Day: April 29, 2023

A dispute over airline routes between the US and China has emerged as a further sticking point in efforts to improve relations between the countries after Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed stabilising ties was necessary in November. The US has offered to grant Chinese airlines the same number of weekly flights between both countries as American carriers — but only if they agree not to fly over Russia, according to six people familiar with the talks. Moscow banned US carriers from flying over the country after Washington prohibited Russian…

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —  The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader says her country would stage more provocative displays of its military might in response to a new U.S.-South Korean agreement to intensify nuclear deterrence to counter the North’s nuclear threat, which she insists shows their “extreme” hostility toward Pyongyang. Kim Yo Jong also lobbed personal insults toward U.S. President Joe Biden, who after a summit Wednesday with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stated that any North Korean nuclear attack on the U.S. or its allies would “result in…

Walking home last Monday afternoon through the picturesque and normally gore-free seaside city of Maizuru, a primary school student discovered a human fingertip lying on the road. This was a traumatising horror for a small child, but arguably a bigger jolt for Japan as a whole and for corporate Japan in particular. The incident not only highlights an old and debilitating strain of fear, but also the urgent need to swap it for new and possibly useful ones. The problem presented by the severed finger was that its former owner,…

WASHINGTON —  The United States called Saturday for China to stop harassing Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, pledging to stand with the Philippines at a time of simmering geopolitical tension. “We call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. The Philippines accused China’s coast guard of “aggressive tactics” Friday following an incident during a Philippine coast guard patrol close to the Philippines-held Second Thomas Shoal, a flashpoint for previous altercations located 105 nautical miles (195 km) off…

taipei, taiwan —  A former U.S. national security adviser called for deeper interaction between the United States and Taiwan during a visit Saturday to the self-ruled island, which has seen increasing military threats from China. John Bolton, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, said at a pro-Taiwan independence event in Taipei that national security teams from both sides must develop contingency plans on how to respond to actions Beijing might take, warning it would be too late once an attack occurs. “We have to tell China and Russia what…