It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, May 03, 2024
OH LA LA
Parisian drag queen to carry Olympic torch during opening ceremony
A far-right politician called her "particularly vulgar, hypersexualized" and said a drag queen shouldn't represent France.
By Alex Bollinger Friday, May 3, 2024 Minima GestéPhoto: Screenshot
A drag queen has been announced as one of the people who will carry the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She has been targeted for hatred by the right since she was announced as one of the people who will participate in the Olympic torch relay, but the city of Paris is standing up for her.
“I know that visibility is still one of the pillars of acceptance of our LGBTQIA+ community,” 33-year-old Parisian drag queen Minima Gesté said in a video announcing her participation. “So having a drag queen carry the flame—and who might fall flat on her face with it, wait and see—it’s an enormous source of pride.”
“That identity doesn’t fit me; it doesn’t fit my soul.”
The video was posted online on Wednesday, and many people in the comments responded by attacking Minima. “Decadence of civilization brought on by the left,” one person commented. “Can I get a Russian passport?” another person wrote, calling Minima’s participation a “fiasco” and “ridiculous.”
Far-right politician and niece of proto-fascist politician Marine Le Pen, Marion Maréchal, attacked Minima in an interview on the channel TF1. “This person performs in a way that is particularly vulgar, hypersexualized,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a good way to represent France in the eyes of the world.”
But Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo stood up for Minima.
“I reaffirm my full support for her,” Hidalgo said in a statement on Friday. “I’ll say it again: I am proud and, yes, Paris is proud that a drag queen will carry the torch and the values of peace and humanity.”
The city’s X account said that the original video was “the target of numerous homophobic and transphobic statements.”
“Public insults, particularly of a homophobic and transphobic nature, are an unlawful act,” the account said, referring to France’s hate speech laws. “The Mayor of Paris will be passing statements that she believes potentially rise to the level of a violation of the law against public insult of a homophobic or transphobic nature to the Paris prosecutor’s office.”
“I really don’t care if Marion Maréchal Le Pen doesn’t agree that I should carry the Olympic flame,” Minima said in an Instagram story. “I’ll say it again: yes, I’m proud, and yes, Paris is proud that a drag queen will carry this flame and, therefore, the values of peace and of humanity.”
Minima will be one of several people who will carry the torch when the relay gets to Paris on July 14 and 15.
Maréchal has previously criticized the government based on rumors that French pop star Aya Nakamura, who is Black, was asked to perform at the opening ceremony. Nakamura was born in the West African nation of Mali and immigrated with her family when she was young to a working-class suburb of Paris, becoming a French citizen in 2021. Popular in France, her music is influenced by her African roots.
“The French don’t want to be represented in the eyes of the world by a singer whose style is influenced by the hood and Africa,” Maréchal said, according to an NPR translation. “This is a political move by [French President] Emmanuel Macron, who wants to tell the world that the face of France is multicultural, and we’re no longer a nation with Christian roots and European culture.”
Crimea Bridge Explosion Caused by Equivalent to 10 Tons of TNT: Russia
The main bridge linking the Russian mainland to annexed Crimea was blown up in October 2022 using an improvised explosive device with a power equivalent to 10 tons of TNT, a Russian newspaper has reported.
Russian newspaper Kommersant said an investigation found that solid rocket fuel was concealed in reels of polyethylene film, which was detonated on the Kerch Strait Bridge.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed a group, led by Vasyl Maliuk, the head of Ukraine's SBU security service, to destroy the bridge, the investigation found.
"The group members, at an unspecified time, but no later than August 2022, presumably, on the territory of Ukraine, 'using industrially produced components, manufactured a high-explosive improvised explosive device (IED) with a capacity of about 10 tons of TNT'," Kommersant reported.
A hidden detonator was triggered by a GPS signal "at the moment of passing a predetermined route point."
The explosion caused two spans of the bridge to collapse, and resulted in damage to 17 freight-train tank wagons.
Newsweek has contacted Ukraine's Foreign Ministry for comment by email. Kyiv has claimed responsibility for strikes on the Crimean bridge.
The Rybar Telegram channel, which has links to Russia's Defense Ministry, said last week that Kyiv may have used U.S.-made ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) missiles to detect air defense systems and radars in preparation for another attack on the Black Sea peninsula.
The missiles, which are designed to distract and confuse enemy air defenses, are capable of mimicking a number of aircraft on radar screens.
Rybar said an attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge could happen before President Vladimir Putin's inauguration on May 7. The Russian leader secured his fifth term in office in March.
"Considering the love of the Ukrainian authorities and their curators for symbolism, the target once again may be the Crimean Bridge, the attention to which is very high," Rybar said.
A group of lawmakers from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have protested a new education curriculum released by the Ministry of Education, arguing that it seems more like a political text reflecting reactionary views than an educational program.
CHP MPs on Friday marched from the parliament to education ministry headquarters in Ankara in protest of the “Century of Turkey Education Model” for primary and secondary education announced by the ministry last week.
The new curriculum underwent a reduction of about 35 percent in content, resulting in the limitation of the evolution theory to secondary biology and the complete removal of integrals from mathematics.
This marks the fourth overhaul of the curriculum in the last 22 years under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Standardized exams and educational systems have undergone numerous changes during this period, with the education minister replaced nine times.
The protesters, including the party’s deputy group chairman Murat Emir and vice chair Suat Özçağdaş, issued a press statement in front of the ministry building.
Emir said they reject the new curriculum because it is designed to undermine secularism and erase the revolutions of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, to serve the AKP’s “ideological obsessions.”
“Our children need scientific, secular and modern education,” Emir said, adding that the primary goal of every education minister during AKP rule has been to distance education from its national character and tie it to religious and reactionary ideologies.
Özçağdaş also emphasized that the new curriculum resembles more “a political text reflecting a series of ideological obsessions” rather than a program prepared within the framework of educational sciences.
Meanwhile, the Artı Gerçek news website reported on Thursday that Alevi civil society organizations also criticized the AKP for the new curriculum, arguing that it aims to detach education in Turkey from its secular and scientific foundations and align it with the party’s own ideology.
Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association President Cuma Erçe told Artı Gerçek that Alevism is not an interpretation of any religion or any other belief, but a belief that is unique to itself.
“The faith they describe [in the religious education textbooks] has nothing to do with the essence of our faith,” he added.
While religious education remained compulsory from fourth to the twelfth grade and class hours increased in the new curriculum, Alevism will only be studied under the title “Sufi interpretations in Islamic thought” in twelfth-grade classes.
Erçe further said that the association does not accept the new curriculum because it is “far from science and reason” and appears as “a party’s propaganda tool.”
Hacı Bektaş Veli Anatolian Cultural Foundation President Ercan Geçmez also underlined that they don’t want Alevism to be taught in religion classes; on the contrary, they want religion classes to no longer be compulsory.
Turkey is a majority Sunni country, with some in the conservative and religious population viewing Alevis as apostates; therefore, people adhering to the Alevi faith generally avoid revealing their beliefs in public out of fear of facing discrimination or social alienation.
Alevis follow a heterodox Islamic tradition that separates them from Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Some view it as a cultural identity as much as a religious faith.
Nippon Steel delays closing of acquisition of U.S. Steel until late this year after DOJ request
Nippon Steel Corporation’s logo is displayed on a sign outside its headquarters in Tokyo on Nov. 26, 2021. Nippon Steel said Friday, May 3, 2024, it has postponed the expected closing of its $14.1 billion takeover of U.S.STEEL
By Yuri Kageyama - Associated Press - Friday, May 3, 2024
TOKYO — Nippon Steel said Friday it has postponed the expected closing of its $14.1 billion takeover of U.S. Steel by three months after the U.S. Department of Justice requested more documentation related to the deal.
Tokyo-based Nippon Steel Corp. said the deal, already approved by U.S. Steel‘s shareholders, is still expected to go through.
“Nippon Steel will continue to fully cooperate with the examination of the relevant authorities,” it said in a statement.
The sale has drawn opposition from President Joe Biden’s administration on economic and national security grounds, and from former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential candidate in November’s election.
The new timing could push the closing beyond the election, but Nippon Steel denied the delay was related to that.
Initially the deal was supposed to have closed by September. Now it will close by December, meaning it could still close as early as September, according to a company spokesperson, who requested the anonymity customary at Japanese companies.
More than 98% of the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. shares voted at a special investor meeting in April approved the takeover. Nippon Steel has said it has prepared adequate financing to go through with the deal.
First announced in December last year, the merger of U.S. Steel into Nippon Steel has raised concerns about what that might mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security.
The United Steelworkers union has opposed the acquisition.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Biden last month. But there was no indication the topic came up in the summit.
When Biden visited the Pittsburgh headquarters of United Steelworkers recently, he reiterated his opposition to the Nippon Steel purchase, stressing U.S. Steel “has been an iconic American company for more than a century and it should remain totally American.”
The U.S. steel industry has declined over the decades as global steel production came to be dominated initially by Japan, and more recently by China. Under the deal, U.S. Steel will keep its name and its headquarters in Pittsburgh, where it was founded in 1901. ___
Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
FLASHBACK
US jobs market slows but unemployment rate ties longest streak since 1960s
The Federal Reserve is seeking to tame inflation while Biden aims to make the economy central to his re-election campaign
President Joe Biden said “With today’s report of 175,000 new jobs, the great American comeback continues.”
The US economy underperformed expectations in April, adding only 175,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in that month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The news comes as the Federal Reserve seeks to cool inflation.
The unemployment rate also changed very little, remaining at 3.9 per cent. Indeed, this is the best streak of unemployment being below 4 percent since the 1960s.
The number is below what many expected. The ADP Employment Report projected that the US economy had added 192,000 jobs in April.
President Joe Biden hailed the number in a statement on Friday as a sign that the economy has rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic. He specifically highlighted the growth of women in the workforce.
“I had a plan to turn our country around and build our economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” he said. “Now we are seeing that plan in action, with well over 15 million jobs created since I took office, working-age women employed at a record high rate, wages rising faster than prices, and unemployment below 4 percent for a record 27 months in a row.”
Hourly earnings also grew in April by 0.2 per cent, and the average hourly earnings grew by 3.9 per cent, which shows that wages have outpaced inflation.
Health care led the growth of jobs in April, adding 56,000 jobs, while social assistance added 31,000 jobs.
“There’s more work to do,” Biden said in his statement. “I have a plan to lower the cost of rent and home ownership by building 2 million homes; to cut taxes for middle-class families and American workers; and to continue making health care, prescription drugs, inhalers, and insulin more affordable.”
Biden hopes to make the economic recovery — particularly job and wage growth — a central part of his re-election campaign.
The numbers come after the Federal Reserve has sought to tame persistent inflation by keeping interest rates high. On Thursday, the central bank announced that it would keep interest rates where they are as opposed to raising them or cutting them.
In March, the BLS announced that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose by 0.4 per cent in the past month and by 3.5 per cent in the past 12 months.
“Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said data showed a need to keep rates high,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in a press conference on Wednesday. “We have stated that we do not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range for the federal funds rate until we have gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent. So far this year, the data have not given us that greater confidence.”
The BLS will release its numbers for inflation later this month.
ANALYSIS: Beijing's political goals drive China's green tech surplus
China's export-led economic structure is baked in, while its people lack the spending power to consume more.
By Kitty Wang for RFA Mandarin 2024.05.03
Newly manufactured electric vehicles sit at Yantai Port in eastern China's Shandong province in an undated photo.
Associated Press
Industrial overcapacity in China is the result of a number of political pressures and structural changes in the country's post-lockdown economy, and is unlikely to change any time soon, economists told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.
U.S. officials have recently accused the Chinese government of over subsidizing certain industries, leading to overcapacity and a tendency to flood global markets with cheap products.
The issue, which Beijing says is a ploy by Washington to suppress it as a global competitor, was a key topic on the agenda during recent visits to Beijing by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who criticized China's "unfair” trade practices and the potential consequences of industrial overcapacity to global and U.S. markets, citing electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels in particular.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi retorted that "China's legitimate right to development is being unreasonably suppressed," calling on Washington to "stop hyping up the false narrative of China's overcapacity, lift illegal sanctions on Chinese companies and stop Adding Section 301 tariffs that violate WTO [World Trade Organization] rules," state media reported on April 30.
'Blind expansion'
So what does overcapacity in China look like? And how can it be addressed?
The top 20 automakers in China have a combined production capacity of some 35 million cars, but are currently only operating at less than 50% of capacity, according to a recent report from the Jiangsu Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center.
Many have benefited from government subsidies under a 10-year green energy development policy set and subsidized by Beijing, analysts told RFA Mandarin.
The report blamed "blind expansion" of capacity and "miscalculating development trends in the clean energy sector," adding that the mistake has cost Chinese automakers dear. Figures from China's National Bureau of Statistics show that the auto industry only garnered profits of 5% for the whole of 2023, for example.
Part of the issue is that, structurally, the Chinese economy is geared up to fill export orders, with more than 2% of its GDP reliant on exports, according to a former U.S. trade official.
Another issue is the tendency of the ruling Chinese Communist Party to order certain industries to ramp up production — in this case, green energy — to meet long-term political goals, namely, the 10-year "Made in China" action plan, which launched in 2015, former U.S. Department of Commerce official Patrick Mulloy told RFA Mandarin.
Such plans inevitably involve huge amounts of government subsidies for targeted industries, evidence of which Mulloy said he had seen personally on official visits to China while serving on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in an undated photo (AFP)
“The fundamental problem is that we have a complete imbalance in our economic relationship with China,” Mulloy told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.
“I think the Chinese leadership has decided no, we want to be dominant in these new industries … electric vehicles, batteries, solar, all of these sorts of things. And they have decided that they're going to pump their money in, to subsidize these industries and exporting them.”
'The deformed monster'
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have little recourse to the WTO, because Beijing doesn't supply all of the data they would need to make a case through that body, hence the harder line now being taken in public by U.S. officials on the issue, Mulloy said.
"The most fundamental reason for overcapacity in China is top-down, autocratic control exercised by the Chinese Communist Party," Xie Tian, a professor at the University of South Carolina's Aiken School of Business. "Or rather, it's the deformed monster produced by the fusion of a market economy with that autocratic system."
Taking electric vehicles as an example, Xie said China currently has more than 200 electric vehicle factories, with an overall production capacity that exceeds domestic demand.
Over-investment leads to diminishing returns, forcing companies to engage in life-or-death price wars just to survive, Xie said, adding that many of those companies would never have gotten started in the first place in a market economy.
"The central government comes up with a policy, and subsidies, and everyone wants a slice of the pie," Xie said. "So they rush to production without worrying whether or not these products will sell."
"They don't care about that, because this is a way for local government officials to show off their political achievements," he said, adding that the promotion prospects of local officials is heavily influenced by local GDP figures during their tenure, and new factories inflate those number for long enough for the official to be promoted elsewhere.
Yet much of this "growth" is illusory, and there is scant political will to allow any of these subsidized companies to go bankrupt, which is what should happen in a market economy, Xie said.
"That would mean a self-created wave of unemployment and bankruptcies," he said, adding that the government may eventually be forced to allow this to happen.
'Overcapacity if back'
Excess industrial capacity is nothing new in China, according to a March 26 report from the U.S.-based Rhodium Group.
"China has a long history of structural overcapacity," the report said, adding that the last severe episode happened in 2014-2016, a few years after the government launched a massive stimulus package in response to the 2008-09 global financial crisis.
"After years of retreat, anecdotal evidence is mounting that overcapacity is back in China," the report said, citing clean technology in particular.
Robotic arms assemble electric vehicles at a Leapmotor factory in Jinhua in eastern China's Zhejiang province, April 26, 2023. (Reuters)
Capacity utilization rates for silicon wafers fell to 57% in 2022 from 78% in 2019, the report said, while adding that production of lithium-ion batteries was 1.9 times the volume of domestically installed batteries in 2022 and that similar problems are also now being seen in the industrial sector as a whole.
The report said inventory levels -- the amount of goods that have yet to exit the factory gates -- are also sky-high.
U.S.-based economist Cheng Xiaonong agreed.
"There is no industry in China that doesn't have overcapacity," Cheng said. "The problem is that the production capacity structure in China has been based from the start on the concept of China as the 'workshop of the world.'"
"The problem is that this dream is now shattered," he said.
Cheng said he doesn't believe that ongoing tensions with the international community are actually caused by this issue, however. He believes foreign governments are using trade as a way to contain and curb a newly aggressive China, which they see as a threat to global peace and stability. Blinken, for example, took issue with China's export of materials to Russia that could aid its war effort in Ukraine.
"The trade war isn't caused by overcapacity; rather, there is a trade war because China threatens the peace and security of every country," Cheng said. "The trade war is a means for other countries to sanction China."
Antidote to overcapacity
Economists in China and overseas believe that the antidote to overcapacity in China is to stimulate domestic demand. But is this even possible?
Cheng doesn't think so, citing recent figures that show that, in 2021, more than 42% of the population was getting by on less than 1,090 yuan, or US$150, a month, while another 41% makes somewhere between that figure and 3,000 yuan, or US$415, a month.
"When 84% of the population has a per capita income of less than 3,000 [yuan] a month, it's not easy to stimulate consumption," he said. "Meanwhile, the Chinese government isn't using the money it has to improve people's lives — it's investing in military expansion and preparation for war."
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with US President Joe Biden at the APEC Summit in California, Nov. 15, 2023. (Associated Press)
U.S.-based current affairs commentator Zheng Xuguang believes that the Xi Jinping administration will be forced back into the old economic model, importing raw materials in huge quantities from overseas, and exporting the finished products.
"This coastal development strategy has driven growth in the central and western regions, in a pattern that still hasn't changed to this day," he said.
And that means China is likely to keep on trying to export all of those excess goods for the time being, according to Xie Tian.
"The Chinese Communist Party doesn't want unemployment to rise, so it doesn't want to reduce production capacity," he said. "When the domestic Chinese market can't absorb [the excess goods], it is forced to export them and to subsidize it further."
"That means manufacturers in other countries can't compete."
Additional reporting by Jenny Tang. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
WWIII China's Coast Guard Sails Near Neighbor's Front-Line Islands
Published May 03, 2024 By Micah McCartney China News Reporter
China's coast guard on Friday revealed it had entered restricted waters around an outlying Taiwanese island county in the Taiwan Strait, just off China's Fujian Province.
A formation of ships "carried out regular law enforcement inspections in waters near Kinmen in accordance with the law," the agency said without specifying the number of vessels. It added that the China Coast Guard would "resolutely safeguard" order within its jurisdiction as well as the lives and property of Chinese fishermen.
Accompanying the statement was a map with coordinates indicating the patrol sailed within what Taiwan considers to be restricted waters to the southeast of Kinmen's islands. The ships also briefly entered into a prohibited zone.
Taiwan stations troops on Kinmen, which at some points is just over a mile from Chinese shores. In the late 1950s, it was at the center of clashes, including a failed amphibious invasion by China's People's Liberation Army, with intermittent shelling occurring until 1979.
This year, several high-profile episodes have stoked tensions between China and self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory and has pledged to someday bring under its control—by force if necessary.
China has stepped up its coast guard patrols around Kinmen since February, when a speed boat capsized in nearby waters, drowning two Chinese fishermen. The boat had been fleeing Taiwan's coast guard after allegedly operating in Taiwanese waters.
Taiwan has empowered its coast guard to search and seize foreign-flagged vessels that enter prohibited waters or that remain in restricted waters after being issued two warnings to leave.
Beijing condemned its neighbor after the deaths of the men and just days later the Chinese coast guard boarded a Taiwanese tour boat sailing near Chinese waters, drawing a protest from Taipei.
The skyline of Xiamen, China, is seen beyond anti-landing spikes on Lieyu islet, part of Taiwan's Kinmen islands, on August 10, 2022. China's coast guard on Friday revealed it had entered restricted waters around the... More SAM YEH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
"Beijing is now referring to the coast guard patrols in Kinmen-Xiamen waters as 'normalized' law enforcement patrols. This suggests that they intend to continue conducting operations inside the 'restricted' zone around Kinmen," Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank, told Newsweek.
"By doing so, China is asserting its sovereignty over those waters and attempting to deny Taiwan full control."
Friday's incursion came as Taiwan prepares for the May 20 inauguration of President-elect Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
During his visit to China last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinkencalled for restraint from all sides in the weeks leading up to the inauguration ceremony.
Newsweek has reached out to Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration and China's foreign ministry with written requests for comment.
China publicizes for the first time what it claims is a 2016 agreement with Philippines
Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4, left, is hit by two Chinese coast guard water canons as they tried to enter the Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, in the disputed South China Sea
By Christopher Bodeen - Associated Press - Friday, May 3, 2024
TAIPEI, Taiwan — For the first time, China has publicized what it claims is an unwritten 2016 agreement with the Philippines over access to South China Sea islands.
The move threatens to further raise tensions in the disputed waterway, through which much of the world’s trade passes and which China claims virtually in its entirety.
A statement from the Chinese Embassy in Manila said the “temporary special arrangement” agreed to during a visit to Beijing by former president Rodrigo Duterte allowed small scale fishing around the islands but restricted access by military, coast guard and other official planes and ships to the 12 nautical mile (22 kilometer) limit of territorial waters.
The Philippines respected the agreement over the past seven years but has since reneged on it to “fulfill its own political agenda,” forcing China to take action, the statement said.
“This is the basic reason for the ceaseless disputes at sea between China and the Philippines over the past year and more,” said the statement posted to the embassy’s website Thursday, referring to the actions of the Philippines.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Duterte have denied forging any agreements that would have supposedly surrendered Philippine sovereignty or sovereign rights to China. Any such action, if proven, would be an impeachable offense under the country’s 1987 Constitution.
However, after his visit to Beijing, Duterte hinted at such an agreement without offering details, said Collin Koh, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies based in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and an expert on naval affairs in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly Southeast Asia.
“He boasted then that he not only got Chinese investment and trade pledges, but also that he secured Philippine fishermen access to Scarborough Shoal,” Koh said, referring to one of the maritime features in dispute.
Beijing‘s deliberate wording in the statement “is noteworthy in showing that Beijing has no official document to prove its case and thus could only rely mainly on Duterte’s verbal claim,” Koh said.
Marcos, who took office in June 2022, told reporters last month that China has insisted that there was such a secret agreement but said he was not aware of any.
“The Chinese are insisting that there is a secret agreement and, perhaps, there is, and, I said I didn’t, I don’t know anything about the secret agreement,” said Marcos, who has drawn the Philippines closer to its treaty partner the U.S. “Should there be such a secret agreement, I am now rescinding it.”
Duterte, who nurtured cozy relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his six-year presidency while openly being hostile to the United States for its strong criticism of his deadly campaign against illegal drugs.
While he took an almost virulently anti-American stance during his 2016 visit to Washington’s chief rival, he has said he also did not enter into any agreement with Beijing that would have compromised Philippine territory. He acknowledged, however, that he and Xi agreed to maintain “the status quo” in the disputed waters to avoid war.
“Aside from the fact of having a handshake with President Xi Jinping, the only thing I remember was that status quo, that’s the word. There would be no contact, no movement, no armed patrols there, as is where is, so there won’t be any confrontation,” Duterte said.
Asked if he agreed that the Philippines would not bring construction materials to strengthen a Philippine military ship outpost at the Second Thomas Shoal, Duterte said that was part of maintaining the status quo but added there was no written agreement.
“That’s what I remember. If it were a gentleman’s agreement, it would always have been an agreement to keep the peace in the South China Sea,” Duterte said.
House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Marcos’s cousin and political ally, has ordered an investigation into what some are calling a “gentleman’s agreement.”
China has also claimed that Philippine officials have promised to tow away the navy ship that was deliberately grounded in the shallows of the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to serve as Manila’s territorial outpost. Philippine officials under Marcos say they were not aware of any such agreement and would not remove the now dilapidated and rust-encrusted warship manned by a small contingent of Filipino sailors and marines.
China has long accused Manila of “violating its commitments” and “acting illegally” in the South China Sea, without being explicit.
Apart from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the sea that is rich in fishing stocks, gas and oil. Beijing has refused to recognize a 2016 international arbitration ruling by a U.N.-affiliated court in the Hauge that invalidated its expansive claims on historical grounds.
Skirmishes between Beijing and Manila have flared since last year, with massive Chinese coast guard cutters firing high-pressure water cannons at Philippine patrol vessels, most recently off Scarborough Shoal late last month, damaging both. They have also accused each other of dangerous maneuvering, leading to minor scrapes.
The U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, but has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation operations that have challenged China’s claims.
The U.S. has warned repeatedly that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines - its oldest treaty ally in Asia - if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
___
Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report from Manila, Philippines.
CLIMATE CRISIS
Kenya on alert as it braces for first-ever cyclone
Kenyan President William Ruto put the flood-ravaged country on high alert on Friday and postponed the reopening of schools indefinitely as the nation braced for its first-ever cyclone.
Torrential rains have lashed East Africa since March and claimed the lives of more than 350 people.
The region is now threatened by a cyclone projected to make landfall at the weekend along its Indian Ocean coast.
“This cyclone named Hidaya, that could hit anytime now, is predicted to cause torrential rain, strong winds and powerful and dangerous waves,” Ruto told a press briefing in the capital, Nairobi.
“Our country must act swiftly and decisively to mitigate the devastating impacts of the present crisis and protect life and property.”
Schools, which were due to reopen on Monday, will now remain shut indefinitely.
All ministers have been directed to coordinate the evacuation and relocation of all affected Kenyans.
Cyclone Hidaya will peak at gusts of 165 kilometres (100 miles) per hour when it makes landfall in neighbouring Tanzania on Saturday, according to the Climate Prediction and Applications Centre for East African trade bloc IGAD.
Cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean normally lasts from November to April, and there are around a dozen storms each year.
Tanzanian authorities warned earlier on Friday that Hidaya had “strengthened to reach the status of a full-fledged cyclone” by 3:00 am (0000 GMT), when it was some 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the southeastern city of Mtwara.
“Cyclone Hidaya has continued to strengthen further, with wind speeds increasing to about 130 kilometres per hour,” they said in a weather bulletin.
– ‘No corner spared’ –
East Africa’s rains have been amplified by the El Nino weather pattern — a naturally occurring climate phenomenon typically associated with increased heat worldwide that leads to drought in some parts of the world and heavy downpours elsewhere.
So far, around 210 people have died in Kenya from flood-related incidents.
More than 165,000 others have been uprooted from their homes and nearly 100 are missing, according to government data.
“No corner of our country has been spared from this havoc,” Ruto said.
“Sadly, we have not seen the last of this perilous period,” he warned.
At least 155 people have been killed in Tanzania by floods and landslides that have destroyed crops and swallowed homes.
Rescuers in boats and aircraft have raced against the clock in pouring rain to help people marooned by the floods in Kenya.
In dramatic footage shared on Wednesday, the Kenya Red Cross rescued a man who said he was stranded by floodwaters and forced to shelter in a tree for five days in Garissa in the east of the country.
The military also joined search and rescue efforts after Ruto deployed them to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas.
The government has ordered anyone living close to major rivers or near 178 “filled-up or near filled-up dams or water reservoirs” to evacuate the area within 24 hours.
Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused the government of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings.
– Forced to escape again’ –
The heavier than usual rains have also claimed at least 29 lives in Burundi.
Some 175 people have been injured and tens of thousands displaced since September, the United Nations said.
UN refugee agency UNCHR said it was “particularly concerned” about thousands of refugees who had been displaced in Burundi, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania.
“(They are) being forced to escape once again for their lives after their homes were washed away,” UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado Mur said on Friday.
Late last year, more than 300 people died in rains and floods in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades.
by Hillary ORINDE
Kenya braces for Cyclone Hidaya after devastating floods claim 210 lives
President William Ruto outlines urgent measures to deal with floods across country
Andrew Wasike |03.05.2024 -
NAIROBI, Kenya
The death toll from floods in Kenya has risen to 210, said Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday during an address from State House in Nairobi.
"The weight of tragic events in recent weeks has tested our nation's resilience in the wake of unprecedented challenges," said Ruto, cautioning that Kenya may face its first-ever cyclone this weekend.
He said that Cyclone Hidaya is predicted to bring torrential rain, strong winds, and dangerous waves.
In response to the crisis, Ruto directed the Ministry of Education to postpone the reopening of all schools for the second term until further notice.
The president also instructed the Ministry of Interior to coordinate the relocation and evacuation of affected residents, identify temporary shelter sites, and oversee support programs.
To bolster disaster response and mitigation efforts nationwide, the Treasury Ministry has been tasked with providing adequate resources and collaborating with development partners to procure and distribute essential supplies such as food and medical items.
The Kenyan president also warned that the situation could worsen as water levels in the Seven Forks Hydro-Electric power dams, including Masinga and Kiambere, have reached historic highs, threatening to overflow into neighboring settlements in Garissa and Tana River counties.
He urged citizens to support ecosystem restoration efforts, including the ambitious plan to plant 15 billion trees nationwide within the next decade.
Flooding worsens in East Africa
WMO NEWS 03 May 2024 Devastating flooding in East Africa is claiming an increasing number of casualties, destroying infrastructure and crops and killing livestock and wildlife. An incoming tropical cyclone is set to worsen the situation by bringing yet more heavy rainfall to the worst affected countries, including the United Republic of Tanzania and Kenya.
Credit: Copernicus EC Sentinel2 satellite
Kenyan President William Ruto addressed the nation, outlining a series of measures to deal with the emergency, including evacuations and urgent health provisions. Water dams are overflowing, roads and bridges have been destroyed, and schools are closed. As of 3 May, 210 people have been killed and many more injured, he said.
“No corner of our country has been spared from this havoc,” said President Ruto. “Sadly, we have not seen the last of this perilous period as this situation is expected to escalate. Meteorological reports paint a dire picture. The rains will persist, increasing both in duration and intensity for the rest of this month and possibly after,” he said.
The waning El Niño event, alongside a phenomenon known as the Indian Ocean Dipole, and high sea surface temperatures are playing a role. But the excess energy trapped in the atmosphere and ocean by human-induced greenhouse gases is also having a major influence by turbo-charging the extreme weather.
“The current unprecedented crisis of floods that our country is experiencing …. is a direct consequence of our failure to protect our environment, resulting in painful effects of climate change. Our country will remain in this cyclical crisis for a long time unless and until we confront the existential threat of climate change,” said President Ruto. The Kenya Meteorological Department issued numerous Red Alerts.
WMO’s Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre La Reunion issued advisories about Tropical Cyclone Hidaya
WMO’s Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre La Reunion and the Tanzania Meteorological Agency issued respectively advisories and warnings about Tropical Cyclone Hidaya. which is the first documented system to have reached tropical cyclone status in that low latitude region, making it historically significant for the northwestern corner of the South-West Indian Ocean basin.
Hidaya is forecast to bring dangerous waves and heavy rainfall to already sodden soils in Tanzania and also impact northern Mozambique. It is expected to skirt the coastline of those countries for the next couple of days while gradually weakening. Other countries in the region have also been badly hit, including Uganda, Burundi and parts of Ethiopia and Somalia. This has worsened the already fragile humanitarian situation and displacement crisis in the Horn of Africa.
EXPLAINER
Why has the flooding in Kenya been so devastating?
Government criticised over poor infrastructure as 210 people killed, thousands displaced and a cyclone is on the way.
Torrential rains have caused devastating floods in Kenya, where more than 200 people have died, thousands have been displaced and nearly 2,000 schools have been destroyed. All remaining schools have been shut down until further notice.
Rains have been ravaging Kenya since March during some of the most catastrophic weather events in the country for years. Now, Cyclone Hidaya is expected to hit Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania late on Friday, which could further worsen the flooding. This comes amid recent heavy rainfall across East Africa.
How many people have been killed and injured in Kenya’s floods?
The flooding has wreaked havoc in Kenya, causing death and destruction. Here are the latest figures from Kenya’s Ministry of Interior on Friday:
At least 210 people have been killed, including 20 in a recent 24-hour period, and 125 have been injured.
Ninety people have been reported missing with dozens believed to be lost under the debris.
About 3,100 households have been displaced.
The schools that have been destroyed number 1,967.
“There are many people who cannot be found. Many of my neighbours cannot be found,” Jane Wambui, a flood survivor, told Al Jazeera.
Many of those who have been worst affected by the flooding live in informal settlements, such as Nairobi’s Mathare, where residents have accused the government of neglecting them.
“The government says they deployed the military and the national youth service and they are stepping up search and rescue missions, but where are they? It has been a week, and where are they? I have not seen anyone here in Mathare. Not one person from the government has come to help us,” Mathare resident Collins Obondo said.
Where in Kenya is the flooding the worst?
In the town of Mai Mahiu in southern Kenya, a dam burst on Monday, killing at least 48 people.
(Al Jazeera)
Mai Mahiu in Nakuru County is west of the capital, Nairobi, which is expected to be hit by more heavy rains, according to a warning issued on X on Friday by Kenya’s Meteorological Department.
What has caused the flooding in Kenya?
While climate events such as El Nino – the warming of the surface water of the Pacific Ocean, which causes heavy rainfall in some parts of the world – have been linked to the increase in rain, many Kenyans believe the flooding has been exacerbated by lack of investment by the government.
In Mathare, locals blamed the flooding on poorly maintained, frequently blocked drains that have caused water to accumulate.
Flood survivor Nahason Igeria told Al Jazeera: “This was caused by the state national Railways Corporation. They are the ones who built the culvert downstream andthe tunnel upstream. It should be their responsibility to maintain the system.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch published findings that low-income neighbourhoods, such as Mathare, had been severely impacted by the floods due to “less solid structures, congestion and poor sanitation infrastructure”.
In a statement, Greenpeace Africa Executive Director Oulie Keita said the floods are a “stark reminder of the human cost of the climate crisis”, adding, “Some of the damage was further worsened by misinformed development.”
How has the Kenyan government responded to the floods?
In anticipation of Cyclone Hidaya, President William Ruto’s government has ordered mandatory evacuations for residents living close to 178 dams and water reservoirs in 33 counties.
During his national address to the nation on Friday, Ruto said he had directed the Ministry of Education to postpone the reopening of schools for their second term until further notice. Besides the schools destroyed since March, many other schools are being used to shelter those who have been displaced by the floods.
Ruto’s approach to managing the floods has been criticised by residents of Mai Mahiu and of several informal settlements that have been devastated by floodwaters.
Human Rights Watch said the government failed to act following the Meteorological Department’s warnings in May last year that Kenya would experience enhanced rainfall due to El Nino and it would continue into 2024.
While the government set aside at least 10 billion Kenyan shillings ($80m) in preparation for a nationwide response, it did not outline a plan of action. In October, Ruto mistakenly said Kenya would not experience El Nino rainfall as had been predicted.
The Meteorological Department now expects the rainfall to continue until June.
What impact is Cyclone Hidaya expected to have?
Cyclone Hidaya is likely to result in “heavy rainfall, large waves and strong winds that could affect marine activities in the Indian Ocean”, the presidential office said.
The cyclone is also expected to make the search for the bodies of those missing and feared dead even more difficult, experts said.
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