China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications. The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after the Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications. The ratcheting up of trade restrictions comes at a time when President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, potentially adding to simmering tensions over trade and technology. In July 2023, China said that it would require exporters to apply for licenses to send to the US the strategically important materials such as gallium and germanium. In August, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said it would restrict exports of antimony, which is used in a wide range of products from batteries to weapons. China is the biggest global source of gallium and germanium, which are produced in small amounts but are needed to make computer chips for mobile phones, cars and other products, as well as solar panels and military technology. UN court hears landmark climate case as island nations fear rising seas China’s Commerce Ministry protested and said it would act to protect China’s “rights and interests” after the US side announced it was adding 140 companies to a so-called “entity list” subject to strict export controls. Nearly all are based in China, though some are Chinese-owned businesses in Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Both governments said their respective export controls were needed for “national security.” In hitting back at the latest move by Washington to slow China's progress in developing advanced technology with potential military applications, China is tightening controls announced in July 2023. China's government has been frustrated by US curbs on access to advanced processor chips and other technology on security grounds but was cautious in retaliating, possibly to avoid disrupting China’s fledgling developers of chips, artificial intelligence and other technology. The US gets about half its supply of both gallium and germanium metals directly from China, according to the US Geological Survey. China exported about 23 metric tons (25 tons) of gallium last year and produces about 600 metric tons (660 tons) of germanium per year.  

President Joe Biden issued a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, on Sunday, overturning his earlier pledges not to intervene in his son’s legal troubles. The pardon shields Hunter from federal felony convictions on gun and tax charges, sparing him potential prison time just weeks before sentencing. This controversial decision marks a significant shift for Biden, who had repeatedly vowed to uphold judicial independence and avoid using presidential powers to benefit his family. The pardon also casts a shadow over his presidency as he prepares to leave office on January 20, 2025, following Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Biden justified the move in a statement, citing what he described as "raw politics" influencing the cases against his son, leading to a "miscarriage of justice." The pardon covers all offenses Hunter may have committed between 2014 and 2024. Hunter Biden had faced felony charges for lying about drug use while purchasing a firearm and failing to pay over $1.4 million in taxes. These charges, brought by Trump-appointed special counsel David Weiss, followed years of scrutiny and political attacks targeting Hunter's past business dealings and personal struggles. Read: Biden approves long-range weapons for Ukraine: What it means for the war The decision has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans, including Rep. James Comer, who labeled the pardon a tactic to shield the Biden family from accountability. However, Hunter Biden expressed gratitude for the relief, promising to use his second chance to assist others battling addiction. As political and legal fallout continues, the controversy adds a dramatic chapter to Joe Biden’s presidency, raising questions about the balance between personal loyalty and public duty. Source: With inputs from agencies

Taiwan’s president set off on Saturday for a South Pacific tour that includes a two-day visit to the U.S., his first since taking office. However, details about his itinerary remain limited. The planned stops in Hawaii and Guam have already sparked strong objections from Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes official interactions between Taiwan and the U.S., the island’s primary supporter and military ally, reports AP. China bracing for fresh tensions with Trump over trade, tech and Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will embark on a week-long journey to meet leaders from the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Palau—three of Taiwan’s diplomatic partners in the Pacific, it said. “Through the values of democracy, peace, and prosperity, I aim to expand our cooperation with allies, deepen partnerships, and show the world that Taiwan is not only a model of democracy but a vital force promoting global peace, stability, and development,” Lai stated at Taoyuan International Airport before his departure. Taiwan maintains strong informal ties with many nations, but only 12 have official diplomatic relationships with the self-governed island. Recent times have seen increased pressure from China on Taiwan’s status, added the report. It remains uncertain whether Lai will meet any officials from the incoming U.S. administration during his visit. President-elect Donald Trump, in a July interview with Bloomberg, stated that Taiwan should contribute to its own defence, despite the island purchasing billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military equipment. Trump also avoided directly answering whether he would defend Taiwan against Chinese military action. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. is obligated to assist Taiwan in self-defence. However, it has kept its policy of strategic ambiguity about intervening if China were to invade Taiwan, the report also said. A second Trump administration is anticipated to strain U.S.-China relations even more than the first term, which included tariffs on over $360 billion of Chinese goods. Taiwan remains a significant flashpoint between the two nations. On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning urged the U.S. to handle Taiwan-related matters with “utmost caution” and reiterated Beijing’s opposition to Taiwan’s independence, advocating for China’s peaceful reunification. Mao also emphasised China’s firm opposition to any U.S.-Taiwan official interactions, including visits by Taiwanese leaders to the U.S, said the report. Former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen faced strong criticism from China when she stopped in the U.S. last year en route to Latin America, where she met then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The Chinese military also conducted drills around Taiwan last year, described as a “stern warning” against what it termed “separatists and foreign forces,” shortly after Lai, then vice president, transited through the U.S. China strongly opposes visits by prominent American figures to Taiwan, viewing any official engagement as a challenge to its sovereignty claims over the island.

An Indian businessman who is one of the world’s richest people has been indicted in the U.S. on charges he duped investors by concealing that his company's huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme. Gautam Adani, 62, was charged in an indictment unsealed Wednesday with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The case involves a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy Ltd. and another firm to sell 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Indian government — enough to light millions of homes and businesses. The indictment paints Adani and his co-defendants as playing two sides of the deal. HC orders formation of committee to review power deals with Adani Group It accuses them of portraying it as rosy and above-board to Wall Street investors who poured several billion dollars into the project over the last five years while, back in India, they were paying or planning to pay about $265 million in bribes to government officials to help secure billions of dollars' worth of contracts and financing. Adani and his co-defendants sought to “obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller said. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said the defendants “orchestrated an elaborate scheme” and sought to "enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets.” In a parallel civil action, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Adani and two co-defendants of violating antifraud provisions of U.S. securities laws. The regulator is seeking monetary penalties and other sanctions. Not demanded full payment from Bangladesh in 7 days: Adani Group Both cases were filed in federal court in Brooklyn. Adani's co-defendants include his nephew Sagar Adani, the executive director of Adani Green Energy's board, and Vneet Jaain, who was the company's chief executive from 2020 to 2023 and remains managing director of its board. Online court records did not list a lawyer who could speak on Adani's behalf. An email message seeking comment was left with an arm of his conglomerate, the Adani Group. Emails were also sent to lawyers representing his co-defendants. Sagar Adani's lawyer, Sean Hecker, declined the comment. The others did not immediately respond. Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said Gautam and Sagar Adani are accused of persuading investors to buy their company's bonds by misrepresenting "not only that Adani Green had a robust anti-bribery compliance program but also that the company’s senior management had not and would not pay or promise to pay bribes.” Adani is a power player in the world’s most populous nation. He built his fortune in the coal business in the 1990s. The Adani Group grew to involve many aspects of Indian life, from making defense equipment to building roads to selling cooking oil. In recent years, the Adani Group has made big moves into renewable energy, embracing a philosophy of sustainable growth reflected in its slogan: “Growth with Goodness." The company has a clean energy portfolio of over 20 gigawatts, including one of the world’s largest solar power plants in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Adani Group has stated its goal of becoming the country’s biggest player in the space by 2030. In 2022, Gautam Adani said the company would invest $70 billion in clean energy projects by 2032. Last year, a U.S.-based financial research firm accused Adani and his company of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.” The Adani Group called the claims “a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations.” The firm in question is known as a short-seller, a Wall Street term for traders that essentially bet on the prices of certain stocks to fall, and it had made such investments in relation to the Adani Group. The company's stock plunged as a result and dipped again in August when the firm, Hindenburg Research, levied more corruption allegations. Jaain told The Associated Press last year that Hindenburg's allegations had little impact on its ongoing projects, including work building 20 gigawatts of a solar and wind energy project in the northwest Indian village of Khavda. Prosecutors allege that Adani and his co-defendants started plotting the bribery scheme in 2020 or 2021 to guarantee demand for the energy that Adani Green and another firm were under contract to produce for the national government's Solar Energy Corporation of India. Adani Green and the other firm’s high prices turned off India's state-run electricity distributors, which buy power from the national government and provide it to homes and businesses. But the companies needed those deals to make the project worthwhile and keep revenues high, so they offered bribes to get them done, prosecutors said. After the defendants started promising bribes to government officials, in 2021 and 2022, electricity distributors in five Indian states or regions entered into agreements to purchase their energy, prosecutors said. Adani's company issued a statement in which he touted his deals as the “world's largest” power purchase agreement. At the same time, prosecutors said, the Adanis and Jaain were attesting to global investors that Adani Green was and would never be involved in bribery. Those claims enabled them to secure billions of dollars in financing for the project at terms that “did not account for the true risk” involved, prosecutors said.

The United Nations and other international organizations are bracing for four more years of Donald Trump, who famously tweeted before becoming president the first time that the 193-member U.N. was “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” In his first term, Trump suspended funding for the U.N. health and family planning agencies, withdrew from its cultural organization and top human rights body, and jacked up tariffs on China and even longtime U.S. allies by flaunting the World Trade Organization’s rulebook. The United States is the biggest single donor to the United Nations, paying 22% of its regular budget. Trump’s take this time on the world body began taking shape this week with his choice of Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York for U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Stefanik, the fourth-ranking House member, called last month for a “complete reassessment” of U.S. funding for the United Nations and urged a halt to support for its agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA. President Joe Biden paused the funding after UNRWA fired several staffers in Gaza suspected of taking part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas. Here’s a look at what Trump 2.0 could mean for global organizations: ‘A theater’ for a conservative agenda Speculation about Trump’s future policies has already become a parlor game among wags in Washington and beyond, and reading the signals on issues important to the U.N. isn’t always easy. For example, Trump once called climate change a hoax and has supported the fossil fuel industry but has sidled up to the environmentally minded Elon Musk. His first administration funded breakneck efforts to find a COVID-19 vaccine, but he has allied with anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “The funny thing is that Trump does not really have a fixed view of the U.N.,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group think tank. Gowan expects that Trump won’t view the world body “as a place to transact serious political business but will instead exploit it as a theater to pursue a conservative global social agenda.” There are clues from his first term. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate accord and is likely to do it again after President Joe Biden rejoined. Trump also had the U.S. leave the cultural and educational agency UNESCO and the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, claiming they were biased against Israel. Biden went back to both before recently opting not to seek a second consecutive term on the council. Trump cut funding for the U.N. population agency for reproductive health services, claiming it was funding abortions. UNFPA says it doesn’t take a position on abortion rights, and the U.S. rejoined. He had no interest in multilateralism — countries working together to address global challenges — in his first term. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls it “the cornerstone” of the United Nations.

The United States has said they want to see freedom of religion is respected in Bangladesh, and people are held accountable for any attacks. "We have, in our discussions with Bangladeshi officials, made clear that we want to see freedom of religion respected," US Department of State Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in a regular media briefing in Washington on November 7. Miller said they want to see people are held accountable in any attack as is appropriate under Bangladeshi law And, he added, it is true of their position in Bangladesh and anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, India has urged the interim government in Bangladesh to take action against extremist elements and the safety of the Hindus. "We, yet again, urge the government of Bangladesh to take strong measures to ensure the safety of Hindus and to take action against extremist elements," Spokesperson at the Ministry of External Affairs Randhir Jaiswal told reporters at a regular briefing in New Delhi on Thursday. He said they have observed that there have been recent attacks on the Hindu community in Chattogram. "This is bound to create further tensions in the community," he said.  

The government has cancelled the contractual appointments of three ambassadors posted in the United States, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Public Administration Ministry issued an order cancelling their appointments (remaining tenure) on Monday. They are- Bangladesh Ambassador to Russia Kamrul Ahsan, Ambassador to the USA Muhammad Imran and Ambassador to the UAE Mohammed Abu Zafar. 454 government law officers appointed in Ctg, Sylhet The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will announce names of new ambassadors to these three important missions abroad after completion of the appointment process.  

The United States has said there is no excuse for violence and anyone responsible for violence should be held accountable in Bangladesh. "We have made clear that there’s no excuse for violence, either conducted against those conducting peaceful protests or conducted by those protesting, and anyone that’s responsible for violence should be held accountable," said US Department of State Spokesperson Matthew Miller. He made the remarks during a regular media briefing in Washington on October 16 when a journalist drew his attention to the latest government decision and claimed that over "3000" police personnel were killed between August 5 and 8 following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government. The interim government has said no cases can be filed against students and people who actively participated in the mass upsurge in July-August, apparently giving impunity to those who carried out attacks even after the fall of  the Hasina-led government on August 5. US warns Israel to boost humanitarian aid into Gaza or risk weapons funding The Ministry of Home Affairs, in a statement said there will be no cases, arrests or harassment for the events related to the July uprising, organized from July 15 to August 8. Chairperson of human rights organization Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) Z.I. Khan Panna told BBC Bangla that there is no chance of impunity for criminal offences. “All the efforts that are going on now are illegal,” he said. "A new journey started to build a new Bangladesh free of discrimination through the fall of the autocratic and fascist government in the mass uprising of the students-people on August 5. The students and people actively worked for it on the grounds of movement to make this a success; there will be no cases, arrests or harassment for incidents related to the July mass uprising from July 15 to August 8,” said the Home Ministry. Responding to a question on an Islamic song sung at a puja mandap during the recent Durga Puja, Miller said obviously they are committed to religious freedom in Bangladesh and elsewhere. "With regard to that specific incident, I’ll take it back and get you an answer," he said.  

The Biden administration has warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to U.S. weapons funding. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated Sunday that the changes must occur. The letter, which restates U.S. policy toward humanitarian aid and arms transfers, was sent amid deteriorating conditions in northern Gaza and reports Israel had conducted a strike on a hospital tent site in central Gaza that killed at least four people. A senior defense official said Tuesday that Blinken and Austin sent a letter to their Israeli counterparts as they saw a recent decrease in assistance reaching Gaza. The official said a similar letter sent by Blinken in April triggered a constructive response and “concrete measures from the Israelis.” The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the latest letter was a way to similarly address the problem. Read more: The US is building a pier off Gaza to bring in humanitarian aid. Here's how it would work For Israel to continue qualifying for foreign military financing, the level of aid getting into Gaza must increase to at least 350 trucks a day, Israel must institute additional humanitarian pauses and provide increased security for humanitarian sites, Austin and Blinken said. They said Israel had 30 days to respond to the different requirements. An Israeli official confirmed a letter had been delivered but did not discuss the contents. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a diplomatic matter, confirmed the U.S. had raised “humanitarian concerns” and was putting pressure on Israel to speed up the flow of aid into Gaza.

Bangladesh and the United States have discussed ways for strengthening collaboration to counter corruption, tackle money laundering and recover stolen assets. The issues were discussed during a meeting between Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin and acting Coordinator for Global Anti-Corruption Shelby Smith-Wilson in Washington, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday. Talks also covered technical support for reforms, MLA (Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) treaty and enhancing experience and expertise sharing in procurement systems, law enforcement, judiciary and media. US values Bangladesh as a partner in Indo-Pacific region: Uzra Zeya Meanwhile, US Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Uzra Zeya said the United States values Bangladesh as a “partner” in the Indo-Pacific region and their “strong collaboration” as their leading partner on Rohingya response and number one source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). She shared a brief message on X, formerly known as Twitter on Saturday as she had a meeting with the Foreign Secretary in Washington on October 11. "Vital discussion with Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin on US-Bangladesh humanitarian cooperation, accountability and democratic institutions and support for labour rights," she said. The Foreign Secretary and Under-Secretary Uzra Zeya had “fruitful discussions" on the reforms of the democratic institutions and upholding of democratic values, accountability of human rights violations, humanitarian response and sustainable solutions of the Rohingya crisis and labour rights issues, according to the ministry. He also had a "productive meeting" with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma at the State Department, affirming renewal of commitment to deepen and expand bilateral ties, strengthen collaboration on areas of mutual interest. The Foreign Secretary had a separate meeting with acting US Under Secretary for Political Affairs John Bass and discussed ways to deepen bilateral collaboration building on the momentum in the Bangladesh-US relationship and to advance impactful cooperation in priority areas. He also had discussions on diverse issues at a meeting with US Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South Asia Lindsey W Ford at the White House. They covered the interim government's reform agenda, democratic transition, economic and security issues, regional stability, Rohingya crisis and labour law. Foreign Secretary also Jashim met Brendan Lynch, Assistant USTR for South and Central Asia and discussed mutual cooperation to diversify export, DFQF access of RMGs produced from cotton imported from US, simplification of registration and reduction of registration fees for pharmaceutical products, labour law reforms, and access to US International Development Finance Cooperation (DFC). A lunch meeting between the Foreign Secretary and key officials focused on a wide range of issues of mutual interests. The US officials included Assistant Secretary Ambassador Donald Lu, Acting Assistant Secretary Marta C Youth, Deputy Assistant Secretary Nicole Chulick, Deputy Assistant Secretary Monica Ager Jacobsen, as well as Director Alla P Kamins. The Foreign Secretary visited New York before his tour to Washington and is scheduled to leave Washington on October 14.