Free Republic

LIMA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Peru barred Bolivia's socialist former president, Evo Morales, from entering its territory on Monday, Peru's government announced in a statement, a decision Morales later derided as an attack meant to distract from rights violations. The move to ban Morales, along with eight other unidentified Bolivians, follows weeks of deadly protests in Peru targeting President Dina Boluarte... ...The statement from Peru's interior ministry said Bolivian citizens have entered the country in recent months to carry out political activities, violating immigration laws while undermining national security.... ...Shortly after the ban was announced, Peru Prime Minister Alberto Otarola...

SHANGHAI/TAIPEI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - China expressed anger on Saturday at a new U.S. defence authorisation law that boosts military assistance for Taiwan, while Taipei cheered it for helping boost the island's security. China, which considers democratically governed Taiwan its own territory, expressed "strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition"... ...It said the $858 billion military spending measure, which authorises up to $10 billion in security assistance and fast-tracked weapons procurement for Taiwan, contained provisions that "cause serious damage ....

Taiwanese rescuers on Wednesday located the wreckage of a F-16V jet that crashed into the sea a day before, less than two months after the island launched the first squadron of its most advanced fighters. The jet disappeared from radar screens around half an hour after taking off for a routine training mission from its base in southwestern Taiwan on Tuesday.... ....The incident has dealt a blow to the new squadron of US-made F-16Vs that was commissioned in November as Taiwan upgraded its ageing fleet amid rising tensions with China. The airforce has temporarily grounded its entire F16 fleet.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to deepen their defense cooperation, the United States and Japan will soon sign a new five-year agreement on sharing the cost of the American military presence in Japan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday. Speaking at the outset of a virtual conference between the U.S. and Japanese foreign and defense ministers, Blinken said Tokyo and Washington also will sign a deal on collaborating more closely in research and development of defense-related technologies, including ways to counter threats from hypersonic weapons. The agreement on a new formula for sharing the cost of the American military presence...

...Normally the Yamal-Europe, which is Europe's longest gas pipeline, transports Russian natural gas overland to Germany and Western Europe. However, in the past week, it has been redirecting gas from Germany to Poland to make up for a shortfall of fuel as temperatures drop to -10C and Russia cuts gas supplies. On Sunday, German network operator Gascade claimed Russia sent the fuel back to Poland for a sixth straight day – a huge blow to the EU, where gas prices have been skyrocketing. The ownership of Gascade — part Russian, part German — suggests the issues are the result of...

In a rare show of dissent, protests reached the authoritarian country’s biggest city, Almaty, after officials lifted price caps on liquefied petroleum gas. ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government’s resignation on Wednesday, his office said, after violent protests set off by a fuel price increase rocked the oil-rich Central Asian country. Police used tear gas and stun grenades late on Tuesday to drive hundreds of protesters out of the main square in Almaty, the former Soviet republic’s biggest city, and clashes went on for hours in nearby areas. The protests shook the former Soviet republic’s image...

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — U.S. Forces Korea counted 467 new COVID-19 cases in the week ending Monday, the highest number of infections reported by the command since the pandemic began in March 2020. USFK reported 457 locally generated coronavirus cases between Dec. 21 and Monday, and another 10 cases among recent arrivals to South Korea. Army Col. Seth Graves, garrison commander at Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. base overseas, in an announcement Wednesday on Facebook said the spike in cases “is like nothing we’ve seen here on the installation since the beginning of the pandemic.” ...The command requires its...

Russia's Vladimir Putin has warned his US counterpart Joe Biden that imposing new sanctions over Ukraine could lead to a complete breakdown in relations. In a phone call late on Thursday, the Russian president said such sanctions would be a "colossal mistake". Mr Biden, meanwhile, told Mr Putin that the US and its allies would respond decisively to any invasion of Ukraine.... ....The build-up has prompted concern in the West, with the US threatening Mr Putin with sanctions "like none he's ever seen" if Ukraine comes under attack.... ...Although the two sides exchanged warnings during the call, Russian foreign policy...

Three Israeli companies and 10 suspects were indicted on Monday after they were found to have exported cruise missiles to China without a permit. The Economic Department of the State Attorney informed the suspects that it would be filing an indictment on charges of committing security offenses, offenses in the field of weapons, offenses under the Defense Export Control Law, offenses under the Anti Money Laundering Law and more. Ephraim Menashe, the owner of the Solar Sky company, which manufactures cruise missiles, among other things, brokered a deal with entities from China who were competing for a tender to provide...

Fatih Yuksel is one of thousands of Turks rushing from one pharmacy to another in search of imported drugs that are disappearing as quickly as the lira is losing value.... ...Turks have been rattled by a currency collapse that accelerated when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month launched a self-declared "economic war of independence" that defies conventional market theory... ...Global supply chain bottlenecks caused by the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in jumps in the price of most raw materials, which make domestically produced medicine more expensive. Turkish drug suppliers are also angry with the government over delayed payments....

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. But that loyalty is being tested amid a dispute with Washington over the terms of its “Compact of Free Association” agreement, which expires soon. The U.S. is refusing to engage the Marshallese on claims for environmental and health damage caused by dozens of nuclear tests it carried out in the 1940s and ’50s, including a huge thermonuclear blast on Bikini Atoll.... ... China...

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s interior minister said Tuesday that every delay in resolving the diplomatic crisis with Gulf nations threatens to affect the lives of more Lebanese already reeling from a massive economic crisis. Bassam Mawlawi said resolving the crisis begins with the resignation of the Cabinet minister whose comments sparked the ire of Saudi Arabia, calling it long overdue. Saudi Arabia, a traditional ally of Lebanon, withdrew its ambassador and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave last month following televised comments by George Kordahi, Lebanon’s information minister. Kordahi said the war in Yemen was futile and called it an...

Tensions have been mounting in western Asia following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last month, with Tajikistan reportedly beefing up its military presence on the Tajik-Afghan border in response. The Russian foreign ministry said Thursday it has been made aware of reports that Tajik military troops have been stationed along the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan and urged a calm resolution. ... ...The Tajik government has exchanged blows with the newly instated Taliban regime in recent weeks, condemning the insurgent group’s lack of diversity in the Taliban’s interim government and expressing concerns over stability in the region. ... In exchange,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will self-isolate after cases of COVID-19 were detected in his entourage, according to a report. The Kremlin on Tuesday said that Putin will not travel to Tajikistan this week for planned regional security meetings, Reuters reported. ...

The Afghan president on Monday blamed the American troops' speedy pullout for the worsening violence in his country and said that his administration would now focus on protecting provincial capitals and major urban areas in the face of the rapidly advancing Taliban. "An imported, hasty" peace process - a reference to Washington's push for negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban - "not only failed to bring peace but created doubt and ambiguity" among Afghans, Ghani said in his address to Parliament.... ...The Taliban are now trying to seize provincial capitals after already taking large swaths of land and scores of...

Millions of people were confined to their homes in China Monday as the country tried to contain its largest coronavirus outbreak in months with mass testing and travel curbs. Local governments in major cities including Beijing have now tested millions of residents, while cordoning off residential compounds and placing close contacts under quarantine.... ...Beijing has blocked tourists from entering the capital during the peak summer holiday travel season. Only "essential travellers" with negative nucleic acid tests will be allowed to enter...

China has warned Britain is 'a bi*ch... asking for a beating' if British warships challenge Beijing's claim to the South China Sea. The HMS Queen Elizabeth and her carrier group arrived in the disputed waters on Thursday and are set to sail through Beijing's backyard alongside eight other vessels in a show of strength to Chinese President Xi Jingping. But Chinese state media has warned any move seen as a challenge to islands which Beijing lays claim to would mean Britain 'is being a bi*ch' and 'asking for a beating'.... ....'To say it precisely, if the UK wants to play...

“Chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes.” That’s how Hu Xijin, the editor of the Chinese Communist Party–run Global Times, described Australia last year. The disparaging description is typical of the disdain that China’s diplomats and propagandists have often shown toward governments that challenge Beijing—like Australia’s. China is now the great power of Asia—or so Beijing believes—but those pesky Australians, mouthing off about human rights and coronavirus investigations, refuse to bend the knee. Beijing has turned to economic pressure to compel Australia to fall in line. “Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off,” Hu...