News in Brief
MANILA (Dispatches) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has defended his recent decision to terminate a security pact between Filipino forces and the U.S. military, saying his country can fight insurgents and survive as a nation without American military help. Duterte also said in a speech that he would stand by a decision made early in his presidency that he will not travel to the United States, a decision he made after then President Barack Obama criticized his deadly anti-drug crackdown. "Do we need America to survive as a nation?” Duterte asked. "Do we need ... the might and power of the military of the United States to fight our rebellion here and the terrorists down south and control drugs?” "The (Philippine) military and police said, `Sir, we can do it,’” he said. "If we can’t do it, we have no business being a republic,” Duterte said. "You might as well choose. We can be a territory of the Americans or we can be a province of China.”
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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Uncertainty grew over the political fate of Malaysia’s 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad on Friday after the royal palace rejected a plan for selecting a new prime minister announced by the man who has dominated the country for decades. Mahathir’s party dropped him as its candidate for the premiership, and chose his next-in-line Muhyiddin Yassin, four days after the world’s oldest head of government plunged Malaysia into turmoil by resigning unexpectedly. Widely perceived as an attempt to consolidate power, Mahathir’s resignation on Monday tore apart an alliance with old rival Anwar Ibrahim, 72, that brought them surprise election victory on an anti-corruption platform in 2018. Mahathir had said on Thursday that there would be a vote in parliament on March 2 for a new prime minister, but the palace announced after a meeting of the country’s nine sultans that there would be no such special sitting.
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LONDON (AFP) -- Britain put the prospect of a chaotic Brexit back on the table on Thursday as it set out its red lines for upcoming trade talks with the European Union. In its mandate for negotiations that start on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government rebuffed the EU’s demands for common trading standards and to maintain existing fishing rights. It set out hopes for a free trade deal with Brussels, but warned it could walk away without one if a "broad outline” of an agreement has not emerged by June. This would see Britain’s currently seamless trading arrangements with the EU, forged over half a century of membership, end once a post-Brexit transition period expires in December. "We want the best possible trading relationship with the EU, but in a pursuit of a deal, we will not trade away our sovereignty,” senior government minister Michael Gove told MPs. The European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the EU’s 27 member states, said it was preparing for all scenarios.
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BRISTOL, England (Reuters) -- Greta Thunberg denounced politicians and the media on Friday for ignoring a looming climate cataclysm, saying that they were failing her generation with their inaction in the face of a world on fire. Several thousand people attended a rally in the southwestern English city of Bristol to see Thunberg, the teenage activist who has reprimanded governments across the world over climate change. Known simply as Greta, 17-year-old Thunberg has captured the imagination of many young people with impassioned demands for world leaders to take urgent action. "I will not be silenced while the world is on fire - will you?” said Thunberg. "This emergency is being completely ignored by the politicians, the media and those in power. Basically nothing is being done ... despite all the beautiful words.” Supporters held placards reading: "Change the politics not the climate”, "The ocean is rising so are we!” and "At this point education is pointless.”
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ULAANBAATAR (Reuters) -- Mongolia’s President Battulga Khaltmaa and other government officials have submitted to a 14-day quarantine after returning home from their visit to China, the state news agency Montsame reported on Friday. Battulga is the first head of state to visit China since the country began implementing special measure to curb the coronavirus outbreak in January. He arrived in Beijing with Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar Damdin and other senior government officials on Thursday, and held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. They were taken into quarantine as soon as they arrived in Mongolia as a precautionary measure, Montsame said.
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BANGKOK (Reuters) -- Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and five cabinet ministers comfortably survived a vote of no confidence in parliament on Friday, a week after a court ban on 11 opposition lawmakers increased the ruling coalition’s parliamentary majority. The Constitutional Court dissolved the opposition Future Forward Party, the third-largest in parliament, and banned 11 of its lawmakers from politics for a decade on the grounds the party breached the law by taking loans from its leader. The court’s decision has sparked protests by university students around the country. Prayuth had been expected to survive the censure motion even before the reduction in opposition numbers in parliament. But he faced some of the fiercest public criticism since he transitioned last year from military ruler to head of an elected government.
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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Uncertainty grew over the political fate of Malaysia’s 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad on Friday after the royal palace rejected a plan for selecting a new prime minister announced by the man who has dominated the country for decades. Mahathir’s party dropped him as its candidate for the premiership, and chose his next-in-line Muhyiddin Yassin, four days after the world’s oldest head of government plunged Malaysia into turmoil by resigning unexpectedly. Widely perceived as an attempt to consolidate power, Mahathir’s resignation on Monday tore apart an alliance with old rival Anwar Ibrahim, 72, that brought them surprise election victory on an anti-corruption platform in 2018. Mahathir had said on Thursday that there would be a vote in parliament on March 2 for a new prime minister, but the palace announced after a meeting of the country’s nine sultans that there would be no such special sitting.
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LONDON (AFP) -- Britain put the prospect of a chaotic Brexit back on the table on Thursday as it set out its red lines for upcoming trade talks with the European Union. In its mandate for negotiations that start on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government rebuffed the EU’s demands for common trading standards and to maintain existing fishing rights. It set out hopes for a free trade deal with Brussels, but warned it could walk away without one if a "broad outline” of an agreement has not emerged by June. This would see Britain’s currently seamless trading arrangements with the EU, forged over half a century of membership, end once a post-Brexit transition period expires in December. "We want the best possible trading relationship with the EU, but in a pursuit of a deal, we will not trade away our sovereignty,” senior government minister Michael Gove told MPs. The European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the EU’s 27 member states, said it was preparing for all scenarios.
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BRISTOL, England (Reuters) -- Greta Thunberg denounced politicians and the media on Friday for ignoring a looming climate cataclysm, saying that they were failing her generation with their inaction in the face of a world on fire. Several thousand people attended a rally in the southwestern English city of Bristol to see Thunberg, the teenage activist who has reprimanded governments across the world over climate change. Known simply as Greta, 17-year-old Thunberg has captured the imagination of many young people with impassioned demands for world leaders to take urgent action. "I will not be silenced while the world is on fire - will you?” said Thunberg. "This emergency is being completely ignored by the politicians, the media and those in power. Basically nothing is being done ... despite all the beautiful words.” Supporters held placards reading: "Change the politics not the climate”, "The ocean is rising so are we!” and "At this point education is pointless.”
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ULAANBAATAR (Reuters) -- Mongolia’s President Battulga Khaltmaa and other government officials have submitted to a 14-day quarantine after returning home from their visit to China, the state news agency Montsame reported on Friday. Battulga is the first head of state to visit China since the country began implementing special measure to curb the coronavirus outbreak in January. He arrived in Beijing with Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar Damdin and other senior government officials on Thursday, and held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. They were taken into quarantine as soon as they arrived in Mongolia as a precautionary measure, Montsame said.
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BANGKOK (Reuters) -- Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and five cabinet ministers comfortably survived a vote of no confidence in parliament on Friday, a week after a court ban on 11 opposition lawmakers increased the ruling coalition’s parliamentary majority. The Constitutional Court dissolved the opposition Future Forward Party, the third-largest in parliament, and banned 11 of its lawmakers from politics for a decade on the grounds the party breached the law by taking loans from its leader. The court’s decision has sparked protests by university students around the country. Prayuth had been expected to survive the censure motion even before the reduction in opposition numbers in parliament. But he faced some of the fiercest public criticism since he transitioned last year from military ruler to head of an elected government.