AUSTRALIA
Albanese criticizes HK
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday criticized Hong Kong authorities over their pursuit of two democracy advocates who live in Australia. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) on Tuesday said that eight people who now live in the US, Britain, Canada and Australia would be pursued for life for alleged national security offenses. Albanese said his government was concerned and disappointed by Hong Kong authorities issuing arrest warrants for Australian citizen Kevin Yam (任建峰) and permanent resident Ted Hui (許智?). “I am of course disappointed. I’ve said we’ll cooperate with China where we can, but we will disagree where we must. And we do disagree with China with these actions,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Albanese also said he disagreed with China on the detention of Australian journalist Cheng Lei (成蕾), who has yet to learn of a verdict after standing trial in March last year on national security charges. Cheng was being held “without proper process,” he said. “We continue to advocate for the interests of Australia. We’ll continue to do so. We will disagree where we must. We will engage in our national interest. And this decision overnight is an example of where Australia and China do have different approaches to these issues. And we’ll stand up for our values.”
COLOMBIA
Rebels to stop attacks
The nation’s largest rebel group said it would stop attacks on the nation’s military as it prepares for a ceasefire with the government that could bring both sides closer to ending five decades of war. In a statement published on Tuesday, the National Liberation Army’s (ELN) Central Command ordered its units across the country to “cease all offensive actions” against the military from today, including espionage. However, the ELN said that its fighters would continue to use their weapons to defend themselves from any attack staged by the military or other armed groups that operate in Colombia’s rural areas. The ELN and the government last month agreed to take actions that would lead to a bilateral ceasefire on Aug. 3. The ceasefire is supposed to last six months. It is meant to facilitate peace talks that began at the end of last year and are expected to last at least until next year.
UNITED STATES
Four die in Rio Grande
An infant was among four people who died while crossing the Rio Grande in the Texas border city of Eagle Pass in a 48-hour period over the holiday weekend, authorities said. The Texas Department of Public Safety’s Tactical Marine Unit on Saturday recovered four people from the river, including a woman and baby girl who were unresponsive, Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Chris Olivarez wrote on Twitter on Monday. Officials immediately began chest compressions on the woman and baby, and both were taken to a hospital, Olivarez said. Both were pronounced dead at the hospital, he said. The two survivors were turned over to Border Patrol, Olivarez said. On Sunday, the body of a man was recovered from the river and on Monday the body of a woman was found, Olivarez said. The identities of the dead were not known because none had identifying documents on them, he said. The bodies were found in the same region where nine migrants died while attempting to cross the river in September last year.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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