Foreign News
Taiwan elects William Lai as president in historic election
Taiwanese voters have chosen William Lai as their president in a historic election, cementing a path that is increasingly divergent from China.
The result is likely to anger Beijing, which calls Lai a “troublemaker” for his views on independence.
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own. While it has called for “peaceful reunification”, it has also not ruled out the use of force. It had cast the Taiwan election as a choice between “war and peace”.
Beijing’s communist government also reviles Mr Lai’s pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which has ruled Taiwan for eight years. China has ramped up its military presence around the island, heightening fears of a possible conflict.
By winning an unprecedented third consecutive presidential term for his party, Mr Lai has broken new ground. In his first remarks after his opponents conceded, he signalled that this was an irreversible trajectory.
“The country will continue to walk the right path forward. We will not look backwards,” he told the world’s media in a press conference.
Later while addressing tens of thousands of ecstatic supporters on the streets of Taipei, Mr Lai characterised his win as a triumph of democracy. “We’ve done it. We didn’t let external forces influence our election. That’s because we decided that only we can choose our president,” he said. In the lead-up to the polls, Taiwan had accused China of attempting to interfere with the process.
But Mr Lai also had a message for China. He told reporters he favoured more exchanges and dialogue over obstructionism and conflict, and called for peace and stability with Beijing. At the same time, he added, he would “maintain the cross-strait status quo” – neither seeking independence nor unification with China – and pledged to “safeguard Taiwan from threats from China”.
Mr Lai in the past said he supports Taiwanese independence – a red line for Beijing – though in recent months he stressed he would not pursue it if he became president.
Mr Lai’s 40% of the vote put him comfortably ahead of Hou Yu-ih from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party. Since 2000, Taiwan has alternated between the DPP and the KMT which is friendlier to Beijing.
Maverick politician Ko Wen-je from the Taiwan People’s Party, a newcomer to Taiwan’s political scene popular with young voters, gained a quarter of the vote.
Voters on Saturday also chose their legislature. The DPP has lost its majority with the opposition gaining ground, though no one party has enough seats to control parliament, according to Taiwanese media reports.
Observers say that an opposition-dominated legislature with a DPP president could mean the process of governing Taiwan would become more fraught.
(BBC)
At least three suspected rebel fighters and one Indian soldier have been killed in separate firefights in Indian administered Kashmir less than a week after Interior Minister Amit Shah visited the disputed territory.
The Indian army said on Saturday that Indian soldiers killed three fighters in a gun battle that began on Wednesday in a remote forest in Kishtwar in southern Kashmir.
Senior Indian army official Brigadier JBS Rathi said troops had displayed “great tactical acumen”.
“In the gun battle, three terrorists were neutralised,” he told reporters on Saturday in a commonly used term for rebels opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir.
Weapons and “war-like stores” were recovered from the site, the army’s White Knight Corps posted on social media platform X.
A soldier was killed in a separate incident late on Friday night in Sunderbani district along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that cuts Indian-administered Kashmir into two.
The White Knight Corps said on X troops had “foiled an infiltration attempt” there.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full but governing only part of it.
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers deployed in the territory after an armed uprising against Indian rule in the late 1980s.
Thousands of people, most of them Kashmir civilians, have been killed as rebel groups have fought Indian forces, seeking independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.
In 2019, a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights accused India of human rights violations in Kashmir and called for a commission of inquiry into the allegations. The report came nearly a year after the then UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Husseincalled for an international investigation into abuses in the Muslim-majority region.
Last month, four police officers and two suspected rebels were killed in the region in a clash that also wounded several police officers.
The territory has simmered in anger since 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended the region’s semi-autonomy and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms while intensifying military operations.
Thousands of additional troops, including special forces, were deployed across southern mountainous areas last year following a series of deadly rebel attacks that killed more than 50 soldiers over three years.
India regularly blames Pakistan for pushing rebels across the LoC to launch attacks on Indian forces.
[Aljazeera]
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled and trains suspended as gales hit Beijing and northern China today [Saturday].
By 11:30 local time (03:30 GMT) today, 838 flights had been cancelled at the capital’s two major airports, according to the news agency Reuters.
Wind gusts of up to 93mph (150kph) – the strongest in the Chinese capital for more than half a century – are set to continue through the weekend, forcing the closure of attractions and historic sites.
Millions were urged to stay indoors on Friday, with some state media outlets warning that people weighing less than 50kg may be “easily blown away”.
Train services, including the airport’s express subway line and some high-speed rail lines, have been suspended.
Parks were also shut, with some old trees reinforced or trimmed in preparation – but almost 300 trees have already fallen over in the capital.
A number of vehicles were damaged, but no injuries were reported. In Beijing, most residents followed authorities’ advice to stay indoors after the city warned 22 million residents to avoid non-essential travel.
“Everyone in Beijing was really nervous about it. Today there are hardly any people out on the streets. However, it wasn’t as severe as I had imagined,” a local resident told Reuters.
Meanwhile, a businessman from the Zhejiang province, near Shanghai, had his flight home cancelled.
“Because of the severe winds, all flights scheduled for last night and today were cancelled. So I will probably rebook my flight in a couple of days. I’m now basically stranded in Beijing,” he said.
The strong winds are from a cold vortex system over Mongolia and are expected to last through the weekend.
Winds bringing sand and dust from Mongolia are routine in spring, but climate change can make storms stronger and more severe.
Beijing issued its first orange alert for strong winds in a decade, with the strongest winds expected to arrive on Saturday.
China measures wind speed on a scale that goes from one to 17. A level 11 wind, according to the China Meteorological Administration, can cause “serious damage”, while a level 12 wind brings “extreme destruction”.
The winds this weekend are expected to range from level 11 to 13, with conditions expected to ease by Sunday.
[BBC]
The US Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Maryland man, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s notorious mega-jail.
The Trump administration had conceded that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported by accident, but appealed against a federal court’s order to return him to the US.
On Thursday, in a 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court declined to block the lower court’s order.
The judge’s order “requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent”, the justices ruled.
(BBC)
Three rebels, one Indian soldier killed in Kashmir gun battles
Hundreds of flights cancelled in China as strong winds hit capital
Iran says it wants ‘fair agreement’ as nuclear talks with US begin in Oman
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