Day: September 15, 2023

“They knew.”

When hydrologist Abdul Wanis Ashour began researching the system of dams protecting the eastern Libya port town of Derna 17 years ago, the peril facing residents was already no secret, he said.

“When I gathered the data, I found a number of problems in the Derna Valley: in the cracks present in the dams, the amount of rainfall and repeated floods,” he told Reuters. “I found also a number of reports warning of a disaster taking place in the Derna Valley basin if the dams were not maintained.”

In an academic paper he published last year, Ashour warned that if the dams were not urgently maintained, the city faced a potential catastrophe.

“There were warnings before that. The state knew of this well, whether through experts in the Public Water Commission or the foreign companies that came to assess the dam,” he said. “The Libyan government knew what was going on in the Derna River Valley and the danger of the situation for a very long time.”

This week, the “catastrophe” that Ashour had warned of in the pages of the Sebha University Journal of Pure & Applied Sciences, unfolded just as he said it would.

On the night of Sept. 10, the Derna Wadi, a dry riverbed most of the year, burst the dams built to hold it back when rains pour into the hills, and swept away much of the city below. Thousands of people are dead and thousands more still missing.

Abdulqader Mohamed Alfakhakhri, 22, said he made it to the roof of his four-storey building and was spared, watching as neighbours on their own rooftops were washed out to sea: “holding their phones with lights on and shaking their hands and screaming.”

With the bodies still being gathered from underneath flattened buildings and the seashore where they have been washing up, many Libyans are angry that warnings were ignored that could have possibly prevented the worst disaster in the country’s modern history.

“A lot of people are responsible for this. The dam wasn’t fixed, so now it’s a disaster,” said Alwad Alshawly, an English teacher who had spent three days burying bodies as a rescue volunteer, in an emotional video uploaded to the internet.

“It is human error, and no one is going to pay a price for it.”

Spokespeople for the government in Tripoli and the eastern administration which governs Derna did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Authorities tried to repair the dams above Derna as far back as 2007, when a Turkish company was awarded a contract to work on them. In his report, hydrologist Ashour cites an unpublished 2006 study from the Water Resources Ministry on “the danger of the situation.”

But in 2011, Libya’s long-serving ruler Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in a NATO-backed uprising and civil war, and for years after Derna was held by a succession of militant Islamist factions, including Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

The Turkish company, Arsel, lists a project on its website to repair the Derna dams as having begun in 2007 and been completed in 2012. The company did not answer its phone or respond to an emailed request for comment.

Omar al-Moghairbi, spokesperson for a Water Resources Ministry committee investigating the dams’ collapse, told Reuters the contractor had been unable to complete the works because of the security situation, and had not returned when requested.

“Budgets were allocated but the contractor was not there,” he said.

Even if the renovation work had been carried out, the dams would have failed, Moghairbi said, because the water level after Storm Daniel’s deluge exceeded the structure’s capacity, although the damage to Derna would not have been as severe.

Two officials at Derna municipality also told Reuters work on the dams contracted before Gaddafi’s fall had been impossible to carry out afterwards because the city was occupied by Islamic State and besieged for several years.

Even after the city was recaptured by the administration running the east of the country, work did not resume.

In 2021, a report by Libya’s Audit Bureau cited “inaction” by the Water Resources Ministry, saying it had failed to move forward with maintenance work on the two main dams above Derna.

The report said that 2.3 million euros ($2.45 million) had been earmarked for maintenance and rehabilitation of the dams but only part of the funds were deducted. It did not say whether those funds had been spent, or on what.

Critics of the authorities say they are to blame not only for failing to repair the dams, but for leaving residents of Derna in harm’s way as the storm approached.

Speaking on the pan-Arab al-Hadath channel, Derna mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi said on Friday he “personally ordered evacuating the city three or four days before the disaster.”

However, if such an order was given, it does not appear to have been implemented. Some residents reported hearing police tell them to leave the area, but few seem to have left.

Other official sources told residents to stay: a video posted by the Derna Security Directorate on Sunday announced a curfew from Sunday night “as part of the security measures to face the expected weather conditions”.

Even as the catastrophe was unfolding on Sunday night, the Water Resources Ministry issued a post on its Facebook page telling residents not to worry.

“The dams are in good condition and things are under control” it said. The ministry spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the post.

The head of the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Petteri Taalas, said on Thursday that in a country with a functioning weather agency, the huge loss of life could have been avoided.

“The emergency management authorities would have been able to carry out evacuation of the people. And we could have avoided most of the human casualties.”

Apportioning blame is never simple in Libya, where dozens of armed factions have waged war on-and-off with no government having nationwide authority since Gaddafi fell.

The internationally recognised Libyan government based in the capital Tripoli in the west of the country has no sway in the east, under a rival administration controlled by the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Hafter.

In Derna, the situation is even more troubled. Haftar’s forces captured it from the Islamist groups in 2019 and still control it, but uneasily.

Libya’s problem is not a lack of resources. Despite 12 years of chaos it is still a comparatively wealthy country, sparsely populated and pumping out oil that yields a decidedly middle-income per capita GDP above $6,000.

It has a decades-long history of massive engineering projects, above all on managing water in the desert. Gaddafi’s Great Manmade River, for example, brings water some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) from aquifers deep under the Sahara to the coast.

But since Gaddafi’s fall, the oil wealth has been disbursed among competing groups that control the administrative apparatus, becoming almost impossible to trace.

Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, head of the Tripoli government, on Thursday blamed negligence, political divisions, war, and “lost money” for uncompleted work on the dams.

In the eastern-based parliament in Benghazi, speaker Aguila Saleh sought to deflect blame from authorities, describing what happened as an “unprecedented natural disaster” and saying people should not focus on what could or should have been done.

In Derna, residents have known about the danger posed by the dams for generations, said history teacher Yousef Alfkakhri 63, who rattled off the years of smaller floods dating back to the 1940s. But the terror of Sunday night was incomparable.

“When the water started flowing into the house, me and my two sons with their wives escaped to the roof. The water was faster than us and flowing between the stairs,” he recalled.

“Everyone was praying, crying, we saw the death,” he said, describing the rushing water as sounding “like a snake.”

“We lost thousands in all the wars in the past ten years, but in Derna we lost them in one day.”

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The S&P 500 and Dow futures rose on Friday as investors remained optimistic about a likely pause in U.S. interest-rate hikes, while chip-equipment firms and automakers dropped in premarket trading.

Applied Materials (AMAT.O), Lam Research (LRCX.O) and KLA Corp (KLAC.O) fell nearly 2% each after Reuters reported Taiwan’s TSMC (2330.TW), the world’s top chipmaker, had asked vendors to delay delivery of high-end chipmaking equipment, weighing down Nasdaq futures.

Automakers Ford Motor (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N) shed 1.2% and 1.9%, respectively, after the United Auto Workers union launched simultaneous strikes at three factories owned by the “Detroit Three”, including Chrysler-owner Stellantis (STLAM.MI), marking the most ambitious U.S. industrial labor action in decades.

SoftBank’s Arm Holdings gained 6.5% after a stellar Nasdaq debut on Thursday, rekindling hopes of a turnaround in the initial public offering (IPO) market.

“Move aside Nvidia, there’s a new player in town and its name is Arm,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“When a stock goes up 25% in a day, there will naturally be FOMO among investors – fear of missing out. That might explain why its shares look like they will jump again today.”

Arm’s strong debut prompted grocery delivery app Instacart to raise the proposed price range for its IPO to target a fully diluted valuation of up to $10 billion.

Investors are also focused on Neumora Therapeutics’ (NMRA.O) debut later in the day after the SoftBank-backed firm raised $250 mln in its U.S. IPO.

Wall Street’s main indexes gained on Thursday after hotter-than-expected economic data eased worries about a recession without raising fears of a U.S. interest rate hike next week.

Traders’ bets on the Federal Reserve holding rates steady in its Sept. 20 policy meeting remained intact at 97%, while their odds for a pause in November stood at nearly 65%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Investors will monitor August industrial production and the University of Michigan’s preliminary reading of consumer sentiment due later in the day.

Upbeat data on China’s factory output and retail sales in August bolstered market sentiment, as it suggested that a flurry of recent measures to shore up the world’s second-largest economy were starting to bear fruit.

U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holdings , JD.com , PDD Holdings (PDD.O) and Xpeng rose between 0.1% and 1.6%.

At 7:10 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 85 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 6 points, or 0.13%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4.5 points, or 0.03%.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Volodymyr Zelenskiy will visit the U.S. Congress next week, according to media reports, after a U.S. official earlier said the Ukrainian president was expected to meet with U.S. President Biden on Thursday.

Punchbowl News on Friday said Zelenskiy’s visit with Congress was tentatively scheduled for Thursday. The Washington Post also reported Zelenskiy was set to travel to the U.S. Congress on Thursday, while the Wall Street Journal said he would meet with U.S. lawmakers.

Representatives for Zelenskiy and congressional leaders could not be immediately reached for comment on the reports.

Zelenskiy is expected to head to Washington next week following his trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly meeting, the U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday.

His visit comes as Biden, a Democrat, presses U.S. lawmakers to provide an additional $24 billion for Ukraine and other international needs amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.

Any funds must be approved by Congress. Biden’s fellow Democrats control the U.S. Senate, but Republicans narrowly control the U.S. House of Representatives and have signaled resistance to the additional funding request for Ukraine.

Former Spanish soccer chief Luis Rubiales headed into the High Court in Madrid on Friday to face questioning by a judge over a complaint of sexual assault stemming from his allegedly unsolicited kiss on the lips of player Jenni Hermoso.

The incident, which occurred at the medal ceremony after Spain’s women’s team won the World Cup in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 20, has triggered a furore over sexism in Spanish sport and society and led to protests similar to the “Me Too” movement.

Rubiales, 46, insists the kiss was consensual, while Hermoso says it was forced upon her.

Dressed in a black suit over a white shirt, Rubiales arrived at court with his lawyer Olga Tubau 50 minutes before the scheduled hearing, which takes place behind closed doors. He did not speak to the media waiting outside.

After weeks of resisting calls from players, politicians and women’s groups for him to step down as president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Rubiales finally quit his position on Sept. 10.

But he remains unrepentant, saying he acted with consent in a moment of celebration and joy.

As he went to court, women players, including the World Cup-wining squad, said they would continue their boycott of the national side until there were changes in the federation set-up.

Rubiales’ court appearance concerns a complaint filed by state prosecutor Marta Durantez Gil with the High Court after Hermoso told prosecutors that Rubiales kissed her on the mouth without her consent while holding her head with both hands.

The prosecutor added a possible crime of coercion after Hermoso said she and her relatives were put under pressure by Rubiales and his entourage to say that she approved what happened.

Judge Francisco de Jorge is in charge of the investigation, which must precede any formal charges under Spanish law and will decide whether the case goes to trial. If it does, he could face between one and four years imprisonment if found guilty.

“In criminal proceedings, being able to prove consent becomes crucial,” legal expert Gonzalo Jimenez, partner at law firm Martinez Echevarria, told Reuters.

It was important to prove malice or intentionality, as in sexual assault cases only malicious, intended acts are punished, he said.

De Jorge has ordered media, including state broadcaster TVE, to send him footage of the incident and subsequent videos such as one with the players celebrating on a bus with Rubiales and referring to the kiss in what appeared to be a light-hearted manner. The investigation could take several months.

The legal case will also be a public test of the leftist coalition government’s flagship “Solo si es si” (Only yes is yes) law that puts consent at the heart of sexual relations.

Many players, sports bodies and politicians have backed Hermoso in a campaign coalescing around the hashtag #SeAcabó (It’s Over) on social media.

More than 80 of Spain’s top female players, including the 23 world champions, have refused to play for the national team until there are changes in the RFEF management line-up and style.

On Friday, the players told the RFEF they would continue with their boycott despite Rubiales’ resignation and the replacement of team coach Jorge Vilda with his assistant Montse Tome.

Spain’s male-dominated football establishment was dealt another blow on Thursday after police arrested three Real Madrid youth players for allegedly distributing a sexual video featuring a minor.

The mother of a 16-year-old in the Canary Islands filed a complaint about the video that she said was taken without her consent, police said.

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Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) decision to not seek reelection is setting off a scramble among Utah Republicans to fill his seat in 2024. 

A moderate Republican and an outspoken critic of former President Trump, Romney announced on Wednesday that he’ll retire when his first term in the upper chamber ends in 2025, calling for a “new generation of leaders.” His exit likely opens the door for other, more conservative contenders to flood into the contest. 

Utah GOP Chairman Robert Axson told The Hill that roughly 30 people have expressed interest over the last few months in running for Romney’s seat. Of those, he estimated a dozen are “seriously considering right now.”  

“This is going to be a blockbuster Republican primary election,” said Damon Cann, head of Utah State University’s department of political science. “No doubt about it. We don’t see a lot of open Senate seats in Utah.”

Romney is a political legend in Utah, and if he’d run for reelection, he would have started out as the favorite.

Yet his exit also may be a sign of the changing times in the state, the country and the Republican Party itself.

Romney is the only Republican to vote to convict Trump on impeachment charges twice, and has repeatedly been willing to stand up to the former president in the Senate.

Those votes made it highly likely he’d have faced GOP challengers, and his exit could lead to a more open race.

Cann said Romney’s decision will likely spur still more people to jump into the GOP race.  

“Previously, I wouldn’t have predicted many more entrants into that race. Now I suspect we’re going to see a veritable landslide of candidates trying to run for the Republican nomination,” Cann said.

Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs has already declared his candidacy, and thanked Romney for stepping aside on Wednesday.  

In an interview with One America News, the mayor said he also anticipates “a lot of would-be challengers now popping up” to surge into the race in Romney’s absence.  

Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson has launched an exploratory committee for the Senate post. In a statement on Romney’s decision not to seek re-election, Wilson teased “stay tuned.” 

Wilson said it’s important “to elect a strong conservative fighter” to the U.S. Senate, and Staggs’s website advertises him as the “conservative fighter we need in D.C.”  

Multiple other names are being floated as possible contenders for the Beehive State’s upper chamber seat — among them, current Utah Republican Reps. John Curtis and Blake Moore.

Curtis said on Wednesday it’s “encouraging to hear from friends urging me to run for Senate,” but was noncommittal about a possible bid.

“Be it in the House or Senate, there’s much to accomplish & I look forward to getting things done,” Curtis wrote. 

Moore told Axios that he’s “not ruling anything out” but that he’s “not planning on anything.” 

Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz is seen by some as a possible candidate, as is Tim Ballard, the founder and former CEO of Operation Underground Railroad and the inspiration for the controversial film “Sound of Freedom.” 

“I do hope Utah ultimately elects, a solid, proven, and tested conservative to deal with the biggest and most tumultuous issues facing our country and the State of Utah,” Chaffetz wrote after Romney’s announcement. 

A Noble Predictive Insights poll of Utah Republican voters, conducted in July, found that “a race without Romney is wide open.” 

In that hypothetical, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes was the only possible contender to score double-digits, while more than half of Utah GOP voters said they were undecided.  

Reyes has announced he won’t get in the Senate race and is running for reelection as attorney general, and teased that he’ll be backing someone else who could announce a bid in the coming days. 

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines, who has said establishment Republicans are planning to be more selective and active in recruiting candidates in 2024, said after Romney’s announcement that “we are going to nominate a candidate who will keep Utah red in 2024.” 

A spokesperson for Utah Democrats, on the other hand, told The Hill that the race to replace Romney “is going to be a contest for Utah Republicans to out-MAGA one another.”  

Whoever ultimately wins the post will join Lee, who beat out Republican-turned-independent candidate Evan McMullin to win reelection in last year’s midterms.  

Unlike Romney, Lee voted against Trump’s impeachments and was endorsed by the former president last year.  

“Yes, it’s a same-party pair, but about as far apart as you can get with a-same party pair with Mike Lee and Mitt Romney,” Cann said of Utah’s two sitting senators. 

Gabi Finlayson, a founding partner at the Utah-based progressive consulting firm Elevate Strategies, said progressives in the state are sad to see Romney go, noting that “there’s not a lot of room for moderates in the GOP anymore.” 

But Finlayson also thinks Utah will be one of the next states to flip blue, citing its young population and its fast growth in recent years.  

Though she conceded the race isn’t likely to get close enough to be a real toss-up or pickup opportunity for Democrats, Finlayson predicted that whatever Democrat runs for Romney’s seat “will perform better than any Democrat that we’ve seen on a statewide level.” 

No Democrat has filed yet for the Senate contest. Both upper chamber seats in Utah have been filled by Republicans for decades, with Romney’s last occupied by Sen. Orrin Hatch for more than 40 years.  

“The Utah Senate race to replace Sen. Romney will be a case study in the future direction of the party,” said one Republican strategist. “The fact that Romney is retiring after one term in the Senate shows that the old guard of the Republican Party is prepared to step aside for new leadership.” 

Mr. Hajiyev: You watch the “serious corruption allegations” against Azerbaijan and against your own boss, Ilham Aliyev. See “Azerbaijani Laundromat”, for example. https://t.co/hcflWVkVzu | https://t.co/6RNDrLHCin… | South Caucasus News | #SouthCaucasus #News |… pic.twitter.com/rDSsB7Cy4B

— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) September 13, 2023

The United Auto Workers union launched simultaneous strikes at three factories owned by General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent Stellantis early on Friday, kicking off the most ambitious U.S. industrial labor action in decades.

The walkouts at the “Detroit Three” will halt production of the Ford Bronco, Jeep Wrangler and Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck, along with other popular models. UAW President Shawn Fain said the union will hold off for now on more costly company-wide strikes, but said all options are open if new contracts are not agreed.

Fain laid out plans for the unprecedented, simultaneous walkouts in a Facebook Live address less than two hours before the expiration of the old contract.

The walkouts capped weeks of clashes between Fain and Detroit Three executives over union demands for a bigger share of profits generated by combustion trucks, and stronger job security as automakers shift to electric vehicles.

“For the first time in our history we will strike all three of the Big Three,” Fain said.

The strikes involving a combined 12,700 workers will take place at assembly plants operated by Ford (F.N) in Wayne, Michigan, GM (GM.N) in Wentzville, Missouri and Stellantis’ (STLAM.MI) Jeep brand in Toledo, Ohio. They are critical to the production of some of the Detroit Three’s most profitable vehicles.

Fain’s decision to go with targeted walkouts could limit the cost to the union of strike pay. The UAW has a strike fund of $825 million, which pales in comparisons to billions in liquidity the automakers have built up thanks to robust profits from the trucks and SUVs UAW members build.

Stellantis has more than 90 days worth of Jeeps in stock, and has been building SUVs and trucks on overtime, according to Cox Automotive data.

But a week-long shutdown at Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo could cut revenue by more than $380 million, based on data from the company’s financial reports.

“This is more of a symbolic strike than an actual damaging one,” said Sam Fiorani, a production forecaster at Auto Forecast Solutions, who added that he had expected more in the first wave of the strike.

“If the negotiations don’t go in a direction that Fain thinks is positive, we can fully expect a larger strike coming in a week or two,” he said.

Fiorani estimated the limited action would stop production of about 24,000 vehicles a week. And while it targets some key brands, like the Bronco, buyers would be willing to wait, for now.

The union has said it wants a 40% raise. The companies have offered up to 20%, but without key benefits demanded by the union. None of the Detroit Three has proposed eliminating tiered wage systems that require new hires to stay on the job for eight years to earn the same as veteran workers – a central UAW demand.

Ford said the UAW’s latest proposals would double its U.S. labor costs and make it uncompetitive against Tesla (TSLA.O) and other non-union rivals. A walkout could mean that UAW profit-sharing checks for this year would be “decimated,” the company said.

Stellantis responded to the union walkout by saying it had immediately put the company in “contingency mode” and would take all of the appropriate structural decisions to protect the company and its North American operations, without elaborating.

Fain said earlier this week that Stellantis had proposed shutting as many as 18 U.S. facilities.

GM said it was disappointed by the walkout, and would continue to “bargain in good faith.”

Ahead of Fain’s address, GM’s top manufacturing executive Gerald Johnson said in a video that the UAW’s wage and benefits proposals would cost the automaker $100 billion, “more than twice the value of all of General Motors and absolutely impossible to absorb.” He did not detail how the union proposals would result in that cost, or over what time frame.

Fain has rejected the automakers’ assertions that union demands would cost too much, saying the companies have spent billions on share buybacks and executive salaries.

Suppliers and other industries that depend on automakers and their workers could see demand and cash dry up if the UAW shut down Detroit Three’s U.S. manufacturing operations. The standoff has become a political issue with President Joe Biden, facing re-election next year, prominently calling for a deal.

Biden is pouring billions in federal subsidies into expanding sales of electric vehicles. But the shift to EVs could threaten UAW combustion powertrain jobs. The union has not endorsed Biden’s re-election.

“I think the Biden administration just continues to watch this slow-moving car crash as its EV strategy collides head on with unions,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said.

UAW President Fain has taken an unorthodox approach to the negotiations, bargaining with all three Detroit automakers simultaneously. Past UAW leaders chose one company to set a contract pattern for the other two. Fain has played the companies against each other, seeking to drive up their offers.

While a deal with one or more of the automakers could come at any time, the disruption is an opportunity for non-union automakers in the United States, including Tesla, Toyota (7203.T), Honda (7267.T) and Mercedes (MBGn.DE).

Those non-union factories, plus imported vehicles, account for more than half of the vehicles sold in the U.S. market.

A full strike would hit earnings by about $400 million to $500 million at each affected automaker per week of lost production, Deutsche Bank has estimated. Some of those losses could be recouped by boosting production schedules after a strike, but that possibility fades as a strike extends to weeks or months.

Suspicion over the unexplained weeks-long absence of Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu deepened on Friday, as some media reported he was subject to a probe and a top U.S. diplomat questioned whether he had been placed under house arrest.

Li, 65, has missed meetings with Vietnamese and Singaporean defence leaders in recent weeks, according to sources with direct knowledge of the engagements. He was last seen in Beijing on Aug. 29 delivering a keynote address at a security forum with African nations.

The U.S. government believes Li has been placed under investigation, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing U.S. officials. The Wall Street Journal reported he had been taken away last week for questioning and removed from his post.

Neither report stated the reasons behind the investigation.

Rahm Emanuel, Washington’s outspoken ambassador to Japan, wrote in a post on X: “1st: Defense Minister Li Shangfu hasn’t been seen or heard from in 3 weeks. 2nd: He was a no-show for his trip to Vietnam. Now: He’s absent from his scheduled meeting with the Singaporean Chief of Navy because he was placed on house arrest???”

China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.S. embassy in Tokyo said it did not have immediate further comment.

Asked whether Li was under investigation, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she was “not aware of the relevant information”.

Li’s absence follows China’s unexplained replacement of its foreign minister, Qin Gang, in July after a prolonged period out of public view and a shake-up of the leadership of the People’s Liberation Army’s elite Rocket Force in recent months.

Like Li, Qin is one of China’s five state councillors, a cabinet position that ranks higher than a regular minister.

The moves have raised questions from analysts and diplomats about a lack of transparency in China’s leadership at a time when its economy is slowing and its relations with rival superpower the United States have soured over a range of issues.

Emanuel, a gregarious and outspoken diplomat who served as a top aide to former U.S. President Barack Obama, has hit the headlines for a series of fiery posts directed at China in recent weeks.

He first posted about Li’s public absence last Friday, fuelling a swirl of speculation on his whereabouts. Asked why Emanuel had weighed in on the issue, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the ambassador “throughout his career has spoken in a colorful manner”.

The Singapore meeting Emanuel appeared to reference in his latest post was a visit by the Singapore Navy’s Rear Admiral Sean Wat to China from Sept. 4-9.

On the trip, Wat met with China’s navy commander, Dong Jun and other navy leaders, Singapore’s defence ministry said on its website. Two sources familiar with the matter said Wat had also been expected to meet with Li.

One of the sources, an official with direct knowledge of the plans, said Wat was scheduled to meet with Li on Sept. 5 in Beijing but “it didn’t happen”, without elaborating.

Singapore’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Li also abruptly pulled out of a meeting with Vietnamese defence leaders scheduled for Sept 7-8, Reuters exclusively reported on Thursday.

Military observers and diplomats are closely watching whether China will go ahead with plans to hold the Beijing Xiangshan Forum – an annual international security summit normally hosted by China’s defence minister – in late October.

Before Li was appointed to his post in March, he had led the military’s procurement unit.

In a rare notice in July, the unit said it was looking to “clean up” its bidding process and invited the public to report irregularities dating back to 2017. There has been no update on possible findings.

Li’s absence is being particularly closely watched by the United States, which has not dropped sanctions imposed on him in 2018 for buying weapons from Russia’s largest arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.

Chinese officials have repeatedly said they want those sanctions dropped to facilitate better discussions between the two sides’ militaries. U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin attempted talks with Li during a defence conference in Singapore in June, but did not get beyond a handshake.

Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist at the Australian National University, said that although Li had been a “roadblock” in U.S.-China military relations, his unexplained absence is problematic for China’s international relations in other ways.

“Other countries will be wondering something as basic as whose number to call when they want to set up military dialogues with China,” he said.

Pita Limjaroenrat, whose bid to become Thailand’s prime minister was thwarted by the royalist conservative establishment, resigned as leader of the Move Forward Party to pave way for a new chief to become the opposition leader in parliament.

Pita said he was stepping down as he couldn’t take up the opposition leader’s job because of his suspension as a lawmaker. He was among the 151 Move Forward lawmakers elected to the 500-member House of Representatives in the May general election.

Read More: The Man Who Upended Thailand’s Politics

“Regardless of my status, I’m not going anywhere,” Pita said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday. “I’ll still be working with Move Forward Party and the people to the best of my strength and abilities to drive the change agendas that we want together.”

Pita, who turned 43 last week, was suspended as a lawmaker nearly two months ago, pending a Constitutional Court verdict on a case brought on by the Election Commission that alleged the Harvard-educated politician had breached election rules by holding media shares.

Move Forward also faces a dissolution threat after the same court decided to hear a case alleging that the party sought to overthrow the monarchy with its vow to amend the country’s royal defamation law.