ISTANBUL, 02 August 2022, (TON): China said “US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s possible visit to Taiwan will “create an egregious political impact.”

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said “the Chinese side has repeatedly made clear to the US side our serious concern over Speaker Pelosi’s potential visit to Taiwan and our firm opposition to the visit.”

“Pelosi is the third highest-ranking official in the US government, which means it would be highly sensitive for her to visit Taiwan no matter what.”

Zhao added “it will amount to gross interference in China’s internal affairs, seriously undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, wantonly trample on the One China principle, greatly threaten peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, severely undermine China-US relations and lead to a very serious situation and grave consequences.”

According to Singapore’s Foreign Ministry “Pelosi kicked off a four-day trip to Asia on Monday with a visit to Singapore, where Prime Minister Lee Hsien highlighted the importance of stable US-China relations for regional peace and security.

MANILA, 02 August 2022, (TON): President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said “the Philippines has no plan to rejoin the International Criminal Court, with the tribunal’s prosecutor seeking to resume a probe into the ex-president’s deadly drug war.

Rodrigo Duterte, who left office on June 30, pulled the Philippines out of the ICC in 2019 after it launched a preliminary probe into his drugs crackdown, which killed many thousands of people.

ICC judges authorized a full investigation into the anti-narcotics campaign last September, saying it resembled an illegitimate and systematic attack on civilians.

It suspended the probe two months later, after Manila said it was looking into the alleged crimes itself.

DUBAI, 02 August 2022, (TON): The UAE announced that Super 98 petrol will cost AED 4.03 per liter starting Monday Aug. 1 - 60 fils less than July.

“The cost of Special 95 petrol also dropped by 60 fils from AED 4.52 to AED 3.92 per liter” according to the Emirates General Petroleum Corporation’s announcement on Twitter.

Emarat revealed that people will now be charged AED 3.84 per liter for E-Plus 91, as opposed to the previous month’s charges of AED 4.44.

Meanwhile, the price for diesel dropped by 62 fils, now costing AED 4.14 per liter in comparison to AED 4.76 in July.

PHNOM PENH, 02 August 2022, (TON): Malaysia is set to lead a push for tougher action on Myanmar when a regional bloc of foreign ministers meet this week, as anger mounts at the junta for stonewalling crisis resolution efforts.

The 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations which has spearheaded so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to restore peace last week condemned the junta’s execution of four prisoners.

According to a local monitoring group “Myanmar has been in chaos since a putsch in February last year and the death toll from the military’s brutal crackdown on dissent has passed 2,100.”

Ministers meeting in Phnom Penh from Wednesday are expected to lament the lack of progress on ASEAN’s five-point consensus plan, agreed to in April last year, which called for an immediate end to violence and dialogue between the junta and coup opponents.

According to a draft communique obtained media “as well as voicing deep concern about recent developments and calling for restraint, the ministers will also demand “concrete actions to effectively and fully implement the Five-Point Consensus.”

UNITED NATIONS, 02 August 2022, (TON): The United Nations chief warned the world that humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation, citing the war in Ukraine, nuclear threats in Asia and the Middle East and many other factors.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave the dire warning at the opening of the long-delayed high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually achieving a nuclear-free world.

The danger of increasing nuclear threats and a nuclear catastrophe was also raised by the United States, Japan, Germany, the UN nuclear chief and many other opening speakers at the meeting to review progress and agree to future steps to implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said North Korea is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test, Iran has either been unwilling or unable to accept a deal to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement aimed at reining in its nuclear program, and Russia is engaged in reckless, dangerous nuclear saber-rattling in Ukraine.

DHAKA, 02 August 2022, (TON): In January 2017, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had an hour-long stopover in Dhaka.

The foreign secretary said "this time, he will be coming for a longer period.”

Talking to a small group of reporters at his office on Sunday, the foreign secretary said the two countries will discuss ways to strengthen the relations during the visit.

He said “the Rohingya issue might also come up for discussion as the Chinese foreign minister was part of trilateral meetings in the past on Rohingya repatriation.”

DHAKA, 02 August 2022, (TON): Senior Policy Advisor of US Adminis-tration Laura Stone, who is in the city on a two-day visit to Bangladesh, will be meeting State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, Foreign Ministry Secretary Shabbir Ahmad and health ministry officials to discuss the future cooperation.

Stone, who arrived in Dhaka last night, is a top official coordinating the US vaccine supplies across different countries.

She will be sharing her experience and listening to the Bangladesh officials on the successes in tackling the pandemic and the challenges ahead.

The US has provided 68 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines and other technical support, which played a critical role in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic in the country and has become a role model for others to follow.

ZUPCE, 02 August 2022, (TON): NATO-led peacekeepers backed by helicopters oversaw the removal of roadblocks protesters had set up in Kosovo, where political tensions have flared more than two decades since a NATO campaign of airstrikes drove out Serbian forces.

Kosovo police said the removal of the barricades in the north of the country allowed two border crossings with Serbia to be reopened.

The police said in a statement “roads are now free for traffic to pass, both border crossings are open now for people and goods to cross.”

The removal of the barricades came after the Kosovo government postponed the implementation of a decision that would oblige ethnic Serbs, who are a majority in the north, to apply for documents and car license plates issued by Kosovan institutions.

LOUISVILLE, 02 August 2022, (TON): Another round of rainstorms hit flooded Kentucky mountain communities as more bodies emerged from the sodden landscape, and the governor warned that high winds could bring another threat falling trees and utility poles.

Gov. Andy Beshear said “the death toll rose to 37 while hundreds of people remained unaccounted for five days after one of the nation’s poorest regions was swamped by nearly a foot of rain.”

The water poured down hillsides and into valleys and hollows, engulfing entire towns. Mudslides marooned some people on steep slopes.

DUBAI, 02 August 2022, (TON): According to the semi-official news agency “Iran has the technical capability to produce an atomic bomb but has no intention of doing so, Mohammad Eslami, head of the country’s atomic energy organization, said.”

Eslami reiterated comments made by Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in July.

Kharrazi’s remarks amounted to a rare suggestion that the Islamic Republic might have an interest in nuclear weapons, which it has long denied seeking.

Eslami said “as Mr. Kharrazi mentioned, Iran has the technical ability to build an atomic bomb, but such a program is not on the agenda.”

The top Iranian nuclear negotiator said “Iran has responded to top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell’s proposal aimed at salvaging the nuclear accord, and seeks a swift conclusion to negotiations.”