MYANMAR
19 S Koreans rescued
Nineteen South Koreans who were held captive in Myanmar have been rescued, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, with a source from Myanmar’s main airport confirming the victims were flying home. Seoul has been working on its citizens’ release since being notified early last month that they had been detained by an unknown “illegal company” in Tachileik, in Myanmar’s Shan state near the border with Thailand. Tachileik is located in the infamous “Golden Triangle” region that covers parts of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar where criminal organizations thrive. South Korean authorities did not disclose specific information regarding the “illegal” entity responsible for detaining the South Koreans, nor on the individuals held captive. Following a request from Seoul, Burmese authorities raided the company late last month and rescued the South Koreans, the ministry said. A source from the airport in Yangon yesterday said that the South Koreans “left this morning from Yangon on a direct flight to Incheon airport.”
UNITED STATES
Blinken vows Kyiv support
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday promised a top Ukrainian official sustained support from Washington, including help to get through the winter, with Russia feared to strike Kyiv’s infrastructure again. Blinken met Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Washington. “We, in all of our conversations with the Ukrainian government, make clear that we will continue to stand by them, that we will continue to back them,” Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. Blinken spoke to Yarmak about “steps we can take together with Ukraine to harden its infrastructure for the upcoming winter,” Miller said. US President Joe Biden has sought to couple a request to Congress for US$61 billion to Ukraine with $14 billion for Israel, but Republicans have advanced only the Israel portion and tied it to cutting the budget of the US tax collection agency.
UNITED STATES
Biden, Widodo affirm pact
The US and Indonesia on Monday announced a new defense cooperation agreement, as Washington looks to counter Chinese influence across the Indo-Pacific region with efforts to bolster defense and trade agreements. The deal, struck after a White House meeting between President Joe Biden and Indonesian President Joko Widodo, is part of a broader agreement that would see the nations work together on peacekeeping efforts and counterterrorism programs. The announcement was made ahead of the start of the APEC summit in San Francisco yesterday. The two nations are also to hold a pair of regular meetings between senior defense officials that would include engagement with non-military stakeholders, the White House said in a statement.
THAILAND
No Chinese patrol: PM
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said there was no plan to invite Chinese police officers to patrol local tourist destinations, seeking to clear the air after comments by the tourism authority about such a program sparked a furor. The government only wants to cooperate with Chinese police on information exchange about criminal networks that might be active in the nation, which would boost the confidence of Chinese tourists, Srettha told reporters during a trip to San Francisco on Monday. The cooperation would not involve stationing Chinese police personnel in the nation, he said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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