30/10/2025

THURSDAY | OCT 30, 2025

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Trump lands in South Korea

Rio raids leave 64 dead RIO DE JANEIRO: At least 64 people died on Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro’s most deadly police operation ever, which targeted a major gang days before the city hosts global events related to the United Nations climate summit, known as COP30. Police have often conducted large-scale operations against criminal groups ahead of major events in Rio, which hosted the 2016 Olympics, the 2024 G20 summit and the BRICS summit in July. Next week, Rio hosts the C40 global summit of mayors tackling climate change and Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which would feature celebrities including pop star Kylie Minogue and four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel. The programming is part of the run-up to COP30, the United Nations climate summit held in the Amazon city of Belem from Nov 10 to Nov 21. The death toll confirmed by Rio Governor Claudio Castro on Tuesday, which included four police officers, was more than twice Rio’s most deadly previous police operation. “We stand firm confronting narcoterrorism,“ he wrote on social media about the operation, which he said involved 2,500 security personnel across the Alemao and Penha favela complexes, near the city’s international airport. Rio’s favelas are poor, densely populated settlements woven through the city’s hilly oceanside terrain. Smoke rose over the city on Tuesday as gangs burned cars to slow the advance of armored vehicles while bursts of gunfire rang out. The Rio state government called the operation the largest ever targeting the Comando Vermelho gang. Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said the federal government had not received any request for support from state authorities prior to the “bloody” operation, adding he had been following developments through media reports. The clashes disrupted the routines of dozens of schools and medical facilities, redirected bus routes and snarled traffic across several neighborhoods in the state capital. Castro confirmed 81 arrests as authorities sought to serve 250 warrants in an operation targeting alleged drug kingpins. – Reuters Elderly man executed for rape, murder MIAMI: A 65-year-old man convicted of raping and murdering his neighbor was executed by lethal injection in Florida on Tuesday. The Florida Department of Corrections said Norman Grim dropped appeals against his death sentence and was put to death at 6.14pm (2214 GMT) at the Florida State Prison in Raiford. Grim was convicted of the 1998 murder and sexual battery of Cynthia Campbell, a 41-year-old lawyer who lived next door to him. He was sentenced to death in 2000. There have now been 41 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2012, when 43 inmates died this way. Florida has carried out the most executions, with 15 including Grim’s. There have been five each in Alabama and Texas. Thirty-four of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and five by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate. The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others, California, Oregon and Pennsylvania, have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and, on his first day in office, called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes”. – AFP

GYEONGJU: United States President Donald Trump landed in South Korea yesterday for the final leg of his Asia trip, optimistic about striking a trade war truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping after summit talks with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. Arriving from Tokyo hours after North Korea test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile, Trump was to address a summit of CEOs and meet with Lee in Gyeongju, a sleepy South Korean town filled with historic tombs and palaces. The main item on the agenda was the unresolved trade agreement between the US and South Korea, before an expected meeting with Xi today, the prospect of which has already buoyed global markets. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Gyeongju, Trump dismissed the North Korea missile test and said he was squarely focused on his meeting with the leader of the world’s second-largest economy. “The relationship with China is very good. So I think we’re going to have a very good outcome for our country and for the world, actually.” He said he expected to reduce US tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Beijing’s commitment to curb exports of fentanyl precursor chemicals. The Wall Street Journal reported the US could halve the 20% levies on Chinese goods it currently charges in retaliation for the export of such chemicals. After arriving in the southern city of Busan, Trump was greeted by officials and a cannon salute on the red carpet, before a band struck up a rendition of Village People’s YMCA , a favourite of the US president’s often played at his rallies. He was then whisked to Gyeongju in his helicopter. Trump made no mention of trade talks with South Korea, with both sides playing down the prospect of a breakthrough in leader talks. The two allies announced a deal in late July under which South Korea would avoid the worst of the tariffs by agreeing to pump US$350 billion (RM1.46 trillion) of new investments into the United States. However, o Meeting with Xi main focus of trip, says US president

Trump receiving the ‘Grand Order of Mugunghwa’ from Lee on the sidelines of the Apec summit. – REUTERSPIC

summit, have dinner with Lee and hold bilateral meetings with several countries’ leaders, including China’s Xi, before departing today. US officials said negotiators from the world’s top two economies hashed out a framework on Sunday for a deal to pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls. The news sent stocks soaring to record peaks. Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Tuesday he was not worried that Trump would “abandon” the island in his meeting this week with Xi. Since taking office in January, Trump has vacillated on his position towards China-claimed Taiwan as he seeks to strike a trade deal with Beijing. Trump says Xi has told him he would not invade Taiwan while the Republican president is in office, but Trump has yet to approve any new US arms sales to Taipei. China said yesterday it “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan. Trump told reporters yesterday he did not know whether he would even discuss Taiwan with Xi. – Reuters

talks over the structure of those investments have been deadlocked. Trump has also pressed allies such as South Korea to pay more for defence, and South Korea has sought reforms to US immigration laws to allow for more workers to build factories after a raid on a Hyundai Motor battery plant in Georgia. Lee’s office said the leaders would discuss trade, investment and peace on the Korean peninsula, a reference to engagement with North Korea. Trump has made repeated calls for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including during this trip, but there has been no public comment from Pyongyang. Kim has previously said he could be open to talking if Washington stops pressing him to give up nuclear weapons. Adding to the golfing gifts he received from Japan’s leader in Tokyo on Tuesday, Lee presented Trump with a replica gold crown and awarded him with the “Grand Order of Mugunghwa”, the country’s highest decoration. Skipping the main Apec summit, Trump was expected to address the Apec CEO

Strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats kill 14 WASHINGTON: United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday its forces killed 14 people in strikes that destroyed four alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, bringing the death toll from Washington’s anti-narcotics campaign to at least 57. were speeding across open water. He said US Southern Command (Southcom) immediately started searching for the sole survivor of the strikes, and that Mexican authorities “accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue”. massive increase in firepower. The unusually large US military presence in the Caribbean is coming face to face with a massive hurricane that is churning across t he region, requiring some assets to be moved to safety.

Washington has also carried out multiple shows of force with B-52 and B-1B bombers flying near Venezuela’s coast, the most recent of which took place on Monday. Regional tensions have flared as a result of the strikes and the military buildup, with Venezuela saying the US is plotting to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused Washington of “fabricating a war”. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa, a staunch US ally, said on Tuesday his country could host a foreign military base in the Galapagos Islands that could be used to combat drug and fuel trafficking, as well as illegal fishing. He did not specify which country could establish the base in Ecuador, a major hub for cocaine trafficking, but has talked of “various countries”, including the US. – AFP

He did not specify what happened to the survivor or if the person was found, and Southcom referred a question on the survivor to Mexico. “We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,“ Hegseth said in regards to drug traffickers. However, Washington has yet to provide evidence that its targets were smuggling drugs, and experts say the strikes are illegal even if they target known traffickers. The US has carried out a major buildup of military forces in Latin America that it says is aimed at countering drug trafficking. It has deployed seven US Navy warships as well as F-35 stealth warplanes, and ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group to the region, which would bring with it a

The US began carrying out the strikes, which experts say are illegal, in early September, and has now destroyed at least 14 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific. Hesgeth said on social media in three strikes carried out on Monday in international waters, 14 “narco-terrorists” were killed and one survived. This was the deadliest single-day toll so far in the US campaign. “The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and carrying narcotics.“ The Pentagon chief’s post included video of the strikes, the first of which targeted two stationary boats that appeared to be moored together, and the other two on vessels that