Day: September 6, 2023

World leaders were on Thursday set for a series of meetings on security and trade against a backdrop of simmering tensions and open conflicts in parts of the world, as an ASEAN-hosted summit in Indonesia entered its final day.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are attending the summit led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), along with leaders of partner countries Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and others.

An undercurrent of tension has accompanied the talks on issues from trade and technology to China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea, the Myanmar junta’s refusal to cooperate with ASEAN on a peace plan, and suspicion North Korea plans to supply weapons to Russia.

On Wednesday, China’s Li warned against starting a “new Cold War” and warned countries against taking sides in any conflict.

Harris, attending the meetings instead of President Joe Biden, reiterated a U.S. commitment to the region.

“The United States has an enduring commitment to Southeast Asia and more broadly to the Indo-Pacific,” she said.

A White House official said earlier the U.S. shared interests with ASEAN in “upholding the rules-based international order, including in the South China Sea, in the face of China’s unlawful maritime claims and provocative actions”.

The Chinese premier and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met briefly on the sidelines of the summit on Wednesday and discussed Japan’s release into the sea of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

An infuriated China has banned on all aquatic imports from Japan in response. It was not clear if the two would hold a bilateral meeting on Thursday.

Indonesia, chair of the 10-member ASEAN, is expected to symbolically hand over the chair to Laos on Thursday, though it will maintain the role until the end of the year.

A Japanese rocket bound for the moon took off early Thursday, offering relief to a battered national space program following a string of weather delays, major setbacks and high-profile failures.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s H2-A rocket lifted off around 8:42 a.m. local time from Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan. It was originally scheduled to launch in August but was delayed three times on concerns over bad weather.

The heavy payload rocket was launched carrying an advanced imaging satellite and a lightweight lander that was scheduled to reach the moon as early as January.

Around 9:30 a.m., the lander separated from the rocket and successfully began its journey to the lunar surface. 

Developed and built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., the H2-A is the agency’s most reliable rocket with just one failure out of 42 launches since 2001.

On Thursday it was carrying the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, among other things. Standing less than 3 meters (9.8 feet) tall, the lander could pave the way for other probes with high navigational accuracy.

The rocket is also carrying the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM, a satellite that will help scientists observe plasma in stars and galaxies.

The H2-A’s successor, the H3, was supposed to inherit the mantle earlier this year. Instead it failed twice to launch — the first time refusing to budge from its launch pad and the second time in more dramatic fashion, when a system malfunction forced operators to transmit a self-destruct code, rendering it inert before it fell carrying a satellite into the Philippine Sea.

The space race is heating up after India on Aug. 24 became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole. A Russian attempt at a lunar touch down in the same area a few days before ended in failure following an engine malfunction.

The U.S. plans to send the first humans to explore the area near the south pole later this decade, in a mission called Artemis III. China is also seeking to build a research station near the region and place astronauts on the moon by 2030.

A record number of children from Latin America and the Caribbean are leaving their homes in search of a better life, risking disease, injury and abuse, a United Nations children’s agency report said Wednesday, urging a stronger humanitarian response.

Driven by violence, destitution and severe weather, at least 40,000 children crossed the perilous Darien jungle separating Central and South America last year, compared with 29,000 in 2021 and several times more than in previous years.

In just the first six months of 2023, more than 40,000 children made the dangerous journey, indicating the total number is likely to be much higher at the end of the year.

Six hundred of the children were unaccompanied.

“Gang violence, instability, poverty and climate-related events are, alarmingly, gripping the region and pushing more children from their homes,” UNICEF regional director Garry Conille said in a statement.

“When they cross several countries and sometimes the entire region, disease and injury, family separation and abuse may plague their journeys and, even if they make it to their destination, their futures often remain at risk,” Conille added.

According to UNICEF, children represent 25% of migrants in the region, a proportion now as high as in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with about 13% worldwide.

And children under 11 make up nearly 91% of the displaced children in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Conille urged the international community to commit to a “stronger humanitarian response as well as the expansion of safe and regular migration pathways for children and families to help protect their rights and their futures, no matter where they are from.”

Whether they come from South America, Africa or Asia, a large number of these migrants seek to reach Mexico, the United States and Canada.

The number of children intercepted by the authorities at the southern border of the United States is also on the rise, UNICEF said.

Economic woes and depreciation of the yuan in China are affecting the lives of some Chinese immigrants thousands of miles away.

Zhai Li of Pasadena, California, has a consumer goods factory in China’s Xi’an, Shaanxi province, with her husband. Zhai and her son moved to Beijing so her son could attend elementary school there. She brought him back to the U.S. for middle school while her husband stayed in Xi’an to take care of the business.

“Usually, my husband sends us money for living expenses from China. We earn money in China and spend it here. I definitely don’t want the yuan to sag because my son’s tutoring fees and living expenses cost a lot every month,” Zhai said.

The Chinese yuan has slid to 7.3 to the U.S. dollar, a 10-month low and almost at the level of the 2008 global financial crisis, causing worry and uncertainty among some new Chinese immigrants living in the U.S.

“The factory at home can barely operate since the pandemic, which has greatly affected our income. I am really worried,” Zhai said.

She said that in the past, if people had a little extra money, they would want to spend it on more expensive things. Since the pandemic, people have run out of money. Many of them buy only what’s needed and not necessarily brand-name items, Zhai said.

“As the Chinese economy continues to deteriorate, the rate will likely exceed eight. Then, the yuan will become worthless like a piece of paper,” said Chinese immigrant Liu Pingfei, owner of a used-car dealership in Monterey Park, a Chinese enclave in the Los Angeles area.

Vicky Li, a businesswoman in Los Angeles, is more fortunate. She has stores in Los Angeles and Guangzhou specializing in dry goods.

“Usually, if business in China is good, I will exchange the yuan for U.S. dollars. If the business in the U.S. is better, I will exchange U.S. dollars for the yuan and then use it to purchase goods,” she said.

The weakness of the yuan “has little impact on me because my transactions are not very large, so it is still OK,” Li added.

Derek C. Tung has worked as a tax lawyer, accountant and financial planner in Los Angeles for 34 years. He works with many Chinese immigrant clients. He said the weak yuan would affect the middle class the most, and he expected the Chinese currency to continue to depreciate, chipping away at the purchasing power of people who depend on the yuan, such as Chinese students studying in the U.S.

“If you are not in the U.S. to invest but to study, and your parents are only working class, civil servants or ordinary workers in the private sector, with an annual income between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan ($13,666-$27,333), the weakness of the yuan will have a great impact on them,” Tung said.

Tung said he expected fewer Chinese to be traveling to the U.S. and buying real estate for investment in the future. However, people will still invest on a smaller scale and purchase primary residences, he said.  

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — The Jacksonville Beach Police Department is investigating after a toddler died after being left in a hot car in a church parking lot, according to reports.

The police department said it received a 911 call around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday about an unresponsive child.

Investigators said they found an unresponsive young girl dead after she was left in a car in the parking lot of a church located on 8th Avenue North in Jacksonville Beach.

Police said they believe the girl’s death was heat-related.

According to WJXT, Jacksonville Beach Police spokeswoman Sgt. T.L. Tator said the church is also home to a preschool during the day.

“We just have to right now figure out exactly what happened here today in this tragedy,” Tator told the news station. “It affects everybody. It affects not only the parishioners, and it affects the community, it affects the officers, so we just ask that everybody keep that family and their thoughts and prayers.”

No other details were immediately available.

WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Pushing back on concerns about his health, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he would not resign his Senate seat nor step aside as the top Senate Republican.

“I’m going to finish my term as leader,” McConnell said. “And I’m going to finish my Senate term.”  

In July, the 81-year-old Kentuckian froze during a news conference in the U.S. Capitol for about 20 seconds. Last week, he went silent for about 30 seconds when answering a reporter’s question about whether he planned to run for reelection.

Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician of Capitol Hill, said in a letter Tuesday that he examined McConnell and there was “no evidence” of a stroke, seizure disorder or movement disorder like Parkinson’s disease. McConnell told reporters he had “nothing to add” to the report when asked about what caused the freezing incidents.   

But the recent health concerns of lawmakers have sparked political debate on the issue of age and their ability to serve. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Senate’s oldest member at 90, has ignored calls to resign despite repeatedly appearing confused and forgetful since her return to Washington in May after a months-long absence due to shingles.

As the 2024 presidential race kicks into high gear, there is a possibility of a rematch between some of the oldest candidates in American history. President Joe Biden, 80, is already the oldest sitting president in the White House, and he hopes to remain in office until 86. His likely Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump, trails him in age by only 3 1/2 years.

Biden tried to defuse questions about his age in a Labor Day speech in Philadelphia saying, “the only thing that comes with age, is a little bit of wisdom.”

Overall, 80% of registered voters said they are concerned about Biden’s age affecting his ability to serve another four-year term effectively, according to the latest NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ Poll released Tuesday.  

About 63% of those surveyed felt the same way about Trump.  

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv Wednesday on his fourth trip to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in early 2022. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports, with Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson contributing. VOA footage by Saqib Ul Islam.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Venezuela owes millions to the United Nations in back dues but is having difficulty paying them in part due to U.S. sanctions.

As the new session of the U.N. General Assembly opened on Tuesday, member states were told that four countries are in deep arrears and could potentially lose their right to vote on resolutions.

Those countries are Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia and Venezuela. It is not the first time they find themselves in this position — all have had problems meeting the minimum payments before.

A country can lose its right to vote in the General Assembly if its arrears equal or exceed the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two years.

Venezuela owes the most — just over $76 million — if it wants to retain its right to vote. Somalia is a distant second with $1.2 million in arrears, and the African nations of Comoros and Sao Tome each owe under $1 million.

“The General Assembly may, nevertheless, commit such a member to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member,” Dennis Francis, the newly sworn-in president of the General Assembly, told the meeting.

The assembly took note of the information on the arrears.

While the United States provides humanitarian assistance to the Venezuelan people, it has limited economic engagement with the regime of Nicolas Maduro, which it considers illegitimate.

Since 2017, Washington has imposed extensive bilateral sanctions on the regime for “its extensive corruption, economic mismanagement and violation of international norms.”

“In the past, Venezuela has tried to find alternative methods of payment to avoid some of the problems they face in terms of access to the banking system in the United States,” a U.N. spokesperson told VOA. “So, when, as needed, the U.N. has tried to assist that effort.”

As of September 1, 133 of the United Nations’ 193 member states have fully paid their dues for 2023.