Browsing: National
Kuan Bi-ling speaks during a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday. (Reuters) Taiwan will strengthen its defences of the Pratas as China steps up its activities around the islands which lie at the top end of the South China Sea, the minister in charge of Taiwan’s coastguard said Thursday.Lying roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance – more than 400km (250 miles) – from mainland Taiwan.The Pratas, an atoll which is also a Taiwanese national park, are only lightly defended by Taiwan, and its coastguard has that responsibility rather than the military. China claims the Pratas, and Taiwan, as its own territory.Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, said China was gradually expanding the maritime areas in which it carries out “grey zone harassment” – referring to non-combat operations designed to put pressure on Taiwan such as coastguard patrols.Since last year, the number of Chinese government boats, which include the coastguard, has increased around the Pratas, whereas previously activity was concentrated around Taiwan itself and the Kinmen islands, which sit close to the Chinese coast, she added.”From a political and strategic perspective, we have found that for them, seizing Dongsha would carry considerable strategic significance,” Kuan said, using the name both Taiwan and China use for the Pratas.Taiwan has renovated the wharf on the main island and will regularly deploy vessels with greater operational capacity there, she added, in comments to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club.”Dongsha is an excellent and highly important site for the development of an island defence system, and we currently have plans to develop this,” Kuan said, without giving details.China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.In January, Taiwan said a Chinese reconnaissance drone briefly flew over the Pratas, in what Taiwan’s defence ministry called a “provocative and irresponsible” move.Kuan said China’s pressure campaign “lets down people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait”, given it drains resources from other things such as rescuing mariners in distress.In time of war, Taiwan coastguard ships would be pressed into action, including its new Anping-class corvettes, which are based on the navy’s Tuo Chiang-class warships and have space to install anti-ship missiles.Kuan said China was also giving Taiwan an opportunity to learn.”As a result, we are accelerating our efforts to strengthen our capabilities and to speed up the transition between peacetime and wartime readiness,” she said. Source link
French President Emmanuel Macron (C) and his wife Brigitte Macron (L) are welcomed upon their arrival at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam on April 2, 2026.…
Police officers look at a building of the North Sumatra’s National Sports Committee of Indonesia damaged following a severe 7.4-magnitude offshore quake in Manado, North Sulawesi,…
President Donald Trump signs an executive order, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. (Reuters/File Photo) President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aimed at tightening mail-in voting rules nationwide, including by directing his administration to create a list of confirmed US citizens eligible to vote in each state, and said he did not see how the measure could be challenged. The order would use federal data to help state election officials verify who is eligible to vote in their jurisdictions. It would also require absentee ballots to be sent only to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list and mandate secure ballot envelopes with unique tracking barcodes. Any move to force changes to state-run election systems is likely to face immediate legal challenges. Trump said only a judge could block the order and complained that there were many “rogue” and “very bad” judges. “I don’t see how they can challenge it,” he said about the executive order. The Republican president for years has held to his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud and has called for a tightening of rules for voting by mail ahead of the November midterm elections, when his party will be trying to defend its narrow majorities in Congress. His vocal opposition to voting by mail did not stop Trump from casting his own vote that way in a special election in Florida last week. Asked about it, he said he cast a ballot by mail recently “because I’m president” and “I had a lot of different things” to do. Source link
Trump’s remarks came just hours after his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to reaffirm the US commitment to Nato’s collective defenceTensions between the US and Nato allies flared up as President Donald Trump said he was considering pulling the US out of the military alliance due to its European members’ refusing to send ships to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. Nato, which includes European countries, the US and Canada, was formed in 1949 with the aim of countering the risk of Soviet attack and has been the cornerstone of the West’s security ever since.Trump told Reuters yesterday that he would state in an address to the nation later in the day that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing the US from the Nato alliance. “I’ll be discussing my disgust with Nato,” he said of the speech. Asked if he was thinking about pulling out of Nato, he said: “Oh, absolutely without question. Wouldn’t you do that if you were me?” Trump’s remarks came just hours after his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to reaffirm the US commitment to Nato’s collective defence, a concept that lies at the heart of the alliance. Experts have long warned that remarks suggesting that the US might not honour its Nato commitments could encourage Russia to test Nato members’ readiness to enforce the alliance’s Article 5, which states an armed attack against one member state is an attack on all. France was among the first European Nato members to react to similar comments by Trump to Britain’s Daily Telegraph published earlier in the day, in which Trump called Nato a “paper tiger” and said he was considering exiting the alliance after allies failed to back US military action against Iran. “Let me recall what Nato is,” French junior army minister Alice Rufo said — though without directly addressing Trump’s threat to leave Nato.“It is a military alliance concerned with the security of territories in the Euro-Atlantic area. It is not intended to carry out an operation in the Strait of Hormuz, which is not in accordance with international law.” In Poland, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called for calm. “I hope that amid the emotions surrounding the President of the US today, a moment of calm will come,” he said. “And why? Because there is no Nato without the US, and it is in our interest that this calm comes. But there is also no American power without Nato.”Nato had no immediate comment. A German government spokesperson, when asked to react to Trump’s comment, said Germany remained committed to Nato. “This isn’t the first time he’s done this, and since it’s a recurring phenomenon, you can probably judge the consequences for yourself,” the spokesperson told a regular government press conference, speaking of Trump. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would act in his country’s interest, whatever the “noise”. The instability caused by the Iran war meant Britain should pivot to focus on closer economic and defence ties with Europe, he said. The Iran war has exacerbated tensions between the US and Europe that have mounted since the start of Trump’s second term in office over everything from trade to his demands for ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Nato ally Denmark. Europe is also nervously watching Trump’s efforts to broker an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, with some senior European officials concerned Trump appears to support an agreement in Moscow’s favour. Asked on Tuesday if the US was still committed to Nato’s collective defence, Hegseth said: “As far as Nato is concerned, that’s a decision that will be left to the president. But I’ll just say a lot has been laid bare.”“You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them,” Hegseth said. France has refused to allow Israel to use its airspace to resupply a flight carrying American weapons being used in the war against Iran, and Italy denied permission for US military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily before heading to the Middle East, sources told Reuters. Both France and Italy said it was standard policy and nothing had changed.Spain, however, said publicly it had fully closed its airspace to US planes involved in attacks on Iran.Trump has also repeatedly blasted Britain for not joining the United States when it launched the war. Source link
South Korea has secured around 50 million barrels of alternative oil supplies for this month to replace supplies from the Middle East blocked due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, government officials said Thursday.The government and oil refineries are working hard to secure alternative oil supplies from different countries, Deputy Minister for Trade, Industry and Resource Security Yang Ghi-wuk said in a regular briefing on energy supply, noting that Seoul has been knocking on doors of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kazakhstan, the United States and other countries.About 80 million barrels of oil arrive in South Korea each month when things run as usual, but around 50 million barrels have been tentatively secured at the moment for this month, with alternative supplies expected to increase in May, South Korea’s (Yonhap) news agency quoted Yang as saying.To cover the shortfall, the government is controlling the demand and working to help with supplies through a crude oil swap system with private companies, he added, noting the government will continue close monitoring of the market. Source link
The German government announced the implementation of new regulatory measures to curb frequent fuel price fluctuations by limiting the number of price increases to once per day. Price increases are permitted once at midday, whereas price decreases may be made at any time without limit.The German Parliament passed the new legislation on March 26 as part of a government package to combat sharp price spikes caused by energy market volatility following military escalation in the Middle East.The package includes legislation to regulate fuel price adjustments, alongside two amendments to competition law aimed at tightening oversight of arbitrary price hikes within the fuel sector.The German government stated that Middle East developments and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping route have driven global oil prices up by approximately 30%, directly impacting domestic fuel costs.Following a recent European Council meeting, Chancellor Friedrich Merz emphasized that the government is working to mitigate the war’s economic impact. He noted that restricting fuel price increases to once per day is a key part of this strategy, along with efforts to stabilize market supply and closely monitor price trends.Before this law took effect, gas stations adjusted their prices multiple times a day. Official data showed some stations recording nearly 50 price changes in a single day, leading to significant consumer confusion. Source link
South Korea’s consumer prices rose 2.2 percent year-on-year in March, driven by rising global oil prices due to ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.This figure represents the largest annual increase since last December, when inflation reached 2.3 percent, exceeding the government’s target of 2 percent.South Korea’s Ministry of Data and Statistics attributed this rise primarily to a significant jump in petroleum product prices, which surged 9.9 percent compared to last year – the highest rate since October 2022, amid the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war at that time.Specifically, diesel and gasoline prices saw sharp increases of 17 percent and 8 percent year-on-year, respectively.Conversely, prices for agricultural, livestock, and fisheries products fell by 0.6 percent year-on-year, primarily due to a sharp decline in agricultural product prices of 5.6 percent year-on-year, while livestock and fisheries prices rose by 6.2 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.Service prices also increased by 2.4 percent, driven by higher insurance costs, while core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose by 2.2 percent year-on-year last month. Source link
US President Donald Trump affirmed in a speech that the war on Iran is on the cusp of ending, with core objectives nearing completion in Iran.Trump added that Washington is monitoring key targets amid ongoing negotiations to end the conflict. At the same time, he warned of the dangers of Iran possessing nuclear weapons, characterizing such a development as an intolerable threat.Regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump urged US allies to take responsibility for the effort. He emphasized that the most difficult phase is over and that once the conflict concludes, the Strait of Hormuz will ‘automatically open.’This address by the US President is the first of its kind concerning Iran, coming one month after the start of joint US-Israeli military strikes in February. Source link
NASA has launched its Artemis II mission, marking the first crewed mission to the moon in 53 years.The agency said the mission lifted off aboard the Space Launch System rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and will last 10 days, orbiting the Moon.NASA added that the mission is its most ambitious for the US in decades and represents a major step toward returning humans to the lunar surface.The Artemis II mission sent four astronauts aboard the Orion capsule as part of the Artemis program, through which NASA aims to pave the way for a human landing on the Moon in the coming years. Related Story Source link