AFP, Washington
Donald Trump’s administration has approved $1.3 billion worth of arms sales to Taiwan, a US government official said Thursday, in a move likely to provoke the ire of Beijing which considers the island a rebel province. The US official emphasized that there is “no change to our longstanding ‘One China’ policy”-stating that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of it-which Beijing says is a prerequisite for maintaining relations.
UN chief in Switzerland for final Cyprus peace push
AP, Nicosia
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has joined high-level talks aimed at reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus amid hopes he can help nudge rival sides toward a breakthrough. Two days of talks at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana have made no real progress on the core issue of the island’s future security that could unlock an overall peace accord.
2,000 workers flee Thailand
Reuters, Bangkok
More than 2,000 undocumented migrant workers from Myanmar and Cambodia fled from Thailand this week, officials said on Friday, after a decree aimed at managing foreign workers came into effect. Workers from Thailand’s poor neighbors, in particular Myanmar and Cambodia, make up the backbone of its manual labor force and many industries, including a multi-billion dollar seafood industry, are heavily reliant on foreign workers.
Russian govt wants to extend counter sanctions on EU
Reuters, Moscow
The Russian government wants to extend counter sanctions on the European Union until the end of 2018, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. Medvedev was speaking a day after the EU formally extended its economic sanctions on Russia, imposed in July 2014 following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and Moscow’s support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
