UK leader Sunak chides China after a report that a UK Parliament staffer is a suspected Beijing spy
LONDON — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chastised China’s premier on Sunday for “unacceptable” interference in British democracy, after a newspaper reported that a researcher in Parliament was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of spying for Beijing.Sunak said he raised the issue with Premier Li Qiang when the two met at a Group of 20 summit in India. He told British broadcasters in New Delhi that he’d expressed “my very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable.”The two men met after the Metropolitan Police force confirmed that a man in his 20s and a man in his 30s were arrested in March under the Official Secrets Act. Neither has been charged and both were bailed until October pending further inquiries.A Chinese Embassy statement called the allegations “completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander.” China urges “relevant parties in the U.K. to stop their anti-China political manipulation,” the statement said. The Sunday Times reported that the younger man was a parliamentary researcher who worked with senior lawmakers from the governing Conservatives, including Alicia Kearns, who now heads the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, and her predecessor in that role, Tom Tugendhat, who is now security minister. The newspaper said the suspect held a pass that allows full access to the Parliament buildings, issued to lawmakers, staff and journalists after security vetting.Tensions between Britain and China have risen in recent years over accusations of economic subterfuge, human rights abuses and Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties in the former British colony of Hong Kong.Britain’s Conservatives are divided on how tough a line to take with Beijing and on how much access Chinese firms should have to the U.K. economy. More hawkish Tories want Beijing declared a threat, but Sunak has referred to China’s growing power as a “challenge.”Former U.K. Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said news of the March arrests “gives the lie to the government’s attempt not to see China as a systemic threat.”U.K. spy services have sounded ever-louder warnings about Beijing’s covert activities. In November, the head of the MI5 domestic intelligence agency, Ken McCallum, said “the activities of the Chinese Communist Party pose the most game-changing strategic challenge to the U.K.” Foreign intelligence chief Richard Moore of MI6 said in July that China was his agency’s “single most important strategic focus.”In January 2022, MI5 issued a rare public alert, saying a London-based lawyer was trying to “covertly interfere in U.K. politics” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. It alleged attorney Christine Lee was acting in coordination with the Chinese ruling party’s United Front Work Department, an organization known to exert Chinese influence abroad.An opposition Labour Party lawmaker, Barry Gardiner, received more than 500,000 pounds ($685,000) from Lee between 2015 and 2020, mostly for office costs, and her son worked in Gardiner’s office. Lee and the Chinese government both deny wrongdoing.China has repeatedly criticized what it calls British interference in its internal affairs and denied meddling in the politics of foreign nations.Sunak and Li met days after Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited Beijing, the highest-level trip by a British politician to China for several years. Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the G20 meeting in India.Sunak defended his approach of cautious engagement, saying, “There’s no point carping from the sidelines — I’d rather be in there directly expressing my concerns, and that’s what I did today.”___Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed.
A drone attack on an open market has killed at least 43 people in Sudan as rival troops battle
CAIRO — A drone attack Sunday on an open market south of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, killed at least 43 people, activists and a medical group said, as the military and a powerful rival paramilitary group battle for control of the country.More than 55 others were wounded in the attack in Khartoum’s May neighborhood, where paramilitary forces battling the military were heavily deployed, the Sudan Doctors’ Union said in a statement. The casualties were taken to Bashair University Hospital.The Resistance Committees, an activist group that helps organize humanitarian assistance, posted footage on social media showing bodies wrapped in white sheets in an open yard at the hospital. Sudan has been rocked by violence since mid-April, when tensions between the country’s military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting.The RSF blamed the military’s air force for Sunday’s attack, though it was not immediately possible to independently verify the claim. The military, meanwhile, said Sunday afternoon that it didn’t target civilians, describing the RSF accusations as “false and misleading claims.”Indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes by both factions are not uncommon in Sudan’s war, which has made the Greater Khartoum area a battleground.The conflict has since spread to several parts of the country. In the Greater Khartoum area, which includes the cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri, RSF troops have commandeered civilian homes and turned them into operational bases. The military responded by bombing these residential areas, rights groups and activists say.In the western Darfur region — the scene of a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s — the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with the RSF and allied Arab militias attacking ethnic African groups, according to rights groups and the United Nations.Fierce clashes ensued over the weekend in al-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, following an attack on a military facility by the RSF, local media reported.Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, expressed concerns Sunday about the clashes in al-Fasher. Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, the U.N. official called for warring factions to stop fighting “so that humanitarians can bring in food, medicine and shelter items to those who need them most.”The war has killed more than 4,000 people, according to August figures from the United Nations. However, the real toll is almost certainly much higher, doctors and activists say.The number of internally displaced persons has nearly doubled since mid-April to reach at least 7.1 million people, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Another 1.1 million are refugees in neighboring countries, according to figures released last week by the International Organization for Migration.Chad received about 465,000 refugees, mostly from West Darfur province where the RSF and its Arab militias launched scorched-earth attacks on non-Arab tribes in the provincial capital of Geneina and its surrounding areas, according to the U.N. and rights groups.
Thailand's LGBTQ+ community draws tourists from China looking to be themselves
BANGKOK — Xinyu Wen traveled to Thailand in June, planning a two-week vacation around Bangkok’s Pride parade. Instead, the 28-year-old stayed a month and a half, as her experience at the parade gave rise to discussions and discoveries in the Thai capital’s thriving LBGTQ+ community.LGBTQ+ people from China, frequently scorned and ostracized at home, are coming to Thailand in droves, drawn by the freedom to be themselves. When Wen walked along the parade on the streets in Bangkok, “I felt like I was in a big party or a huge amusement park. We could forget all upsetting things and feel fun-filled,” she said.Bangkok is only a 5-hour flight from Beijing, and Thailand’s tourism authorities actively promote its status as among the most open to LGBTQ+ people in the region.Wen got interested in Thailand when her friend sent her a photo of rainbow-colored, Pride-themed ice cream being sold on the streets. “I wanted to go to Thailand to take a look,” she said. Wen describes herself as queer, which she says means that her partners can be any gender and she can be any gender. At home, Wen said she regularly gets judgmental stares on the street for wearing her hair short like a man’s, and was once asked by her barber: “What happened to your life?”But at the Bangkok Pride parade in June, Wen noticed people confidently wore what they wanted. She was excited to be able to express herself publicly and finally drop her guard. More than that, she said she was also impressed by the protest element to the event, in which people carried signs written in traditional Chinese with slogans like “China has no LGBTQ” and “Freedom is what we deserve.” “I felt a mixed feeling, touched but sad,” she said. Ahead of her trip, she read up on the situation in Thailand, finding reports that showed there is still widespread discrimination, especially in the workplace. Thailand does not recognize same-sex unions or marriages, which also means they’re barred from adopting children, and other legal processes that straight couples have access to.Wen arrived at the parade somewhat skeptical. But she ended up finding it empowering. “Although I initially had a critical attitude toward the parade in Bangkok because discrimination against LGBTQ individuals hasn’t disappeared, I still felt inspired because the neglected groups and the suppressed feelings matter here.”Thailand Tourism Authority official Apichai Chatchalermkit said in an Aug. 9 article in The Nation newspaper that LGBTQ+ tourists are considered “high-potential” as they tend to spend more and travel more frequently than other visitors. “Using a photo of LGBTQ+ individuals in tourism advertisements is considered as offering a warm welcome without discrimination,” he said. Thailand doesn’t keep figures on LGBTQ+ tourists. But through mid-August, it has counted 2.2 million Chinese tourists out of an overall 16 million.Owen Zhu, a gay real estate agent in Bangkok who sells houses to Chinese clients, said many are also coming to stay. He estimated some 2/3 of his clients are LGBTQ+, many of whom buy apartments to live in part- or full-time.“Among Chinese gay people, Thailand is called gay’s heaven,” he said, noting that there are many chat groups where gay men from China coordinate trips to Thailand and share information about parties and tickets to events. Being gay is not illegal in China, though other Asian countries have strict laws around homosexuality — such as Malaysia, which announced in August that anyone in possession of an LGBTQ+-themed watch could be jailed for 3 years. But LGBTQ+ people in China face other pressures to conform that can make the free expression of their identities difficult.As a lesbian in her conservative province in central China, Jade Yang was talked into marrying a gay man at her parents’ request so that both of them could keep up appearances. The 28-year-old, who works in the television industry, first visited Thailand four years ago and remembers being shocked to hear people talk casually about their same-sex partners. Yang disliked lying to her cousins and friends about the marriage and moved to Thailand in February, saying she wanted to distance herself from her hometown.Now, she said, she can date the women she likes and focus on her studies and career without worrying about how to act as a straight woman.“I wasted a lot of time over the past three years,” she said. “After coming here, I feel the world is so big for me to explore. I have also learned I should not deny the way I am so easily, and love myself better.”At the Silver Sand gay bar in Bangkok, owner Adisak Wongwaikankha said about 30% of his customers are LGBTQ+ people from China, and that number has been growing. He operates a bar on the ground floor and a drag show on the second floor. “Most of our Chinese customers come with excitement and curiosity,” he said. Another draw for tourists, inside and outside the LGBTQ+ community, is Thailand’s loose enforcement of prostitution laws and renowned nightclub shows. Eros Li first came to Thailand in February to check out the nightlife and the massage parlors, many of which offer sex services. The 42-year-old returned two months later, saying that, while there are some spas in China where similar sex services are on offer, they are less accessible and there is a risk of being arrested.”The LGBTQ community in Thailand is lively and open. I received many messages on gay dating apps every day, which made me happy,” Li said.___Find more of AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
1st Africa Climate Summit opens as hard-hit continent of 1.3 billion demands more say and financing
NAIROBI, Kenya — The first African Climate Summit is opening as heads of state and others assert a stronger voice on a global issue that affects the continent of 1.3 billion people the most, even as they contribute to it the least.Kenyan President William Ruto’s government and the African Union launched the ministerial session on Monday while more than a dozen heads of state begin to arrive, determined to wield more global influence and bring in far more financing and support. The first speakers included youth, who demanded a bigger voice in the process.“For a very long time we have looked at this as a problem. There are immense opportunities as well,” Ruto said of the climate crisis, speaking of multibillion-dollar economic possibilities, new financial structures, Africa’s huge mineral wealth and the ideal of shared prosperity. “We are not here to catalog grievances.”And yet there is some frustration on the continent about being asked to develop in cleaner ways than the world’s richest countries, which have long produced most of the emissions that endanger climate, and to do it while much of the support that has been pledged hasn’t appeared.“This is our time,” Mithika Mwenda with the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance told the gathering, asserting that the annual flow of climate assistance to the continent is a tenth or less of what is needed and a “fraction” of the budget of some polluting companies.“We need to immediately see the delivery of the $100 billion pledged (by rich countries annually to developing ones in climate finance),” said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. More than $83 billion in climate financing was given to poorer countries in 2020, a 4% increase from the previous year but still short of the goal set in 2009.“We have an abundance of clean, renewable energy and it’s vital that we use this to power our future prosperity. But to unlock it, Africa needs funding from countries that have got rich off our suffering,” Mohamed Adow with Power Shift Africa said ahead of the summit.Outside attendees to the summit include the U.S. government’s climate envoy, John Kerry, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has said he will address finance as one of “the burning injustices of the climate crisis.”Ruto’s video welcome released before the summit was heavy on tree-planting but didn’t mention his administration’s decision this year to lift a yearslong ban on commercial logging, which alarmed environmental watchdogs. The decision has been challenged in court, while the government says only mature trees in state-run plantations would be harvested.“When a country is holding a conference like we are, we should be leading by example,” said Isaac Kalua, a local environmentalist.Kenya derives 93% of its power from renewables and has banned single-use plastic bags, but it struggles with some other climate-friendly adaptations. Trees were chopped down to make way for the expressway that some summit attendees travelled from the airport, and bags of informally made charcoal are found on some Nairobi street corners.Ruto made his way to Monday’s events in a small electric car, a contrast to the usual government convoys, on streets cleared of the sometimes poorly maintained buses and vans belching smoke.Elsewhere, nearly 600 million Africans lack access to electricity despite the vast potential for solar and other renewable power.Other challenges for the African continent include simply being able to forecast and monitor the weather in order to avert thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damages that, like climate change itself, have effects far beyond the continent.“When the apocalypse happens, it will happen for all of us,” Ruto warned.___AP journalist Desmond Tiro in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
Descendants of a British owner of slaves in Guyana apologize as Caribbean nation seeks reparations
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — The descendants of a 19th-century Scottish sugar and coffee planter who owned thousands of slaves in Guyana apologized Friday for the sins of their ancestor, calling slavery a crime against humanity with lasting negative impacts.Charles Gladstone, a descendant of former plantation owner John Gladstone, traveled to Guyana from Britain with five relatives to offer the formal apology.“It is with deep shame and regret that we acknowledge our ancestors’ involvement in this crime and with heartfelt sincerity, we apologize to the descendants of the enslaved in Guyana,” he told an audience at the University of Guyana. “In doing so, we acknowledge slavery’s continuing impact on the daily lives of many.”Neither Guyana President Irfaan Ali, who on Thursday demanded reparations and lashed out at the descendants of European slave traders, nor other senior government officials were in the audience of a couple hundred students, university staff members and representatives of grassroots organizations.During his speech, Gladstone announced that his family would create a fund for various unnamed projects in the country as part of a “meaningful and long-term relationship between our family and the people of Guyana.”“In writing this heartfelt apology, we also acknowledge Sir John Gladstone’s role in bringing indentured laborers to Guyana, and apologize for the clear and manifold injustices of this,” he said.John Gladstone was the father of 19th century British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and received more than 100,000 pounds in compensation for hundreds of slaves.A renowned 1823 slave revolt took place on his estate at Success Village on Guyana’s east coast. The Demerara rebellion was crushed in two days with hundreds of slaves killed. Some enslaved people were beheaded and had their heads planted on poles on the way to Georgetown, Guyana’s colonial and current capital, as a lesson to others with similar ideas.Outside the auditorium where Gladstone made the apology, a handful of protesters shouted “Murderers!” and held signs reading, “The Gladstones are murderers” and “Stolen people, stolen dreams.”The leader of the protest, Cedric Castellow, dismissed the apology as “perfunctory” and said Britain and other European countries owe Guyana and the Caribbean billions of dollars in reparation payments.“The British government and others benefited from the slave trade, their descendants and heirs,” Castellow said. “They owe us, and the legacy will affect future generations as well.”Some protesters slipped into the auditorium. One began to shout at the end of the apology and was shushed by the university’s vice chancellor, Paloma Mohamed, who asked them not to embarrass Guyana.Gladstone also demanded that the British government start “meaningful discussions” with a 15-nation Caribbean trade block known as Caricom that is seeking reparations and hired a law firm to examine its case for financial compensation from Britain and other European nations.“We also urge other descendants of those who benefited from slavery to open conversations about their ancestors’ crimes and what they might be able to do to build a better future,” Gladstone said.Among those who traveled to Guyana for Friday’s apology was former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan. Earlier this year, her family apologized to slave descendants in Grenada because her ancestors owned hundreds of slaves in that eastern Caribbean island.“It seems that the momentum for the global reparations movement is being led by the Caribbean and its intellectuals,” Trevelyan told The Associated Press after Gladstone’s speech. “People like us support the Caricom … plan, and I really hope that the British government will begin negotiations with the Caribbean in the near future.”A handful of nations have apologized for their role in slavery, including the Netherlands.
Monaco closes corruption probe against Lebanon's caretaker prime minister for lack of evidence
The office of Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati says a three-year probe against him and his family over corruption allegations has been closed by Monaco’s judicial authorities for lack of evidenceByThe Associated PressAugust 25, 2023, 2:54 PMFILE – Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, speaks at the government palace, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, March 27, 2023. A three-year probe against Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister and his family over corruption allegations has been closed by Monaco’s judicial authorities for lack of evidence, the premier’s office said Friday, Aug. 25. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)The Associated PressBEIRUT — A three-year probe against Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister and his family over corruption allegations has been closed by Monaco’s judicial authorities for lack of evidence, the premier’s office said Friday.Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office said that Morgan Raymond, the deputy public prosecutor in Monaco, told the Lebanese premier’s legal team that they have closed the investigation into the case that was raised by unspecified Lebanese plaintiffs on allegations of illicit enrichment and money laundering.Mikati’s office said Monaco’s decision shows that the case was “fake” and meant “for political purposes.” It added that Mikati and his family will take legal action against those who were behind these “lies and rumors.”In 2021, a trove of leaked documents named the “Pandora Papers,” that were examined by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Daraj, a Beirut-based independent digital media platform, showed that for years, Lebanon’s politicians and bankers have stowed wealth in offshore tax havens and used it to buy expensive properties.Mikati has owned a Panama-based offshore company since the 1990s. He used it in 2008 to buy property in Monaco worth more than $10 million, Daraj reported from the documents.The leaked documents also show that Mikati’s son Maher was a director of at least two British Virgin Islands-based companies, which his father’s Monaco-based company, M1 Group, used to obtain an office in central London.Mikati at the time released a statement saying his family fortune was amassed prior to his involvement in politics and was “compliant with global standards” and regularly scrutinized by auditors.
Niger’s junta invites Mali and Burkina Faso to aid its defense, asks the French ambassador to leave
ABUJA, Nigeria — Niger’s junta authorized troops from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to its defense and asked the French ambassador to leave the country Friday, raising the stakes in a standoff with other West African nations who are threatening force to reinstate Niger’s democratically elected president.The junta leader, Brig. Gen. Abdrahmane Tchiani, signed two executive orders authorizing the “security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Niger territory in the event of aggression,” senior junta official Oumarou Ibrahim Sidi said late Thursday, after hosting a delegation from the two countries in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.Sidi did not provide further details about the military support from the two countries whose military regimes have said any use of force by the West African bloc ECOWAS against Niger’s junta would be treated as an act of war against their own nations. The Nigerien Ministry of Foreign Affairs said French Ambassador Sylvain Itte was asked to leave Niger within 48 hours in a letter that accused him of ignoring an invitation for a meeting with the ministry. The letter dated Friday, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, also cited “actions of the French government contrary to the interests of Niger.” Before last month’s ouster of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, Niger, a former French colony, had was seen as the West’s last major partner against jihadi violence in the Sahel region below the Sahara Desert, which is rife with anti-French sentiment. The French Embassy in Niger’s capital, Niamey, was attacked in the early days of the July 26 coup. The military leaders of the coup have requested help from private Russian military company Wagner to stem extremist attacks. The status of the request following the death of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash this week is unknown. ECOWAS said on Friday that along with the African Union, it “stands against the use of private military contractors.” The junta’s agreement with Mali and Burkina Faso was the latest of several actions taken by Niger’s mutinous soldiers to defy sanctions and consolidate a junta they have said would rule for up to three years, further escalating the crisis after last month’s coup in the country of more than 25 million people. The ECOWAS Commission president, Omar Alieu Touray, said Friday that the bloc’s threat to use force to reinstate Bazoum was “still on the table,” rejecting the junta’s three-year transition plan.Eleven of the bloc’s 15 countries, not including the military-ruled countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger itself, have expressed commitments to deploy troops to restore democracy in Niger once a decision is made to intervene. The bloc would in the meantime continue to explore diplomatic options to reverse the coup, Touray told reporters in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja. The latest of such diplomatic efforts came Thursday when Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who is the chairman of the regional bloc, sent a delegation of Islamic leaders to speak with the junta. Touray said the West African heads of state would decide on when to use force whenever it feels like all diplomatic means have failed.“ECOWAS cannot just fold its hands,” he asserted.Details of what has been called the ECOWAS “standby” force have not be released. Regional officials have suggested any military intervention would be like the force deployed in Gambia in 2017 to force Yahya Jammeh out of power as president after he refused to concede an election loss.The junta has been exploiting grievances among the population toward Niger’s former colonial ruler, France. It also has accused Bazoum’s government of failing to do enough to protect the country from Islamic extremists, and has asked the Russian mercenary group Wagner for help.On Friday, Niger also faced new sanctions when the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation — which has signed $750 million in grant programs with the country since 2008 — suspended operations that focused on improving agriculture, women’s literacy and roads in Niger. The coup was “contrary to the principles of democratic governance,” the U.S. agency said.ECOWAS already has joined Western and European countries in imposing sanctions against Niger, including cutting the supply of its electricity from Nigeria and the closure of borders with the countries’ neighbors. Touray acknowledged Friday that those sanctions have resulted in “serious socio-economic crises” in Niger, but said the sanctions were “for the interest of the people of Niger.”___Associated Press journalist Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed to this report.