International

Biden monitoring China Covid unrest as US rallies pop up

Photo: KENA BETANCUR / AFP

| By AFP | Sebastian Smith and Beiyi Seow |

US President Joe Biden is monitoring unrest in China by protesters demanding an end to Covid lockdowns and greater political freedoms, the White House said Monday, as rallies popped up in solidarity around the United States.

The comments came after hundreds of people took to the streets in China’s major cities over the weekend, in a rare outpouring of public frustration that has spread to international Chinese-speaking communities.

“He’s monitoring this. We all are,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday.

Kirby would not describe Biden’s reaction to the demonstrators’ demands, saying: “The president’s not going to speak for protesters around the world. They’re speaking for themselves.”

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But he stressed US support for the demonstrators’ rights.

“People should be allowed the right to assemble and to peacefully protest policies or laws or dictates that they take issue with,” Kirby said.

Earlier Monday, the US State Department implied that China’s strict lockdown policies were excessive, with a spokesperson saying “it’s going to be very difficult” for China to “contain this virus through their zero-Covid strategy.”

Discontent has been brewing for months in China over harsh coronavirus control measures, with relentless testing, localized lockdowns and travel restrictions pushing many to the brink.

That frustration was brought to a head after a deadly fire broke out last week in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang region, with many blaming Covid-19 lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts.

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Around the United States, notably on university campuses, rallies sprang up Monday in support of the protests in China.

‘Solidarity’

Around 100 people, many of them students, gathered in Washington to call for greater freedoms and mourn those who died in Urumqi.

“(Officials) are borrowing the pretext of Covid, but using excessively strict lockdowns to control China’s population. They disregarded human lives,” said a Chinese student surnamed Chen.

“I came here to grieve,” the 21-year-old added.

Referring to protests across China, another student Zhou, 22, said: “My friends and I never imagined things would develop so rapidly.”

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Attendees held white sheets of paper symbolizing censorship and chanted slogans including “Freedom of speech! Freedom of assembly! Tear down the firewall!”

In the evening, similar rallies were held in New York, on the campus of Columbia University, as well as at North Carolina’s Duke University.

Like at the protests in China, some in the crowds called for the resignation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who recently secured a historic third term while consolidating power over the country’s billion-plus population.

Dozens of people gathered at the University of California’s Berkeley campus chanted in Mandarin “Xi Jinping, step down!”

There were also shouts in English of “Free China!,” while one protester was seen carrying a drawing of Xi with the slogan “Death to the dictator.”

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Earlier on Monday in Washington, around 25 members of the Uyghur community gathered outside the State Department, and called on the United States and other democracies to apply further pressure on Beijing.

“We want them to issue a formal statement condemning the loss of lives, Uyghur lives, and to call for full transparency on the real number of deaths that occurred,” said Salih Hudayar, a Uyghur-American who campaigns for Xinjiang independence.

“We’re hoping that the international community supports these protesters in demanding accountability from the Chinese government,” he added of protests in China.

International

FBI Warns of Possible Iranian Drone Attack on U.S. West Coast

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned police departments in California about a possible Iranian plan to carry out a drone attack against the west coast of the United States, according to a report published Wednesday by ABC News.

The warning was issued through a memorandum sent to agencies participating in a Joint Terrorism Task Force, outlining the possibility of a surprise attack involving unmanned aerial vehicles launched from a vessel off the U.S. coastline.

According to the document, intelligence suggested that in early February 2026 Iran may have considered an attack against unspecified targets in California if the United States carried out airstrikes on Iranian territory.

However, the memo also noted that authorities lack additional details about the timing, method, specific targets, or individuals responsible for the alleged plan.

Reports cited by U.S. media indicate that the alert coincided with the start of a military offensive by the administration of Donald Trump against the Iran, a development that has heightened tensions across the Middle East.

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Law enforcement sources with counterterrorism experience told the Los Angeles Times that the warning is part of a routine precautionary advisory based on information from the U.S. Coast Guard.

The sources emphasized that there is no credible indication of an imminent attack and no evidence that Iran currently has the capability to successfully carry out such an operation.

California is home to the largest Iranian community in the United States. According to the Migration Policy Institute, more than half of Iranian immigrants in the country lived in the state in 2019, including around 140,000 people in Los Angeles County alone.

The city also hosts a neighborhood widely known as “Tehrangeles,” where a large Iranian community began settling in the 1960s and continued to grow following the Iranian Revolution.

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International

Trump Says Iran Is Welcome at 2026 World Cup but Warns of Security Concerns

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said Thursday that the national football team of Iran is “welcome” to participate in the 2026 World Cup, although he suggested it might be safer for the team not to take part in the tournament.

“The Iranian national soccer team is welcome at the World Cup, but I really don’t think it’s appropriate for them to be there, for their own safety,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

His comments came a day after Iran’s sports minister, Ahman Donyamali, said that there are currently no conditions for the country to participate in the tournament following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, during a military offensive launched on February 28 by Israel and the United States.

“After the corrupt government killed our leader, there are no conditions that allow us to take part in the World Cup,” the Iranian official said. He added that the country has faced two wars in the past eight or nine months, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths, making participation in the tournament unlikely.

On Tuesday, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, met with Trump at the White House.

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Following the meeting, Infantino said that Trump reiterated that Iran’s national team would be allowed to compete in the FIFA World Cup 2026.

“We discussed the current situation in Iran and the fact that the Iranian team has qualified to participate in the FIFA World Cup 2026. During the conversation, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,” Infantino wrote on Instagram.

International

Iran issues threat to Trump as conflict escalates over Strait of Hormuz

The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, threatened U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, warning him to “beware of being eliminated.”

The Republican president had warned on Monday that he would strike Iran “very hard” if the Islamic Republic blocked oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which has effectively been closed since the war began eleven days ago.

“Iran is not afraid of your empty threats. Others more powerful than you tried to destroy the Iranian nation and failed. Beware that you are not eliminated,” Larijani wrote on X.

Earlier, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards — the ideological military force of the Islamic Republic — also said their forces would move to block oil exports from the Gulf.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military offensive against Iran is far from over.

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“Our aspiration is that the Iranian people free themselves from the yoke of tyranny; ultimately, that depends on them. But there is no doubt that with the measures taken so far we are breaking their bones, and we are not finished yet,” Netanyahu said in a statement.