US, S. Korea open biggest drills in years amid North threats
The United States and South Korea began their biggest combined military training in years Monday as they heighten their defense posture against the growing North Korean nuclear threat, Associated Press reported.
The drills could draw an angry response from North Korea, which has dialed up its weapons testing activity to a record pace this year while repeatedly threatening conflicts with Seoul and Washington amid a prolonged stalemate in diplomacy.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises will continue through Sept. 1 in South Korea and include field exercises involving aircraft, warships, tanks and potentially tens of thousands of troops.
While Washington and Seoul describe their exercises as defensive, North Korea portrays them as invasion rehearsals and has used them to justify its nuclear weapons and missiles development.
Ulchi Freedom Shield, which started along with a four-day South Korean civil defense training program led by government employees, will reportedly include exercises simulating joint attacks, front-line reinforcements of arms and fuel, and removals of weapons of mass destruction. The allies will also train for drone attacks and other new developments in warfare shown during Russia’s war on Ukraine and practice joint military-civilian responses to attacks on seaports, airports and major industrial facilities such as semiconductor factories.
The United States and South Korea in past years had canceled some of their regular drills and downsized others to computer simulations to create space for the Trump administration’s diplomacy with North Korea and because of COVID-19 concerns, according to Associated Press.
Tensions have grown since the collapse of the second meeting between former President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in early 2019. The Americans then rejected North Korean demands for a major release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear complex, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of the North’s nuclear capabilities. Kim has since vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent in face of “gangster-like” US pressure.
South Korea’s military has not revealed the number of South Korean and US troops participating in Ulchi Freedom Shield, but has portrayed the training as a message of strength. Seoul’s Defense Ministry said last week that Ulchi Freedom Shield “normalizes” large-scale training and field exercises between the allies to help bolster their alliance and strengthen their defense posture against the evolving North Korean threat, Associated Press.
377A: Singapore to end ban on gay sex
Singapore will repeal a law that bans gay sex, effectively making it legal to be homosexual in the city-state, BBC reported.
The decision, announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on national TV, comes after years of fierce debate.
LGBT activists in Singapore have hailed the move as "a win for humanity".
The city-state is known for its conservative values, but in recent years an increasing number of people have called for the colonial-era 377A law to be abolished.
Singapore is the latest place in Asia to move on LGBT rights, after India, Taiwan and Thailand.
The government's previous stance was to keep 377A - which bans sex between men - but it also promised not to enforce the law in an effort to appease both sides.
But on Sunday night, Mr Lee said they would abolish the law as he believed "this is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will accept".
He noted that "gay people are now better accepted" and scrapping 377A would bring the country's laws in line with "current social mores, and I hope, provide some relief to gay Singaporeans".
"We finally did it, and we're ecstatic that this discriminatory, antiquated law is finally going to be off the books. There's a sense that maybe it took a little too long, but it had to happen, you know. Today we are very, very happy," gay activist Johnson Ong told the BBC.
A coalition of LGBT rights groups called it a "hard-won victory and a triumph of love over fear", adding it was the first step towards full equality.
But they also expressed concern over another announcement Mr Lee made in the same speech.
He had said the government would ensure better legal protection for the definition of marriage as one between a man and a woman. This would effectively make it harder for gay marriage to be legalised.
He said Singapore remains a traditional society with many keen on maintaining family and social norms, according to BBC.
LGBT activists called this "disappointing" and warned that it would only further entrench discrimination in society.
Meanwhile Protect Singapore, a conservative group, said they were "deeply disappointed" that the repeal was going ahead without assurance of "comprehensive safeguards".
They called for the definition of heterosexual marriage to be fully enshrined in the constitution, as well as laws banning "LGBT promotion" to children.
Imran Khan: Pakistan police charge ex-PM under terrorism act
Pakistan's police have charged the country's former prime minister, Imran Khan, under anti-terror laws, BBC reported.
Their investigation comes after he accused the police and judiciary of detaining and torturing his close aide.
Tensions are high in the country, with the former leader's supporters gathering outside his house vowing to "take over" if he is arrested.
Since being ousted from power in April, Mr Khan has been a vocal critic of the government and the country's army.
Police announced the charges after the cricketer-turned-politician accused authorities of torturing his close aide, who is himself being detained under sedition charges.
In a public speech on Saturday, Mr Khan condemned Islamabad's police chief and a female judge for the detention and alleged mistreatment of his party colleague.
"You should also get ready as we will take action against you," he said in the speech, referring to the pair directly.
Officials accused Mr Khan of breaching the country's anti-terrorism act for allegedly making threats against the state officials, according to BBC.
Hundreds of the former prime minister's supporters gathered outside his home in Islamabad after news of the investigation broke, vowing to "take over" the capital if police tried to detain him.
Police who were present at the scene said they were not there to arrest the former leader, but to maintain law and order.
The case comes at a time of heightened tension between Pakistan's government and Mr Khan, who was ousted from power in April in a no-confidence vote.
Since then, the former leader has toured the country to deliver a series of fiery speeches calling for fresh elections and fiercely criticising both the government and the army.
On Saturday, Pakistan's media regulator announced that television channels would be banned from broadcasting his speeches live, accusing Mr Khan of hate speech against state institutions.
The former leader claims the government is trying to censor him. On Sunday, he criticised the ban at another political rally in the city of Rawalpindi.
"What crime has Imran Khan committed? I will never accept this gang of thieves," he told his supporters.
Mr Khan later accused the government of blocking access to YouTube halfway through the speech in an effort to prevent people from listening to him live.
Despite being ousted from power in a no-confidence vote earlier this year, Imran Khan continues to count on the support of many Pakistani voters, BBC reported.
Last month, his PTI party stunned rivals by taking control of a crucial provincial assembly in Punjab, defeating the PML-N party in what was expected to be an easy win for them.
Many saw July's by-election victory as a signal of Mr Khan's continued popularity at the ballot box - and a foretaste of what could happen if the early elections that he is seeking were to be held.
The charismatic politician was elected prime minister in 2018, but fell out with Pakistan's powerful army towards the end of his tenure. After a series of defections, he lost his majority in parliament.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal herding back Maoists of all stripes
The mother Maoist outfit, which emerged as the largest party in the 2008 Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, suffered multiple splits thereafter. Towering Maoist leaders such as Baburam Bhattarai, Mohan Baidya and Netra Bikram Chand left the mothership but then failed to make a headway in national politics. Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal, however, continued to lead the mainstream Maoist party that he turned into a moderate political force. Now he plans on bringing back former Maoist leaders to cement his hold on the party. In the past seven years, Bhattarai, the chief ideologue of the 10-year Maoist war, experimented with socialist parties of various kinds but failed each time. Now he wants to make amends with Dahal. Many Maoist leaders have now realized that the split was a blunder. Bhattarai for one is sure to contest elections under the Maoist symbol. Leaders close to Dahal are also reaching out to other Maoist leaders, asking them to return. Maoist cadres who were affiliated with different splinter groups have already rejoined. “I am working to bring all communist forces including Maoist splinter groups together. This will take a more concrete shape after the elections,” Dahal said on August 15 after meeting Bhattarai. Except Dahal and Bhattarai, no other senior Maoist leader has won direct elections. Shyam Shrestha, a political analyst, sees high chances of the likes of Dahal, Bhattarai, and Chand coming together as they do not have major ideological differences and each has a pragmatic approach to national politics. “They did not part ways on ideological grounds but due to clash of egos and differences over resource-allocation. They can easily reunite,” he says.
