CHINA
Envoy to WTO removed
Senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang (李成鋼) has been removed from his post as permanent representative to the WTO, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, just days after US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent described him as “unhinged.” Li, during a visit to Washington in August, had allegedly threatened that “China would unleash chaos on the global system if the US went ahead with our docking fees for Chinese ships,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday last week, adding that his behavior was “slightly unhinged.” Xinhua yesterday published a list of ambassadorial appointments and changes, including the removal of Li as WTO envoy. Asked if the move was related to Bessent’s comments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “This is a routine personnel change.” Li remains China’s international trade representative and vice minister of commerce.
Photo: Reuters
AUSTRALIA
PLA jet maneuver ‘unsafe’
Canberra yesterday raised concerns with Beijing after a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares near one of its maritime patrol planes, labeling the incident “unsafe and unprofessional.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) jet released flares in close proximity to an Australian maritime patrol plane carrying out surveillance in the South China Sea, posing a risk to the latter craft and its crew, the Department of Defence said in a statement. “On two occasions, it released flares very close to the [Australian patrol plane] P-8,” Minister for Defence Richard Marles said in a TV interview with Sky News Australia. “And it’s really that, the proximity at which the flares were released, which has given us cause to deem this unsafe and unprofessional.” Marles said the government had raised its concerns with the Chinese embassy in Canberra and through the Australian embassy in Beijing. The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
SOUTH KOREA
US acting envoy leaving
Acting US ambassador to South Korea Joseph Yun is to leave his position on Friday, the US embassy in Seoul said in a social media post yesterday. “The State Department expresses its deep appreciation to Ambassador Yun for his leadership and dedication in advancing the United States’ interests and further strengthening our enduring and ironclad commitment to the US-Republic of Korea Alliance,” the embassy wrote on X. Local media, including newspaper Hankyoreh, on Sunday reported that US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Japan, Korea and Mongolia Kevin Kim is expected to replace Yun as acting US ambassador to Seoul without citing a clear source. Yun leaving his post comes days before US President Donald Trump is expected to visit South Korea later this month for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
UNITED STATES
AWS cloud hit by outage
Amazon Web Services (AWS) yesterday morning reported a widespread disruption that affected services on other platforms. “We can confirm increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region.” Amazon.com Inc said on the AWS health dashboard. User complaints began spiking just after 7:30am London time, with data from Down Detector showing thousands of user reports. Artificial intelligence firm Perplexity said the AWS service disruption was “affecting the stability of the website.” A representative for Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment as of press time last night.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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