International
China confirms “provisional agreement” with the Philippines to “de-escalate” maritime tensions
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China confirmed on Monday that it reached a “provisional agreement” with the Philippines to “de-escalate” the tensions around an atoll in the South China Sea that both countries claim and where violent ship collisions have occurred in recent months.
According to a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, both parties agreed to “jointly manage the differences on maritime issues and work for de-escalation” in this region, after reaching an understanding around the “humanitarian resupply of life supplies” of the Philippine contingent located in the Second Thomas atoll.
The agreement was reached after a meeting held by representatives of both countries on July 2, which led to more consultations and the establishment of a direct line of communication between the Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
One of the main points of friction between the two parties is related to the old Philippine ship Sierra Madre, straned with a military garrison in the Second Thomas since 1999 to claim the sovereignty of the atoll.
“We continue to demand that the Philippines tow the ship (Sierra Madre) and restore the state of Ren’ai Jiao (Second Thomas) from not housing personnel or facilities,” the Chinese Foreign Affairs spokesman said in a statement published in the early hours of Monday.
If the Philippines needs to send life supplies to the ship’s personnel, China is willing to allow it with a “humanitarian spirit,” as long as Manila informs Beijing in advance and after an “on-site verification” has been carried out, according to the official text.
In the event that the Philippines sends “a large amount” of construction materials to the warship, or tries to build fixed facilities or a permanent post, “China will not accept it at all and will resolutely stop it in accordance with the law,” stressed the Chinese Foreign Affairs spokesman.
“China has sovereignty over Ren’ai Jiao and the rest of the Nansha Qundao (Spratly islands), as well as its adjacent waters,” the spokesman said.
The Philippines and China maintain a growing sovereignty dispute in the South China Sea, where in recent months clashes between ships from both countries have multiplied.
In addition to the Second Thomas atoll, Manila and Beijing are disputed for sovereignty over the Scarborough reef, near the Philippine island of Luzon, and several islands of the Spratly archipelago, where Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also hold claims.
Tensions between China and the Philippines have increased since Marcos Jr. came to power in 2022, who has strengthened his military alliance with the United States and expanded access to its bases to US troops, including some of strategic access to the China Sea or the self-governed island of Taiwan.
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants
The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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