SEOUL — Hundreds of thousands of members of South Korea’s Christian groups held a service in Seoul on Sunday to protest  against a landmark court ruling that acknowledged same-sex the rights of partners in same-sex couples to state health insurance.  

The supreme court in July upheld a high court ruling that a same-sex partner was eligible for spousal benefits from the National Health Insurance Service, a move hailed as a win for LGBTQ rights in a country that has lagged others in the region.  

Sunday’s massive service drew hundreds of thousands of Christians from across the country, disrupting traffic on several major roads in central Seoul.  

As many as 230,000 people attended, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing police, The organisers, meanwhile, said as many as 1.1 million people took part. Calls to the Seoul metropolitan police agency were not answered.  

Kim Jeong-hee, a spokesperson for the organizing committee, said the verdict was unconstitutional because same-sex marriage has not been legalized.  

“I think that would only be the starting point for same-sex marriage legalization policy,” Kim said. “We see this not simply as a Christian issue, but as a huge crisis that shakes our country’s foundation.”  

The court had said that with no clauses in the national health insurance act that refer to same-sex union, denial of benefits to such people constitutes discrimination based on sexual orientation.  

Some participants held signs saying “oppose the anti-discrimination law” and “protect our children from gender pollution, gender confusion and gender division destruction.”   

A coalition of hundreds of LGBTQ activists and Catholic and Anglican organizations issued a statement criticizing the joint service as an act that denies the values of inclusiveness, diversity and respect for human rights and an attempt to infringe on the minority’s human rights in the name of the majority. 
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Tokyo — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s conservative ruling party braced for a blow to its comfortable majority in the lower house of parliament in Sunday’s elections amid public rage over the party’s financial scandals and discontent over a stagnant economy. The results could weaken Ishiba’s grip on power, possibly leading Japan into political uncertainty, though a change of government was not expected. 

Ishiba took office on October 1, replacing his predecessor, Fumio Kishida, who resigned after failing to pacify the public over widespread slush fund practices among Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers. Ishiba immediately ordered a snap election in hopes of shoring up support by using his outspoken, reformist image. 

Voting began Sunday morning across Japan, where 1,344 candidates, including a record 314 women, are running for office. Polls close at 8 p.m., with early results expected within hours. 

Ishiba has set a goal of retaining 233 seats for the ruling coalition between the LDP and its Buddhist-backed junior partner Komeito, a majority in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. 

Ishiba, in his final speeches Saturday in Tokyo, apologized over his party’s mishandling of funds and pledged “to restart as an equal, fair, humble and honest party.” He said only the LDP’s ruling coalition can responsibly run Japan with its experience and dependable policies. 

Once a popular politician known for his criticism of even his own party’s policies, Ishiba has also seen support for his weeks-old Cabinet plunge. 

The biggest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is led by centrist leader Yoshihiko Noda who briefly served as prime minister during the LDP’s 2009-2012 descent from power. Noda’s party is expected to make significant gains. Noda says Sunday’s election is a rare chance for a change of government, which will be the most effective political reform, though his party has trouble finding other opposition groups with which to cooperate. 

At a downtown Tokyo polling station early Sunday, a number of voters said they considered the corruption scandal and economic measures. A 77-year-old man said his biggest concern was rising prices and wondered if the LDP should win despite the wrongdoings. Another resident in her 60s said she would vote in hope of making a change. 

Analysts suggest Ishiba could fall short of reaching his target, though his LDP was expected to remain the top party in Japan’s parliament as voters are skeptical about the opposition’s ability and inexperience. 

Losing a majority would mean Ishiba would have difficulty establishing policies and could face calls from within his party for a replacement ahead of next summer’s election in the upper house, experts say. 

“The public’s criticisms against the slush funds scandal has intensified, and it won’t go away easily,” said Izuru Makihara, a University of Tokyo professor of politics and public policy. “There is a growing sense of fairness and people are rejecting privileges for politicians.” Makihara suggested Ishiba needs bold political reform measures to regain public trust. 

Ishiba pledged to revitalize the rural economy, address Japan’s falling birth rate and bolster defense. But his Cabinet has old faces, only two women and was seen as alienating members of the scandal-tainted faction led by late premier Shinzo Abe. 

Ishiba quickly retreated from earlier support for a dual surname option for married couples and legalizing same-sex marriage, an apparent compromise to the party’s influential ultra-conservatives. 

His popularity fell because of “the gap in what the public expected him to be as prime minister versus the reality of what he brought as prime minister,” said Rintaro Nishimura, a political analyst at The Asia Group. 

The LDP is also being tested Sunday for its ability to break from the legacy of Abe, whose policies focused on security, trade and industry but largely ignored equality and diversity, and its nearly eight-year long rule led to the corruption, experts say. 
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APIA, Samoa — Commonwealth countries adopted Saturday their first ocean declaration during their summit held for the first time in the Pacific island nation of Samoa as calls from some of Britain’s former colonies for reparatory justice for the trans-Atlantic slave trade grew louder. 

The Apia Ocean Declaration was announced during the closing session of the 27th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, or CHOGM, and calls on all 56 Commonwealth nations to protect the ocean in the face of severe climate, pollution and overexploitation. 

More than half the Commonwealth members are small countries like Samoa; many face significant, some even existential, threats from rising seas. 

While the environmental threat was foreshadowed as a predominant theme going into the summit, the transatlantic slave trade from Britain’s colonial history dominated the discourse through the opening days. 

The Apia Commonwealth Ocean Declaration for One Resilient Common focuses on recognizing maritime boundaries amid sea-level rise, protecting 30% of oceans and restoring degraded marine ecosystems by 2030, and urgently finalizing the Global Plastics Treaty. It also calls for ratifying the high-seas biodiversity treaty, developing coastal climate adaptation plans, and strengthening support for sustainable blue economies. 

Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa said in a statement released by her office that it was fitting for “our first ocean declaration” to be adopted “in the Blue Pacific continent given climate change has been recognised as the single greatest threat to the security and well-being of our people.” 

The Commonwealth represents a third of the world’s population, and 49 of its 56 countries have a coastline. The organization says 25 of its members are increasingly impacted by climate change, rising sea levels, growing temperatures and increasing ocean acidity – impacting sea life, ecosystems and the communities that depend upon them. 

Mata’afa said the declaration must become “a line in the sand” for the world to collectively transform “ocean exploitation into protection and sustainable stewardship.” 

Outgoing Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland said in a statement they were “immensely proud of this achievement” which “sets the standard for forthcoming international meetings, generating momentum for ocean protection as we head towards COP29 in Azerbaijan in November, and next year’s UN Ocean Conference”.” 

Calls from some of Britain’s former colonies for a reckoning over its role in the transatlantic slave trade was the thorniest issue at the summit and specifically reparatory justice. 

‘Painful aspects of our past’

At its height in the 18th century, Britain was the world’s biggest slave-trading nation and transported more than 3 million Africans across the Atlantic. Its legacy is interwoven in some of the country’s richest and most revered institutions — from the Church of England to the insurance giant Lloyd’s of London to the monarchy itself. 

King Charles III, who attended his first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting as sovereign, said in his address on Friday history couldn’t be changed but that he understood “the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate.” 

Although he stopped short of mentioning financial reparations, which some leaders at the event urged, his remarks were seen as an acknowledgment of how strongly many felt about the issue in countries that Britain once colonized. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had entered the summit vowing the U.K. would not offer an apology for slavery or discuss reparations. He left with that promise mostly intact, though the final communique called for discussion of the matter. 

‘Truthful, respectful conversation’ encouraged

The 52-point official Leaders Statement on Saturday included a paragraph that urged a “meaningful, truthful, respectful conversation” to build a fair future. The communique also directed the Commonwealth secretary-general to engage governments and stakeholders in reparatory justice consultations, with a special focus on the impact on women and girls. 

Earlier in the week, Starmer suggested that opening the door to a conversation about reparations could lead to “very, very long endless discussions.” 

“(The communique) agrees that this is the time for conversation,” Starmer said at a press conference in Apia on Saturday. “But I should be really clear here. In the two days we’ve been here, none of the discussions have been about money. Our position is very, very clear in relation to that.” 

“Let me first be clear that the slave trade, slave practice, was abhorrent, and it’s very important we start from there. Abhorrent is the right word.” 

Earlier Saturday, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Ghanaian foreign minister, was announced as the incoming secretary-general of the Commonwealth. 

Botchwey, who has urged financial reparations for the past enslavement of colonized people, replaces Patricia Scotland of the United Kingdom, who had been in the post since 2016. 

Antigua and Barbuda was also announced as the host for the next CHOGM in 2026. 
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Kiribati President Taneti Maamau, who has led the Pacific Island nation to build closer ties with China in recent years, secured his third term in office on Saturday. He defeated two other candidates in an election closely monitored by countries around the world.

Maamau won about 55% of the vote, while his nearest challenger, Kaotitaaake Kokoria, won 42% of the vote, New Zealand’s High Commissioner in Kiribati said. Kiribati’s chief justice, Tetiro Semilota, declared Maamau the winner and congratulated him.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon became the first international leader to congratulate Maamau for his victory on Saturday. “We look forward to working with the Government of Kiribati to deliver on our shared priorities,” he wrote in a post on social media platform X.

Kiribati is one of the countries that relies heavily on foreign aid. The cost of living, rising sea level and relations with China were the main issues leading up to Friday’s presidential election.

Saturday’s outcome is viewed as the Kiribati voters’ endorsement of policies Maamau’s government has implemented over the last four years, including deepening the Pacific Island nation’s ties with China.

During the parliamentary election in August, the ruling Tobwaan Kiribati Party, or TKP, secured 33 out of 44 seats in the new parliament, and Maamau won his seat by winning close to 83% of the votes in his district.

“The TKP has a very healthy majority [in the parliament], and it sort of shows that the people of Kiribati want to see more of what has been happening [over the last few years],” said Henryk Szadziewski, an expert on Pacific-China relations at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Since switching diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019, Kiribati has deepened its engagement with Beijing. The Maamau administration’s efforts to elevate security ties with the Chinese government have prompted concerns from partners such as Australia and the United States.

In 2021, China helped Kiribati revamp a World War II-era airstrip on the island of Kanton, which is less than 3,000 kilometers from Hawaii and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, where major U.S. military bases are located.

In February, Kiribati’s acting police commissioner, Eeri Aritiera, revealed that Chinese police would help Kiribati’s community policing program and IT department, raising concerns from the U.S. that the cooperation could negatively impact Kiribati’s sovereignty.

Some analysts say since China has ambitions to deepen its economic and security reach in the Pacific region, Australia and the United States are very concerned about any advancement in security relations between Beijing and Pacific Island countries.

“It’s unclear how the policing arrangement with Kiribati will evolve in Maamou’s next term, but it’s unlikely that Chinese engagement will cease or decrease,” said Meg Keen, a senior fellow at Lowy Institute in Australia.

Despite these concerns, Szadziewski said Kiribati’s efforts to build closer ties with China shouldn’t be viewed through a pure zero-sum lens. “The Kiribati economy is heavily reliant on tourism and fishing, and China has stepped up with infrastructure projects in that respect,” he told VOA by phone.

But China’s engagement with Kiribati hasn’t been “all benevolence,” Szadziewski said. “Kiribati has opened up its maritime domain for increased Chinese fishing, so there is something in it for China that’s economic,” he said.

During a reception celebrating the fifth anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between China and Kiribati, the Chinese ambassador to Kiribati, Zhou Limin, said the relationship has further consolidated and vowed to strengthen synergy between the two countries in the future.

Under Maamau’s third term, Keen in Australia said, Kiribati will likely maintain its close relationship with China while also trying to seek assistance from other countries, such as Australia, to help improve the country’s infrastructure and climate resilience.

“There’s no indication that the relationship with China will change under another term for Maamau, and he will be seeking a strong legacy in his final term by working with any development partner that can assist with his ambitious development goals,” Keen told VOA in a written response.

She added that most Pacific leaders don’t view maintaining relations with China or other democratic countries such as Australia as “an either/or choice.”

In response to China’s elevated relations with Kiribati, Australia and the United States have also stepped up efforts to deepen ties with the Pacific Islands nation.

In 2023, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that Canberra would “rapidly scale up” security and development with Kiribati during her visit to the country. In February, the U.S. Coast Guard conducted joint patrols with Kiribati in the country’s exclusive economic zone.

Despite these efforts, Szadziewski at the University of Hawaii said it’s important for democratic countries to understand the priorities of Pacific Island countries and try to engage with them on “equal footing.”

“Pacific Island states have heightened sensitivity about sovereignty, so they prefer to see exchanges with other states on an equal footing,” he told VOA, adding that democratic countries should ensure the priority of their engagement with Pacific Island countries is not solely about geopolitics.

“If China is your main concern and why you are in the region, that’s not going to be something of interest to the Pacific Island leaders,” Szadziewski said.

In addition to the presidential election in Kiribati, Palau is going to hold a general election on November 5, with the current president, Surangel Whipps Jr., running against former president Tommy Remengesau Jr. in a race that analysts say Beijing will be closely following.

Experts say competition for geopolitical influence between China and the U.S. as well as its allies will intensify as countries try to engage with winners emerging from these important elections in the Pacific region.

“Election periods will always heighten activities, and competition [between these countries] is only going to get more intense over the next couple of years,” Blake Johnson, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told VOA by phone.
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A proposed multibillion-dollar missile defense system for Guam has been reduced to 16 sites on the island from the original 22, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a draft environmental impact statement on Friday.

The project is designed to create “360 degree” protection for the U.S. Pacific territory from missile and air attacks of all kinds, the agency said. Plans include integrating Raytheon’s SM-6, SM-3 Block IIA, Lockheed Martin’s  THAAD, and the Patriot PAC-3, which uses components from both companies, over about 10 years.

The environmental impact study, which began last year and included a public comment period this year, proposes “deploying and operating and maintaining a combination of integrated components for air and missile defense positioned on 16 sites” on the island. The report does not say why the number of sites was reduced.

All of the remaining 16 sites are on U.S. military property.

The project is crucial to the U.S. and its Indo-Pacific allies because it provides a logistical hub far from U.S. shores – Guam is closer to China than it is to Hawaii.

China’s massive conventional ballistic missile inventory includes the DF-26, with an estimated range of about 4,000 km (2,500 miles), which can also carry anti-ship and nuclear warheads. Newer weapons in development, such as the hypersonic glide vehicle DF-27, are drawing increased attention from U.S. military planners.

“It’s a forward operating base for long-range bombers, and a port for ships, so that navy ships can sally forth from there,” said Peter Layton, a defense and aviation expert at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia. “Certainly places in Japan and the Philippines are a lot closer (to China)… but a lot more exposed.”

There will be public meetings in Guam next month to discuss Friday’s report, the agency statement said.
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BANGKOK — Friday’s lapse of murder charges in Thailand against 14 people, including former police and army officers, for the deaths of 85 protesters two decades ago is raising fears of a spike in violence in the country’s long-restive south.

The 14 were charged with murder and other felonies earlier this year for their alleged roles in the so-called Tak Bai Massacre on October 25, 2004, named after a district in the far south of Thailand, a predominantly Muslim and ethnic Malay part of the country.

On that day 20 years ago, soldiers and police shot and killed seven people at a protest that called for the release of suspected Islamic militant collaborators in police custody. The officers also bound and stacked many more protesters several rows high inside police trucks where 78 of them died of suffocation, according to a state inquest five years later.

Although the inquest found fatal flaws in the security response to the protest, authorities did not pursue the charges, and no one was ever put on trial.

The courts issued arrest warrants for all 14 of those charged earlier this year, but none has been arrested. Under Thai law, anyone charged with certain serious crimes, including murder, must appear in court in person before the statute of limitations expires for a trial to proceed. Otherwise, the charges are dropped.

The 14 are believed to have gone into hiding or abroad to wait for the end of the statute of limitations in their cases, which expired late Friday.

For Muhammasawawee Auseng, whose older brother Abdulhadee, then 19 years old, was among those who died in the police trucks, the end of criminal liability for the accused feels like a fresh trauma.

“Since the Narathiwat provincial court issued the arrest warrants, we all hoped deep down that we could get justice from the authorities,” he told VOA.

“Now it feels like our old wounds are opening up again,” he said. “The cases may expire, but the feelings and the pain of the villagers will not expire; they will remain in our hearts.”

Auseng said the authorities’ failure to put the accused on trial reinforces feelings among many of Thailand’s Malays and Muslims that they are second-class citizens in a country where ethnic Thais and Buddhists make up the vast majority.

“All the [Tak Bai] victims and relatives are losing their faith in the authorities and their justice system. This incident was committed by government officials, yet the authorities cannot do anything to put them through the legal process,” he said.

“The Tak Bai incident proves that the authorities treat us different because we are Malay,” he said.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra issued a public apology Thursday “on behalf of the government” to the victims and their families for what they have lost and suffered. But she said the constitution did not allow the government, as some academics had suggested it does, to extend the statute of limitations to give the police more time to arrest the accused.

Police officials had said for the past several weeks that they had done everything possible to find them.

But their failure to do so will add not only to impressions of racial and religious bias, but of impunity for the well-connected, said Somchai Homlaor, a senior adviser and co-founder of the Cross Cultural Foundation, a local rights group.

“That confirms the belief of the people in the south that the criminal justice system in Thailand is still under the … influence, especially if the wrongdoers are high-ranking government officials or influential people,” he told VOA.

Of the 14 people charged, most of the attention landed on Pisal Wattanawongkiri, a retired general who headed the army’s southern command at the time of the 2004 protest.

Pisal won an elected seat in the House of Representatives with the ruling Pheu Thai party last year, granting him legal immunity. Although Pheu Thai announced his resignation from the party and house on October 15, authorities claimed they did not know where he was.

Some rights groups and analysts fear the failure to find and arrest Pisal or any of the other accused in time to take them to trial may spark a new wave in violence in Thailand’s deep south.

Once the seat of a Muslim sultanate, the southern provinces of modern-day Thailand were deeded to the then-kingdom of Siam by the British in 1909. Refusing to accept the transfer, several Malay Muslim armed groups have been waging a guerrilla war against the Thai state to win back independence for the region.

More than 7,000 people have died in related violence since fighting picked up in January 2004.

“Some of the … armed groups may use [the end of] this case to make some violence,” said Somchai.

“Because [of] the failure of the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice,” he explained. “It’s the reasons that can be used — impunity among the high-ranked officers, and the [impression that] Muslim Melayu people are just only like the second citizens.”

Don Pathan, an independent security analyst who has been following the conflict for decades, says insurgent groups already have picked up the pace of attacks and bombings in recent weeks, as they usually do ahead of each anniversary of the Tak Bai protest and crackdown.

“But not as big as this [year], because this is the 20th anniversary,” he said. “And it’s just not the number, the 20th year; it’s also about the statute of limitations expiring, so it gives them that extra reason to carry out more attacks.”

The government and the largest of the armed groups, Barisan Revolusi Nasional, have been in talks over a possible cease-fire deal aimed at curbing the attacks and lifting the emergency laws most of the south of Thailand has been under since 2004.

Pathan and Somchai say the dropping of the charges in the Tak Bai cases could make those talks harder if the insurgents use it as a reason to toughen their demands. They say it will also serve to keep the events of October 25, 2004, as a potent recruiting tool for armed groups looking to replenish their ranks with fresh fighters.

Until Thailand learns to reckon with the events of that bloody day and get to the bottom of exactly what happened and why, Pathan said, the country will struggle to move on.

“You’re not going to heal, you’re not going to be able to move on as a nation if you can’t settle this,” he said. “How do you put this behind you? You have to be fair, you have to be honest, and you have to do it keeping in mind … human dignity, and right now I don’t see any of that.”
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Vatican City — A new assistant Catholic bishop for Beijing was ordained on Friday, three days after the Vatican and Chinese officials extended an accord on appointments in China, the Vatican said.  

Bishop Matthew Zhen Xuebin, 54, was named to the role by Pope Francis, who approved his nomination within the framework of a diplomatic deal originally struck in 2018 that gives Chinese officials some input into papal appointments.  

Some conservative Catholics say the deal gives too much influence to China’s ruling communists, who have kept a tight reign on religious practice since taking power in 1949.  

But the Vatican stresses that Francis retains final decision-making power and says the accord resolves a decades-long split between an underground church swearing loyalty to the Vatican and the state-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association.  

Beijing and the Vatican announced on Tuesday that the accord, previously renewed in two-year increments, had been renewed again for a longer period of four years.  

Zhen will assist Bishop Joseph Li Shan, 59, in running the local Church. Zhen was appointed with right of succession, the Vatican said, meaning he will automatically replace Li at the bishop’s death or resignation.  

The Vatican spokesperson did not immediately respond to a question about why Zhen had been appointed with right of succession, a process the Vatican usually uses when an ageing bishop is expected to retire soon.  

Zhen’s ordination occurred Friday morning at Beijing’s Church of the Saviour, the Vatican news agency Fides reported. Among those taking part were Li, four other Chinese bishops, and about 650 others, the agency said.  

Beijing, the world’s most populous city with some 22 million residents, has about 100,000 Catholics, according to Vatican statistics. Around China, there are about 5 million Catholics in a total population of 1.4 billion, the Vatican estimates. 
…

King Charles III told a summit of Commonwealth countries in Samoa on Friday that the past could not be changed as he indirectly acknowledged calls from some of Britain’s former colonies for a reckoning over its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The British royal understood “the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate,” he told leaders in Apia. But Charles stopped short of mentioning financial reparations that some leaders at the event have urged and instead exhorted them to find the “right language” and an understanding of history “to guide us towards making the right choices in future where inequality exists.”

“None of us can change the past but we can commit with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right the inequalities that endure,” said Charles, who is attending his first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, or CHOGM, as Britain’s head of state.

His remarks at the summit’s official opening ceremony echoed comments a day earlier by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that the meeting should avoid becoming mired in the past and “very, very long endless discussions about reparations.” The U.K. leader dismissed calls from Caribbean countries for leaders at the biennial event to explicitly discuss redress for Britain’s role in the slave trade and mention the matter in its final joint statement.

But Britain’s handling of its involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade is seen by many observers as a litmus test for the Commonwealth’s adaptation to a modern-day world, as other European nations and some British institutions have started to own up to their role in the trade.

“I think the time has come for this to be taken seriously,” said Jacqueline McKenzie, a partner at London law firm Leigh Day. “Nobody expects people to pay every single penny for what happened. But I think there needs to be negotiations.”

Such a policy would be costly and divisive at home, McKenzie said.

The U.K. has never formally apologized for its role in the trade, in which millions of African citizens were kidnapped and transported to plantations in the Caribbean and Americas over several centuries, enriching many individuals and companies. Studies estimate Britain would owe between hundreds of millions and trillions of dollars in compensation to descendants of slaves.

The Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis on Thursday said he wanted a “frank” discussion with Starmer about the matter and would seek mention of the reparations issue in the leaders’ final statement at the event. All three candidates to be the next Commonwealth Secretary-General — from Gambia, Ghana and Lesotho — have endorsed policies of reparatory justice for slavery.

Starmer said Thursday in remarks to reporters that the matter would not be on the summit’s agenda. But Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland told The Associated Press in an interview that leaders “will speak about absolutely anything they want to speak about” at an all-day private meeting scheduled for Saturday.

King Charles said in Friday’s speech that nothing would right inequality “more decisively than to champion the principle that our Commonwealth is one of genuine opportunity for all.” The monarch urged leaders to “choose within our Commonwealth family the language of community and respect, and reject the language of division.”

He has expressed “sorrow” over slavery at a CHOGM summit before, in 2022, and last year endorsed a probe into the monarchy’s ties to the industry.

Charles — who is battling cancer — and his wife, Queen Camilla, will return to Britain tomorrow after visiting Samoa and Australia — where his presence prompted a lawmaker’s protest over his country’s colonial legacy.

He acknowledged Friday that the Commonwealth had mattered “a great deal” his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, who was seen as a unifying figure among the body’s at times disparate and divergent states.

The row over reparations threatened to overshadow a summit that Pacific leaders — and the Commonwealth secretariat — hoped would focus squarely on the ruinous effects of climate change.

“We are well past believing it is a problem for the future since it is already undermining the development we have long fought for,” the king said Friday. “This year alone we have seen terrifying storms in the Caribbean, devastating flooding in East Africa and catastrophic wildfires in Canada. Lives, livelihood and human rights are at-risk across the Commonwealth.”

Charles offered “every encouragement for action with unequivocal determination to arrest rising temperatures” by cutting emissions, building resilience, and conserving and restoring nature on land and at sea, he said.

Samoa is the first Pacific Island nation to host the event, and Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa said in a speech Friday that it was “a great opportunity for all to experience our lived reality, especially with climate change,” which was “the greatest threat to the survival and security of our Pacific people.”

Two dozen small island nations are among CHOGM’s 56 member states, among them the world’s most imperiled by rising seas. Her remarks came as the United Nations released a stark new report warning that the world was on pace for significantly more warming than expected without immediate climate action.

The population of the member nations of the 75-year-old Commonwealth organization totals 2.7 billion people.
…

kazan, russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin told BRICS leaders on Thursday that the Middle East was on the brink of a full-scale war after a sharp rise in tension between Israel and Iran, though the Kremlin chief also faced calls to end the war in Ukraine.

The BRICS summit, attended by more than 20 leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, has shown the depth of Russia’s relations beyond the Western world.

Much discussion at the summit in the Russian city of Kazan was dedicated to the war in Ukraine and the violence in the Middle East, though there were no sign that anything specific would be done to end either conflict.

“The degree of confrontation between Israel and Iran has sharply increased. All this resembles a chain reaction and puts the entire Middle East on the brink of a full-scale war,” Putin, sitting beside Chinese President Xi Jinping, said.

Xi, speaking after Putin, said that China wanted a political settlement in Ukraine, and suggested joint efforts by Beijing and Brasilia offered the best chance of peace.

“We need to work for an early de-escalation of the situation and pave the way for a political settlement,” Xi said.

On the Middle East, Xi said that there should be a comprehensive cease-fire in Gaza, a halt to the spread of war in Lebanon, and a return to the two-state solution under which states for both Israel and Palestine would be established.

Flames of war

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian criticized international organizations, particularly the United Nations, for failing to end the conflict.

“The flames of war continue to rage in the Gaza Strip and cities of Lebanon, and international institutions, particularly the U.N. Security Council as a driver of international peace and security, lack the necessary effectiveness to extinguish the fire of this crisis,” Pezeshkian told the BRICS.

Putin said that unless Palestinians got their state, they would feel the burden of “historical injustice” and the region would remain in “an atmosphere of permanent crisis with inevitable relapses of large-scale violence.”

In their summit declaration, BRICS leaders called for the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state within the borders of 1967. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended the summit.

At one of the BRICS+ meetings on Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar sat in for Modi who also missed one of the group photographs. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he could not travel to Russia due to a head injury.

China, which together with India buys about 90% of Russia’s oil, supported more Global South countries joining the BRICS grouping in various formats, Xi said.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was criticized by Kyiv for attending the meeting in Russia, said peace was needed in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine.

“We need peace in Ukraine,” Guterres told the BRICS+ meeting that was chaired by Putin. “A just peace in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and U.N. General Assembly resolutions.”
…

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A Chinese coast guard vessel was driven out of Indonesia’s waters for a second time this week after it initially disrupted a survey by state energy firm Pertamina in the South China Sea, Indonesia’s maritime security agency said on Thursday.

While Chinese coast guard vessels have been spotted numerous times in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone, the most recent incidents came just days after Prabowo Subianto took over Indonesia’s presidency.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea via a “nine-dash line” on its maps that cuts into the EEZs of Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in 2016 said China’s claim has no basis under international law, a ruling Beijing does not recognize.

The incidents took place off Indonesia Natuna islands, roughly 1,500 km from China’s Hainan island. The exact locations were not immediately clear.

The Chinese vessel on Monday insisted the area was China’s jurisdiction, Indonesia’s maritime security agency, known as Bakamla, said in a statement.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Bakamla will keep patrolling and intensively monitoring the waters of North Natuna to ensure seismic data gathering can go without disruption to Indonesia’s sovereignty,” the agency said on Monday.

On Thursday, it said the Chinese vessel returned but was intercepted and again driven out. It did not provide details on what the ship was doing.

China asserts its claim of sovereignty via an armada of coast guard ships deployed throughout the South China Sea, some of which are accused by its neighbors of aggressive conduct and of trying to disrupt energy and fisheries activities.

China typically says its coast guard operates lawfully to deter territorial infringements in what are its waters.

In 2021 vessels from Indonesia and China shadowed each other for months near a submersible oil rig that had been performing well appraisals in the Natuna Sea. China at the time urged Indonesia to stop drilling in what was its territory.

The latest incidents came as Indonesia’s new defense minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, met Thursday with the Chinese ambassador in Jakarta.

The defense ministry in a statement said Sjafrie expected to boost defense cooperation with China, including joint exercises. It made no mention of this week’s maritime incidents.
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TOKYO — Taisei Hikage is fighting a losing battle at his Tokyo ramen shop – not to attract customers, but to keep a lid on the price he charges for Japan’s national comfort food in the face of an incessant rise in ingredient and fuel costs.

Since opening his shop in the west of the capital a year and a half ago, Hikage, 26, has raised menu prices three times but still struggles with rising costs. His top-selling “Special Ramen” is up 47%, selling for 1,250 yen ($8).

“Traditionally ramen shops were supposed to offer something cheap and tasty,” Hikage said between stirring big pots of broth and blanching noodles. “It’s no longer cheap food for the masses.”

The problems facing ramen vendors – a record number of shop operators are set to go bankrupt this year – reflect a cost-of-living crunch that has become a top issue for voters in Japan’s general election on Sunday.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, a self-described ramen fanatic, and opposition parties have pledged various measures to offset rising costs for businesses and households.

Those efforts to control rising prices, in a land emerging from decades of deflation, could tip an election where opinion polls show the LDP – which has ruled Japan for almost all of the post-war era – might lose its parliamentary majority.

Hikage, who said he will be too busy working in his restaurant to vote, hopes the victors will consider introducing subsidies to offset rising costs.

His award-winning noodles remain in demand despite the repeated price hikes, with long queues in front of his shop day and night.

Some of his competitors are not faring so well: 49 ramen shop operators with debts of at least 10 million yen filed for bankruptcy in the first seven months of the year, on track to exceed the 2020 record of 54 bankruptcies, according to credit research firm Teikoku Databank.

‘Weeded out’

Hikage prides himself on using mostly domestic ingredients, but many ramen restaurants rely heavily on imported materials, like the flour to make noodles.

Japan’s import costs have risen as the yen has sunk. The currency hit a 34-year low against the dollar this year and has struggled to regain ground. Also boosting costs for ramen shops are higher energy and grain prices, triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as rising labor costs.

The plight of Japan’s ramen shops illustrates a larger trend, as companies that fail to adjust to the era of inflation go under.

Nationwide bankruptcies in the six months to September jumped 18.6% from the same period last year to 4,990 cases, with a record number caused by inflation, said Teikoku Databank.

“Just like ramen shops, companies offering goods and services that are in demand are transferring costs to product prices and seeing their sales grow. Those struggling to pass on higher costs are being weeded out,” said Dai-ichi Life Research Institute’s executive chief economist Toshihiro Nagahama.

But Nagahama said politicians’ tendency to dish out support measures to win votes may be counterproductive in the long term.

“If too many ‘zombie’ firms, or companies that cannot raise productivity or wages, are kept alive, they could be a drag on the Japanese economy,” he said.

For now, Hikage said he will focus on serving quality dishes and hopes the election can bring some kind of positive change.

“Our task now is to endure this and focus on offering something delicious, with our heads bowed to customers,” he said.
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WASHINGTON — Gathered Wednesday at a summit in the Russian city of Kazan, the members of BRICS adopted a joint declaration calling for the creation of an independent payment system based on their national currencies, a move in response to what they regard as illegal sanctions that are damaging the global economy.

BRICS member countries, which account for about 35% of the global economy, issued the Kazan Declaration, which calls for the “elimination” of “unilateral economic sanctions and secondary sanctions that are contrary to international law.”

The BRICS membership includes the initial five — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — and expanded when several countries joined this year, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates.

Expressing concerns over “unilateral coercive” sanctions that have “disruptive effects” on the world economy, the BRICS members agreed to examine the “establishment of an independent cross-border settlement and depository infrastructure, BRICS Clear.”

In supporting “inclusive cross-border payment instruments,” they encouraged the “use of local currencies in financial transactions between BRICS countries and their trading partners.”

Edward Fishman, senior research scholar at Columbia University and author of the forthcoming book “Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare,” said, “The BRICS have finally found a unifying mission: circumventing American financial dominance.”

“For BRICS members under U.S. sanctions, namely Russia and Iran, this mission is already a top national priority,” he said. “Others such as China see it as a handy way to insulate themselves from potential sanctions in the future.”

Fishman said the United States should take BRICS initiatives “seriously and move to further solidify the dollar’s advantages” as they “could well bear fruit over the next decade,” although “it’s unlikely that any of these initiatives will make a dent in the dollar’s global role in the near future.”

Circumventing US dollar

In his speech at the summit Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said “the reform of the international financial architecture” is “pressing,” and he called for “the connectivity” of financial infrastructure among BRICS members and the expansion of the New Development Bank, or NDB. 

Headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB was established by the initial five BRICS members in 2015. It serves as an alternative financial institution to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. 

Tom Keatinge, the founding director of the Center for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute, said China would be inclined to join the new financial system that Russia is advocating.

He said Beijing’s reasons are twofold: “to influence its design to ensure it can benefit” and “to add to its desire to provide counterbalance to the historically unipolar financial system dominated by the United States.”

Keatinge added, however, that the new infrastructure would not be able to easily replicate “the stability, liquidity and convertibility of the U.S. dollar” that a number of other existing bilateral and multilateral payment systems experience.

VOA asked the Chinese Embassy in Washington whether and why Beijing is interested in joining and using the proposed BRICS financial system but did not get a reply.

Citing unnamed experts, China’s state-run Global Times on October 17 said an alternative payment system “may help reduce excessive reliance on the U.S. dollar.”

Sanctions evasion

BRICS’ efforts to increase the use of local currencies are seen as a bid to challenge the global financial system dominated by the U.S. dollar, which accounts for 90% of all currency trading and more than half of international payments. 

At the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “The dollar is being used as a weapon.” He also said the increased use of BRICS national currencies for transactions will “minimize geopolitical risks.”

During a meeting with Putin at the summit on Tuesday, NDB President Dilma Rousseff said the bank was committed to financing the countries of the Global South in their national currencies.

Russian state development corporation and investment company VER.RF signed agreements with China and South Africa to extend credit lines in national currencies, Russian news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.

BRICS Clear, the international payment and deposit platform to ensure increased circulation of national currencies, was proposed by Russia ahead of the summit.

The Russian Financial Ministry, central bank and consulting firm Yakov and Partners earlier in October issued a document proposing BRICS Clear as a platform that would utilize national depository systems “independent of third-party influence.”

Also ahead of the summit, a new cross-border payment system called BRICS Pay was introduced at the BRICS Business Forum held in Moscow on October 17 and 18.

A statement released Tuesday by the American Action Forum, citing an analysis by Jacob Jensen, a data analyst at the think tank, said there are concerns that BRICS Pay would allow participating countries to “circumvent USD as a payment intermediary by replacing it with blockchain technology and an alternative to the SWIFT financial payment system.”

Several Russian banks were banned from the SWIFT messaging system that facilitates global financial transfers shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskovsaid on Wednesday that the BRICS is not trying to create a system as an alternative to SWIFT, according to Russian TASS. 

Despite BRICS’ efforts, no country using an alternative system like BRICS Pay will be immune from sanctions, as such a payment system can be subject to sanctions, said David Asher, a Hudson Institute senior fellow who advised the U.S. government over several years on sanctions evasion schemes.

Ultimately, Asher said, national and digital currencies will end up being swapped into U.S. dollars at the Clearing House Automated Transfer System based in Hong Kong, which he believes should be sanctioned.
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