that he not reveal the dispatch of medical equipment, this book says. 

According to Woodward, Putin told Trump: “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me.” 

Woodward also cites an unnamed Trump aide in the book who indicated the Republican flag bearer may have spoken to Putin up to seven times since leaving the White House in 2021.  

The Post, reporting Woodward’s account, said that at one point in early 2024, Trump ordered an aide out of his office in his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida so he could hold a private call with Putin. 

War is set for publication on Oct. 15, just three weeks before a critical U.S. election in which Trump is locked in a tight race against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. 

While Harris does make appearances in the book, she is seen in a supporting role to Biden “and hardly determining foreign policy herself,” the Post reported. 

Woodward has chronicled American presidencies for 50 years, and this is his fourth book since Trump’s upset victory in 2016. He began his presidential reportages with Richard Nixon, who was undone by the 1970s Watergate scandal exposed by Woodward and Post colleague Carl Bernstein. 

Woodward concluded that Trump’s interactions, detailed in the book, with an authoritarian president at war with a U.S. ally make him more unfit to be president than Nixon. 

“Trump was the most reckless and impulsive president in American history and is demonstrating the very same character as a presidential candidate in 2024,” Woodward wrote. 

The Trump campaign blasted the book as “trash” and “made up stories.” 

They are “the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” campaign communications director Steven Cheung told AFP. 

According to CNN, which obtained a pre-release book copy, Woodward repeatedly quotes Biden dropping F bombs as he discusses his personal and political challenges. 

Biden called Putin “the epitome of evil,” blasted Netanyahu as a “liar” and said he “should never have picked” Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general. 

According to the book, during an April phone call Biden turned testy with Netanyahu. 

“What’s your strategy, man?” Biden asked the Israeli leader, according to Woodward. 

“We have to go into Rafah,” Netanyahu said, referring to a city in southern Gaza. 

“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” Biden responded.
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Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection law a threat to independent media, analysts say

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The European Commission has filed a lawsuit over Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection legislation, saying it violates EU law. Opponents see the law as a threat to the few remaining independent media outlets in Hungary, which rely on international funding sources. VOA’s Eastern Europe bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from Budapest. VOA footage and video editing by Daniil Batushchak.
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US slaps sanctions on Sudan paramilitary leader

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Washington — The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions against a senior leader in war-torn Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for his role in obtaining weapons for the paramilitary organization.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced since war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the RSF after their head generals refused a plan to integrate.

Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa was sanctioned “for his involvement in RSF efforts to procure weapons and other military materiel that have enabled the RSF’s ongoing operations in Sudan,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

His actions have fueled war in Sudan “and brutal RSF atrocities against civilians, which have included war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing,” Miller said.

The U.S. Treasury said that as a result of such sanctions “all property and interests in property of the designated persons… that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported.”

The United States has led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting in Sudan but has seen limited success and leverage, with RSF commanders unlikely to hold major assets in the West that would be affected by sanctions.
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Eswatini groups call for ‘hit list’ of game rangers accused of shooting poaching suspects with impunity

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Mbabane, Eswatini — The main opposition party in Eswatini is compiling a “hit list” of game rangers in response to what it says are state-sanctioned murders of suspected poachers. Communities have been urged to assist in identifying rangers involved in the killings. As tensions mount over poaching-related deaths in Eswatini, the fear of violence looms large. 

Although there is no definitive count of suspected poachers killed in Eswatini’s game parks, the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs estimates that dozens are slain each year. 

However, Eswatini’s opposition parties allege hundreds of families have been impacted by these deaths and have called for a compilation of a game ranger “hit list.” 

Velephi Mamba, treasurer general of main opposition party PUDEMO, one of the groups calling for possible violence against the rangers, said the news of the list of game rangers that was announced a week ago still stands. In fact, he said, it’s an ongoing issue. Mamba said his party request that all Swazis compile a list of the names of game rangers that are killing our people.

Amid the growing controversy, legislators and human rights activists in Eswatini recently demanded an urgent review of the Game Act of 1991. They say the law allows game rangers in the southern African kingdom to shoot suspected poachers in national parks with little or no consequence.

Human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi is among those calling for revision of the law. He said game rangers need to make greater efforts to arrest suspected poachers and bring them to court, rather than killing or torturing them.

“The game rangers themselves should understand that they should prioritize the use of non-lethal methods for the apprehension when dealing with suspected poachers,” Nhlabatsi said. “The use of excessive force, in my view, does not only violate human rights but also undermines the credibility of the conservation efforts.”

Mandla Motsa, a game ranger in Eswatini, defended his colleagues’ actions, saying there is an urgent need to protect endangered species in the parks from extinction, and that rangers face a formidable threat from well-armed poachers. There have been multiple reported incidents of rangers and poachers exchanging gunfire. 

“We are getting a lot of pressure from poachers who are always armed and attacking the rangers on duty, while we have got organizations who feel like the poachers should be allowed to do whatever they are doing, which is against the work the rangers are doing,” Motsa said.

Meanwhile, Eswatini government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo condemned the calls for a “hit list” and urged citizens to shun requests to provide names. He emphasized the importance of following due process and the rule of law for achieving justice.

“Nobody should heed to such calls because they are going to lead into an escalation of violence in our communities around the country, and we know that that is the kind of atmosphere they want to create around the kingdom of Eswatini,” Nxumalo said.

Legislators have begun discussing reforms to the Game Act of 1991 but so far there have been no amendments proposed, and no votes scheduled as of yet.
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Blinken heads to Laos for ASEAN and East Asia Summit

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State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Vientiane, Laos, later this week for meetings with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, where he is expected to engage directly with newly elected leaders from the Indo-Pacific.

Blinken will represent President Joe Biden at this year’s ASEAN-U.S. Summit and participate in the East Asia Summit, where leaders and senior officials from India, Japan, South Korea, and the People’s Republic of China are also expected to attend.

The State Department said Blinken will discuss geopolitical issues during his talks in Vientiane, including the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, which is also called Burma, and the importance of upholding international law in the South China Sea, and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.  

As the Burmese junta prepares for an election next year amid widespread conflict across much of the country, a senior State Department official told VOA that elections should not take place prior to genuine peace and reconciliation. 

“We remain deeply concerned by the regime’s stated plans to hold elections, because any elections under current conditions would stand no chance of expressing the will of the people of Burma,” Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told VOA during a phone briefing on Tuesday. 

He added, the U.S. fears that “premature elections” under current conditions “would likely only generate more violence and prolong the ongoing crisis” in Myanmar.  

This week’s ASEAN summits will feature the debut of Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 38, who became Thailand’s prime minister in mid-August. She will make her first bilateral visit to Laos on Tuesday and will be the youngest Southeast Asian leader at the summit.

Singapore has also seen a generational shift with Lawrence Wong succeeding longtime Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in May.

Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba took office on October 1. He has pledged to strengthen his country’s alliance with the U.S. during a call with President Biden last Wednesday.

“I am grateful for the prime minister’s commitment to the U.S.-Japan Alliance and look forward to working with his government to reinforce the enduring partnership between our two nations,” Blinken said in a statement last week.

Ishiba is also in discussions with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol about holding a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit.

Regional security, development and trade — including the creation of resilient semiconductor supply chains — are expected to be top priorities on the U.S. agenda.

In 2023, total two-way merchandise trade between the United States and ASEAN reached $395.9 billion, making the U.S. the second-largest trading partner after China. Additionally, the U.S. is ASEAN’s largest source of foreign direct investment, which amounted to $74.3 billion last year.

Susannah Patton, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Sydney-based think tank Lowy Institute, said that this year’s East Asia Summit must address contentious global issues such as the conflict in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The East Asia Summit comprises ASEAN’s 10 member countries and eight major dialogue partners, including the United States, China typically represented by Premier Li Qiang, and Russia represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

In a recent analysis published by the Lowy Institute, Patton noted that it is likely that the “ASEAN show will come to Laos and then roll on again,” adding that “concrete progress on pressing issues will be sorely lacking.”

“While the EAS is still likely to issue at least one jointly negotiated statement in 2024,” Patton wrote, “it is a reflection of global political polarization that ASEAN’s dialogue partners are no longer able to propose their own dueling statements to advance their preferred language on international issues.”
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Pioneers in artificial intelligence win the Nobel Prize in physics 

Posted on by SeeUS

STOCKHOLM — Two pioneers of artificial intelligence — John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton — won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for helping create the building blocks of machine learning that is revolutionizing the way we work and live but also creates new threats to humanity, one of the winners said.

Hinton, who is known as the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” is a citizen of Canada and Britain who works at the University of Toronto. Hopfield is an American working at Princeton.

“This year’s two Nobel Laureates in physics have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning,” the Nobel committee said in a press release.

Ellen Moons, a member of the Nobel committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said the two laureates “used fundamental concepts from statistical physics to design artificial neural networks that function as associative memories and find patterns in large data sets.”

She said that such networks have been used to advance research in physics and “have also become part of our daily lives, for instance in facial recognition and language translation.”

Hinton predicted that AI will end up having a “huge influence” on civilization, bringing improvements in productivity and health care.

“It would be comparable with the Industrial Revolution,” he said in the open call with reporters and the officials from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

“Instead of exceeding people in physical strength, it’s going to exceed people in intellectual ability. We have no experience of what it’s like to have things smarter than us. And it’s going to be wonderful in many respects,” Hinton said. “But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences, particularly the threat of these things getting out of control.”

The Nobel committee that honored the science behind machine learning and AI also mentioned fears about its possible flipside. Moon said that while it has “enormous benefits, its rapid development has also raised concerns about our future. Collectively, humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way for the greatest benefit of humankind.”

Hinton shares those concerns. He quit a role at Google so he could more freely speak about the dangers of the technology he helped create.

On Tuesday, he said he was shocked at the honor.

“I’m flabbergasted. I had, no idea this would happen,” he said when reached by the Nobel committee on the phone.

There was no immediate reaction from Hopfield.

Hinton, now 76, in the 1980s helped develop a technique known as backpropagation that has been instrumental in training machines how to “learn.”

His team at the University of Toronto later wowed peers by using a neural network to win the prestigious ImageNet computer vision competition in 2012. That win spawned a flurry of copycats, giving birth to the rise of modern AI.

Hopfield, 91, created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data, the Nobel committee said.

Hinton used Hopfield’s network as the foundation for a new network that uses a different method, known as the Boltzmann machine, that the committee said can learn to recognize characteristic elements in a given type of data.

Six days of Nobel announcements opened Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize for their discovery of tiny bits of genetic material that serve as on and off switches inside cells that help control what the cells do and when they do it. If scientists can better understand how they work and how to manipulate them, it could one day lead to powerful treatments for diseases like cancer.

The physics prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by the award’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

Nobel announcements continue with the chemistry physics prize on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on Oct. 14.
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China targets brandy in EU trade tit-for-tat after EV tariff move

Posted on by SeeEA

Beijing/Paris — China imposed temporary anti-dumping measures on imports of brandy from the EU on Tuesday, hitting French brands including Hennessy and Remy Martin, days after the 27-state bloc voted for tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, or EVs.

China’s commerce ministry said preliminary findings of an investigation had determined that dumping of brandy from the European Union threatens “substantial damage” to its own sector.

France’s trade ministry said the temporary Chinese measures were “incomprehensible” and violated free trade, and that it would work with the European Commission to challenge the move at the World Trade Organization.

In a sign of the rising trade tensions, China’s ministry added in another statement on Tuesday that an ongoing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into EU pork products would make “objective and fair” decisions when it concludes.

It also said that it was considering a hike in tariffs on imports of large-engine vehicles, which would hit German producers hardest. German exports of vehicles with engines of 2.5 liters or larger to China reached $1.2 billion last year.

France was seen as the target of Beijing’s brandy probe due to its support of tariffs on China-made EVs. French brandy shipments to China reached $1.7 billion last year and accounted for 99% of the country’s imports of the spirit.

As of Oct. 11, importers of brandy originating in the EU will have to put down security deposits mostly ranging from 34.8% to 39.0% of the import value, the ministry said.

“This announcement clearly shows that China is determined to tax us in response to European decisions on Chinese electric vehicles,” French cognac producers group BNIC said in an email.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that China’s brandy probe was “pure retaliation,” while EV tariffs were needed to preserve a level playing field.

Shares tumble

LVMH-owned Hennessy and Remy Martin were among the brands hardest hit by the measures, with importers having to pay security deposits of 39.0% and 38.1%, respectively.

The deposits would make it more costly upfront to import brandy from the EU. However they could be returned if a deal is eventually reached before definitive tariffs are imposed.

Both the investigation and negotiations remain ongoing, said an executive at a leading cognac company, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Chinese investigators visited producers in France last month and were due to make further site visits, the executive said, while Chinese and EU officials held negotiations on Monday.

The outcome was unclear, however, and doubts around the EU’s willingness to make a deal were emerging, they added.

Shares in Pernod Ricard were down 4.2% at 0839 GMT, while Remy Cointreau’s dropped 8.7% and shares in LVMH fell 4.9%.

Companies that cooperated with China’s investigation were hit with security deposit rates of 34.8%, with that imposed on Martell the lowest at 30.6%.

Pernod Ricard, Remy Cointreau and LVMH did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The measures could mean a 20% price rise for consumers in China, said Jefferies analysts, reducing sales volumes by 20%.

Remy, with the greatest exposure to the Chinese market, could see its sales decline by 6%, with Pernod group sales seeing a 1.6% impact, they said.

China is the second largest export market for cognac after the United States but is the industry’s most profitable territory. Difficult economic conditions in both markets have already prompted a sharp decline in cognac sales.

James Sym, fund manager at Remy investor River Global, said despite this, there was no sign that demand for cognac had fundamentally changed, pointing to an uptick in cognac sales in Japan driven by Chinese tourists when the yen was weak.

“That’s obviously a sign that cognac is not out of fashion,” he said, adding volumes – and the companies’ share prices – should recover long-term, although the tariffs would likely hit volumes and margins while in place.

Talks continue

Luxury goods shares fell by as much as 7% on Tuesday, with one trader attributing this to fears that the sector, which is heavily reliant on China, could be next to see trade measures.

The brandy measures follow a vote by the EU to adopt tariffs on China-made EVs by the end of October.

Before the vote in late August, China had suspended its planned anti-dumping measures on EU brandy, in an apparent goodwill gesture, despite determining it had been sold in China at below-market prices.

At the time, the commerce ministry said its probe would end before Jan. 5, 2025, but that it could be extended.

China’s commerce ministry previously said it had found that European distillers had been selling brandy in its 1.4 billion-strong consumer market at a dumping margin in the range of 30.6% to 39% and that its domestic industry had been damaged.

In the EU’s decision to impose tariffs on China-made EVs, the bloc set tariff rates on top of the 10% car import duty ranging from 7.8% for Tesla to 35.3% for SAIC and other producers deemed not to have cooperated with its investigation.

The European Commission has said it is willing to continue negotiating an alternative, even after tariffs are imposed.
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