Prepare detailed report of all electoral constituencies: Coalition leaders tell task force
A meeting of the ruling coalition held on Thursday directed the task force to prepare a detailed report of all the constituencies for the electoral alliance. A meeting held at the official residence of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in Baluwatar directed the task force to prepare and submit the detailed report of the 165 electoral constituencies, Nepali Congress leader and Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said. He said that the task force will prepare the report and submit it to the top guns of the ruling coalition. The task force is also preparing to submit the claims made by the parties on seat sharing to the top level. Minister Karki said that the issue of seat sharing will be finalized soon. Earlier, the issue of seat sharing was discussed among the senior leaders after the task force could not forge a consensus.
Taiwan opposition politician takes war games concerns to China
A senior member of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), has told a top Chinese official of Taiwanese people’s concerns about Beijing’s war games near the island, in what the party described as “frank” talks, Reuters reported.
China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has been holding massed military drills near the island to express its anger at a visit to Taipei this month by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
KMT Deputy Chairman Andrew Hsia arrived in China for what his party said was a pre-planned visit to the Taiwanese business community and on Wednesday night met Zhang Zhijun, head of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, a quasi-official body that handles ties with Taiwan.
Taiwan’s government has criticised Hsia for his timing, and some senior KMT officials have expressed reservations about the trip.
“Deputy Chairman Hsia said he wanted to reflect Taiwan’s public opinion and must not mince his words,” the KMT said in a statement after the meeting in the eastern Chinese city of Kunshan, according to Reuters.
“The first priority was to convey the dissatisfaction and worries of the Taiwanese people about the mainland military’s continuous exercises in the waters around Taiwan,” it added.
The KMT described the meeting, over dinner, as being an honest exchange of opinions on both sides.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said Zhang, who previously led the Taiwan Affairs Office, described the current situation as one of “tension and turmoil”.
“The relevant countermeasures we have taken are a just move to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, curb and combat ‘Taiwan independence’ splitism and foreign interference,” Xinhua reported, Reuters reported.
Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
The KMT traditionally favours close relations with China, though it has condemned Beijing’s war games.
The KMT ruled China before retreating with its defeated Republic of China government to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s Communist forces, which set up the People’s Republic of China.
Thai PM suspended while court mulls if he defied term limits
Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended the prime minister from his duties on Wednesday while it decides whether the man who led a military coup in 2014 has violated the country’s term limits, potentially opening a new chapter of turmoil in the nation’s troubled politics, Associated Press reported.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s removal is likely to only be temporary since the court has generally ruled in the government’s favor in a slew of political cases.
Any decision to allow the general to stay on risks invigorating a protest movement that has long sought to oust him and reopening deep fissures in Thailand, which has been rocked by repeated bursts of political chaos since a coup toppled then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006.
Since then, Thaksin, a telecoms billionaire whose populist appeal threatened the traditional power structure, has remained at the center of the country’s politics, as his supporters and opponents fought for power both at the ballot box and in the streets, sometimes violently. The 2014 takeover ousted his sister from power.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, a close political ally of Prayuth and part of the same military clique that that staged the coup, will take over as acting prime minister, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office said Wednesday. Anucha Burapachaisri added that Prayuth would respect the court’s decision and called on others to do the same.
But those who want Prayuth gone don’t want Prawit in power either.
“No Prayuth. No Prawit. No military coup government,” a leading protest group said in a statement after the court decision Wednesday.
The group known as Ratsadon, or The People, issued a new call for protests, but only a small number came in response.
Prayuth’s detractors contend he has violated a law that limits prime ministers to eight years in power — a threshold they say he hit Tuesday since he officially became prime minister on Aug. 24, 2014.
But his supporters contend his term should be counted from when the current constitution, which contains the term-limit provision, came into effect in 2017. Another interpretation would start the clock in 2019, following the election, according to Associated Press.
The case — in which the court is deciding whether a coup-leader has stayed in power too long — highlighted Thailand’s particular political culture: Often the soldiers who overthrow elected leaders then try to legitimize their rule and defuse opposition by holding elections and abiding by constitutional restrictions.
For instance, while Prayuth initially came to power in a coup, he won the job legally after a general election in 2019.
By a vote of 5 to 4 on Wednesday, the court agreed to suspend the prime minister from his duties while it considers a petition from opposition lawmakers. The court’s announcement said Prayuth must submit his defense within 15 days of receiving a copy of the complaint, but it did not say when it would rule.
He will remain in his other post of defense minister, according to Anucha, the spokesman.
Polls show Prayuth’s popularity is at a low ebb, with voters blaming him for mishandling the economy and botching Thailand’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand that Prayuth and his Cabinet resign, while also calling for the constitution to be amended and the monarchy to be reformed.
Several confrontations between the student-driven protest movement and authorities became violent. A legal crackdown on activists further embittered critics.
Small protests appealing again to Prayuth to step down and the Constitutional Court to force him to if he didn’t have been held daily since Sunday, but drawn only small crowds, Associated Press reported.
“I am very pleased. Gen. Prayuth has stayed for a long time and had no vision to develop the country at all,” Wuttichai Tayati, a 28-year-old who works in marketing, said while protesting in Bangkok on Wednesday. “At least taking him out for now might make Thailand move forward a bit.”
Even if Prayuth does go, replacing him with Prawit will not resolve the standoff.
Ukraine war: Russia railway station strike kills 22, injures dozens
A Russian rocket strike on a Ukrainian train station has killed 22 people, Ukraine says, on the day marking six months since Moscow's invasion began, BBC reported.
It says five of the victims of the attack in the eastern town of Chaplyne burnt to death in a vehicle. An 11-year-old boy also was killed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the strike in the middle of a UN Security Council meeting. He said about 50 people were injured.
Russia has so far made no comment.
It has repeatedly denied targeting civilian infrastructure.
Mr Zelensky said he learned of the strike on Chaplyne, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as he was preparing to speak to the Security Council, adding: "This is how Russia prepared for the UN Security council meeting".
"Four passenger carriages are on fire now... the number of fatalities could increase," he said.
Ukraine has spent Wednesday marking its annual independence day and Mr Zelensky had previously said Russia might do something "cruel" to disrupt the celebrations.
Earlier he accused Moscow's forces of turning the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant into a "war zone" that endangered the plant and the people of Europe and put the world "on the brink of radiation catastrophe".
The UN Secretary General told the same meeting that the "senseless war" could push millions of people into extreme poverty, both in Ukraine and beyond.
Around the world, there were gatherings of supporters in the streets to mark Ukraine's independence today. World leaders also rallied to support the embattled nation to mark the occasion.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared in Kyiv on an unannounced trip to show his country's support, announcing £54m ($63.5m) in new military aid - a figure dwarfed by an announcement from US President Joe Biden of an extra $3bn (£2.5bn), according to BBC.
Messages of support arrived from across the globe: from Australia, Germany, Finland, Poland, Turkey and more. In the Vatican, Pope Francis called for "concrete steps" to end the war and avert the risk of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - Europe's largest.
But in the streets of Kyiv, it was relatively quiet.
Ukraine had banned large gatherings and events over fears that Russia could target such civilian gatherings. It followed a warning from the US for any of its citizens to leave ahead of the anniversary.
Some gathered anyway on Khreshchatyk Street to look at the array of captured Russian tanks and armoured vehicles put on display instead of the usual Ukrainian parade.
Between his political speeches, President Zelensky and his wife also attended a memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers and civilians of the war, laying yellow and blue flowers at Kyiv's Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders.
Despite the losses, the Ukrainian leader had started the day with a defiant national address, vowing to retake the whole of Ukraine, "without any concessions or compromises".
"We don't know these words - they were destroyed by missiles on 24 February," he said.
"The enemy thought we would greet them with flowers and champagne, but received wreaths and Molotov cocktails instead.
In Russia, meanwhile, the day marking half a year since the start of the invasion passed quietly, BBC reported.
The BBC's Will Vernon in Moscow says there has been almost no mention of the six months of Russia's "special military operation" on television or from officials - possibly a sign that authorities do not want to emphasise the drawn-out campaign.
Russia had initially promised a short, decisive campaign - but Ukrainian resistance quickly pushed Russian forces away from the capital, and months later Russia redeployed its forces to concentrate on the eastern breakaway provinces where it already enjoyed support. In recent weeks, the front lines have hardly moved.
