United News of Bangladesh

India’s high commissioner to Canada has denied any involvement in the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader who was killed in British Columbia last year even though the Canadian government has named him as a person of interest in the assassination. Sanjay Kumar Verma, who was expelled last Monday along with five other Indian diplomats, said in an interview on CTV’s Question Period Sunday that the allegations are politically motivated. “Nothing at all,” Verma said when asked if he had any role in in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was killed outside a cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18, 2023. “No evidence presented. Politically motivated.” Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Nijjar’s murder and are awaiting trial. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went public this week with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home. They said top Indian officials were then passing that information to Indian organized crime groups who were targeting the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder. Verma denied the Indian government was targeting Sikh separatists in Canada. “I, as high commissioner of India, have never done anything of that kind,” he said. Any action taken by Indian officials in Canada was “overt,” said Verma. In the interview Verma condemned Nijjar’s death. “Any murder is wrong and bad,” he said. “I do condemn.” Verma also pushed back on comments made by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly that compared India to Russia. She said Canada’s national police force has linked Indian diplomats to homicides, death threats and intimidation in Canada. “Let me see the concrete evidence she’s talking about,” said Verma. “As far as I’m concerned, she’s talking politically." India has rejected the Canadian accusations as absurd, and its foreign ministry said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats in response. Verma said “not a shred of evidence has been shared with us” about the Canadian allegations. The RCMP has said attempts earlier this month to share evidence with Indian officials were unsuccessful. Verma said the RCMP had not applied for the proper visas to visit India. “A visa needs to be affixed,” he said. “For any government delegation to travel to another country, you need an agenda to go by. There was no agenda at all." Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. The U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges against an Indian government employee Thursday in connection with an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City. In the case announced by the Justice Department, Vikash Yadav, who authorities say directed the New York plot from India, faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors have previously said was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada. “An indictment is not a conviction,” Verma said. “It will follow its judicial process.” India has repeatedly criticized the Canadian government for being soft on supporters of what is known as the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada. The Khalistan movement supports the establishment of an independent Sikh state in India. The Nijjar killing in Canada has soured India-Canada ties for more than a year, but Verma doesn’t expect this will impact business relations between the two countries. “I don’t see much impact on non-political bilateral relations,” he said.

Newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto announced Indonesia's largest-ever Cabinet late Sunday, with 109 members representing his pledge for a strong government. He named his Cabinet of ministers, vice ministers and head of national agencies the “Red and White Cabinet,” referring to the colors of Indonesia’s flag. Subianto became the eighth president of Southeast Asia’s largest economy on Sunday. The Cabinet of Subianto’s predecessor, Joko Widodo, had 34 ministers and head of government agencies. Subianto has said earlier that he needs a strong administration, even though analysts said that his “fat” Cabinet would bloat the bureaucracy. “I want to create a strong government that would unite our multicultural society and diverse political interests,” Subianto said before inviting more than 100 people for interviews at his residence last week. “It must be a big coalition, and some will say my Cabinet is fat.” The Cabinet features politicians from a coalition of seven parties who supported his victory in the February election, and figures allied with Widodo’s Cabinet, who were reappointed to continue their jobs under Subianto’s presidency. Analysts said the move was a political reward to Widodo for the latter’s tacit support in the election. Subianto was sworn in with his new vice president, 37-year-old Surakarta ex-Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka. He chose Raka, who is Widodo’s son, as his running mate, with Widodo favoring Subianto over the candidate of his own former party. The former rivals became tacit allies, even though Indonesian presidents don’t typically endorse candidates. Subianto was a longtime rival of the Widodo, who ran against him for the presidency twice and refused to accept his defeat on both occasions, in 2014 and 2019. But Widodo appointed Subianto as defense chief after his reelection, paving the way for an alliance despite their rival political parties. During the campaign, Subianto ran as the popular outgoing president’s heir, vowing to continue signature policies like the construction of a multibillion-dollar new capital city and limits on exporting raw materials intended to boost domestic industry. Backed by Widodo, Subianto swept to a landslide victory in February’s direct presidential election on promises of policy continuity. Subianto reappointed nearly half of Widodo’s Cabinet members, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, making her the first person to hold the ministry under three different presidents. Indrawati, 62, who has served as the executive director of the International Monetary Fund and managing director of the World Bank, is one of Indonesia’s longest-serving finance ministers, having held the post for long stretches under Presidents Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo. She has earned considerable respect in international circles, particularly for her reforms of the chaotic Indonesian taxation system and her role in steering Indonesia through the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. “We regularly consulted with each other to discuss strategies for strengthening the Finance Ministry and the state finances to support his programs,” Indrawati told reporters after meeting with Subianto last week. Other ministers from Widodo’s Cabinet include Interior Minister Tito Karnavian, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir. Subianto has announced an ambitious goal of increasing annual economic growth to 8% by the end of his five-year term, and embarking on an ambitious spending program, including an increase in defense spending, hikes in civil servants’ salaries, and a program to give 83 million children free meals.

Russia has returned the bodies of 501 soldiers to Ukraine, marking the largest repatriation of war dead since Russia's full-scale invasion of the country began in February 2022, according to Ukrainian authorities. The bodies, mostly of soldiers killed in the eastern Donetsk region, are now set to undergo identification by forensic experts before being handed over to family members for burial. Most of the deceased are believed to have fallen during the protracted battle for Avdiivka, a city in Donetsk that Russian forces captured in February following intense fighting. The repatriation was managed by Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, which is working closely with law enforcement to ensure the proper identification and repatriation of the bodies. France vows support for Ukraine's plan to end Russian invasion Ukraine's 'Victory Plan' Unveiled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently disclosed parts of his 'victory plan', aimed at pressuring Russia into peace negotiations. Central to the plan is the hope that Ukraine's Western partners will continue their military and financial support, which has been crucial to Kyiv’s efforts to counter Moscow's advances. One significant aspect of Zelenskyy's proposal includes Ukraine's formal invitation to join NATO, a prospect Western backers have been reluctant to discuss while the conflict is ongoing. Nonetheless, the plan is being considered by Ukraine’s key allies as they mull over next steps. Russia's Position on Peace Talks In response to Zelenskyy's proposals, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow is open to peace talks, but with conditions. Putin said previous peace proposals from China and Brazil could serve as a starting point for negotiations, although these initiatives have failed to persuade Kyiv. He ruled out any negotiations over the four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — which Russia illegally annexed in September 2022, declaring them to be "Russian territories." This stance remains unacceptable to Ukraine, whose sovereignty over these regions is internationally recognised, and remains a core issue in any potential negotiations. Global Leaders' Reactions US President Joe Biden met with European leaders in Berlin on Friday, emphasising the need for continued support for Ukraine. Biden reaffirmed his administration's commitment to providing military and financial aid to Kyiv for as long as necessary. European leaders also echoed the sentiment, underlining the importance of collective Western support to counter Russia’s aggression. 10,000 North Koreans could join Russian forces in Ukraine: Zelenskyy Reports of North Korean Troop Involvement Further complicating the situation, Ukrainian military intelligence has reported that North Korea is sending troops to support Russia’s war effort. The head of Ukraine's Military Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Thursday that approximately 11,000 North Korean troops are currently training in Russia. Among them, 2,600 soldiers are reportedly preparing to reinforce Russian forces stationed in the Kursk region, where fighting has intensified. South Korea's spy agency corroborated these claims, suggesting North Korean involvement in Russia’s military campaign is growing. Drone Attacks Continue Even as world leaders debate their next steps, fighting on the ground shows no signs of abating. On Thursday night, Russia launched 135 Shahed drones along with several other unidentified drones across various parts of Ukraine. The Ukrainian air force intercepted most of the drones, but details regarding casualties or damage remain unclear. The ongoing violence underscores the challenges facing diplomatic efforts to bring about an end to the war, which has already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. As the conflict rages on, any road to peace appears fraught with obstacles, including deeply entrenched territorial disputes and international rivalries.

A Vietnamese real estate tycoon was convicted Thursday of fraudulently obtaining property worth billions of dollars and sentenced to life in prison, in a case that has been a centerpiece of the government's crackdown on corruption. Truong My Lan was already convicted in April by the same Ho Chi Minh City court of fraud amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country's gross domestic product — in a separate case and sentenced to death by lethal injection. The trials were broken into two parts due to the number of allegations against her, and Thursday's verdict adds to Lan's legal troubles as she awaits the appeal of her death sentence to be heard. Vietnam has handed down more than 2,000 death sentences in the past decade and executed more than 400 prisoners. It is a possible sentence for 14 different crimes but is generally only applied in cases of murder and drug trafficking. “Standing here today is a price too expensive for me to pay. I consider this my destiny and a career accident,” the VNexpress online newspaper quoted Lan, the chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat, as telling the judges in her closing statement last week. “For the rest of my life, I will never forget that my actions have affected tens of thousands of families.” Nguyen Hieu, a schoolteacher whose life savings of $36,000 is tied up in illegal bonds issued by Lan's company, said the life sentence was fair. “She deserves the punishment,” he said, adding that he hoped the death sentence from the first trial is commuted so that Lan has the opportunity to pay back her victims. All other 33 co-defendants were found guilty of various charges and received sentences ranging from two to 23 years in prison. They included Chu Nap Kee, Lan's husband, who was sentenced to two years for money laundering. In addition to obtaining property by fraud, Lan was also convicted of money laundering and illegal cross-border money transfer charges, according to state-run media. She was accused of raising $1.2 billion from nearly 36,000 investors by issuing bonds illegally through four companies, according to state media reports. She was also found guilty of siphoning off $18 billion obtained through fraud and for using companies controlled by her to illegally transfer more than $4.5 billion in and out of Vietnam between 2012 and 2022. It was not immediately clear if Lan would appeal the verdict and no date has yet been set for her appeal of her death penalty conviction to be heard. In the April conviction, she was found to have orchestrated financial fraud amounting to $12.5 billion for illegally controlling a major bank allowing loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion, according to state media reports. Lan’s arrest in October 2022 was among the most high-profile in an ongoing anti-corruption drive in Vietnam that has intensified since 2022. The Communist Party's “blazing furnace” campaign has also touched the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics. Former President Vo Van Thuong resigned in March after being implicated in the campaign. Since 2016, thousands of party officials have been disciplined, including former President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the former head of parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, both of whom resigned. In all, eight members of the powerful Politburo have been ousted on corruption allegations, compared to none between 1986 and 2016. The anti-corruption drive began in 2013, but it wasn’t until 2018 that authorities began scanning the private sector. Since then, several owners of Vietnam’s fast-growing businesses have been arrested. The campaign had been the hallmark of Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s top politician. who died earlier this year at age 80. The ideologue had called corruption a grave threat to the party and vowed that the campaign would be a “blazing furnace” in which no one was untouchable. In another high-profile case, business tycoon Trinh Van Quyet was found guilty in August of defrauding stockholders of nearly $150 million by falsely inflating the value of his company. The Hanoi People's Court sentenced Quyet to 21 years in prison and convicted 49 co-defendants on a variety charges, with sentences ranging from probation to multiple years in prison. Lan and her family established the Van Thinh Phat company in 1992 after Vietnam shifted from a state-run economy to a more market-oriented approach that was open to foreign investors. She started out helping her mother, a Chinese entrepreneur, sell cosmetics in Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest market, according to the state media outlet Tien Phong. Van Thinh Phat became one of Vietnam’s richest real estate companies, with projects including luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping centers. This made her a key player in the country’s financial industry. Lan’s first trial shocked many Vietnamese. Analysts said the scale of the scam raised questions about whether other banks or businesses had similarly erred, dampening Vietnam’s economic outlook and making foreign investors jittery at a time when Vietnam is trying to position itself as the ideal home for businesses trying to diversify supply chains away from China.

Leaders of Kashmir’s biggest political party were sworn into office Wednesday to run a largely powerless government after the first local election since India stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah will be the region’s chief minister after his party won the most seats in the three-phased election. It has support from India's main opposition Congress party, although Congress decided not to be a part of the new government for now. The vote was Kashmir's first in a decade and the first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s long-held semi-autonomy in 2019. The National Conference staunchly opposed the move, and its victory is seen as a referendum against the Modi government's changes. Kashmir will remain under New Delhi's direct controlLt. Gov. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s top administrator in Kashmir, administered the oaths of office to Abdullah and the five members of his council of ministers in a ceremony under tight security at a lakeside venue in the region’s main city of Srinagar. Some of India’s top opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, attended. However, there will be a limited transfer of power from New Delhi to the local government as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood would have to be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India. India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Modi congratulated Abdullah and promised to work closely with him and his team. Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, a parliamentarian from Kashmir and a National Conference leader, said the new setup in Kashmir “will act both as a government and as an opposition” as it will oppose policies of Modi's party while also strive to “reclaim” the region’s rights. “These policies have harmed the state, such as the revocation of Article 370, which stripped us of the rights we enjoyed. The government will deliver effective governance while fighting for the rights of the state,” he said. Tight restrictions on media and civil rightsKashmir’s last assembly election in 2014 brought to power Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which for the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. T he government collapsed in 2018, after the BJP withdrew from the coalition and New Delhi took the region under its direct control. A year later, the federal government downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy amid fears that it would pave the way for demographic changes in the region. Indian-controlled Kashmir votes in final phase of polls to elect local government The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms restricted. Like on election days, authorities on Wednesday limited access of foreign media to the oath ceremony and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including The Associated Press, without citing any reason. In the recently concluded election, the National Conference won 42 seats, mainly from the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of the anti-India rebellion, while the BJP secured 29 seats, all from the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu. The Congress succeeded in six constituencies. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Many in Indian-controlled Kashmir plan to vote this time to deny Modi total control India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict. Calls to restore Kashmir's statehoodExperts say the new government, stripped of all the essential powers, would face a daunting task to fulfil its election promises against huge public expectations to resist the 2019 changes and the federal government’s tight control. Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the region’s political vacuum of the last few years will not vanish with the polls alone. “The Modi government should build on it by restoring full statehood and empowering the government,” said Donthi. “Otherwise, it will intensify disaffection and is a set up for failure.” Modi and his powerful home minister, Amit Shah, have repeatedly stated that the region’s statehood will be restored after the election, without specifying a timeline. However, they vowed to block any move aimed at undoing the 2019 changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development. For the new chief minister, meanwhile, it's going to be a tightrope walk. “As a pro-India politician at the helm of this powerless administration, Omar Abdullah knows his limitations,” Donthi said. “He would be looking at his job as a buffer to moderate the worst instincts of New Delhi, but he would be clutching at straws."

The head of Myanmar’s military government on Tuesday invited ethnic rebels to hold peace talks to end armed conflict across the country, the second time in less than a month that the ruling generals have publicly promoted negotiations. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s proposal was broadcast on state television on the ninth anniversary of the signing of its nationwide cease-fire agreement. About half of the nation’s 21 established ethnic armed organizations agreed to the pact but some no longer honor it. Last month, the military announced its most direct invitation for peace talks since it seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. It was aimed at the broader pro-democracy forces that have also taken up arms as well as the ethnic groups, but was quickly rejected. In Tuesday’s brief broadcast, Min Aung Hlaing said the ruling military council will only follow the framework of its existing cease-fire agreement for peace and appealed to the ethnic armed groups to negotiate their issues through dialogue. “Wishes can’t be demanded through armed violence, but through dialogue at the political table with peaceful means to resolve the conflict,” Min Aung Hlaing said. Myanmar for several decades has seen a cycle of cease-fires bringing in intermittent periods of relative peace, but none have led to a comprehensive political settlement that would grant the ethnic groups the degree of autonomy they seek in the frontier regions where they are dominant. The army is currently on the defensive against ethnic militias in much of the country, as well as hundreds of armed guerrilla groups collectively called People’s Defense Forces, formed to fight to restore democracy after the army takeover. Read: Bangladesh protests killing of Bangladeshi fisherman by Myanmar Navy Over the past year, the army has suffered unprecedented battlefield defeats, and the initiative seems to be in the hands of the resistance forces. In October 2015, eight ethnic armed groups signed the cease-fire agreement, and in February 2018, under Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government, two more joined. The cease-fire was seen by the military as a step toward ending the longstanding ethnic rebellions. Maintaining the cease-fire with as many groups as possible is tactically crucial for the military government so it doesn’t have to fight a strong and united opposition. Some of the largest and most powerful groups, including the Kachin Independence Army and United Wa State Army, did not endorse the agreement, which they viewed as lacking inclusiveness. Min Aung Hlaing said that some groups that signed it broke the agreement after the 2021 army takeover, aligning themselves with the shadow National Unity Government, the main opposition group against military rule. Armed militias representing the Karen, Chin and Pa-O minorities, along with the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, have spurned peace talks. Read more: Myanmar's military government begins a census seen as a way to gather information about opponents “I see that what the military is doing is only creating conditions that will prolong the military dictatorship,” said Aye Lwin, the spokesperson of the students’ front. “There is currently no reason to accept the military-led dialogue.”

South Korea said North Korea blew up the northern parts of inter-Korean roads no longer in use on Tuesday, as the rivals are locked in rising animosities over North Korea’s claim that South Korea flew drones over its capital, Pyongyang. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a brief statement that North Korea blew up parts of the roads on Tuesday. North Korea vows to block border with South Korea, to build front-line defense structures It said South Korea’s military is bolstering its readiness and surveillance posture but gave no further details. The explosions came a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called a meeting with his top military and security officials. During the meeting, Kim described the alleged South Korean drone flights as the “enemy’s serious provocation” and laid out unspecified tasks related to “immediate military action” and the operation of his “war deterrent” for defending the country’s sovereignty, the North's state media reported earlier Tuesday. North Korea earlier put frontline artillery and other army units on standby to launch strikes on South Korea, if drones from South Korea are found over North Korea again. South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned it would sternly punish North Korea if the safety of its citizens is threatened. Destroying the roads would be in line with leader Kim Jong Un’s push to cut off ties with South Korea, formally cement it as his country’s principal enemy and abandon the North’s decades-long objective to seek a peaceful Korean unification. During the previous era of inter-Korean detente in the 2000s, the two Koreas reconnected two road routes and two rail tracks across their heavily fortified border. But their operations later were suspended one by one as the Koreas wrangled over North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues. Last week, North Korea said it would permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures to cope with “confrontational hysteria” by South Korean and U.S. forces. South Korean officials said North Korea had already been adding anti-tank barriers and laying mines along the border since earlier this year. They said North Korea has also planted mines and removed lamps along its sections of the inter-Korean roads and taken out ties on the northern side of the railways.

 Official campaigning for Japan's Oct. 27 parliamentary election began Tuesday with new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba seeking a mandate for his policies and for reforms after the governing party’s political funds scandal. More than 1,300 candidates were expected to enter the races for the 465-seat Lower House before registration closes later Tuesday. Ishiba called the snap election after he took office as prime minister on Oct. 1. As customary for Liberal Democratic Party leaders over the past decade, he was to start his campaign in Fukushima to renew his pledge to support the area’s recovery from the 2011 nuclear disaster. With the early election, Ishiba is seeking to secure a majority in the lower house, the more powerful of Japan's two parliamentary chambers, before the congratulatory mood fades. The move has been criticized as prioritizing an election rather than policies and for allowing little debate. A majority for the ruling coalition would be 233 seats between his LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito. Prior to the dissolution, the coalition held 288 seats, including 256 by LDP. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, which briefly ruled Japan from 2009-2012, sees the public anger over the LDP funds scandal as a rare chance to gain ground by appealing to conservative swing voters. The liberal-leaning CDPJ is making a conservative shift and now has a centrist leader Yoshihiko Noda, also a former prime minister. “A leadership change is the biggest political reform,” Noda said. Shigeru Ishiba, Japan's newly elected prime minister, forms Cabinet with emphasis on defense Political watchers say Japan’s opposition has remained too fractured to push the governing party out of power, which it has held almost without interruption in postwar times. While support ratings in Kyodo News survey for Ishiba’s new government already dipped from above 50% to 42% just over a week from taking office, LDP was still by far a voter favorite among all political parties.

China employed a record 125 aircraft, as well as its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships, in large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands Monday, simulating the sealing off of key ports in a move that underscores the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait, officials said. China made clear it was to punish Taiwan's president for rejecting Beijing's claim of sovereignty over the self-governed island. The drills came four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its National Day, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in a speech that China has no right to represent Taiwan and declared his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment.” “This is a resolute punishment for Lai Ching-te’s continuous fabrication of ’Taiwan independence' nonsense,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said 90 of the aircraft, including warplanes, helicopters and drones, were spotted within Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. The single-day record counted aircraft from 5:02 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Shipping traffic was operating as normal, the ministry said. Taiwan remained defiant. “Our military will definitely deal with the threat from China appropriately,” Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan's security council, said at a forum in Taipei, Taiwan's capital. “Threatening other countries with force violates the basic spirit of the United Nations Charter to resolve disputes through peaceful means." Taiwan's Presidential Office also called on China to “cease military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.” A map aired on China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed six large blocks encircling Taiwan indicating where the military drills were being held, along with circles drawn around Taiwan’s outlying islands. Taiwan’s defense ministry said the six areas focused on key strategic locations around and on the island. China deployed its Liaoning aircraft carrier for the drills, and CCTV showed a J-15 fighter jet taking off from the deck of the carrier. China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Senior Captain Li Xi said Monday evening that the drill was successfully completed. Li said the navy, army air force and missile corps were all mobilized for the drills, which were an integrated operation. “This is a major warning to those who back Taiwan independence and a signifier of our determination to safeguard our national sovereignty,” Li said in a statement on the service’s public media channel. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing that China did not consider relations with Taiwan a diplomatic issue, in keeping with its refusal to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state. “I can tell you that Taiwan independence is as incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait as fire with water. Provocation by the Taiwan independence forces will surely be met with countermeasures,” Mao said. China's Premier Li talks trade in Vietnam despite differences over South China Sea Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it deployed warships to designated spots in the ocean to carry out surveillance and stand at ready. It also deployed mobile missile and radar groups on land to track the vessels at sea. It said as of Monday morning, they had tracked 25 Chinese warplanes and seven warships and four Chinese government ships, though it did not specify what types of ships they were. On the streets of Taipei, residents were undeterred. “I don’t worry, I don’t panic either, it doesn’t have any impact to me,” Chang Chia-rui said. Another Taipei resident, Jeff Huang, said: “Taiwan is very stable now, and I am used to China’s military exercises. I have been threatened by this kind of threats since I was a child, and I am used to it.” The U.S., Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally, called China's response to Lai's speech unwarranted. “This military pressure operation is irresponsible, disproportionate, and destabilizing,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. “The entire world has a stake in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and we continue to see a growing community of countries committed to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” "We call on (Beijing's government) to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. China held similar large-scale exercises after Lai was inaugurated in May. Lai continues the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party that rejects China’s demand that it recognize Taiwan is a part of China. China also held massive military exercises around Taiwan and simulated a blockade in 2022 after a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, who was then speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. China routinely states that Taiwan independence is a “dead end” and that annexation by Beijing is a historical inevitability. China’s military has increased its encircling of Taiwan’s skies and waters in the past few years, holding joint drills with its warships and fighter jets on a near-daily basis near the island. Also on Monday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced it was sanctioning two Taiwanese individuals, Puma Shen and Robert Tsao, for promoting Taiwanese independence. Shen is the co-founder of the Kuma Academy, a nonprofit group that trains civilians on wartime readiness. Tsao donated $32.8 million to fund the academy’s training courses. Shen and Tsao are forbidden to travel to China, including Hong Kong. Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II. It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated them in a civil war and took power.

Sri Lanka closed schools in the capital Colombo and suburbs on Monday as heavy rains triggered floods in many parts of the island nation. Heavy downpours over the weekend have wreaked havoc in many parts of the country, flooding homes, fields and roads. Three people drowned, while some 134,000 people have been affected by flooding, according to the country's Disaster Management Centre. More than 1.9 million without power as Hurricane Milton slams Florida, causes deaths and flooding The center said rains and floods have damaged 240 houses and nearly 7,000 people have been evacuated. Authorities have cut electricity in some areas as a precaution. Navy and army troops have been deployed to rescue victims and provide food and other essentials. Local television channels showed flooded towns in the suburbs of Colombo. In some areas, waters reached the roofs of houses and shops. Sri Lanka has been grappling with severe weather conditions since May, mostly caused by heavy monsoon rains. In June, 16 people died due to floods and mudslides.