United News of Bangladesh

President Joe Biden scrapped expedited asylum screenings during his first month in office as part of a gutting of Trump administration border polices that included building a wall with Mexico. Now he is preparing his own version. Donald Trump’s fast-track reviews drew sharp criticism from internal government watchdog agencies as the percentage of people who passed those “credible fear interviews” plummeted. But the Biden administration has insisted its speedy screening for asylum-seekers is different: Interviews will be done exclusively by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, not by Border Patrol agents, and everyone will have access to legal counsel. The decision to use fast-track screenings comes as COVID-19 asylum restrictions are set to expire on May 11 and the U.S. government prepares for an expected increase in illegal crossings from Mexico. The Texas border cities of El Paso, Laredo and Brownsville have declared local states of emergency in recent days to prepare for the anticipated influx. Normally, about three in four migrants pass credible fear interviews, though far fewer eventually win asylum. But during the five months of the Trump-era program, only 23% passed the initial screening, while 69% failed and 9% withdrew, according to the Government Accountability Office. Those who get past initial screenings are generally freed in the United States to pursue their cases in immigration court, which typically takes four years. Critics say the court backlog encourages more people to seek asylum. To pass screenings, migrants must convince an asylum officer they have a “significant possibility” of prevailing before a judge on arguments that they face persecution in their home countries on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group. Under the Biden administration’s fast-track program, those who don’t qualify will be deported “in a matter of days or just a few weeks,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday. The expedited screenings will be applied only to single adults, Mayorkas said. Despite the administration’s assurances that people will have access to legal services, some immigrant advocates who were briefed by the administration are doubtful. Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, noted that advocates were told attorneys would not be allowed inside holding facilities. The Trump administration used fast-track reviews from October 2019 until March 2020, when it began using a 1944 public health law known as Title 42 to expel immigrants on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The speedy screenings were among Trump-era immigration polices that Biden rolled back in a February 2021 executive order. Unlike the Trump administration, the Biden administration won’t limit migrants to just one phone call. But it’s unclear how many calls U.S. authorities can facilitate, especially if there is no answer and attorneys call back, Hawkins said. Screenings initially will be limited to Spanish-speaking countries to which the U.S. has regular deportation flights, according to Hawkins and others briefed. The administration began limited screening this month in Donna, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, and later expanded to large tents in other border cities, including San Diego; Yuma, Arizona; and El Paso, Texas. Migrants will get a video presentation to explain the interview process. Mayorkas, a former federal prosecutor, didn’t speak in detail about access to legal counsel in remarks Thursday about a broad strategy that, in addition to the screenings, includes processing centers in Guatemala, Colombia and potentially elsewhere for people to come legally to the U.S. through an airport. “We have expanded our holding capacity and set up equipment and procedures so that individuals have the ability to access counsel,” Mayorkas said. The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general took issue with lack of legal representation under Trump’s expedited screening. There were four cordless phones for migrants to share when screenings began in El Paso. Guards took them to a shack to consult attorneys. Phone booths were later installed but didn’t have handsets for safety reasons, forcing migrants to speak loudly and within earshot of people outside, the inspector general said. Facilities built under Biden are more spacious with plenty of phone booths, according to people who have visited. “There are rows of cubicles, enclosed,” said Paulina Reyes, an attorney at advocacy group ImmDef who visited a San Diego holding facility in March. The administration has not said how many attorneys have volunteered to represent asylum-seekers. Hawkins said officials told advocates they are reaching out to firms that offer low- or no-cost services to people in immigration detention centers. Erika Pinheiro, executive director of advocacy group Al Otro Lado, which is active in Southern California and Tijuana, Mexico, said she has not been approached but would decline to represent asylum-seekers in expedited screenings. They arrive exhausted and unfamiliar with asylum law, hindering their abilities to effectively tell their stories. “We know what the conditions are like. We know people are not going to be mentally prepared,” she said. The Biden administration aims to complete screenings within 72 hours, the maximum time Border Patrol is supposed to hold migrants under an agency policy that’s routinely ignored. It’s a tall order. It currently takes about four weeks to complete a screening. Under Trump’s expedited screenings, about 20% of immigrants were in custody for a week or less, according to the GAO. About 86% were held 20 days or less. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has identified 480 former asylum officers or those with training to assist about 800 on the expedited screenings, said Michael Knowles, a spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119, which represents asylum officers. Despite the staffing surge, Knowles said officers worry about the pace of the work, “like an assembly line, ‘hurry up, hurry up,’ when you have lives at stake.” “All hands will be on this deck for the foreseeable future,” Knowles said. “We don’t know how long.”  

An art student from South Korea ate a banana that was part of an installation claiming he was "hungry" after forgetting breakfast, BBC reports. The artwork — by Maurizio Cattelan — called "Comedian" and part of Cattelan's's exhibition "WE", consisted of a ripe banana duct-taped to a wall at Seoul's Leeum Musuem of Art. Later, Noh Huyn-soo, the student, taped the peel to the wall. The museum placed a new banana at the same spot after the bizarre incident, BBC reported citing media. The incident, which lasted more than a minute, was recorded by Noh's friend. Meanwhile, The Leeum Musuem of Art told the media that it will not claim damages against the student. The banana on display is reportedly replaced every two or three days. As Noh removed the banana from the wall, shouts of "excuse me" could be heard in videos posted online. However, he did not respond and started eating as the room went quiet. He then taped the peel to the wall and posed for a moment before walking off, BBC reports. Noh later told local media that he saw Cattelan's work as a rebellion against a certain authority. "There could be another rebellion against the rebellion," the Seoul National University student told KBS. "Damaging an artwork could also be seen as an artwork, I thought that would be interesting... Isn't it taped there to be eaten?" When told about the incident, Cattelan said, "No problem at all". However, this is not the first time a visitor has eaten the bananas utilized in Cattelan's work. David Datuna, a performance artist, removed the banana from the wall and ate it in 2019 after the artwork sold for $120,000 at Art Basel in Miami. The banana was swiftly replaced and no further action was taken.  

The United Nations food relief agency has suspended aid deliveries to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region amid an internal investigation into the theft of food meant for hungry people, according to four humanitarian workers. The World Food Program is responsible for delivering food from the U.N. and other partners to Tigray, the center of a devastating two-year civil war that ended with a ceasefire in November. More than 5 million of the region’s 6 million people rely on aid. WFP informed its humanitarian partners on April 20 that it was temporarily suspending deliveries of food to Tigray amid reports of food misappropriation, one of the four humanitarian workers told AP. Three other aid workers confirmed this information. They all insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to a journalist on this matter. Last month, AP reported that the WFP was investigating cases of food misappropriation and diversion in Ethiopia, where a total of 20 million people need humanitarian help due to drought and conflict A letter sent by the WFP’s Ethiopia director on April 5 asked humanitarian partners to share “any information or cases of food misuse, misappropriation or diversion that you are aware of or that are brought to your attention by your staff, beneficiaries or local authorities.” At the time, two aid workers told AP that the stolen supplies included enough food to feed 100,000 people. The food was discovered missing from a warehouse in the Tigray city of Sheraro. It was not clear who was responsible for the theft. Tigray’s new interim president, Getachew Reda, said last month he discussed “the growing challenge of diversion & sale of food aid meant for the needy” with senior WFP officials during a visit by the agency to Mekele, the regional capital. A spokesperson for the WFP in Ethiopia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musician Deronne White is ready to play on King Charles III’s coronation day. The flautist and his fellow young musicians aren’t playing anything regal or solemn — they’re planning to parade through south London’s streets entertaining crowds with an uplifting “coronation carnival” set mixing gospel, jazz, grime, disco and rap. There’ll even be a calypso take on the U.K. national anthem. While he’s excited about the gig, White says he has mixed feelings about the coronation. Like some others at the Brixton Chamber Orchestra, White is a descendant of migrants from Jamaica — a former British colony and Commonwealth member that wants to cut its ties with the monarchy and has called for the U.K. royals to address their historical ties to slavery. “Personally it’s a little bit hard to connect to the whole occasion,” he said. “I think that the coronation could possibly allow people like me to try and connect to (the monarchy). But it can be a bit tough.” Towns, cities and villages across the U.K. will be awash with Union flags and patriotic decorations to celebrate Charles’ coronation at Westminster Abbey this weekend, and officials say the festivities will bring Britain’s diverse communities together. But the event is viewed with a large dose of ambivalence by some in the U.K., not least those with African Caribbean backgrounds and other minorities for whom the British Empire’s past wrongs still loom large. While slavery and the heyday of colonialism may be long gone, the royal family has in recent years struggled to grapple with new accusations of institutional racism – most notably from Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan. The Duchess of Sussex, a biracial American actress, reopened the debate about the monarchy and race when she said last year that an unnamed member of the royal household had asked her how dark her baby’s skin might be when she was pregnant with her first child, Archie. Last year, there was outrage when Ngozi Fulani, a Black charity executive, complained that a close aide of Queen Elizabeth II’s repeatedly questioned her at a party about where she was “really” from. Palace officials apologized and the aide, Susan Hussey, resigned. Charles, 74, has on many occasions spoken about how much he values diversity in modern, multicultural Britain. He has paid tribute to Britain’s “Windrush generation” — the West Indians, like White’s great-grandparents, who helped rebuild Britain after World War II. In 2021, Charles won praise for acknowledging “the darkest days of our past” and the stain of slavery. More recently, the monarch expressed for the first time his support for research into the links between the U.K. monarchy and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. “I think he’s definitely trying — maybe not in the best way or the fastest way, but from what I’ve seen, it’s kind of a step in the right way,” said Teigan Hastings, 17. But Hastings, a British Jamaican who plays the tuba alongside White, said that Meghan’s claims about how she was treated by her in-laws “opened up a bit of truth within the royal family.” “I guess it wasn’t totally unexpected, but at the same time you think there’d be some form of acceptance … and there hasn’t really been,” he said. “It’s like there’s nothing like us normal people can really do about it except hope for change.” The musicians say they hope that their vibrant blend of musical styles will help draw in the crowds, whatever they may think of Charles. Across the capital in Southall, known as “Little India” — the west London neighborhood is home to one of the largest Indian populations outside India — local politician Jasbir Kaur Anand said the area’s British Asians also plan to mark the coronation in their own way. About 6,000 tickets were snapped up for a coronation shindig complete with a huge television screen broadcasting the ceremony, funfair rides and bands playing Jewish, South American and gospel music, Anand said. She added that she will attend a street party organized by a group of local women that promises to feature “lots of Punjabi food, Punjabi dancing and singing.” Anand, whose family moved to Britain from Singapore when the city-state gained independence, said many immigrants of her generation feel gratitude to the U.K. monarchy for embracing them and giving them the opportunities to settle and prosper. Gulu Anand, who owns Southall’s Brilliant curry house and has cooked for Charles several times over the years when he visited the neighborhood, is one vocal supporter of Charles. Charles “actually listens to you,” he said, recalling the royal’s demeanor when he ate at his restaurant. “I think he is the people’s king.” But Janpal Basran, who heads local charity Southall Community Alliance, said that many communities in the area are from former colonies and “remember what it was like to be ruled by others.” “So they look at the monarchy, they remember all of the associated historical baggage, for want of a better word,” Basran said. “There will be people who will be thinking that the monarchy represents an institution which was repressive, discriminatory and violent. Is this something that we want to be supporting to the future?” Patrick Vernon, a Black activist campaigning for justice for scores of Caribbean migrants who lost their rights as U.K. citizens because of a legal loophole, said Charles could do so much more to show his subjects that the monarchy takes diversity seriously. He drew attention to a 2021 investigation by the Guardian newspaper that revealed the royal household is still exempt from equality laws preventing race and sex discrimination. “I think Charles could be in a unique position to start to actually influence that agenda,” he said. “It’s important to demonstrate change, demonstrate that there’s a clear marker that we’re different, that we’re moving towards the 21st century.”

Israeli lawmakers are reconvening after a month-long parliament recess on Monday, resuming the fight over a contentious government plan to overhaul the judiciary that has split Israelis and drawn concern from Israel’s most important ally, the United States. The tensions will be on full display when the highest-ranking Republican politician in the U.S., House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, addresses the Knesset later Monday. Israel’s government has portrayed McCarthy’s visit as a nod to bipartisan U.S. support for Israel as it marks 75 years since its creation. Critics say the rare honor given to McCarthy — he’s only the second House speaker to address the Knesset, after Newt Gingrich in 1998 — is a pointed jab at Democratic President Joe Biden. Biden has publicly voiced concern about the legal overhaul and, largely because of it, has so far denied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a typically customary invitation to the White House after his election win late last year. McCarthy’s speech underscores the fraught ties between Netanyahu and the Biden White House, driven in part by the legal overhaul and the nationalistic character of the Israel’s furthest-right government in its history. It is also a sign of the gradual transformation of Israel from a bipartisan matter into a wedge issue in U.S. politics. The trend goes back a decade, when Netanyahu began openly siding with Republicans against Democrats. In parallel, some younger progressive Democrats have become more critical of Israel. McCarthy is addressing the Knesset at a time when both Republicans and Democrats are steeling for presidential nomination races. Republicans are seeking to portray themselves to voters, especially to evangelical Christians, as the best ally to Israel. McCarthy and Netanyahu met face to face ahead of the Knesset address and the Republican lavished praise on the Israeli leader, saying his “leadership, character and courage” inspire Americans. Netanyahu said the Knesset would welcome McCarthy “with open arms.” Before parliament’s break, Netanyahu paused judicial overhaul plans under intense pressure, which has included large weekly protests, a labor strike and threats by military reservists to stop showing up for duty. Biden waded into the criticism, saying Netanyahu “cannot continue down this road.” While Netanyahu and Biden have known each other for decades, their relationship has soured since Netanyahu returned to office late last year after a brief break as opposition leader. The Biden administration has voiced unease about Netanyahu’s government, made up of ultranationalists who were once at the fringes of Israeli politics and now hold senior positions dealing with the Palestinians and other sensitive issues. Over the years, Netanyahu, a lifelong conservative with American-accented English and deep ties to the U.S., hasn’t hidden his Republican leanings even as he’s spoken of the importance of keeping Israel a bipartisan issue. In 2015, he delivered a speech to Congress against the Iran nuclear deal which was widely seen as a slight against the Obama administration, which had negotiated the agreement. He was accused of backing Republican Mitt Romney’s candidacy for president and was one of President Donald Trump’s closest international supporters. That Republican tilt has tested ties with American Jews, most of whom lean Democratic. Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations, said there’s been “serious damage” to Israel’s ties to Washington, and that Netanyahu himself “broke the bipartisanship” surrounding Israel. The McCarthy visit, he said, was a way for both Republicans and Netanyahu to stick it to Biden. “It’s a counterweight to Biden,” he said. “Netanyahu thinks that if McCarthy visits here it will put pressure on the White House to invite him. Republicans are fighting over who’s the greatest supporter of Israel.” The White House snub is another sore point for the embattled leader, whose legal plan has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises, sent his Likud party tanking in public opinion polls and tarnished the 73-year-old leader’s legacy. In an interview Sunday with the conservative Israel Hayom daily, McCarthy said that if Biden doesn’t invite Netanyahu to the White House, he will invite him to Congress. The month-long parliamentary break has allowed Israelis to take stock of the tensions set off by the legal plan, which had been proceeding at a feverish pace in the previous session and had reached a boiling point after Netanyahu dismissed his dissenting defense minister. The future of the plan isn’t clear. Netanyahu said he was temporarily suspending the drive to change Israel’s judicial system to allow the coalition and the opposition to come to a negotiated compromise. But the talks don’t appear to have produced many agreements and Netanyahu’s allies are pushing him to move ahead if the talks fail. He’s also facing pressure from the streets — tens of thousands of people who support the overhaul filled the area near parliament on Thursday as a show of force in favor of the legal changes. Protests against the overhaul have continued for 17 weeks, including during the parliament recess, with as much intensity. At a meeting of his Cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu struck a conciliatory tone. “We are making every effort to resolve this debate through dialogue. With goodwill by both sides, I am convinced that it is possible to reach agreements — and I give this my full backing,” he said. As parliament reconvenes, Netanyahu is expected to keep a focus on less divisive issues in the coming weeks, such as passing a budget at a time when Israel’s economy is on shaky ground and inflation is rising. But he will also face hurdles. He is up against a court-ordered deadline in July, which requires the government to legislate a military draft law about the near-blanket exemptions enjoyed by members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community. Instead of serving in the country’s compulsory military, like the majority of secular Jews, ultra-Orthodox men are allowed to study religious texts. Experts say this system keeps the growing community cloistered and does not encourage its integration into the workforce, something seen as necessary to safeguard the future of Israel’s economy. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, and his allies say the overhaul is necessary to rein in an interventionist legal system that has taken power away from elected politicians. They want to weaken the Supreme Court, have the government control who becomes a judge and reduce judicial oversight on legislation. Critics say the changes will upend Israel’s fragile system of checks and balances and imperil the country’s democratic foundations.

Sudan’s warring generals have agreed to send representatives for negotiations, potentially in Saudi Arabia, the United Nations’ top official in the country told The Associated Press on Monday, even as the two sides clashed in the capital despite another three-day extension of a fragile cease-fire. If the talks come together, they would initially focus on establishing a “stable and reliable” cease-fire monitored by national and international observers, Volker Perthes said, but he warned there were still challenges in holding the negotiations. A string of temporary truces over the past week has eased fighting only in some areas, but in others fierce battles have continued to drive civilians from their homes and push the country into disaster. Humanitarian groups have been trying to restore the flow of help to a country where nearly a third of the population of 46 million relied on international aid even before the explosion of violence. The U.N. food agency on Monday said it was ending the temporary suspension of its operations in Sudan, put in place after three of its team members were killed in the war-wrecked Darfur region early in the fighting. The World Food Program will resume food distribution in four provinces — al-Qadaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile — working in areas where security permits, said Executive Director Cindy McCain said in a statement. The numbers of those in need of help will “grow significantly as fighting continues,” she said. “To best protect our necessary humanitarian workers and the people of Sudan, the fighting must stop.” A day earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross flew in a planeload of medical supplies to bring some relief to hospitals overwhelmed by the mayhem. The United States, conducted its first evacuation of American civilians from Sudan. Watched over by U.S. military drones, a group of Americans made the perilous journey by road from the capital, Khartoum, to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. On Monday, a U.S. Navy fast transport ship took 308 evacuees from Port Sudan to the Saudi port of Jeddah, according to Saudi officials. Direct talks, if they take place, would be the first major sign of progress since fighting erupted on April 15 between the army and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces. For much of the conflict, army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo have appeared determined to fight to the end. Their struggle for power has put millions of Sudanese in the middle of gun battles, artillery bombardments and airstrikes. Around 530 people, including civilians and combatants, have been killed in the conflict, with another 4,500 wounded, the Sudanese Health Ministry said. Tens of thousands have fled Khartoum and other cities, and more than two-thirds of hospitals in areas with active fighting are out of service, with fighters looting the dwindling supplies. Explosions and gunfire echoed in parts of Khartoum and its neighboring city, Omdurman, on Monday, residents said, hours after the two sides committed to the 72-hour cease-fire extension. Atiya Abdalla Atiya, Secretary of the Doctors’ Syndicate, said the fighting has raged early Monday in different areas in the capital, including the military’s headquarters, the Republican Palace, and the international airport. There were also clashes in the upscale neighborhood of Kafouri, he said. Many hospitals in the capital remained out of service or inaccessible because of the fighting, while others have been occupied by the warring factions, particularly the RSF, he said. The United States and Saudi Arabia have led an international push to get the generals to stop fighting, then engage in deeper negotiations to resolve the crisis. Speaking from Port Sudan, the U.N. envoy Perthes said they still face daunting challenges in getting the two sides to abide by a real halt in fighting where violations are prevented. One possibility was to establish a monitoring mechanism that includes Sudanese and foreign observers, “but that has to be negotiated,” he said. Talks on entrenching the cease-fire could take place in either Saudi Arabia or South Sudan, he said, adding that the former may be easier logistically since it has close ties to both sides. But even talks in Saudi Arabia has challenges, he said, since each side needs safe passage through territory of the other to reach talks. “That is very difficult in a situation where there is a lack of trust,” he said. The eruption of fighting capped months of worsening disputes between Burhan and Dagalo as the international community tried to work out a deal for establishing civilian rule. “We all saw the enormous tensions,” Perthes said. “But very concretely, we have to say that our efforts to de-escalate did not succeed.” He said he had been warning repeatedly that “any single spark” could cause the power struggle to explode. Perthes warned of a “major humanitarian crisis” as people were running out of food and fresh water in Khartoum and fighting damaged water systems. A real cease-fire is vital to getting access to residents who are trapped in their homes or injured, he said. “If we don’t get a stable cease fire, then it means that the humanitarian situation will be even worse.” He also warned the fighting could pull in other armed factions in a country where multiple groups have fought several civil wars over the past decade. “And that could transform into a broader confrontation between different groups and communities and militias in the country,” he said.

President Joe Biden is set to host President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines for White House talks Monday as concerns grow about the Chinese navy’s harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea. Marcos’ visit to Washington comes after the U.S. and the Philippines last week completed their largest war drills ever and as the two countries’ air forces on Monday will hold their first joint fighter jet training in the Philippines since 1990. The Philippines this year agreed to give the U.S. access to four more bases on the islands as the U.S. looks to deter China’s increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea. Meanwhile, China has angered the Philippines by repeatedly harassing its navy and coast guard patrols and chasing away fishermen in waters that are close to Philippine shores but that Beijing claims as its own. Before departing for Washington on Sunday, Marcos said he was “determined to forge an ever stronger relationship with the United States in a wide range of areas that not only address the concerns of our times but also those that are critical to advancing our core interests.” Monday’s Oval Office meeting is the latest high-level diplomacy with Pacific leaders by Biden as his administration contends with increased military and economic assertiveness by China and worries about North Korea’s nuclear program. Marcos’ official visit to Washington is the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years. The U.S. president last week hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state visit during which the two leaders introduced new steps aimed at deterring North Korea from launching an attack on its neighbors. Biden is scheduled to travel to Japan and Australia in May. The two sides are expected to discuss the security situation and come out with new economic, education, climate and other initiatives as part of Marcos’ four-day visit to Washington, according to two senior Biden administration officials. The officials, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to preview the leaders’ meeting, said the White House will use the visit to announce the transfer of three C-130 aircraft and coastal patrol vessels to the Philippines, a new U.S. trade mission focused on increasing American investment in the Philippines’ innovation economy, new educational programing and more. Increased Chinese harassment of vessels in the South China Sea has added another dimension to the visit. On April 23, journalists from The Associated Press and other outlets were aboard the Philippine coast guard’s BRP Malapascua near Second Thomas Shoal when a Chinese coast guard ship blocked the Philippine patrol vessel steaming into the disputed shoal. The Philippines has filed more than 200 diplomatic protests against China since last year, at least 77 since Marcos took office in June. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Saturday called media reporting on the encounters a “stark reminder” of Chinese “harassment and intimidation of Philippine vessels as they undertake routine patrols within their exclusive economic zone.” “We call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct,” Miller said. U.S. and Taiwanese officials have also been unnerved by recent critical comments by China’s ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, over the Philippines granting the U.S. military increased access to bases. Huang at an April forum reportedly said the Philippines should oppose Taiwan’s independence “if you care genuinely about the 150,000 OFWs” in Taiwan, using the acronym for overseas Filipino workers. China claims the self-ruled island as its own. The Philippines, like the U.S., has a “One China” policy that recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations with Taiwan. Marcos has not explicitly said that his country would assist the United States in any armed contingency in Taiwan. The officials described Huang’s comments as one of many recent provocative actions by the Chinese to put pressure on the Philippines. The locations of three of the four new bases are concerning to Beijing — two are in the Isabela and Cagayan provinces, which face north toward Taiwan. A third, in Palawan, is near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. One official said that Marcos still desires to work closely with both Washington and Beijing but that he “finds himself in a situation” in which “the steps that China is taking are deeply concerning.” Close U.S.-Philippines relations were not a given when Marcos took office. The son and namesake of the late Philippines strongman had seemed intent on following the path of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who pursued closer ties with China. Before Marcos took office last year, Kurt Campbell, coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the White House National Security Council, acknowledged that “historical considerations” could present “challenges” to the relationship with Marcos Jr. It was an oblique reference to long-standing litigation in the United States against the estate of his father, Ferdinand Marcos. A U.S. appeals court in 1996 upheld damages of about $2 billion against the elder Marcos’ estate for the torture and killings of thousands of Filipinos. The court upheld a 1994 verdict of a jury in Hawaii, where he fled after being forced from power in 1986. He died there in 1989. Biden and Marcos met in September during the U.N. General Assembly, where the U.S. president acknowledged the two countries’ sometimes “rocky” past. During their private meeting, Biden, a Democrat, stressed to Marcos his desire to improve relations and asked Marcos how the administration could “fulfill your dreams and hopes” to do that, according to the senior administration official. Marcos is also slated to visit the Pentagon, meet Cabinet members and business leaders and make remarks at a Washington think tank during his visit.

Russia launched its second large salvo of missiles at Ukraine in recent days early Monday, damaging buildings and wounding at least 34 people in the eastern city of Pavlohrad but failing to hit Kyiv, officials said. Air raid sirens began blaring across the capital at about 3:45 a.m., followed by the sounds of explosions as missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian defense systems. Eighteen cruise missiles were fired in total from the Murmansk region and the Caspian region, and 15 of them were intercepted, said Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The head of Kyiv’s city administration, Serhii Popko, said all missiles fired at the city were shot down, as well as some drones. He didn’t provide further details, but said more information would be available later. The attack follows Friday’s launch of more than 20 cruise missiles and two explosive drones at Ukraine, which was the first to target Kyiv in nearly two months. In that attack, Russian missiles hit an apartment building in Uman, a city about 215 kilometers (135 miles) south of Kyiv, killing 21 people including three children. In Monday’s attack, missiles hit Pavlohrad, in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding 34 people, including five children, according to Serhii Lysak, the region’s top official. Seven missiles shot at the city and “some were intercepted” but others hit an industrial facility, sparking a fire, and a residential neighborhood where 19 apartment buildings, 25 homes, six schools and five shops were damaged, he said. Missiles also hit three other areas in the region, damaging residential buildings and a school, he said. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Monday that Russia conducted “a group missile strike with long-range precision-guided airborne and seaborne weapons on facilities of Ukraine’s defense industry ... all designated facilities were struck.” The attacks also damaged Ukraine’s power network infrastructure, which will take several days to repair, according to Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko. He said that nearly 20,000 people in the city of Kherson and wider region had been left without power, along with an unspecified number of people in the Dnipropetrovsk region, including the city of Dnipro. Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks during the 14-month war, often indiscriminately hitting civilian areas. Ukraine has recently taken delivery of American-made Patriot missiles, providing improved anti-missile defenses, but it was not clear whether any of them were employed in trying to stop Monday morning’s attack. Ukraine has also been building up its mechanized brigades with armor supplied by its Western allies, who have also been training Ukrainian troops and sending ammunition, as Kyiv prepares for an expected counteroffensive this spring. On Saturday, two Ukrainian drones hit a Russian oil depot in Crimea in the latest attack on the annexed peninsula. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview last week that his country would seek to reclaim the peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, in the upcoming counteroffensive. In what has become a grinding war of attrition, the fiercest battles have been in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia is struggling to encircle the city of Bakhmut in the face of dogged Ukrainian defense. Troops from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group and other forces are fighting Ukrainian troops house-to-house to try and gain control of what has become known as the “road of life” — the last remaining road west still in Ukrainian hands, which makes it critical for supplies and fresh troops. Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of Ukrainian ground forces, said that Russia continued to exert “maximum effort” to take the city but that it so far had failed. “In some parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions,” he said. In Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders northern Ukraine, a freight train was derailed by an explosive device, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said. There were no immediate indications of who set off the explosive, but Bryansk has suffered sporadic cross-border shelling during the war and in March two people were reported killed in what Bryansk officials said was an incursion by Ukrainian saboteurs.  

Regulators seized troubled First Republic Bank early Monday and sold all of its deposits and most of its assets to JPMorgan Chase Bank in a bid to head off further banking turmoil in the U.S. San Francisco-based First Republic is the third midsize bank to fail in two months. It is the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history, behind only Washington Mutual, which collapsed at the height of the 2008 financial crisis and was also taken over by JPMorgan. First Republic has struggled since the March collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and investors and depositors had grown increasingly worried it might not survive because of its high amount of uninsured deposits and exposure to low interest rate loans. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said early Monday that First Republic Bank's 84 branches in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank and depositors will have full access to all of their deposits. Regulators worked through the weekend to find a way forward before U.S. stock markets opened. Markets in many parts of the world were closed for May 1 holidays Monday. The two markets in Asia that were open, in Tokyo and Sydney, rose. "Our government invited us and others to step up, and we did," said Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. As of April 13, First Republic had approximately $229 billion in total assets and $104 billion in total deposits, the FDIC said. At the end of last year, the Federal Reserve ranked it 14th in size among U.S. commercial banks. The FDIC estimated its deposit insurance fund would take a $13 billion hit from taking First Republic into receivership. Its rescue of Silicon Valley Bank cost the fund a record $20 billion. Before Silicon Valley Bank failed, First Republic had a banking franchise that was the envy of most of the industry. Its clients — mostly the rich and powerful — rarely defaulted on their loans. The bank has made much of its money making low-cost loans to the wealthy, which reportedly included Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Flush with deposits from the well-heeled, First Republic saw total assets more than double from $102 billion at the end of 2019's first quarter, when its full-time workforce was 4,600. But the vast majority of its deposits, like those in Silicon Valley and Signature Bank, were uninsured — that is, above the $250,000 limit set by the FDIC. And that worried analysts and investors. If First Republic were to fail, its depositors might not get all their money back. Those fears were crystalized in the bank's recent quarterly results. The bank said depositors pulled more than $100 billion out of the bank during April's crisis. San Francisco-based First Republic said that it was only able to stanch the bleeding after a group of large banks stepped in to save it with $30 billion in uninsured deposits. Since the crisis, First Republic has been looking for a way to quickly turn itself around. The bank planned to sell off unprofitable assets, including the low interest mortgages that it provided to wealthy clients. It also announced plans to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, which totaled about 7,200 employees in late 2022. Investors remained skeptical. The bank's executives have taken no questions from investors or analysts since the bank reported its results, causing First Republic's stock to sink further. And it's hard to profitably restructure a balance sheet when a firm has to sell off assets quickly and has fewer bankers to find opportunities for the bank to invest in. It took years for banks like Citigroup and Bank of America to return to profitability after the global financial crisis 15 years ago, and those banks had the benefit of a government-aided backstop to keep them going.  

Sudan's army and its rival paramilitary said Sunday they will extend a humanitarian cease-fire a further 72 hours. The decision follows international pressure to allow the safe passage of civilians and aid, but the shaky truce has not so far stopped the clashes. In statements, both sides accused the other of violations. The agreement has deescalated the fighting in some areas but violence continues to push civilians to flee. Aid groups have also struggled to get badly needed supplies into the country. The conflict erupted on April 15 between the nation’s army and its paramilitary force, and threatens to thrust Sudan into a raging civil war. The U.N. warned on Sunday that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan was at “a breaking point.” “The scale and speed of what is unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented,” the UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in as statement. He said water and food are becoming increasingly hard to find in the country’s cities, especially the capital, Khartoum, and that the lack of basic medical care means many could die of preventable causes. Griffiths said that “massive looting” of aid supplies has hindered efforts to help civilians. Earlier Sunday, an aircraft carrying eight tons of emergency medical aid landed in Sudan to resupply hospitals devastated by the fighting, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which organized the shipment. It arrived as the civilian death toll from the countrywide violence topped 400 and aid groups warned that the humanitarian situation was becoming increasingly dire. More than two-thirds of hospitals in areas with active fighting are out of service, a national doctors' association has said, citing a shortage of medical supplies, health workers, water and electricity. The air-lifted supplies, including anesthetics, dressings, sutures and other surgical material, are enough to treat more than 1,000 people wounded in the conflict, the ICRC said. The aircraft took off earlier in the day from Jordan and safely landed in the city of Port Sudan, it said. “The hope is to get this material to some of the most critically busy hospitals in the capital” of Khartoum and other hot spots, said Patrick Youssef, ICRC’s regional director for Africa. The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which monitors casualties, said Sunday that over the past two weeks, 425 civilians were killed and 2,091 wounded. The Sudanese Health Ministry on Saturday put the overall death toll, including fighters, at 528, with 4,500 wounded. Some of the deadliest battles have raged across Khartoum. The fighting pits the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, against Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces. The generals, both with powerful foreign backers, were allies in an October 2021 military coup that halted Sudan's fitful transition to democracy, but they have since turned on each other. Ordinary Sudanese have been caught in the crossfire. Tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad and Egypt, while others remain pinned down with dwindling supplies. Thousands of foreigners have been evacuated in airlifts and land convoys. On Sunday, fighting continued in different parts of the capital where residents hiding in their homes reported hearing artillery fire. There have been lulls in fighting, but never a fully observed cease-fire, despite repeated attempts by international mediators. Over the weekend, residents reported that shops were reopening and normalcy gradually returning in some areas of Khartoum as the scale of fighting dwindled after yet another shaky truce. But in other areas, terrified residents reported explosions thundering around them and fighters ransacking houses. Youssef, the ICRC official, said the agency has been in contact with the top command of both sides to ensure that medical assistance could reach hospitals safely. “With this news today, we are really hoping that this becomes part of a steady coordination mechanism to allow other flights to come in,” he said. Youssef said more medical aid was ready to be flown into Khartoum pending necessary clearances and security guarantees. Sudan’s healthcare system is near collapse with dozens of hospitals out of service. Multiple aid agencies have had to suspend operations and evacuated employees. On Sunday, a second U.S.-government organized convoy arrived in Port Sudan, said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller. He said the U.S. is assisting American citizens and “others who are eligible” to leave for Saudi Arabia where U.S. personnel are located. There were no details on how many people were in the convoy or specific assistance the U.S. provided. Most of the estimated 16,000 Americans believed to be in Sudan right now are dual U.S.-Sudanese nationals. The Defense Department said in a statement on Saturday it was moving naval assets toward Sudan's coast to support further evacuations. Meanwhile, Britain has announced that an extra evacuation flight will depart from Port Sudan on Monday, extending what it called the largest evacuation effort of any Western country from Sudan. The government asked British nationals who wish to leave Sudan to travel to the British Evacuation Handling Centre at Port Sudan International Airport before 12:00 Sudan time. The flight comes after an evacuation operation from Wadi Saeedna near Khartoum, involving 2,122 people on 23 flights.