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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015677

Finland and Sweden on Wednesday formally applied to join the Nato alliance at allied headquarters, a decision spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and setting in motion an accession process that is expected to take only a few weeks.

Sweden and Finland were both neutral throughout the Cold War, and their decision to join Nato is one of the most significant changes in Europe’s security architecture for decades, reflecting a sweeping shift in public opinion in the Nordic region since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

“The applications you have made today are a historic step. Nato allies will now consider the next steps on the path to Nato. The security interests of all allies have to be taken into account, and we are determined to work through all issues and reach a rapid conclusion,” Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at a short ceremony in which the Swedish and Finnish ambassadors to the alliance handed over their application letters, each in a white folder embossed with their national flag.

Ratification of all 30 allied parliaments could take up to a year, diplomats say.

Turkey has surprised its allies in recent days by saying it had reservations about Finnish and Swedish membership.

Published : May 18, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015660

A freight train departed Tuesday morning from Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei Province, to Laos’ Luang Prabang, marking the launch of Hubei’s first international freight train that runs via the China-Laos Railway.

The train is loaded with 1,650 tonnes of fertilizer materials and scheduled to arrive in Luang Prabang in seven to ten days.

The route will expand the trade channel between Hubei and major cities of Southeast Asian countries and promote regional economic trade exchanges and people-to-people exchanges.

“The opening of the route is good news for enterprises as the transportation time between the two localities via the railway will save more than half compared with the traditional shipping mode. The logistics cost will also reduce a great deal. Enterprises will likely ship more goods through this line,” said Xiong Yunfeng, the general manager of a local agricultural product company.

Published : May 18, 2022

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015650

Clashes erupted in the Libyan capital on Tuesday as the parliament-appointed prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, tried to take control of the government from a rival administration that has refused to cede power.

Bashagha entered Tripoli overnight after two months of stalemate between Libya’s rival administrations, but withdrew hours later as fighting rocked the capital, his office said.

The crisis risks plunging Libya back into prolonged fighting after two years of comparative peace or returning it to partition between the eastern-backed government of Bashagha and a Tripoli administration under Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah.

The stalemate has already led to a partial blockade of Libya’s oil facilities, cutting its main source of foreign revenue by half. Diplomacy to resolve the crisis or lay the ground for new elections is making slow progress.

The sound of heavy weapons and automatic gunfire crashed across the capital on Tuesday morning, as schools were cancelled and the normally heavy rush hour traffic was sparse.

However, in central areas, away from the clashes on the northeast side of Tripoli, there was little evidence of military activity with the government of Bashagha’s rival Dbeibah still in apparent control.

Bashagha had entered Tripoli overnight accompanied by allied fighters in the hope of taking over the government but was quickly met by opposition from forces aligned with Dbeibah, who was appointed through an UN-backed process last year.

Bashagha’s office had released a statement saying his government would carry out its duties from inside the capital but later said he and accompanying ministers would depart to prevent civilian deaths.

The effort came after previous attempts by Bashagha to enter Tripoli ended peacefully when his convoy was turned back by groups allied to Dbeibah.

Battlefront

Libya has had little security since the 2011 Nato-backed uprising that ousted Mu’ammar Gaddafi and it split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions before a 2020 truce that brought it under a fragile unity government.

A plan to hold an election in December collapsed amid arguments among major factions and prominent candidates over the rules and the parliament, which had sided with the east during the war, moved to appoint a new administration.

The unity government’s prime minister, Dbeibah, rejected the parliament’s moves saying his administration was still valid and he would only hand over power after an election.

Bashagha, a former interior minister who like Dbeibah comes from the powerful coastal city of Misrata, has repeatedly said he would enter Tripoli without violence. His previous attempts to do so ended with his convoy blocked by rival factions.

Last week, the parliament said Bashagha’s government could work for now from Sirte, a central city near the frozen front line between eastern and western factions.

Published : May 17, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015621

The force holed up in the last Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged port of Mariupol began evacuating on Monday, appearing to cede control of the city to Russia after months of bombardment.

Five buses carrying troops from the Azovstal steelworks arrived in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk late on Monday, some 32 kilometres (20 miles) to the east, a Reuters witness said.

Some of the evacuated troops were wounded and carried out of the buses on stretchers. Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Anna Malyar said 53 were taken to a hospital.

It was not immediately clear how many troops were aboard the buses. Malyar said 211 other troops were taken to another site. Some 600 troops were believed to have been inside the steel plant.

“We hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday night.

The Ukrainian regiment at the steel plant said it was fulfilling orders to save the lives of troops by evacuating them.

Published : May 17, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015618

The issue of NATO enlargement is largely artificial, and is being used by the United States as a foreign policy tool, Putin said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Moscow would respond if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would deploy military infrastructure on the territories of Finland or Sweden.
 

“The expansion of military infrastructure into these territories would certainly trigger our response, which would depend on the kind of threats this would pose for us,” the Kremlin cited the president as saying at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow.

Putin added that the issue of NATO enlargement is largely artificial, and is being used by the United States as a foreign policy tool.

“NATO is being used as a foreign policy instrument by one country, and this is being done quite persistently, skillfully and very aggressively,” Putin said, further pointing out that the situation has a deteriorating effect on international security.

Both Finland and Sweden have announced decisions to apply for the NATO membership.

On Sunday, Finland’s president and the government’s foreign policy committee took the official decision to start the process of the country’s application to become a NATO member. Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced on Monday the official decision to start the process of the country’s application to become a NATO member.

Published : May 17, 2022

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015617

A dust storm swept across much of Iraq on Monday, sending more than 2,000 people to hospitals with respiratory problems and forcing the closure of airports, schools and some government offices.

The severe dust storm forced the Iraqi authorities to suspend flights for several hours in Baghdad, Najaf, and Sulaimaniyah airports, according to Iraqi officials.

Monday’s dust storm is one of the several storms that hit Iraq during the past month as a result of climatic change, lack of vegetation cover, and rapid desertification.

Iraqi meteorologists and health officials have warned of the impact of the increasing storms on the health and lives of citizens in the absence of solutions.

A dust storm hits Baghdad, Iraq, on May 16, 2022. A dust storm swept across much of Iraq on Monday, sending more than 2,000 people to hospitals with respiratory problems and forcing the closure of airports, schools and some government offices. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

An Iraqi patient receives medical treatment at a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, on May 05, 2022. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

A strong dust storm hits Baghdad, Iraq, April 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

Published : May 17, 2022

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015603

As the sun rose over another day on the outskirts of the Indian capital of New Delhi, construction worker Yogendra Tundre squatted beside a tap for a shower before heading to work.

Life at a building site is laborious and hard enough, but 29-year-old Tundre now has to contend with an unprecedented heatwave and record high temperatures.

“There is too much heat and if we don’t work, what will we eat? For a few days, we work and then we sit idle for a few days because of tiredness and heat,” Tundre said.

Temperatures in New Delhi have touched 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) this year, often causing Tundre, and his wife Lata, who works at the same construction site, to fall sick. That in turn means they lose income.

“Because of the heat, sometimes I don’t go to work. I take days off. Many times I fall sick from dehydration and then require glucose bottles [intravenous fluids],” Lata said while standing outside their house, a temporary shanty with a tin roof.

Scientists have linked the early onset of an intense summer to climate change, and say more than a billion people in India and neighbouring Pakistan were in some way at risk from the extreme heat.

India suffered its hottest March in more than 100 years. April saw many places, including New Delhi, record unusually high temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius on most days. More than two dozen people have died of suspected heat stroke since late March, and power demand has hit multi-year highs.

Tundre and Lata live with their two young children near the construction site in Noida, a satellite city of New Delhi. They moved from their home state of Chhattisgarh in central India to seek work and higher wages in Delhi, leaving their eldest son in the care of his maternal grandparents.

On the construction site, labourers of both genders carry heavy loads, scale-up walls and lay concrete.

“All of us are working under the scorching sun in such heat. One will fall ill and then has to run for the doctor, and the doctors will charge 500 rupees [about THB200] when they could have done with just 200 rupees,” said Sikandar Miyan, a construction worker using a ragged scarf around his head as protection against the sun.

Avikal Somvanshi, an urban environment researcher from India’s Centre for Science and Environment, said government data showed that heat stress was the most common cause of death, after lightning, from forces of nature in the last 20 years.

There are no laws in India that prevent outdoor activity when temperatures reach a certain level, unlike in some Middle Eastern countries, Somvanshi added.

Even when Tundre and Lata finish their day’s work, they have a little respite from the heat, as their home has absorbed heat all day long.

“It is very hot here. How can one live peacefully?” questioned Tundre, after a simple dinner prepared by Lata over an earthen oven.

“There is no resting here,” he added wistfully, beneath a half-moon in the sky.

Published : May 16, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015599

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Monday that the country will spare no effort to help North Korea, as the isolated nation battles a Covid-19 outbreak, and reiterated he will remain open for.

“If North Korea responds [to our support], we will spare no medicines including Covid-19 vaccines, medical equipment and health personnel,” said Yoon in a speech at the plenary session of the National Assembly.

North Korea acknowledged for the first time last week that it is battling an “explosive” Covid-19 outbreak, with experts raising concerns that the virus could devastate a country with limited medical supplies and no vaccine programme.

Overall North Korea has reported 1,210,000 suspected cases, with 564,860 still under medical treatment, as the death toll rose to 50 according to the North’s KCNA news agency.

Separately in the speech, Yoon also said he will discuss with US President Joe Biden ways to strengthen cooperation on the global supply chain through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

Biden is scheduled to visit the country on Friday.

Published : May 16, 2022

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015598

A gunman opened fire in a Southern California church during a lunch banquet on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five others, before churchgoers detained the suspect and hog-tied his legs with an electrical cord, authorities said.

Police responded to the incident that unfolded at about 1.30pm local time at the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods and arrested an unidentified suspect in his 60s, Orange County undersheriff Jeff Hallock told the press.

One person died at the scene while four other victims were critically wounded. Another person suffered minor injuries, he said, adding that all the injured have been taken to hospital.

About 30 to 40 people were in the church when the shooting occurred, Hallock said.

Two handguns were found at the scene.

Local residents said there were shocked by the shooting.

“Uh, shocking. I just … It surprises me. I mean, it’s usually been pretty cool and low key. And to have this happen, I don’t know what to say. I’m just dumbfounded,” said Kevin Smith, a 65-year-old who lives in an apartment building across the street from the church.

“It’s just too close to home for me. And maybe news people are used to seeing stuff like this, but not me. And I’m traumatised,” said Elaine Theisis, a resident.

“No one should have to fear going to their place of worship. Our thoughts are with the victims, community, and all those impacted by this tragic event,” Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said on Twitter.

This was at least the second mass shooting of the weekend in the United States, which has been plagued with gun violence in recent years. In Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, a white 18-year-old man opened fire at a supermarket in a mostly black neighbourhood, killing 10 and wounding three in what authorities described as a purely racist attack

Published : May 16, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40015573

Nato will find a sensible solution to accept Finland and Sweden as new members to the alliance despite Turkish concerns, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevics said on Saturday.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was “unacceptable and outrageous” that prospective new Nato members gave support to the PKK Kurdish militant group, potentially complicating the alliance’s enlargement.

“We have had those discussions in the alliance many times before. I think that we have always found sensible solutions and that we will find one this time also,” Rinkevics told the media as he arrived for a meeting with his Nato counterparts in Berlin.

“Swedish and Finnish membership is of paramount importance to the whole alliance, and ultimately also to Turkey,” he added.

Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said Russian President Putin had inadvertently created a rebirth for Nato.

“Nato is evolving from being brain dead in 2019 to having a rebirth in 2022, thanks to Putin. Nato is also getting bigger now, I am convinced, without much effort, also thanks to Putin,” he said.

Asseleborn said that while Turkey’s concerns were reasonable, he could not imagine one country blocking Sweden and Finland’s accession.

“If both countries want this, and it seems to be going in this direction, then none of the 30 countries should oppose it,” he said.

Joining the 30-nation Western military alliance would end the neutrality of Sweden and Finland the two states maintained throughout the Cold War. It would further the expansion of Nato that Russian President Vladimir Putin said his invasion of Ukraine aimed to prevent.

Moscow has said Finland’s entry into Nato poses a threat to which it will respond, but it has not specified how.

Nato foreign ministers will continue their meeting into Sunday.

Published : May 15, 2022

By : Reuters