27/01/2026

TUESDAY | JAN 27, 2026

8

Australia Day protesters demand indigenous rights

Taiwan monitoring China military leadership changes TAIPEI: Taiwan is monitoring what it called “abnormal” changes to China’s military leadership after its most senior general was put under investigation, and will use various methods to decipher Beijing’s intentions, Defence Minister Wellington Koo said yesterday. China announced on Saturday that Zhang Youxia, second-in-command under President Xi Jinping as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, and another senior officer, Liu Zhenli, were under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. “We will continue to monitor abnormal changes among the top levels of China’s party, government, and military leadership. The military’s position is based on the fact that China has never abandoned the use of force against Taiwan,” Koo told reporters at parliament. Zhang has long been seen as Xi’s closest military ally, and is one of the few senior Chinese officers with combat experience, having taken part in the 1979 border conflict with Vietnam. China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, sends warplanes and warships into the skies and waters around the island on an almost daily basis, in what Taipei views as a harassment campaign to get the government to accept Beijing’s sovereignty claims. Koo said what the ministry was looking at is not any “single leadership reshuffle that would be enough to draw conclusions”. Taiwan will use a range of joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance methods, as well as intelligence-sharing, to “grasp” China’s possible intentions, he said. “What we want is a comprehensive grasp of all indicators – military and non-military – reflecting China’s intentions and actions, and then make an integrated overall assessment,” Koo said, without elaborating. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and held its latest round of war games around the island late last month. Taiwan’s government says only the island’s people can decide their future. – Reuters NZ restarts recovery at landslide site WELLINGTON: New Zealand police yesterday restarted recovery efforts for the victims of a landslide that hit a busy campground in North Island last week. Six people, including two teenagers, are presumed dead after heavy rains triggered Thursday’s landslide at Mount Maunganui on the island’s east coast, bringing down soil and rubble at the site in the city of Tauranga, crowded with families on summer holidays. Human remains were found at the site on Saturday, but police have yet to confirm if they had been identified. On Sunday, efforts to recover the victims were suspended after a driver noticed potential instability on the face of the landslide. Bay of Plenty District Commander Tim Anderson said recovery effort has resumed. “Additional monitoring equipment has been brought in and specialist crews removed loose material,” Anderson said. A vigil was held for the victims at a nearby park on Sunday, which was attended by around 200 locals, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell. Luxon said it had been “very special to join the Mt Maunganui community” to remember the precious lives lost. – Reuters

o A‘ lways was, always will be aboriginal land’

indigenous man Kody Bardy, 44, said in Sydney. Another protester, 23-year-old Reeyah Dinah Lotoanie, called for people to recognise that a genocide happened in Australia. “Ships still came to Sydney and decided to kill so many of our people,” she said. Separately, thousands of people joined anti immigration “March for Australia” protests in several cities, with police in Melbourne mobilising to keep the two demonstrations apart. In Sydney, “March for Australia” protesters chanted, “Send them back.” Some carried banners reading: “Stop importing terrorists” or “One flag, one country, one people”. “There’s nowhere for people to live now, the hospitals are full, the roads are full, you’ve got people living on the streets,” said one demonstrator, 66-year-old Rick Conners. Several also held aloft placards calling for the release of high-profile neo-Nazi Joel Davis, who is in custody after being arrested in November on allegations of threatening a federal lawmaker. “There will be no tolerance for violence or hate speech on Sydney streets,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters. “We live in a beautiful, multicultural community with people from around the world, but we will not tolerate a situation where on Australia’s national day, it’s being pulled down by divisive language, hate speech or racism,” he said. “Police are ready and willing to engage with people that breach those rules.” – AFP

SYDNEY: Thousands of people rallied in cities across Australia demanding justice and rights for indigenous peoples yesterday, a national holiday marking the 1788 arrival of a British fleet in Sydney Harbour. Crowds took to the streets in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and other cities on Australia Day, many with banners proclaiming: “Always was, always will be aboriginal land”. In Sydney, police allowed the protests to go ahead despite new curbs introduced after gunmen opened fire in Bondi Beach on Dec 14, killing 15 people. Millions of Australians celebrate the annual holiday with beers and backyard barbecues or a day by the sea, and this year a broad heatwave was forecast to push the temperature in South Australian capital Adelaide to 45ºC. Shark sightings forced people out of the water at several beaches in and around Sydney, however, after a string of shark attacks in the region this month, including one that led to the death of a 12-year-old boy. Many activists describe the Jan 26, 1788, British landing as “Invasion Day”, a moment that ushered in a period of oppression, lost lands, massacres and indigenous children being removed from their families. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Protesters take part in the ‘Invasion Day’ rally, organised on Australia Day, in Sydney. – AFPPIC make up about 4% of the population. They still have a life expectancy eight years shorter than other Australians, higher rates of incarceration and deaths in custody, steeper youth unemployment and poorer education. “Let’s celebrate on another day, because everyone loves this country and everyone wants to celebrate. “But we don’t celebrate on a mourning day,”

BrahMos supersonic cruise missile at Kartavya Path during India’s 77th Republic Day parade in New Delhi. – AFPPIC

India fetes EU at Republic Day parade NEW DELHI: European Union leaders joined India’s Republic Day parade as the guests of honour yesterday, a day before New Delhi and Brussels are expected to seal a long-awaited free trade agreement. European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are both in attendance, before an EU India summit today, when the two sides are widely expected to announce a landmark free trade deal and security partnership.

The annual show is a colourful and tightly choreographed spectacle that also features floats from different Indian states to highlight the diversity of the country’s 1.4 billion people. India is on track to become the world’s fourth-largest economy this year, according to International Monetary Fund projections. The pact would be a major win for Brussels and New Delhi as both seek to open up new markets to counter US tariffs and Chinese export controls. While the EU sees India as an important market, New Delhi sees Brussels as an important source of technology and investments to rapidly upscale its infrastructure and create millions of new jobs for its people. – AFP

Military bands and horse and camel cavalry units paraded through capital New Delhi, while fighter jets buzzed overhead and India’s latest military hardware was put on display. “The occasion inspires us in our collective resolve to build a developed India,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said before the parade. The fanfare also featured Indian air defence systems – including missiles and drones – that were deployed in the four-day conflict with Pakistan last year.

They had been working on a trade agreement for over a decade before US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs pushed India and the 27-nation EU to expedite their efforts last year. Republic Day marks the adoption of India’s post-independence constitution in 1950 with the parade staged along a colonial-era boulevard that hosts important government buildings.