UK PM Truss tries to reassert authority as rebellion grows - CNA

LONDON: British Prime Minister Liz Truss sought to reassert authority over her fraught party on Wednesday (Oct 19) with Conservative enforcers telling lawmakers they had to support her fracking policy as a vote treated as a test of confidence in the government.

Truss is trying to shore up support from within her party after she was forced to scrap her vast tax-cutting plan, leading some Conservative lawmakers to call for her to be replaced as leader just weeks after she took office.

She has admitted her radical economic plans had gone "too far and too fast" after investors dumped the pound and government bonds.

However, with mortgage rates soaring and official figures showing inflation back to a 40-year high, Truss, who was elected by Conservative members on a promise of tax cuts and maintaining public spending, faces a struggle to convince the public and her party she could address the cost of living crisis.

Polls indicate Conservatives are some 30 points behind the opposition Labour Party, and her own ratings are calamitous.

"What I'm not convinced by ... is that going through another leadership campaign, defenestrating another prime minister, will either convince the British people that we're thinking about them rather than ourselves or convince the markets to stay calm," foreign minister James Cleverly told Sky News.

But, speculation about the prime minister's future continues to grow, with media reporting that rebellious Conservatives are weighing up who should replace her, not if she should go.

"I think her position is becoming increasingly untenable," Conservative lawmaker Steve Double told Times radio. "We've seen a complete reversal of just about everything she stood for in her leadership election campaign. I think many of us are asking exactly what does Liz Truss now believe and stand for?"

Truss will face parliament later on Wednesday for her usual weekly question and answer session, and later the main opposition Labour Party will seek to hold a vote on an outright ban on fracking, after the government last month lifted a moratorium in England that had been in place since 2019.

Conservative whips, responsible for enforcing discipline among members of parliament, sent a message to their lawmakers saying the vote would be treated as a "confidence motion in the government".

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2022-10-19 11:26:43Z
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Russia appeals for evacuation ahead of battle for Ukraine's Kherson - CNA

RUSSIA SEES "DIFFICULT" SITUATION

The evacuation calls followed a gloomy assessment of Russia's prospects in the area from General Sergei Surovikin, the new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine.

"The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense," Surovikin told state-owned Rossiya 24 news channel. "The situation in this area (Kherson) is difficult. The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings."

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-installed council governing Zaporizhzhia, another region in the south, said Ukraine's forces had intensified overnight shelling of Russian-held Enerhodar. Many employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station live there.

Artillery fire had hit the town's outskirts and there had been 10 strikes around a thermal power station, he said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday (Oct 19).

Dmytro Orlov, whom Ukraine recognises as mayor of Enerhodar, blamed Russia for the shelling.

"The shelling, first of the industrial zone, and then of the city itself, began around midnight and it did not stop in the morning," he posted on Telegram.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said he expected to return soon to Ukraine amid negotiations to establish a protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe's largest nuclear power station.

The plant is in one of four Ukrainian regions Russia has proclaimed as annexed but only partly occupies. The other three are Kherson, and the eastern border provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk - together known as Donbas.

Putin proclaimed them regions of Russia after staging what Moscow called referendums in September, which Kyiv and Western governments denounced as illegal and coercive.

Ukraine's military said on Wednesday that Russian forces had carried out attacks with cruise, aviation and anti-aircraft missiles across several regions, including Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, in the past 24 hours.

"In addition, the occupiers used 14 Iranian-made Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles, 10 of which were shot down," it said.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.

Both Ukraine and Russia have denied targeting civilians, although Ukraine and UN officials have accused Russia's forces of war crimes.

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2022-10-19 09:26:00Z
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Australia to investigate reports that its former pilots trained Chinese military - CNA

SYDNEY: Australia's defence minister said the military was investigating reports its former pilots were accepting training roles in China, as Britain said it could take legal action to stop its pilots from being similarly recruited on national security grounds.

The British government said on Tuesday (Oct 18) it was taking steps to stop China from trying to recruit serving and former British military pilots to train the Chinese armed forces. The BBC reported up to 30 former military pilots had gone to train China's People's Liberation Army.

Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles said he had asked the defence department to investigate claims that former Australian military pilots had also been recruited to join a South African flight school that operated in China.

"I would be deeply shocked and disturbed to hear that there were personnel who were being lured by a paycheck from a foreign state above serving their own country," Marles said in a statement.

"I have asked the department to investigate these claims and come back to my office with clear advice on this matter."

Britain's Ministry of Defence wrote on Twitter the British pilots involved had been told they risked prosecution under the Official Secrets Act, and a national security Bill would provide other paths to prosecution.

The South African company, Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA), did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on whether it had hired Australian pilots to work in China.

In an undated advertisement with the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) available online, TFASA said it was seeking a number of fixed-wing and helicopter test pilot instructors to work at an undisclosed location in "Far East Asia" with an initial contract commitment of four years.

The requirements included having graduated from military test flight schools in the United States or Britain.

The ad was sent to all SETP members, said one based in Australia, who could not recall the date.

"I don't know anyone who has gone, but they're clearly targeting Western/Five Eyes test pilots," the SETP member told Reuters on condition of anonymity, referring to the intelligence group of Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.

"We all go to the schools they listed."

TFASA also runs a flight school for Chinese airline pilots in South Africa as a joint venture with one of China's largest state-owned aeronautic companies, AVIC, according to its website.

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2022-10-19 04:47:00Z
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China sees 'much faster timeline' on taking Taiwan, Blinken warns - CNA

SAN FRANCISCO: Beijing wants to seize Taiwan "on a much faster timeline" than previously considered, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday (Oct 17), warning that President Xi Jinping was leading China in a more aggressive direction.

Xi is on the cusp of securing a third five-year term at the helm of the world's most populous nation, delivering a landmark Communist Party Congress speech on Sunday that hailed his decade in power and restated his vow to one day "reunify", or forcefully take, Taiwan.

"We've seen a very different China emerge in recent years under Xi Jinping's leadership," Blinken told a forum at Stanford University with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

"It is more repressive at home; it's more aggressive abroad. And in many instances that poses a challenge to our own interests as well as to our own values," he added.

Blinken accused Xi of "creating tremendous tension" by changing the approach toward self-ruled Taiwan, which China's Communist Party has never controlled but claims as its own.

He said China had made a "fundamental decision that the status quo was no longer acceptable, and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline", though he gave no hard estimate or date.

Senior US military figures have previously sounded the alarm that China has expanded its military forces to the point where it could soon have the capability to pull off an invasion of Taiwan.

China's stance has long been that it seeks "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan but reserves the right to use force if necessary, especially if the island ever formally declares independence.

But the rhetoric and actions towards Taiwan have become more pronounced under Xi, China's most assertive leader in a generation.

He has tied taking Taiwan to his landmark "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" and has previously said the goal of reunification cannot continue to be passed indefinitely from generation to generation.

In Sunday's speech, he repeated similar themes, saying the "wheels of history are rolling on towards China's reunification" and that "we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary".

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2022-10-18 05:08:59Z
CBMiaGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYXNpYS9jaGluYS1zZWVzLW11Y2gtZmFzdGVyLXRpbWVsaW5lLXRha2luZy10YWl3YW4tYmxpbmtlbi13YXJucy0zMDEyNjM20gEA

BN's days of fielding a 'songkok' and expecting easy election wins in Malaysia are gone: Ismail Sabri - CNA

Mr Ismail Sabri also said that parliament was dissolved so that the people could elect a new government. But this decision has been misunderstood by the opposition, he said. 

“When parliament is dissolved, the opposition should be pleased as there were many accusations about the government’s legitimacy,” he said, according to Bernama.  

“So, let the people now decide who should form the government. Out of the blue, they (the opposition) are not agreeing to parliament being dissolved to the extent that they want the matter taken to court. I do not understand what they really want.” 

According to local media, former Klang member of parliament Charles Santiago took the issue to court last week to stop the Election Commission (EC) from holding GE15, claiming that the caretaker prime minister breached several provisions in the Federal Constitution. 

An election is not due until September 2023, but Mr Ismail Sabri has been under pressure from some factions of his ruling coalition to hold the vote earlier.

UMNO’s call for an early GE15 has been criticised by the opposition and Mr Ismail Sabri’s own Cabinet members as Malaysia’s Meteorological Department has warned of floods during the north-east monsoon season. 

The EC will have a special meeting on Oct 20 to discuss and set important dates for GE15 and the state by-election for Bugaya in Sabah. 

Separately, it was reported that Mr Ismail Sabri remains the BN candidate for the post of prime minister in GE15.

"At the party level, the decision that Ismail Sabri is our 'poster boy' and candidate for the post of prime minister is final as decided by the UMNO supreme council,” the party’s president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was quoted as saying by The Star last Sunday. 

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2022-10-18 04:56:00Z
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New UK finance minister scraps tax plan, reins in energy support - CNA

LONDON: New finance minister Jeremy Hunt sought to rebuild investor confidence in Britain on Monday (Oct 17) by reversing nearly all of Prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget that had sparked market turmoil, and reining in a vast energy subsidy plan.

Tasked with halting a bond market rout that has raged since the government announced huge unfunded tax cuts on Sep 23, Hunt said the country now needed to increase taxes and cut spending to rebuild stability and confidence.

The former health and foreign minister has now reversed nearly all of the programme that helped Truss win the leadership of the ruling Conservative Party just over a month ago, leaving the prime minister fighting for her future.

A two-year energy support scheme for households and businesses, expected to cost more than £100 billion, will now end in April and be replaced by a more targeted scheme that will "cost the taxpayer significantly less than planned".

The pound soared by as much as 1.4 per cent to a session high of US$1.1332, after the statement. It was last up just under 1 per cent broadly where it was just before the announcement.

British government bonds rallied aggressively on Hunt's statement and looked on course for one of their biggest daily price increases since records began.

"We will reverse almost all the tax measures announced in the Growth Plan three weeks ago that had not started parliamentary legislation," Hunt said.

He said changes to planned tax cuts would raise £32 billion pounds (US$36 billion) every year.

"I remain extremely confident about the UK's long term economic prospects as we deliver our mission to go for growth," Hunt said in a televised clip. "But growth requires confidence and stability, and the United Kingdom will always pay its way."

TOTAL REVERSAL

The government has been forced to reverse course after markets reacted violently to Truss's plan, hammering the value of the pound and government bond prices and forcing the Bank of England to intervene to protect pension funds.

Adding to the pressure, the Bank stuck to its schedule of ending the support on Friday, meaning Hunt had been racing to reverse policies and find spending cuts to appease the markets and prevent borrowing costs from rising further on Monday morning.

He said government spending cuts would be required to narrow a hole in public finances that the Sunday Times reported was as big as £72 billion pounds.

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2022-10-17 10:52:00Z
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President Xi puts China in crisis mode, even as his continuing rule is secure - The Straits Times

BEIJING - In President Xi Jinping's political report at the opening of the 20th national congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), there was no dearth of justification for him to secure a rare third five-year term.

Mr Xi had no qualms about patting himself and the party on the back for a job well done in the past 10 years of his rule - from the economy to the environment, from battling Covid-19 to corruption, from modernising the military to sinicising Marxism, and from poverty to prosperity, albeit moderate.

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2022-10-16 16:40:19Z
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