Harris slams Beijing in laying out US vision on Indo-pacific issues
HANOI — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a sharp rebuke to China for its incursions in the South China Sea, warning its actions there amount to “coercion” and “intimidation” and affirming that the U.S. will support its allies in the region against Beijing’s advances.
“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she said in a foreign policy speech Tuesday in Singapore in which she laid out the Biden administration’s vision for the Indo-pacific. “Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rulesbased order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.”
Harris, who is on a weeklong swing through Southeast Asia, declared that the U.S. “stands with our allies and our partners” in the face of threats from China. Her subsequent stop in Vietnam was delayed several hours due to an investigation into two possible incidents of the so-called Havana syndrome — a mysterious health ailment plaguing U.S. diplomats — in Hanoi.
The speech sought to cement the U.S. commitment to supporting its allies in an area of growing importance to the Biden administration, which has made countering China’s influence globally a centerpiece of its foreign policy. And it came during a critical moment for the United States, as the Biden administration seeks to further solidify its pivot toward Asia while America’s decadeslong focus on the Middle East comes to a messy end with the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Harris underscored this shift, calling the Indo-pacific
“critically important to our nation’s security and prosperity.”
China hit back, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin invoking Afghanistan in his response to a question about Harris’ comments, saying the messy withdrawal from Kabul showed the U.S. had lost credibility.
NRA cancels event: The National Rifle Association announced Tuesday it has canceled its annual meeting, which had been set to be held next month in Houston, due to concerns over COVID-19.
The NRA’S meeting had been set for Sept. 3 through Sept. 5 and would have been attended by thousands of people taking part in social gatherings and other events on acres of exhibition space.
The organization said it made the decision after analyzing relevant data regarding COVID-19 in Harris County, where Houston is located. Houston, like other Texas cities and communities, has seen a jump in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations due to the highly contagious delta variant.
Louisiana sentence: A white Louisiana man has received a life sentence for the apparently random killing of a Black man in a Baton Rouge park. He also is accused of killing another Black man at a bus stop and firing into the home of a Black family as part of a string of attacks that police said may have been racially motivated.
Kenneth Gleason was found guilty of first-degree murder in April for the killing of Donald Smart, The Advocate reported. Smart, 49, was shot in a park near Louisiana State University as he was walking to his overnight shift as a restaurant
dishwasher in September 2017.
Gleason, 27, was also charged in the fatal shooting of Bruce Cofield, 59, a homeless man who was sitting at a bus stop on a busy street two days before Smart was killed. Evidence was presented during the trial that Gleason fired gunshots through the front door of the only Black family that lived on the same suburban street as him and his parents.
After consulting with Smart’s family, prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty. That meant the only sentence that could be imposed on Gleason’s first-degree murder conviction was a mandatory life term.
District Judge Beau Higginbotham said the death penalty would have been the “appropriate sentence,” according to the newspaper.
“There’s nothing the penal system can do to rehabilitate you, Mr. Gleason,” he said at the Monday sentencing
hearing.
Coughing sentence: A Pennsylvania woman who pleaded guilty to coughing and spitting on food at a supermarket in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic was sentenced Tuesday to at least a year in jail.
Margaret Ann Cirko, 37, pleaded guilty in June to a felony count of making bomb threats.
Authorities said Cirko entered a Gerrity’s Supermarket location in Hanover Township, near Wilkesbarre, on March 25, 2020, and purposely coughed on fresh produce and other merchandise while yelling that she had the virus and that everyone would get sick.
Joe Fasula, co-owner of the supermarket chain, said that over $35,000 worth of merchandise had to be thrown out as a result of what Gerrity’s had called a “twisted prank.”
Cirko tested negative for
COVID-19, according to her attorney, who said she was intoxicated at the time of the incident.
Syrian blast: An explosion shook the base of an al-qaida-linked group in northern Syria on Tuesday, killing at least eight gunmen and wounding others, opposition activists said.
The explosion came as opposition fighters suffered a setback in southern Daraa province, where a Russian-brokered deal led to the evacuation of gunmen from the region. The evacuation was to pave the way for the deployment of government troops.
It wasn’t clear what caused the explosion at the base of Hayat Tahrir al-sham in the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the country.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion near the village of Ram Hamadan was apparently
caused by an exploding shell. The Observatory added that the explosion occurred as drones of the U.s.-led coalition were flying overhead.
Former dictator dies: Chad’s former dictator Hissene Habre, the first former head of state to be convicted of crimes against humanity by an African court after his government was accused of killing 40,000 people, died Tuesday in Senegal. He was 79.
Habre, whose case for years showcased Africa’s reluctance to put its despots on trial as he lived in luxurious exile, had recently contracted COVID-19.
The former dictator, first arrested in Senegal in 2013, had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 but served about five years in prison following his conviction. Human rights activists say Chad was a ruthless, one-party state under Habre’s rule from 1982 to 1990.