BEIJING/TAIPEI: Two US Navy ships sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait this week in the first such mission since President Donald Trump took office last month, drawing an angry reaction from China, which said the mission increased security risks.
The US Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.
The US Navy said the vessels were the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and Pathfinder-class survey ship, USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit February 10-12, it said.
“The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas,” said Navy Commander Matthew Comer, a spokesperson at the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command. “Within this corridor all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms.”
China’s military said that Chinese forces had been dispatched to keep watch.
“The US action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks,” the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement early Wednesday.
China considers Taiwan its most important diplomatic issue and it is regularly a stumbling block in Sino-US relations.
China this week complained to Japan over “negative” references to China in a statement issued after a meeting between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
That statement called for “maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” and voiced support for “Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.”
Asked in Beijing on Wednesday about the US warships, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said that Taiwan was a “core interest” for the country and that the United States should act with caution.
“We are resolutely opposed to this and will never allow any outside interference, and have the firm will, full confidence and capability to uphold the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said its forces had also kept watch but noted the “situation was as normal.”
The last publicly acknowledged US Navy mission in the strait was in late November, when a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flew over the waterway.
The last time a US Navy ship was confirmed to have sailed through the strait was in October, a joint mission with a Canadian warship.
China’s military operates daily in the strait as part of what Taiwan’s government views as part of Beijing’s pressure campaign.
On Wednesday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said that it had detected 30 Chinese military aircraft and seven navy ships operating around the island in the previous 24 hour period.
“I really don’t need to explain further who is the so-called troublemaker around the Taiwan Strait. All other countries in the neighborhood have a deep appreciation of this,” ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang told reporters in Taipei.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
First US Navy ships sail through Taiwan Strait since Trump inauguration
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First US Navy ships sail through Taiwan Strait since Trump inauguration
- The US Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month
- China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it
Russia rains missiles on Ukraine as US mulls ending truce efforts
- US President Donald Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a truce
- There has been no major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between his administration and Russia
KHARKIV, Ukraine: Russia fired a fresh volley of missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, wounding dozens of people, Kyiv said Friday, as the United States warned it could end efforts to broker a ceasefire if it did not see progress soon.
US President Donald Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a truce, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between his administration and Russia on the three-year war.
After meeting European officials in Paris to discuss Ukraine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington needed to figure out soon whether a ceasefire was “doable in the short term.”
“Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” he told reporters at Le Bourget airport before leaving the French capital.
Russia fired at least six missiles and dozens of drones at Ukraine overnight, killing two people in the eastern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy and wounding 70 others, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the attack, which came just days before Easter.
“This is how Russia started Good Friday – with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, Shahed drones. A mockery of our people and cities,” he said on Telegram.
An AFP photographer in the city of Kharkiv witnessed the aftermath of one strike, which left rubble and debris scattered across a street.
An elderly resident could be seen bandaged, her face smeared with blood, while residents assessed the damage.
Since taking office Trump has embarked on a quest to warm ties with the Kremlin that has alarmed Kyiv and driven a wedge between the US and its European allies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.
Trump has also repeatedly expressed anger and frustration at Zelensky in a marked break from policy under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
The US is pushing Ukraine into a deal that would give Washington sweeping access to its mineral resources.
Ukraine’s prime minister will visit Washington next week for talks with top US officials aimed at clinching the minerals and resources deal by April 26, according to a US-Ukraine signed “memorandum of intent” published Friday.
Trump wants the deal – designed to give the United States royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals – as compensation for aid given to Ukraine under Biden.
France hosted meetings between US and European officials in Paris on Thursday, saying the talks had launched a “positive process.”
The meetings included French President Emmanuel Macron, Rubio and US envoy Steve Witkoff.
European officials had expressed dismay at being shut out from the peace process, while Ukraine has expressed concern that Witkoff – one of Trump’s closest allies – is biased toward Russia.
Zelensky accused Witkoff on Thursday of having adopted the “strategy of the Russian side,” after the US envoy suggested a peace deal with Moscow hinged on the status of Ukraine’s occupied territories.
“He is consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, spreading Russian narratives,” Zelensky told journalists.
Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that a peace settlement depended on “so-called five territories” – the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea, that Russia claims to have annexed.
The Kremlin wants its claims over the regions to be recognized as part of any peace deal, a proposal that Ukraine has balked at. Moscow does not fully control any of them except for Crimea, which it seized in 2014.
Zelensky also said Thursday he had “information” China was supplying weapons to Russia, amid an escalating row between Kyiv and Beijing over China’s support for Moscow.
China, which has portrayed itself as a neutral party in the three-year war, has hit back at Kyiv’s criticism and called on all parties in the conflict to refrain from “irresponsible remarks.”
Indonesia weighs US arms purchases to curb tariff threat, Bloomberg News reports
- Equipment includes fighter jets and munitions
Dubai: Indonesia is considering purchasing billions of dollars worth of US-manufactured defense equipment, including fighter jets and munitions, Bloomberg news reported on Friday.
Indonesia’s Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin held a closed-door meeting of senior officials on April 8 to deliver a directive from the President Prabowo Subianto instructing them to identify US weapons that could be imported or fast-tracked for purchase, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the gathering.
EU needs to decide on possible Iran sanctions, Rubio says
- Rubio said the US administration is looking for a peaceful solution with Iran
PARIS: Europe needs to decide if it is willing to reimpose sanctions on Iran when it becomes clear it is close to developing a nuclear weapon, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday.
“The Europeans have a decision to make, because I believe we should all anticipate that they’re about to get a report from the IAEA that says not just Iran is out of compliance, but Iran is dangerously close to a weapon, closer than they’ve ever been,” Rubio said in Paris after meeting with European leaders.
Rubio said the US administration is looking for a peaceful solution with Iran, but will never tolerate the country developing a nuclear weapon.
“It has to be something that not just prevents Iran from having a nuclear weapon now,” he said about a possible agreement.
“But in the future as well, not just for ten years with some sort of sunset provision or the like.”
Two killed as police officer’s son opens fire at US university
- Five people were wounded when the gunman — identified as Phoenix Ikner — rampaged through Florida State University
- Footage on social media showed a stream of young adults walking through corridors with their hands in the air as they evacuated the building
Miami: Two men were killed in a mass shooting at a university in Florida allegedly carried out by the son of a local deputy sheriff with her old service weapon, police in the southeastern US state said Thursday.
Five people were wounded when the gunman — identified as Phoenix Ikner — rampaged through Florida State University, shooting at students, before he was shot by local law enforcement.
A sixth person was hurt trying to run away from the shooting, Chief Lawrence Revell of the Tallahassee Police Department said in a statement.
The campus was locked down as gunfire erupted, with students ordered to shelter in place as first responders swarmed the site moments after the lunchtime shootings.
Ikner, 20, has been hospitalized with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” Revell added.
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil told reporters Ikner was a student at the university and the son of a an “exceptional” 18-year member of his staff.
“Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene.
He added that the suspect was part of Sheriff’s Office training programs, meaning “it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons.”
Bystander footage aired by CNN appeared to show a young man walking on a lawn and shooting at people who were trying to get away.
Witnesses spoke of chaos as people began running through the sprawling campus as shots rang out near the student union.
“Everyone just started running out of the student union,” a witness named Wayne told local news station WCTV.
“About a minute later, we heard about eight to 10 gunshots.”
The witness said he saw one man who appeared to have been shot in the midsection.
“The whole entire thing was just surreal. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
“Everything was really quiet, then all chaotic.”
'Make them take time'
The two people who died were “adult males” who were not students, police said.
The university, a public institution with more than 40,000 students, canceled all classes and told students who did not live on campus to leave.
FSU President Richard McCullough said the university was working to support those affected by the attack.
“This is a tragic day for Florida State University,” he said.
“We’re absolutely heartbroken by the violence that occurred on our campus earlier today.”
Student Sam Swartz told the Tallahassee Democrat he had been in the basement of the student union when shooting started.
“Everyone started freaking out,” Swartz said, adding he had heard around 10 shots.
A group of eight people huddled in a hallway and barricaded themselves with trash cans and plywood.
“I remember learning to do the best you can to make them take time,” Swartz said, adding that mass shooters are “just trying to get as many people” as they can.
Footage on social media showed a stream of young adults walking through corridors with their hands in the air as they evacuated the building.
Mass shootings are common in the United States, where a constitutional right to bear arms trumps demands for stricter rules.
That is despite widespread public support for tighter control on firearms, including restricting the sale of high-capacity clips and limiting the availability of automatic weapons of war.
President Donald Trump called the shooting “a shame, a horrible thing,” but insisted that Americans should retain unfettered access to guns.
“I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I have been from the beginning. I protected it,” he said, referring to the part of the US Constitution gun advocates say protects firearm ownership.
“These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting — the people do.”
A tally by the non-profit Gun Violence Archive shows there have been at least 81 mass shootings — which it defines as four or more people shot — in the United States so far this year.
Over 170 arrested for attacks on Pakistan KFC outlets in Gaza war protests
- Attacks sparked by anti-US, anti-Israel sentiment
- Several Western brands face boycotts in Pakistan over Israel-Palestine conflict
KARACHI: Police have arrested scores of people in Pakistan in recent weeks after more than 10 mob attacks on outlets of US fast-food chain KFC, sparked by anti-United States sentiment and opposition to its ally Israel’s war in Gaza, officials said.
Police in major cities in the Islamic nation, including the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore and the capital Islamabad, confirmed at least 11 incidents in which KFC outlets were attacked by protesters armed with sticks and vandalized. At least 178 people were arrested, the officials said this week.
KFC and its parent Yum Brands, both US-based, did not respond to requests for comment.
A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one KFC employee was shot and killed this week in a store on the outskirts of Lahore by unknown gunmen. The official added there was no protest at the time and they were investigating whether the killing was motivated by political sentiment or some other reason.
In Lahore, police said they were ramping up security at 27 KFC outlets around the city after two attacks took place and five others were prevented.
“We are investigating the role of different individuals and groups in these attacks,” said Faisal Kamran, a senior Lahore police officer, adding that 11 people, including a member of the Islamist religious party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), were arrested in the city. He added the protests were not officially organized by TLP.
TLP spokesman Rehan Mohsin Khan said the group “has urged Muslims to boycott Israeli products, but it has not given any call for protest outside KFC.”
“If any other person claiming to be a TLP leader or activist has indulged in such activity, it should be taken as his personal act which has nothing to do with the party’s policy,” said Khan.
KFC has long been viewed as a symbol of the United States in Pakistan and borne the brunt of anti-American sentiment in recent decades with protests and attacks.
Western brands have been hit by boycotts and other forms of protests in Pakistan and other Muslim-majority countries in recent months over Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The war was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.
Yum Brands has said one of its other brands, Pizza Hut, has faced a protracted impact from boycotts related to Israel’s war in Gaza.
In Pakistan, local brands have made inroads into its fast-growing cola market as some consumers avoid US brands. In 2023, Coca-Cola’s market share in the consumer sector in Pakistan fell to 5.7 percent from 6.3 percent in 2022, according to GlobalData, while PepsiCo’s fell to 10.4 percent from 10.8 percent.
Earlier this month, religious clerics in Pakistan called for a boycott of any products or brands that they say support Israel or the American economy, but asked people to stay peaceful and not destroy property.
