MANILA (Reuters) -- Military leaders are working to enforce a “one-theatre” concept in both the East and South China seas, the Philippines’ defense minister said on Monday, adding that the Southeast Asian country faces threats in disputed waters that are similar to Japan’s. Japan and China have repeatedly faced off over uninhabited Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea that Tokyo calls the Senkaku and Beijing calls the Diaoyu. The Philippines and China, meanwhile, have clashed frequently in the South China Sea around disputed shoals and atolls that fall inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone. Japan’s Joint Operations Command is operationalizing the single-theatre concept, and the “Squad” grouping that includes the defense ministers of Australia, Japan, the Philippines and the United States will establish a coordinating centre in December to enforce it, Gilberto  Teodoro, the Philippines’ Secretary of National Defense, said.

 

*** 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Republican U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin said on Sunday he believes babies born in the United States to immigrants living in the country illegally should be deported alongside their parents if the adults are removed. Mullin’s comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” came in response to questions about a U.S. Supreme Court decision on Friday that paved the way for President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship to go into effect soon in some states. NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Mullin what should happen to babies born in the United States whose parents are deported, given that the children are U.S. citizens under current law. “Well, they should go where their parents are,” said Mullin, of Oklahoma. “Why wouldn’t you send a child with their parents? I mean, why would you want to separate them?”

 

*** 

 NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- India’s agriculture and dairy are “big red lines” in its ongoing trade negotiations with the United States, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Financial Express newspaper in an interview published on Monday. India and the U.S. are negotiating a trade deal ahead of President Donald Trump’s July 9 deadline to impose reciprocal tariffs. In the trade talks, the U.S. is pushing for greater access to agricultural goods and ethanol, citing a significant trade imbalance, along with expanded market access for dairy, alcoholic beverages, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Meanwhile, India’s auto, pharmaceutical, and small-scale firms are lobbying for a gradual opening of the protected sectors, fearing competition from U.S. firms.

 

*** 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A gunman ambushed and shot dead two firefighters responding to a forest fire in northern Idaho on Sunday, wounding one other during an hours-long incident before the suspect was found dead, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said. Law enforcement officers and firefighters took sniper fire during the incident at Canfield Mountain, a nature zone popular with hikers near Coeur d’Alene, about 260 miles (420 km) east of Seattle, Sheriff Bob Norris said. Gun ownership is widespread in the U.S., where the Constitution protects the rights of Americans to “keep and bear arms.” Deaths related to gun violence are common - 17,927 people were murdered with a gun in 2023 in the U.S., according to the most recent available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

*** 

NEW DELHI (AP) — An explosion and fire at a pharmaceutical factory in India’s southern state of Telangana killed at least eight people and injured several others, authorities said Monday. The fire department recovered the charred bodies of six workers in an industrial area about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the state capital Hyderabad (31 miles), the state’s fire services director G.V. Narayana Rao told The Associated Press. Two other workers succumbed to burns and were pronounced dead at a hospital, Rao said, adding that debris of the gutted pharmaceutical unit of Sigachi Industries was being removed to find out if any more workers were trapped. India is home to some of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies. Industrial accidents, particularly involving chemical reactors, aren’t uncommon in such factories, underlining the need for authorities to implement stringent safety protocols and regulatory oversight in a sector critical to public health.  

 

*** 

DHARAMSHALA, India (Reuters) -- The Dalai Lama will address a major three-day gathering of Buddhist religious figures this week ahead of his 90th birthday, as his followers wait for the Tibetan spiritual leader to share details about his succession in a move that could irk China. Beijing views the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, as a separatist and says it will choose his successor. The Dalai Lama has said his successor will be born outside China and urged his followers to reject anyone chosen by Beijing. Tibetan Buddhists hold that enlightened monks are reborn to carry forward their spiritual legacy. The 14th Dalai Lama will turn 90 on Sunday and has said he would consult senior monks and others at this time to share possible clues on where his successor, a boy or a girl, could be found following his death.