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US approves first arms to Taiwan under foreign aid programme
US President Joe Biden’s administration has for the first time approved direct US military aid to Taiwan under an assistance programme aimed at foreign governments, officials said on Wednesday, as worries grow over China.
The State Department informed Congress on Tuesday of the $80 million package, which is small compared with recent sales to Taiwan but marks the first assistance to Taipei under the Foreign Military Financing programme, which generally involves grants or loans to sovereign countries.
The move is sure to anger China. For five decades, the United States has officially recognised only Beijing although Congress, under the Taiwan Relations Act, requires the supply of weapons to the self-governing democracy for its defense.
Successive US administrations have done so through sales rather than direct aid to Taiwan, with formal statements speaking in the tone of business transactions with the island’s de-facto embassy in Washington.
The State Department insisted that the first-ever aid under the programme did not imply any recognition of the sovereignty of Taiwan.
“Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act and our longstanding One China policy, which has not changed, the United States makes available to Taiwan defense articles and services necessary to enable it to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability,” a State Department spokesperson said.
“The United States has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is critical to regional and global security and prosperity.”
Taiwan’s defense ministry expressed gratitude. “The aid will help in regional peace and stability,” it said in a short statement.
The State Department did not formally announce the aid or give details, but a person familiar with the notice said the assistance would involve support to improve awareness at sea.
Growing tensions
The assistance needs approval from Congress, which is virtually certain as lawmakers from both parties widely support Taiwan.
Representative Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and frequent critic of Biden’s foreign policy, praised the step.
“These weapons will not only help Taiwan and protect other democracies in the region but also strengthen the US deterrence posture and ensure our national security from an increasingly aggressive CCP,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
China and the United States in recent months have resumed dialogue with hopes of bringing greater stability to the turbulent relationship between the world’s largest developed and developing nations.
But Taiwan remains a clear point of friction, with Chinese officials repeatedly issuing warnings and viewing the United States as bent on supporting formal independence by the island.
China has carried out major military exercises three times in little more than a year in response to Taiwanese leaders’ interactions with the United States, raising the prospect it is practicing moves for an invasion.
Senior US officials have said they believe Chinese President Xi Jinping is taking steps away from the status quo in Taiwan, although American analysts debate to what extent both China’s recent economic concerns and Russia’s struggles to subdue Ukraine will dissuade Beijing.
It is the second time in as many months that the Biden administration has broken new ground in supporting Taiwan.
In July, Biden approved $345 million of military aid to Taiwan from leftover US stockpiles, taking a cue from one means of US support to Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion.
Israel is the top recipient of Foreign Military Financing, to the tune of more than $3 billion a year.
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Former US president Donald Trump will appear in a New York court on Monday as a civil fraud trial against him and two of his sons kicks off, with the case threatening the Republican’s business empire as he campaigns to retake the White House.
In Monday’s case, Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr committed fraud by inflating the value of the real estate and financial assets of the Trump Organization for years.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is now seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Trump and his sons from management of the family empire.
Trump said late Sunday he planned to be present for the start of the trial on Monday morning.
“I’m going to Court tomorrow morning to fight for my name and reputation,” the 77-year-old wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This whole case is a sham!!!”
In addition to this civil case, Trump also faces several major criminal proceedings in the months ahead.
He is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Washington on March 4 on charges of trying to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
Trump will then be back in New York state court, this time on criminal hush money charges, and later in a Florida federal court, where he is accused of mishandling classified documents after leaving office.
Finally, he will also have to answer to state charges in Georgia, where prosecutors say Trump illegally tried to get the southern state’s 2020 election results changed in his favor.
In the New York civil case, Engoron ruled that Trump, his two eldest sons, and other Trump Organisation executives lied to tax collectors, lenders, and insurers for years in a scheme that exaggerated the value of their properties by $812 million to $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021.
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‘Major blow’
As a result, the judge revoked the business licenses that allowed the Trump Organisation to operate some of its New York properties.
Actually enforcing such penalties would be “a major blow to Donald Trump’s ability to do business in the State of New York going forward,” Will Thomas, a professor of business law at the University of Michigan, told AFP.
Under that kind of pressure, Trump — who made his reputation and fortune as a real estate mogul in the 1980s and had promised to bring his cut-throat industry tactics to the Oval Office — could eventually lose control over many of his company’s flagship properties, such as his 5th Avenue Trump Tower in Manhattan.
According to Attorney General James, a Democrat, Trump’s own apartment in that building is among the spaces that were fraudulently overvalued — it was listed as three times bigger than its true size.
Another Manhattan building, at 40 Wall Street, was overvalued between $200-$300 million in financial disclosures, James alleges.
Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida — the site of the classified documents drama — and several other Trump Organisation golf clubs also appear in James’s complaint.
High-profile witnesses
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the New York civil allegations, calling James, who is Black, “racist,” and labeling Engoron “deranged.”
On his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed there was no “wrongdoing” in his actions of “fully paying back sophisticated Wall Street Banks in full, with interest, with no defaults, and with no victims.”
There are likely to be dozens of witnesses called to testify at the trial, including Trump himself, and former financial director of the Trump Organisation Allen Weisselberg, who served time in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud in a separate case brought against the business.
Trump’s children Eric, Don Jr, and his oldest daughter Ivanka — who was initially also targeted by James’s complaint but ultimately not prosecuted — are also likely to present their own testimony.
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen — now an outspoken critic of the former president — and officials from certain Trump-linked financial institutions are also expected to appear.
A huge fire broke out at a police headquarters in the Egyptian city of Ismailia on Monday, injuring at least 38 people, according to local media.
No fatalities were immediately reported but the building is staffed by soldiers at all hours and hospitals were placed on alert.
Footage on local media showed smoke rising from the entirely blackened multi-storey building.
The cause of the blaze, which broke out at the headquarters of the Ismailia Security Directorate before dawn, is not yet known.
Of 26 wounded who were transferred to a local hospital, 24 had suffered from “asphyxiation” and two from burns, local media reported citing the health ministry.
Twelve more were treated at the scene.
The health ministry deployed 50 ambulances to the scene, which were joined by military emergency services including two planes, according to state media.
Deadly fires are a common hazard in Egypt, where fire codes are rarely enforced and emergency services are often slow to arrive.
In August 2022, a fire caused by a short circuit killed 41 worshippers in a Cairo church, prompting calls to improve the country’s infrastructure and the response time of the fire brigade.
In March 2021, at least 20 people died in a fire at a textile factory in the capital, while in 2020, two hospital fires killed 14 people.
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Pakistan’s annual inflation rate rose to 31.4 per cent in September from 27.4pc in August, statistics bureau data showed on Monday, as the country reels from high fuel and energy prices.
The country is embarking on a tricky path to economic recovery under a caretaker government after a $3 billion loan programme approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July averted a sovereign debt default, but with conditions that complicated efforts to rein in inflation.
On a month-on-month basis, inflation climbed 2pc in September, compared to an increase of 1.7pc in August. Reforms required by the IMF bailout, including an easing of import restrictions and a demand that subsidies be removed, have already fuelled annual inflation, which rose to a record 38pc in May.
Food inflation remained elevated at 33.1pc with the year-on-year increase in non-perishable food items at 38.4pc and 4.37pc for perishable food items.
Annual consumer inflation in urban and rural areas increased to 29.7pc and 33.9pc year-on-year, respectively.
Meanwhile, the highest year-on-year increase was recorded in the categories of alcoholic beverages and tobacco (87.45pc), recreation and culture (58.77pc), furnishing and household equipment maintenance (39.32pc) and non-perishable food items.
Index-wise increase in inflation YoY (in descending order)
- Alcoholic beverages and tobacco: 87.45pc
- Recreation and culture: 58.77pc
- Furnishing and household equipment maintenance: 39.32pc
- Non-perishable food items: 38.41pc
- Miscellaneous goods and services: 36.42pc
- Restaurants and hotels: 34.3pc
- Transport: 31.26pc
- Housing and utilities: 29.7pc
- Health: 25.28pc
- Clothing and footwear: 20.55pc
- Education: 11.12pc
- Communication: 7.42pc
- Perishable food items: 4.37pc
Interest rates have also risen to their highest at 22pc, and the rupee hit all-time lows in August before recovering in September to become the best performing currency following a clampdown by authorities on unregulated FX trade.
On Friday, the ministry of finance said in its monthly report that it anticipated inflation remaining high in the coming month, hovering around 29-31pc due to an upward adjustment in energy tariffs and a major increase in fuel prices.
The report added that inflation was, however, expected to ease, especially from the second half of the current fiscal year that starts on Jan 1.
On Saturday, the government cut petrol and diesel prices from a record high, after two consecutive hikes. The finance ministry cited international prices of petroleum products and the improvement in the exchange rate, following the clampdown on unregulated FX trade.
Inflation has been elevated, hovering in double digits, since November 2021.
The country targeted inflation at 21pc for the current fiscal year, but it averaged 29pc during the first quarter.
Worsening economic conditions, along with rising political tensions in the run-up to a national election scheduled for November, triggered sporadic protests in September, with many Pakistanis saying they are struggling to make ends meet.
Analysts said the inflation reading was in line with market expectations.
Tahir Abbas, head of research at Arif Habib Limited, a Karachi-based investment company, said inflation appeared to have peaked for the current fiscal year and would subsequently recede.
“The higher reading is mainly due to the low base effect which was also mentioned in the last monetary policy statement. Going forward, in the next few months, we expect inflation to ease to around 26-27pc,” said Fahad Rauf, head of research at Ismail Iqbal Securities, a Karachi-based brokerage firm.
Rauf said higher inflation statistics should not impact monetary policy.
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Trump business empire under threat as New York fraud trial opens
Procurement is painful, so Pivot wants to simplify it
At least 38 injured in police station fire in Egypt’s Ismailia
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