28/04/2025

MONDAY | APR 28, 2025

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China seizes disputed reef near key military outpost

LABOR DANGLES FREE HEALTHCARE HOTLINE SYDNEY: The Labor government yesterday pledged to bolster Australia’s universal healthcare system with a free medical advice line and telehealth service if it wins Saturday’s general election. Labor traditionally sees its protection of Australia’s Medicare universal healthcare scheme as a key differentiator between it and the Liberal-National opposition. It has sought to make Medicare a core election issue, pledging in February an extra A$8.5 billion (RM23.82 billion) for the scheme. Health Minister Mark Butler said the new hotline would deliver 24 hour access to medical staff “intended to cover circumstances where people need to be seen immediately”. Early voting in the election, which polling shows Labor holding a slim lead over the Liberal-National coalition, began on Tuesday. – Reuters RESCUED DACHSHUND DOING WELL SYDNEY: A miniature dachshund, whose rescue after 529 days missing on an island captured global media attention, is recovering well, wildlife rescuers said. Valerie the sausage dog’s story of survival made headlines after she was rescued on Friday on Kangaroo Island, about 14km off the coast of South Australia. Valerie went missing in November 2023 when her owners travelled to the island, which is popular with tourists. “She’s doing really, really well,” Jared Karran, director of Kangara Wildlife Rescue, said of Valerie in a video on the charity’s Facebook page. His comments came after the charity, set up following Australia’s 2019-2020 “Black Summer” of wildfires, said on Friday it was “overjoyed to announce the successful rescue of Valerie”. – Reuters

BR I E F S

pope is elected, Lai will be able to represent our country to attend the inauguration of the new pope, which I mentioned in my prayers at the mass,” Chen said. The conclave that will elect a new pope is expected to start some time between May 6 and May 11. Francis’ inauguration in 2013 was attended by Taiwan’s then-president Ma Ying-jeou. China did not announce that it had sent any delegation to the funeral, though it did express its condolences. Chen was accompanied at the funeral by Vice-Foreign Minister Francois Wu, previously Taipei’s de facto ambassador to France and one of Taiwan’s most high profile diplomats who regularly appears in foreign media interviews. Chen and Wu met ex-president Joe Biden, whose administration gave strong support to Taiwan. Chen also said he met Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and “talked about the good cooperation between the two countries”. China says Taiwan is one of its provinces with no right to state-to state ties, a position the government in Taipei strongly rejects. – Reuters standing on the uninhabited reef as a dark inflatable boat bobbed in the nearby water. Another shot showed four coast guard officials posing with a national flag on the reef’s white surface, in what CCTV described as a “vow of sovereignty”. The group also “cleaned up leftover plastic bottles, wooden sticks and other debris and garbage on the reef”, the broadcaster said. The Financial Times reported an unnamed Philippine maritime official as saying that the Chinese coast guard had left after unfurling the flag. There do not appear to be any signs that China has permanently occupied the reef or has built a structure on it. In recent months, Beijing and Manila have blamed each other for causing what they describe as the ecological degradation of several disputed landforms in the South China Sea. Xinhua news agency on Friday cited a report from the Natural Resources Ministry that it said “debunked” Manila’s allegations that Beijing’s land reclamation projects had harmed the local environment. Philippine forces are present on Thitu Island and Manila inaugurated a coast guard monitoring base there in 2023 to counter what it describes as Chinese aggression. The Philippine and US militaries launched on Monday three weeks of annual joint exercises called “Balikatan”, or “shoulder to shoulder”, which will include an

o US, Philippines holding joint drills

BEIJING: The Chinese coast guard has seized control of a disputed reef near a major Philippine military outpost in the South China Sea, according to Beijing’s state media. Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and has waved away competing assertions from other regional countries as well as an international ruling that its position has no legal basis. China and the Philippines have engaged in months of confrontations in the contested waters, and Manila is taking part in joint military drills with the United States that Beijing has slammed as destabilising. The Chinese coast guard “implemented maritime control” over the Tiexian Reef, also known as Sandy Cay, during the middle of April, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday. The tiny sandbank, part of the Spratly Islands, lies near Thitu Island, also called Pag-asa and the site of a Philippine military facility. CCTV said the coast guard landed on Sandy Cay to “exercise sovereignty and jurisdiction” over the reef, carry out an “inspection” and “collect video evidence regarding the illegal activities of the Philippine side”. The broadcaster published a photograph of five black-clad people TAIPEI: Taiwan’s envoy to the funeral of Pope Francis said he prayed for President Lai Ching-te to be able to attend the inauguration of the new pontiff, and that he had met Japan’s foreign minister, easing the island’s diplomatic isolation. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to maintain formal ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, whose government had hoped that Lai would have been able to attend Francis’ funeral, giving him the chance to mix with other leaders like US President Donald Trump. However, former vice-president Chen Chien-jen ended up representing Lai, a devout Catholic who had previously met Francis on six occasions. Francis had led a wide-ranging outreach to officially atheist China, including signing a deal on the appointment of Catholic bishops in that country, worrying Taiwan. In comments published by Taiwan’s Central News Agency on Saturday after the funeral, Chen said he hoped Francis continued to pray from heaven for even better relations between Taiwan and the Vatican. “I also hope that when the new

US marines firing an anti-drone system during a drill in San Antonio town, Zambales province yesterday. – AFPPIC

“Nothing builds bonds more quickly than shared adversity,” he said, without specifying a common threat. Beijing said the manoeuvres “undermine regional strategic stability” and accused Manila of “collusion with countries outside the region”. – AFP

integrated air and missile defence simulation for the first time. US Marine Corps Lieutenant General James Glynn said at the opening ceremony in Manila that the two side would “demonstrate not just our will to uphold our defence treaty in existence since 1951 but our matchless capability to do so”.

Taiwan envoy meets Biden, Japanese minister

CASCADING BEAUTY ... Visitors taking photographs below wisteria blooms at Ashikaga flower park in Ashikaga city, near Tokyo yesterday. – AFPPIC