MOSCOW — Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin down say it makes no difference to Moscow who wins the White House on November 5.

Yet anyone watching Kremlin-guided state media coverage of the U.S. election would conclude Donald Trump is strongly favored.

State TV’s main Channel One news program this month showed video of billionaire Elon Musk and TV host Tucker Carlson denigrating Democratic candidate Kamala Harris before zooming in on what it cast as a series of stumbling performances.

Harris’ tendency to burst into fits of laughter, something Putin himself spoke about sarcastically last month, has featured prominently in broadcasts and state TV has played compilations of her least eloquent statements during the campaign.

By contrast, the same Channel One report portrayed Trump and running mate JD Vance as sure-footed and imbued with common sense on everything from transgender politics to immigration, but facing sinister forces as evidenced by assassination plots.

The Kremlin says the choice of who becomes the next U.S. president is a matter exclusively for the American people to decide and that it will work with whoever is elected.

It has denied steering coverage, although some former state media employees have spoken publicly about weekly Kremlin meetings at which guidance on different issues is given.

The state media’s apparent preference for Trump may be no surprise.

Trump has been far less openly supportive of Ukraine in its war against Russia than incumbent President Joe Biden or Harris, raising fears in Kyiv that it could lose its most important ally if he wins.

Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin over the years and boasted of having a good working relationship, last week blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for helping start the war.

This month he declined to confirm reports he had spoken to Putin on several occasions since leaving office in 2021 saying only: “If I did, it’s a smart thing.”

Harris by contrast has called Putin “a murderous dictator,” vowed to continue backing Ukraine, and said that opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s death in prison was “a further sign of Putin’s brutality.” The Kremlin has denied any hand in Navalny’s demise.

State TV has often showcased guest speakers on its prime time geopolitical talk shows who express a preference for Trump, even if their reasons sometimes vary.

Andrei Sidorov, a senior academic at Moscow State University, told a major state TV talk show in October that Trump would be better for Russia because he would stir division that could trigger a long-held fantasy of anti-Western Russian hawks – the disintegration of the United States during infighting between its constituent states.

“I am for Trump. I was always for Trump – he’s a destroyer. If he’s elected … then civil war will really be on the agenda,” Sidorov said, forecasting a Democratic win would see the same “crap” as now, continuing.

“(But) Trump could really lead to our geopolitical adversary collapsing without any missiles being fired.”

A 2017 U.S. intelligence report said Putin had directed a sophisticated influence campaign to denigrate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and support Trump in the 2016 race for the White House. The Kremlin denied meddling and Trump denied any collusion with Russia during that campaign.

Despite the two current candidates’ different approaches to Moscow, some Russian officials – who are navigating the worst period in U.S.-Russia relations since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis – have expressed wariness of both.

Harris, they say, would mean a continuation of what Moscow sees as Biden’s proxy war with Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

Trump, who raised hopes in Moscow of better ties before he took office in 2017, is remembered for imposing sanctions when in the White House despite warm words about Putin. In Moscow’s eyes, he appeared boxed in on Russia policy by the wider U.S. political establishment.

“I have no illusions. (When Trump was president) he had several conversations with President Vladimir Putin. He received me at the White House a couple of times. He was friendly,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled in September.

“But sanctions against the Russian Federation were imposed under President Trump on a regular basis. As a result, we concluded that we need to rely on ourselves. We will never in our history count on ‘a good guy’ getting into the White House.”

One senior Russian source said there were different views at top levels of the Kremlin about Trump, but confirmed some believed a Trump victory might not go well for Moscow.

“Look what happened last time he became president. Everyone said beforehand that U.S.-Russia relations would benefit, but they ended up even worse. Trump says a lot of things but doesn’t always do what he says,” said the source, who declined to be named given the matter’s sensitivity.

The same source questioned whether Trump’s purported reluctance to keep financing and arming Ukraine and his talk of being able to end the war swiftly would survive lobbying efforts from powerful U.S. factions who argue that Ukraine’s fate is existential for the West and that Kyiv must not lose.

A second senior source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Moscow was not expecting much from either candidate. Trump had been “pretty tough” on Moscow when in power, was worryingly impulsive and had tough views on Russia’s ally China, he said.

The source added that he did not expect to see big change in Moscow-Washington relations whoever was elected.

“Neither Trump nor Harris are going to change the relationship with Russia fundamentally. There is not going to be some great new friendship,” said the source.

“The West views Russia and China as bad and the West as good and it is hard to see any leader changing a belief that is now ingrained within the Washington elite.”
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FALL CITY, WASHINGTON — Law enforcement officials found five people killed in a shooting inside a home southeast of Seattle on Monday morning and took a teenager into custody, police said.

Several people called 911 around 5 a.m. to report a shooting in Fall City, Washington, King County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mike Mellis said at a media briefing Monday afternoon.

Arriving deputies immediately took one teen into custody while another teenager who had been hurt was taken to a Seattle hospital, Mellis said. Both teens live at the house, Mellis said.

Deputies entering the home found the bodies of five people, he said. Two were adults and three were described by Mellis as young teenagers. No names have been released yet.

“Once bodies were discovered, clearly we understand that this is a hugely significant crime scene,” he said.

Mellis said the shooting appears to involve members of a family, but added that they didn’t yet know how they were related. He also said there was no ongoing threat to the community.

“I have no reason to think that there will be any additional arrests,” he said.

The teen in custody was booked into King County’s juvenile detention facility, according to Mellis. The teen will appear in court for a first hearing on Tuesday or Wednesday, a spokesperson for the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in an email.

A neighbor told KING-TV that a couple and their five children lived in the home.

“I’m just in total shock, I keep bursting into tears,” Lynne Trowern, told the news outlet.

An emailed statement Monday evening from King County Councilmember Sarah Perry said the shooting involved a family of seven people.

Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall told KING-TV that she was “very sad, very disturbed” to learn about the shooting.
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SYDNEY — Britain’s King Charles was embraced by an Indigenous elder after a welcome smoking ceremony on Tuesday in the birthplace of Australia’s urban Aboriginal civil rights movement in Sydney, a day after being heckled by an Indigenous senator in Canberra.

Charles met with Indigenous elders at the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in inner-city Redfern, including “bush tucker” – or native food – chef Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo, who served kangaroo pies.

The king was embraced by elder Michael Welsh, and a woman introduced herself as a member of the Stolen Generation – a reference to Aboriginal children systematically removed from their families decades earlier. “Welcome to this country,” she said.

A day earlier, Charles was heckled at Parliament House in Canberra by independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe who shouted that she did not accept his sovereignty over Australia, and demanded a treaty for Indigenous people.

While the atmosphere at Redfern on Tuesday was respectful, some people who came to see the king expressed sympathy for Thorpe’s actions.

“We’ve got stories to tell and I think you witnessed that story yesterday,” Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council Chairperson Allan Murray said.

In a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday, Thorpe said she “wanted the world to know the plight of our people.”

Former Olympic athlete Nova Peris, who was the first Indigenous woman elected to federal parliament, wrote in a social media post she was “deeply disappointed” by Thorpe’s actions, which “do not reflect the manners, or approach to reconciliation, of Aboriginal Australians at large.”

Emotions around Indigenous rights and Australia’s colonial history are raw after a national referendum on whether to alter Australia’s constitution to recognize Aboriginal people was rejected last year.

Charles referred to Australia’s “long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation” in a speech on Monday before he was heckled by Thorpe.

Under glorious spring skies, the king later visited a social housing project designed with the support of his King’s Trust Australia charity in the inner suburb of Glebe.

He toured the construction site with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who grew up on a public housing estate, and met Indigenous actor Wes Patten, one of three apprentice construction workers on the project.

Patten played the son of an Indigenous politician in TV political drama “Total Control,” depicting the imagined first Indigenous prime minister of Australia.

Claude Tighe, an Indigenous man in Glebe who saw the Lidia Thorpe protest on social media, said: “I want him to talk to real traditional owners. There’s a lot of us here.”

“She spoke for Aboriginal people,” he added, referring to Thorpe.

Charles and Queen Camilla are visiting Sydney and Canberra over six days before traveling to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.

The public will have an opportunity to meet the royal couple at the Opera House later on Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Monday condemned the weekend killings by gunmen of two Mozambique opposition figures ahead of protests against a disputed election result, with Washington urging “a swift and thorough investigation into the murders.”

Why it’s important

The United States is the largest bilateral donor to Mozambique, providing over $560 million in assistance annually, according to the U.S. State Department website.

Washington joined the European Union and Mozambique’s former colonial ruler Portugal in the condemnation and the call for an investigation into the murders of opposition lawyer Elvino Dias and opposition party official Paulo Guambe on Saturday after multiple rounds were fired at a car in which they were travelling.

Key quotes

“The United States condemns the killings of lawyer Elvino Dias and Podemos parliamentary candidate Paulo Guambe in Mozambique,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

“We join the calls made by all four of Mozambique’s national political parties in urging a swift and thorough investigation.”

Context

Mozambique police on Monday fired teargas and bullets at protesters in the capital Maputo who had gathered at the scene where the two opposition party figures were shot dead on Saturday after a disputed election.

The full results of Mozambique’s Oct. 9 national election are expected this week, with early results showing that the ruling party Frelimo is set for another win. Opposition candidates say the poll was rigged.

Frelimo has ruled the southern African country since 1975 and has been accused of electoral fraud by opposition leaders, civil society and election observers. It denies the allegations.

The State Department urged Mozambique’s state institutions, political leaders, citizens and stakeholders to resolve electoral disputes peacefully and lawfully while rejecting violence and inflammatory rhetoric.
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Across the country, about 14 million voters are members of unions – workers’ organizations formed to protect their rights. But even though union members make up a small part of the American electorate, presidential candidates eagerly seek their endorsement. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Nevada, where unions have a powerful voice in this year’s presidential election.
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Many European Union countries are calling for the bloc to clamp down on migration amid a surge in support for right-wing political parties. But Spain is bucking the trend — and insists Europe’s aging population needs controlled migration to boost its economy. Henry Ridgwell reports. Camera: Alfonso Beato.
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washington — The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Michael Cohen, who wanted to hold his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump, liable for a jailing he said was retaliation for writing a tell-all memoir.

The justices did not detail their reasoning in the brief, a routine order released just over two weeks before Election Day, when Trump is running for another term.

Cohen had asked the high court to revive a lawsuit tossed out by lower courts. Those judges found the law doesn’t generally allow people to seek damages over claims they were jailed for criticizing a president, and that the situation had been dealt with when Cohen was released from custody.

Cohen’s attorney, Jon-Michael Dougherty, said the ruling “signals a dangerous moment in American democracy” and raises questions about free-speech rights.

Trump attorney Alina Habba said the Supreme Court had correctly denied Cohen’s petition, and “he must finally abandon his frivolous and desperate claims.”

Cohen filed the lawsuit after his early release from prison was quickly reversed.

Cohen was serving time after pleading guilty in 2018 to charges connected in part to the payment of hush money to porn actor Stormy Daniels to avoid damage to Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.

Cohen said Trump had directed the hush money payment, a contention that later became a key part of the New York trial in which Trump was convicted this year. 

The former president has denied any wrongdoing.

Cohen got a three-year sentence after pleading guilty and had served more than a year when he was released in 2020 as authorities worked to contain the coronavirus outbreak in federal prisons.

But he was returned to prison weeks later after authorities contended he had failed to accept certain terms of his release. Cohen said he had asked if a condition forbidding him from speaking with the media and publishing his book could be removed.

He served 16 days in solitary confinement before he was again freed on the orders of a judge who said he’d been jailed in retaliation for his desire to publish a book critical of the president and to discuss it on social media.

Cohen sued Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr, along with various prison and probation officials.
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washington — The United States added more than two dozen entities to a trade blacklist Monday over alleged support of weapons and drone development programs in Iran and Pakistan, and for other issues including aiding Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. 

The 26 targets, mostly in Pakistan, China and the United Arab Emirates, were said to have violated export controls, been involved in “weapons programs of concern,” or evaded U.S. sanctions and export controls on Russia and Iran, the Commerce Department said. 

Their addition to the so-called “entity list” restricts them from getting U.S. items and technologies without government authorization. 

“We are vigilant in defending U.S. national security from bad actors,” Alan Estevez, undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, said in a statement. 

“Our actions today send a message to malicious actors that if they violate our controls, they will pay a price,” he added. 

Nine entities in Pakistan were accused of being front companies and procurement agents for the already blacklisted Advanced Engineering Research Organization. 

Since 2010, the group was said to have procured U.S.-origin items by disguising their end users, who include a Pakistani entity responsible for the country’s cruise missile and strategic drone program. 

“This activity is contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States,” the Commerce Department said. 

Six entities in China were added to the list for allegedly acquiring U.S.-origin items to support China’s military modernization or to aid Iran ‘s weapons and drone programs, among other reasons. 

And three entities in the UAE, alongside another in Egypt, were said to have acquired or attempted to obtain U.S. components to avoid sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the department said. 

On Monday, the Commerce Department also removed Canada-based Sandvine from the entity list, after the company took steps to “to address the misuse of its technology that can undermine human rights.” 

The U.S. had placed Sandvine on the trade restriction list in February 2024 for allegedly helping the Egyptian government target human rights activists and politicians. 

The company had been added “after its products were used to conduct mass web monitoring and censorship and target human rights activists and dissidents, including by enabling the misuse of commercial spyware,” the Commerce Department said. 
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washington — The General Assembly of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is set to begin Thursday, following months of ongoing harassment from the Chinese government that the top Uyghur organization has described as “unprecedented.”

In the months leading up to the group’s eighth general assembly, which takes place this year in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Uyghur organization has endured numerous efforts to derail or even cancel the event, the group said. The harassment included threats of physical harm, arrest and sabotage.

Groups that advocate for Uyghur human rights have long faced harassment from the Chinese government, but this recent harassment was particularly extreme, according to Zumretay Arkin, the WUC’s spokesperson and director of global advocacy.

“It’s reached another level this time,” Arkin told VOA from Sarajevo. “The World Uyghur Congress is among the most important organizations in our movement, in the diaspora, and they want to destroy it completely.”

In one of the most severe examples, the email account of a WUC employee was hacked, Arkin told VOA. The unidentified hackers on Monday sent out emails, which VOA has reviewed, to all attendees, including WUC delegates and candidates, as well as foreign lawmakers, falsely claiming that the general assembly had been postponed.

The WUC holds its general assembly every three years. At each assembly, the organization elects its leadership and sets strategic priorities in response to human rights abuses in the Chinese region Xinjiang, where most Uyghurs live.

“We are advocating for not only the human rights of Uyghur people, but also self-determination of Uyghurs. And that’s considered a threat to the Chinese government,” said Arkin, who is running to be the WUC’s next vice president.

The Germany-based WUC has condemned the harassment.

“It is a clear effort to intimidate the Uyghur community and silence their voices,” the organization said in a Friday statement.

In other cases of harassment, the Chinese Embassy in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has exerted pressure to cancel the general assembly entirely and indicated it would encourage local authorities to arrest former WUC President Dolkun Isa, who is a German citizen.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has an extradition treaty with China. When Isa and Arkin arrived in Sarajevo on Monday, Arkin said they didn’t have any issues in entering the country.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassy in Sarajevo did not immediately reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment.

In another example, an informant with knowledge of the situation told the Norway-based Uyghur activist Abduweli Ayup that Chinese authorities were considering various ways to disrupt the general assembly, including staging a car accident or cutting electricity.

“He told me that they might make [a] car accident and cut the electricity, or protest in front of the World Uyghur Congress,” Ayup told VOA.

Chinese authorities have also directly targeted WUC delegates from countries including Australia, Germany, Ireland and Turkey, Arkin said. Those authorities have pressured delegates not to participate in the general assembly, including by making threats against family members who are still in Xinjiang, according to Arkin.

And in the case of Uzbekistan, local Uzbek authorities pressured WUC delegates who live in Uzbekistan to not participate in the general assembly, according to Arkin, who said no delegates from Uzbekistan will be attending as a result.

Uzbekistan’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Beijing has long targeted Uyghur rights groups and activists around the world to silence criticism, according to Sophie Richardson, a visiting scholar at Stanford and the former China director at Human Rights Watch. This recent bout of harassment is just the latest example.

“It’s the ultimate expression of how desperate it [Beijing] is to keep people from talking about genocide and crimes against humanity,” Richardson told VOA.

The Chinese government stands accused by rights groups and multiple Western governments of perpetrating genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, which many Uyghurs prefer to call the Uyghur Region or East Turkestan. Beijing denies any wrongdoing in the region.

Part of why the Chinese government is so brazen in its perpetration of transnational repression is that Beijing has long done so with almost complete impunity, according to Richardson.

“They’ve now been doing so for decades and accelerated it significantly over the last decade — and not really had to pay a price for doing so,” Richardson said.

With the general assembly set to begin in just a few days, there are a lot of things on Arkin’s mind — the most pressing of which is the safety of WUC members, her family members still inside Xinjiang and herself.

Nevertheless, Arkin thinks the extreme lengths the Chinese government is going to in order to derail the general assembly may also underscore Beijing’s own fears.

“We’re building a system that is our own. We’re building something totally opposite to what the Chinese government has, and so they’re scared of that. They’re scared of democracy and human rights,” Arkin said.
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Koror, Palau — Driving toward the center of Palau’s commercial city of Koror, election yard signs for presidential, senate and house of delegates’ candidates in this tiny island nation’s November elections line the street as waves of the pristinely blue Pacific Ocean lap the shore not far away.

The serenity of the surroundings belies just how high the stakes are in this year’s elections. Palau sits on the front line of competition for geopolitical influence between the United States and China in the Pacific Ocean. And competition between the candidates is tense, leading some to worry about how winners and losers will respond to the results once the votes are cast.

“This election is a very critical one and I just hope everything will end peacefully,” Kaipo Recheungel, a Palauan transportation service operator, told this reporter as we drove past hotels and bars along main street.

Palau has some 16,000 registered voters and elections are scheduled for Nov. 5, the same day millions of American voters will choose their next president. Because Palau is one of the few countries in the world that has official diplomatic relations with Taiwan as well as close ties with the United States, Beijing will be watching the election closely.

“Palau recognizes Taiwan, and it has a strong defense and security relationship with the U.S., so undermining Palau is an extremely high priority for China,” said Cleo Paskal, a nonresident senior fellow for the Indo-Pacific at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in a phone interview with VOA.

Deepening US ties

Palau is one of three Pacific Island nations that receive significant economic support from the U.S. under the Compacts of Free Association, or COFA. Under the agreement, the U.S. provides economic aid worth billions of dollars, while Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia give the U.S. exclusive military access to their land, water and airspace, as well as the right to deny China access to their ports and territorial waters.

Under the leadership of President Surangel Whipps Jr., Palau’s ties with Washington have deepened.

Last month, U.S. lawmakers passed funding for key provisions in COFA for Palau. The U.S. military is also helping to repair a runway on a World War II-era Japanese airfield on the island of Peleliu and installing two radar systems on Palau.

In 2023, Whipps Jr. asked the U.S. to permanently deploy Patriot missile defense batteries to Palau in response to China’s aggressive posture in the Pacific. The proposal was rejected, though, in a resolution passed by Palau’s Senate last November.

Despite the Palauan senate’s rejection of the U.S. missile battery deployment, the country’s House of Delegates approved another joint resolution that supported the idea of establishing a U.S. military base in Palau.

The idea of inviting the U.S. to establish a military base in Palau was first proposed in 2020 by Palau’s former president and Whipp Jr’s brother-in-law, Tommy Remengesau Jr., who is running against Whipps Jr. in the upcoming election.

“Since Palau is small, having the protection of the United States is important because we see what’s happening now in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China,” Whipps Jr., who is running for reelection in November, told VOA at his office in Koror.

“We have reefs and islands that are far away from us, and it could also be easily taken over, just like how the Chinese have invaded what are clearly Philippine reefs,” he said.

Since coming to power in 2021, Whipps Jr. has been critical of China’s aggressive military activities in the Indo-Pacific region, along with what he describes as Beijing’s attempt to “weaponize” tourism against Palau.

“In 2015 and 2016, tourism numbers from China went through the roof, which helped Palau’s economy grow 30%, but since Palau never switched diplomatic recognition [from Taiwan] to China, that number just basically collapsed in the following years,” Whipps Jr. said.

In response, China’s state-run media People’s Daily said in August that the Palauan president’s comments were an attempt to twist the intention behind a travel advisory that China issued in June and an effort to “smear and discredit China.”

Beijing’s crosshairs

In addition to economic pressure, some Palauan officials said the country’s national security is threatened by repeated incursions into its territorial waters by Chinese research vessels; cyberattacks linked to China; the establishment of illegal Chinese scam operations in Palau; and attempts to bribe politicians.

“The cyberattack happened just a day before Palau and the U.S. exchanged diplomatic notes on COFA, so it shows that the adversaries are watching and observing situations in Palau closely,” Jennifer Anson, Palau’s national security coordinator, told VOA at a cafe in downtown Koror.

As China continues to exert pressure on Palau, Whipps Jr. said it’s important for Palau to uphold its “special relationship” with the U.S.

“The U.S. military leaders have told me that when it comes to security and defense, Palau is considered part of the homeland, and given China’s expansionist program that’s destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, [the increased U.S. military presence in Palau] is about deterrence and ensuring that we all continue to live in peace,” he told VOA.

Despite Whipps Jr.’s emphasis on bolstering security ties with the U.S., some Palauan people, including his opponent, Remengesau Jr., say the government needs to be more transparent about the purpose and potential impact of U.S. military expansion in the country.

“The [current] government has fallen short of informing Palauan people about the intended militarization for defense purposes,” Remengesau Jr. told VOA at his home in Palau.

“Our relationship with the U.S. is supported, and we understand and abide by our partnership responsibilities, but we also need to be very clear about our concerns about U.S. militarization in Palau, including how this development will affect Palau’s environment and social fabric, as well as what is this militarization defending us from since we don’t have any enemies,” he added.

Some political observers have echoed Remengesau Jr.’s concern, saying the increased U.S. military presence will “put a target” on Palau and potentially invite further Chinese aggression against the Pacific Island nation.

“Many Palauans think President Whipps Jr.’s slogan that ‘presence is deterrence’ doesn’t make sense because now is not wartime, and they worry about what China might do if the U.S. continues to expand its military presence in Palau,” Kambes Kesolei, editor of one of Palau’s main newspapers Tia Belau, told VOA.

US protection

While some Palauans are concerned about the increased U.S. military presence, others say it’s important for Palau to have U.S. military protection amid intensifying geopolitical competition between Beijing and Washington in the Pacific region.

“Taiwan is a target, and Palau is a target, so I’m appreciative of the U.S. presence here because we are protected by them,” Lucius Malsol, a Palauan tour operator, told VOA at a park in downtown Koror.

Despite the division over the U.S. military presence among Palauan people, some political observers say the outcome of November’s election won’t significantly change Palau’s foreign policy direction.

“A lot of Palauans are in the U.S. military and any politician in a position to make a decision takes all of that into consideration, so I don’t see how Palau could change our foreign policy direction drastically,” said Leilani Reklai, publisher and editor of Palau’s main newspaper Island Times.

However, Reklai and Kesolei agree that Whipps Jr. will continue to deepen Palau’s engagement with the U.S. if he is reelected, while Remengasau Jr. would likely take a more “neutral approach” to relations with Washington.
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MANILA, Philippines — The U.S. Army’s recent deployment of a midrange missile system to the northern Philippines was “incredibly important” and allowed American and Filipino forces to jointly train for the potential usage of such heavy weaponry in Asian archipelago conditions, a U.S. general said Monday. 

The Biden administration has moved to strengthen an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any possible confrontation over Taiwan and other Asian flashpoints. The Philippines has also worked on shoring up its territorial defenses after its disputes with China started to escalate last year in the increasingly volatile South China Sea. 

China has vehemently opposed the increased deployment of American combat forces to Asia. But it has been particularly alarmed by the U.S. Army’s deployment in April of the Typhon missile system, a land-based weapon that can fire the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, to the northern Philippines as part of joint combat exercises in April with Philippine troops. 

“What it does collectively, it provides us the opportunity to understand how to employ that capability — the environmental challenges here are very unique to any other place in the region,” U.S. Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, Commanding General of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division, said when asked how the missile system has helped participants in joint combat training in the Philippines. 

“Last year, we also deployed long-range fires capabilities with HIMARS and we were able to move those around with fixed-wing aircraft around the archipelago environment,” Evans told The Associated Press in an interview in Manila, referring to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, the truck-mounted launchers, which fire GPS-guided missiles capable of hitting distant targets. 

“Those are just incredibly important operations because you get to work in the environment, but most importantly, you’re working alongside our partners here in the Philippines to understand how those will be integrated into their operations,” Evans said without elaborating. 

The Typhon missile system was supposed to be flown out of the Philippines last month, but three Philippine security officials told the AP recently that the longtime treaty allies had agreed to keep the missile system in the northern Philippines indefinitely to boost deterrence despite China’s expressions of alarm. 

The Philippine officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive U.S. missile deployment publicly. 

Evans flew to Manila to start talks with Philippine army counterparts on holding annual military exercises by the allied forces in the Southeast Asian country next year, particularly the Salaknib drills, which aim to boost the combat-readiness of thousands of American and Filipino troops in increasingly realistic settings. 

“Conceptually, it is scheduled to be a larger, more complex exercise,” Evans said, adding that there could be joint training maneuvers from the jungles in the northern Philippines to former U.S. military bases in the region. 

“We’re also planning on bringing new equipment to train alongside our Filipino army teammates that last year we did not have,” he said without providing details. 

“Our job is to get 1% better each day alongside our Filipino army teammates in terms of readiness,” he said. “Those relationships that are built, the readiness that is developed, should remove any doubt about the importance of our alliances and the work we do here with the Philippine army.” 

Evans and other U.S. Army officials attended a ceremony Sunday marking the anniversary of a historic moment in U.S.-Philippine relations when U.S. Gen. Douglas Macarthur fulfilled his promise to return to the Philippines in October 1944 by wading ashore into the coast of central Leyte province to help lead the liberation of the country from Japanese occupation forces. 

On Monday, Evans and his men laid a wreath in an austere ceremony at the American Cemetery in metropolitan Manila, the largest such U.S. World War II cemetery and memorial in the world. 

The Leyte Gulf ceremony reflected the long history that had bonded American and Filipino forces in war and peace, he said. 

“That trust was built over eight decades,” Evans said.
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TIRANA, Albania — Albania’s left-wing Freedom Party said Monday its leader and former Albanian President Ilir Meta has been arrested on alleged corruption charges.

Meta, 55, was arrested in the capital, Tirana, by officers with the National Investigation Bureau, according to local media. Local television stations showed masked, plainclothes police officers taking Meta from his vehicle after he returned from neighboring Kosovo ahead of holding a news conference.

The party’s secretary-general, Tedi Blushi, called it “a criminal kidnapping.”

There was no immediate comment from the prosecutor’s office.

After meeting Meta at the police department, his lawyer Genc Gjokutaj said the former president is being investigated for alleged corruption, money laundering and hiding personal income and property.

Meta was Albania’s previous president, serving from 2017-2022. He was being investigated for alleged illegal lobbying in the United States years ago. He and his former wife also have been investigated on allegations of hiding their personal property and income.

Meta has been a vocal opponent of the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama, accusing it of running a “kleptocratic regime” and concentrating all legislative, administrative and judiciary powers in Rama’s hands.

Corruption has been post-communist Albania’s Achilles’ heel, strongly affecting the country’s democratic, economic and social development.

Judicial institutions created with the support of the European Union and the United States have launched several investigations into former senior government officials allegedly involved in corruption. Albania seeks EU membership.

Former prime minister and president Sali Berisha, now a lawmaker and leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, is also accused of corruption and is under house arrest waiting for the trial.

Soon after Meta’s arrest, Romana Vlahutin, EU ambassador to Tirana when the judicial reform was approved in 2016 and now a European Council official, said on social platform X, “Justice reform in full force! There are no untouchables.”
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Paris — French drugmaker Sanofi’s confirmation that it will sell a controlling stake in its consumer health unit to a U.S. investment fund sparked a new political backlash Monday, stoked by fears the deal marks a loss of sovereignty over key medications.  

Paris “must block the sale” using powers to protect strategic sectors, Manuel Bompard, a senior lawmaker in the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, told the TF1 broadcaster.  

Politicians and unions have torn into Sanofi’s proposed 16-billion-euro ($17.4 billion) deal with U.S. investment fund CD&R for a controlling stake in Opella.  

The subsidiary makes household-name drugs including Doliprane branded paracetamol  whose yellow boxes dominate the French market.  

Under pressure, Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s minority government said it had secured a two-percent stake in Opella for public investment bank Bpifrance and “extremely strong” guarantees against job cuts and offshoring.  

Opella employs over 11,000 workers and operates in 100 countries.  

Sanofi said it is the third-largest business worldwide in the market for over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and supplements.  

CD&R — which has a battery of investments in France — would help build Opella into a “French-headquartered, global consumer healthcare champion,” the pharma giant said in a statement.  

‘Just words’

But with memories of drug shortages during and since the Covid-19 pandemic still raw for many, critics say the defenses are too weak.

A small stake “won’t give the French state a say in strategic decisions” at Opella, said Bompard, whose LFI dominates a left alliance that is the largest opposition group against Barnier and President Emmanuel Macron.  

Thomas Portes, also of the LFI, posted on X that the government had offered “no guarantees, just words.”  

Economy Minister Antoine Armand said a contract between CD&R, Sanofi and the government included maintaining production sites, research and development and Opella’s official headquarters in France, as well as investing at least 70 million euros over five years.  

It covers “keeping up a minimum production volume for Opella’s sensitive products in France,” Armand added, including Doliprane, digestive medication Lanzor and Aspegic branded aspirin.  

There would be financial penalties for closing French production sites, laying off workers or failing to buy from French suppliers.  

That includes Seqens, a company re-establishing production in France of Doliprane’s active ingredient paracetamol.  

“Workers are not at all reassured by the latest developments,” said Johann Nicolas, a CGT union representative at Opella’s Doliprane plant in Lisieux, northern France.  

He added that a picket had throttled production there from around 1.3 million boxes of the drug per day to around 265,000.  

The proposed protections in the deal have also failed to win over even some in the government camp.  

Monday’s guarantees “do not at all indicate a commitment for the long term, whether on investment, supply or jobs,” Charles Rodwell, a lawmaker in Macron’s EPR party who has closely followed the case, told AFP.  

He vowed “painstaking” parliamentary surveillance of government action over the deal including measures to “block” the sale if ministers fall short.

Brand loyalty

Macron said last week that “the government has the instruments needed to protect France” from any unwanted “capital ownership.”  

Emotion over the Opella sales is closely linked to Doliprane.  

Boxes of the non-opioid analgesic against mild to moderate pain and fever often line entire pharmacy walls.  

The drug comes in many doses — from 100 mg for babies to 1,000 mg for adults — and in tablet, capsule, suppository and liquid forms.  

It is so ubiquitous that French people call any paracetamol product Doliprane, even when made by a different manufacturer.  

Sanofi, among the world’s top 12 health care companies, says the planned spinoff is part of a strategy to focus less on over-the-counter medication and more on innovative medicines and vaccines, including for polio, influenza and meningitis.
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Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she’s going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress.

“For every good day, there’s three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the service industry since she was a teenager. “You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you’re going to make.”

That uncertainty exists largely because federal labor law allows businesses to pay tipped workers, like food servers, bartenders and bellhops, less than the minimum wage as long as customer tips make up the difference. Voters in Arizona and Massachusetts will decide in November whether it’s good policy to continue to let employers pass some of their labor costs to consumers.

The ballot measures reflect an accelerating debate over the so-called subminimum wage, which advocates say is essential to the sustainability of the service industry and detractors say pushes the cost of labor off employers’ shoulders and leads to the exploitation of workers.

The amount tipped workers make varies by state. Fourteen states pay the federal minimum, or just above $2 an hour for tipped workers and $7 an hour for non-tipped workers.

Arizona employers can pay their tipped workers $3 less hourly than other workers. Under current rates, that means tipped workers’ base pay is $11.35 an hour.

Voters will decide whether to approve a measure backed by state Republicans and the Arizona Restaurant Association to change the minimum for tipped workers to 25% less than the regular minimum wage as long as their pay with tips is $2 above that minimum.

The hourly minimum wage in Arizona is currently $14.35 and increases yearly according to inflation.

Voters in Massachusetts are being asked to eliminate the tiered minimum-wage system.

There, voters will decide on a measure to incrementally increase the state’s tipped worker wage — currently $6.75 per hour — until it meets the regular minimum wage by January 2029. The measure was put forward by One Fair Wage, a not-for-profit that works to end the subminimum wage.

If voters approve the measure, the Bay State would join seven states that currently have a single minimum wage. Michigan will soon join that group after an August state Supreme Court ruling initiated a phase-out of the subminimum wage.

“When you’re not making the money that you should be making to pay your bills, it becomes hard on you,” said James Ford, a longtime Detroit-based hospitality worker. ”[The ruling] makes me think we’re moving forward.”

Other states have wage measures on the ballot. In California, voters will choose whether to raise the hourly minimum wage from $16 to $18 by 2026 in what would be the highest statewide minimum wage in the country. Measures in Alaska and Missouri would gradually raise minimum wages to $15 an hour while also requiring paid sick leave.

In the last two years, Washington, D.C., and Chicago also have started to eliminate the subminimum wage.

Employers must ensure that workers get the full minimum if they don’t make that much with tips. But they don’t always comply with federal labor law. One in 10 restaurants and bars investigated nationally by the U.S. Labor Department between 2010 and 2019 violated a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, resulting in the establishments paying $113.9 million in back wages.

The issue disproportionately affects women, who make up about 47% of the U.S. workforce but nearly 70% of those who work in tipped professions, according to an AP analysis of U.S. Census data.

In Arizona, Republican state Sen. J.D. Mesnard, the sponsor of Proposition 138, said the measure is a win for both businesses and lower-wage workers.

“The employer is protected in the sense that they can preserve this lower base, knowing that there are going to be tips on top of it,” Mesnard said. “The tipped worker is guaranteed to make more than minimum wage, which is more than they’re guaranteed today.”

Nichols doesn’t support it.

“It would reduce my hourly, and anything that reduces my hourly is not something that I want to lean into,” she said. “I don’t believe that business owners need any more cuts in labor costs.”

Proposition 138 was initially put forward as a response to a ballot measure pushed by One Fair Wage that would create a single minimum wage of $18, but the group abandoned the effort after threats of litigation from the restaurant association over how it collected signatures.

Instead, One Fair Wage will focus on trying to pass a wage hike in the Legislature. Democratic State Rep. Mariana Sandoval said she hopes her party in November can flip the Legislature, where Republicans hold a one-seat majority in both chambers.

After working for tips for more than 20 years, server Lindsay Ruck, who works at a restaurant at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, said she’s faced her fair share of belligerent customers. But because their tips make up such a significant part of her pay — approximately $60 an hour — she’s hesitant to stand up to them.

To Ruck, higher base pay — not less — is called for.

“I think that there should be just a single minimum wage and then people should get tipped on top of that,” Ruck said.

The National Restaurant Association and its state affiliates warn of reduced hours, lower employment and menu price hikes if employers can’t rely on tips to pay their workers. That’s why Dan Piacquadio, a co-owner of Harold’s Cave Creek Corral restaurant outside Phoenix, is hoping voters pass Proposition 138.

“This is just a way to protect our current system that’s been there for 20 years and protect restaurant owners, keep restaurants affordable, and most importantly, keep very good pay for all tipped workers,” Piacquadio said.

Between 2012 and 2019, the number of restaurants and people employed at those restaurants grew at a faster clip in the seven states that have a single minimum wage compared to states that pay the federal minimum tipped wage, according to labor economist Sylvia Allegretto.

“We are sitting here in a state that has a $16 minimum wage,” Allegretto said from Oakland, California, where she works at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research. “No subminimum wage, and we’ve got a thriving restaurant industry.”
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CHISINAU, Moldova — A knife-edge majority of 50.17% voted “yes” in Moldova’s pivotal referendum on joining the European Union, nearly final results showed on Monday, after President Maia Sandu said Sunday’s twin votes had been marred by “unprecedented” outside interference.

The tight finish – with fewer than 1.5% of the ballots still to be counted – is far from a resounding endorsement of the pro-EU path that Sandu has pursued over four years at the helm of the small ex-Soviet republic tugged between Russia and the West.

A presidential election, which took place simultaneously, handed Sandu 42% of the vote while her main rival, former prosecutor-general Alexandr Stoianoglo won 26%, setting up a tightly fought run-off between the two on Nov. 3.

The votes, which took place after a slew of allegations of election meddling, were seen as a test of the southeast European nation’s commitment to join the European Union and escape Moscow’s orbit for good.

The tight referendum result puts Sandu in a weaker position going into the second round since she has championed EU integration.

Moldova began the long process of formal accession talks in June and under Sandu has aimed to join by 2030. Ties with Moscow have deteriorated as Sandu condemned the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and diversified energy supply away from Russia.

Stoianoglo has said that, if he comes to power, he would develop a “balanced” foreign policy involving ties with the EU, Russia, United States and China. He boycotted Sunday’s referendum, calling it a ruse to boost Sandu’s haul at the election.

‘Clear evidence’

In the early hours of Monday, Sandu addressed Moldovan citizens, saying there was “clear evidence” that criminal groups working together with “foreign forces hostile to our national interests” had sought to buy off 300,000 votes.

She said this amounted to “fraud of unprecedented scale”.

“Criminal groups… have attacked our country with tens of millions of euros, lies and propaganda, using the most disgraceful means to keep our citizens and our nation trapped in uncertainty and instability,” she said.

While still waiting for the final results, she said, Moldova would “respond with firm decisions,” without elaborating.

In the run-up to the vote, authorities made repeated statements alleging concerted attempts to meddle in the vote by fugitive tycoon Ilan Shor, who lives in Russia.

Russia, which accuses Sandu’s government of “Russophobia,” denied interfering, while Shor denies wrongdoing.

The police accused Shor, who was sentenced to jail in absentia for fraud and a role in the theft of $1 billion, of trying to pay off a network of at least 130,000 voters to vote “no” and support “our candidate” at the election.

Shor has openly offered on social media to pay Moldovans to convince others to vote in a certain way and said that was a legitimate use of money that he earned.

In the early hours of Monday, he declared Moldovans had voted against the referendum.

“Today I congratulate you; you lost the battle,” he added, addressing Sandu simply as Maia.

Ahead of the vote, authorities took down online resources they said hosted disinformation, announced they had uncovered a program in Russia to train Moldovans to stage mass unrest and opened criminal cases against allies of Shor.

As the early results came in late on Sunday, some 57% of Moldovans initially appeared to have voted “no” in the referendum. As more ballots were counted, the “yes” vote gradually rose, overtaking “no” early on Monday morning.

Political analyst Valeriu Pasha said the “yes” vote had edged ahead only because of unusually high voter turnout among the Moldovan diaspora living abroad, who largely support EU integration.

“With such elections, in which dozens of (percentage points) can be bought, it will be very difficult for us going forward. But we must learn lessons and learn to fight this phenomenon,” he said.
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CANBERRA, Australia — An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monarch is not needed as the country’s head of state as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament on Monday.

Indigenous independent Senator Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones.

“You committed genocide against our people,” she shouted. “Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.”

King Charles spoke quietly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese while security officials stopped Senator Thorpe from approaching.

“This is not your land. You are not my king,” Thorpe yelled as she was ushered from the hall.

Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, also told the king it was time for his role to end.

“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Albanese said. But, he said, “nothing stands still.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep the British king as Australia’s monarch, noted that even supporters of a republic were honored to attend a reception for the Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.

“People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed and that’s just the republicans,” Dutton quipped.

Australia’s six state government leaders underscored the political divide on the country’s constitutional relationship with Britain by declining invitations to attend the reception. All six would prefer an Australian citizen was Australia’s head of state. They each said they had more pressing engagements on Monday, but monarchists agreed the royals had been snubbed.

Charles used the start of his speech to thank Canberra Indigenous elder Auntie Violet Sheridan for her traditional welcome to the king and queen.

“Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning’s moving Welcome to Country ceremony, which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people, and all First Nations peoples who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” Charles said.

“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom,” Charles added.

Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely regarded to have been the consequence of disagreement about how a president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.

Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the subject during his current three-year term in government. But it is a possibility if his center-left Labor Party is reelected at elections due by May next year.

Charles was drawn into Australia’s republic debate months before his visit.

The Australian Republic Movement, which wants Australia to sever its constitutional ties with Britain, wrote to Charles in December last year requesting a meeting in Australia and for the king to advocate their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March to say the king’s meetings would be decided upon by the Australian government. A meeting with the ARM does not appear on the official itinerary.

“Whether Australia becomes a republic is … a matter for the Australian public to decide,” the Buckingham Palace letter said.

Earlier Monday, Charles and Camilla laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial then shook hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.

The memorial estimated 4,000 people had turned out to see the couple.

Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to a scaled-down itinerary. It is Charles’ 17th trip to Australia and the first since he became king in 2022. It is the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II traveled to the distant nation in 2011.

Charles and Camilla rested the day after their arrival late Friday before making their first public appearance of the trip at a church service in Sydney on Sunday. They then flew to Canberra where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.

Before leaving the war memorial, they stopped to greet hundreds of people who gathered under clear skies flying Australian flags. 

On Wednesday, Charles will travel to Samoa, where he will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
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Russian drone attacks injured at least one person in Ukraine’s capital, officials in Kyiv said Monday.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram falling debris from drones shot down by Ukrainian air defenses damaged several residential buildings.

Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said on Telegram that as many as a dozen Russian drones were involved in the attack, but that all of them were destroyed.

Russian drones also targeted Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine. Governor Vitalii Kim said Monday on Telegram that air defenses downed three drones overnight.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported Monday it destroyed 18 Ukrainian drones launched in overnight attacks.

Eleven of the drones were shot down over the Rostov region, while another four were destroyed over Bryansk, two over Kursk and one over Oryol.

Officials in Kursk reported there were no casualties and no damage reported from the attacks.
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In February, Canada will host the first-ever winter Invictus Games, an athletic competition for wounded and injured veterans from around the world. This year, 550 athletes from 25 countries will compete in both traditional Invictus Games sports as well as new winter sports. Ukraine will be represented by 35 veterans. Tetiana Kukurika caught up with one of them in this story narrated by Anna Rice.
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Thelma Mothershed Wair, one of the nine Black students who integrated a high school in Arkansas’ capital city of Little Rock in 1957 while a mob of white segregationists yelled threats and insults, has died at age 83.

Mothershed Wair died Saturday at a hospital in Little Rock after having complications from multiple sclerosis, her sister, Grace Davis, confirmed Sunday to The Associated Press.

The students who integrated Central High School were known as the Little Rock Nine.

For three weeks in September 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block the Black students from enrolling in Central High, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated classrooms were unconstitutional. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the students into school on Sept. 25, 1957.

Davis said she was enrolled at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville when her sister and the other students — Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls — integrated Central High School.

“I didn’t think anybody was really going to hurt her because, you know, we’ve had racial incidents in Little Rock over the years,” Davis said of her sister. “People would say things that were mean, but they never really hurt anybody.”

Davis said in the years that followed she and her sister spoke about the experience.

“I think one time somebody put some ink on her skirt or something when she was coming through the hallway. And, of course, there was always name-calling,” Davis said. “But she never really had any physical confrontations with any of the students up there.”

Faubus closed all of the schools in Little Rock in 1958 to try to avoid further integration. Mothershed went out of state to finish her remaining high school classes. The academic credits transferred back to Little Rock, and she ultimately earned her diploma from Central High School.

“She was always a fighter,” Davis said of her sister. “She’s been sick her entire life. She was born with a congenital heart defect and was told at an early age that she would never get out of her teens. So as she approached her 16th birthday, I remember Mother talking about how afraid she was because she thought she was going to die. But she did what she wanted to do. She enjoyed life.”

Mothershed earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Mothershed married Fred Wair in 1965. The couple have one son, Scott; two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2005, and Mothershed Wair moved back to Little Rock, Davis said.

According to the National Park Service, Mothershed Wair worked in the East St. Louis, Illinois, school system for 10 years as a home economics teacher and for 18 years as a counselor for elementary career education before retiring in 1994. She also worked at the Juvenile Detention Center of the St. Clair County Jail in Illinois, and was an instructor of survival skills for women at the American Red Cross.

Each member of the Little Rock Nine was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, and they donated them to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock in 2011.
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Taipei, Taiwan — A U.S. and a Canadian warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait together Sunday less than a week after China conducted a new round of war games around the island, with Beijing denouncing the mission as “disruptive.”

The U.S. Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait around once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, also says the strategic waterway belongs to it.

The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said Monday that the destroyer USS Higgins and the Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver made a “routine” transit Sunday “through waters where high-seas freedom of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.”

The transit demonstrated the United States’ and Canada’s commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all countries, it said in a statement.

“The international community’s navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited. The United States rejects any assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedoms of navigations, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air,” it said.

China’s Eastern Theater Command said its forces monitored and warned the ships.

“The actions of the United States and Canada caused trouble and are disruptive to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” it added.

China staged war-games last Monday it said were a warning to “separatist acts” and which drew condemnation from the Taiwanese and U.S. governments.

Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday he was seeking a strong reaction from countries who have acknowledged that North Korea is becoming more involved in Russia’s more than 2-1/2-year-old war against Ukraine.

Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said there was ample satellite and video evidence that North Korea was sending not only equipment to Russia, but also soldiers to be prepared for deployment.

“I am grateful to those leaders and representatives of states who do not close their eyes and speak frankly about this cooperation for the sake of a larger war,” he said. “We expect a normal, honest, strong reaction from our partners on this.”

Zelenskyy said greater North Korean involvement could only be harmful to everyone.

“Unfortunately, instability and threats can significantly increase after North Korea becomes trained for modern warfare,” he said.

“If the world remains silent now and we have to engage soldiers from North Korea on the front line in the same way we have to defend ourselves from (Iranian) Shahed drones, this will certainly benefit no one in the world and only prolong the war.”

North Korea’s actions, he said, meant “in effect yet another country entering the war against Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy last week accused North Korea of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send thousands of troops to help Moscow’s war effort. South Korea’s spy agency said on Friday North Korea had dispatched 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday he could not confirm reports that North Korea has sent troops to Russia ahead of a possible deployment, but said such a move would be concerning, if true. NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Thursday there was no evidence of Pyongyang’s presence at this stage.

The involvement of North Korean regular troops to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would be a serious escalation of the war, France and Ukraine’s foreign ministers said at a joint press conference in Kyiv on Saturday.
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Brasilia, Brazil — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday canceled his trip to Russia for the BRICS summit, following medical advice to temporarily avoid long-haul flights after hurting his head in an accident at home.

In a statement, the presidential office said Lula, 78, will now participate in the BRICS meeting via videoconference. He was initially scheduled to depart at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

According to a medical report issued by the Sirio Libanes Hospital in Brasilia, Lula suffered a laceration to the “occipital region” in the back of his head on Saturday.

The report said Lula “was advised to avoid long-distance air travel but is otherwise able to carry out his regular duties.”

The government said in a post on X that Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira has been designated to lead the Brazilian delegation in the BRICS summit, departing later on Sunday.

The diplomatic forum founded 15 years ago by major emerging markets Brazil, Russia, India, China has since expanded to include South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Congresswoman Gleisi Hoffmann, president of Lula’s Workers Party, posted on social media that she had spoken with the president and that “he is doing very well, just avoiding a long trip.”
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