President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the pain was “palpable” when he met with grieving families in Uvalde, Texas, this weekend following a mass shooting at an elementary school that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers.
“Your leadership has taken on a critical role in this global stage,” Biden said. “It really has – galvanising action on climate change; the global effort to curb violence, extremism, and online, like happened in Christchurch.”
Tensions in the Taiwan Strait loom over the Quad summit in Tokyo today.Relations between Beijing and Taipei are at the lowest point in decades, with the Chinese military in recent months sending record numbers of warplanes near the self-governing democratic island.
“The Indo-Pacific strategy cooked up by the United States, in the name of ‘freedom and openness,’ is actually keen on forming cliques,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday as US President Joe Biden wrapped up his trip to Seoul and headed to Tokyo.”It claims that it intends to ‘change China’s surrounding environment,’ but its purpose is to contain China and make Asia-Pacific countries serve as ‘pawns’ of US hegemony.
“The Russian brutal and unprovoked war against Ukraine has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe. And the innocent civilians have been killed in the streets and millions of refugees are internally displaced, as well as exiled. And this is more than just a European issue, it’s a global issue,” he said.
But in recent years, the country has signaled a move towards greater military spending, and last December Prime Minister Kishida announced the government was exploring options to give it the capability to strike enemy bases.China is considered a major threat, but the combined strength of Russia and China has put Japan under considerable pressure.
Guterres said: “Humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal. Nature always strikes back – and it is already doing so with growing force and fury. Biodiversity is collapsing. One million species are at risk of extinction. Ecosystems are disappearing before our eyes … Human activities are at the root of our descent toward chaos. But that means human action can help to solve it.”
“If the Trump administration plunges the world into a ‘new Cold War,’ forcing China to take countermeasures against the US and its allies, it would be extremely dangerous for Canberra to become a player in a diplomatic club led by the US, given Australia’s high dependence on the Chinese economy,” an article in the Global Times said.