Three Chinese PLA Navy warships have beensailing for weeksnear Australia and New Zealand, in a situation both governments are closely monitoring. The Australian Navy has been monitoring the PLA movements by deploying their own vessels to at times shadow.
The movement is being widely described in regional media as an unprecedented circumnavigation of Australia by the PLA Navy.
As of Thursday, Australia's military had monitored the flotilla's movement some 630 nautical miles (1,166km) northwest of Perth, and soon the warships are expected to transit the Sunda Strait, to reenter the South China Sea.
Led by the PLA's Type 055 destroyer Zunyi, the group also includes the Type 054A frigate named Hengyang and a Type 903 replenishment vessel, Weishanhu.
The South China Morning Post suggests this is a message aimed at Washington as well, given the Chinese warships are sailing in the vicinity of a base which is currently hosting a US submarine. The report indicates:
The warships’ passage near Perth comes amid continued cooperation between Australia and the US under the Aukus defence pact. The US Navy’s attack submarine USS Minnesota has been docked at HMAS Stirling naval base since last month, likely for nuclear submarine training and operational coordination between the two allies.
Aukus, a trilateral security alliance between Australia, Britain and the US, was established in September 2021 and will equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. The pact is framed as a measure to strengthen deterrence and promote a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.
SCMP continues, "The Chinese deployment marks one of the most significant PLA Navy operations near Australian waters, with the warships sailing closer to the country’s shores than before."
Last month the flotilla came just 150 nautical miles east of Sydney. The Australian navy has responded by sending its own warships to shadow and monitor the Chinese PLA Navy ships. They include three ships total: a Chinese frigate, a cruiser and a supply tanker.
"We are keeping a close watch on them, and we will make sure we are watching every move," Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles recently said.
"It’s not unprecedented. But it is an unusual event," Marles said, but still stipulated that the vessels are "not a threat" at this point as they are "engaging in accordance with international law."
"And just as they have a right to be in international waters, which is what they are doing, we have a right to be prudent and to make sure that we are surveilling them, which is what we are doing," he added
The Trump administration has let a waiver allowing Iraq to pay Iran for electricity lapse, a State Department spokesperson said on Saturday, saying Washington will not allow Tehran any degree of economic or financial relief.
"The President's maximum pressure campaign is designed to end Iran's nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile program, and stop it from supporting terrorist groups," the spokesperson said.
"We urge the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible."
China’s consumer inflation dropped below zero for the first time in 13 months, a reading skewed by seasonal distortions but also a reminder of persistent deflationary pressures in the economy.
The consumer price index declined by 0.7% in February from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday, compared with a 0.5% gain in the previous month. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was a 0.4% drop.
Former White House adviser on Russia, Fiona Hill, is slated to appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation” where she will likely discuss the latest back-and-forth between Washington and Kyiv and the potentialmeetingbetween U.S. and Ukrainian officials next week in Saudi Arabia.
Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) was one of 10 House Democrats who voted on Thursday to censure fellow Democratic Rep. Al Green (Texas), two days after the Texas lawmaker heckled Trump during his Tuesday night address to a joint session of Congress, blasting the president for boasting about his 2024 presidential election victory and arguing that he does not have a “mandate” to cut Medicaid. The California Democrat is set to be on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday,” where he will likely elaborate on his vote to reprimand Green and comment on Saturday’s continuing resolution (CR) released by House Republicans.
The White House confirmed this week that it is directly communicating with the Palestinian militant group Hamas regarding the release of the remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip. The talks are taking place amid a fragile ceasefire the group has stuck with Israel in January.
Special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has had direct talks with Hamas. He is set to make an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” and “Fox News Sunday,” where he will likely talk about the latest developments in freeing the hostages from the war-torn enclave.
Here’s a list of this week’s Sunday show appearances:
NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday”: Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Ami Bera (D-Calif.); former National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling; former Office of Management and Budget Director David Stockman.
ABC’s “This Week”: director of the White House National Economic Council Kevin Hassett; Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.); president of the United Auto Workers Shawn Fain.
NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick; Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).
CNN’s “State of the Union”: the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler; Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.); Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), and Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.).
CBS’ “Face the Nation”: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.); Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman and former White House adviser on Russia Fiona Hill.
“Fox News Sunday”: Boehler; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures”: President Donald Trump; former Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates.
Global fund managers are in no rush to load up on Indian stocks even after an unprecedented losing streak has lowered equity valuations.
That’s because the market is still grappling with challenges posed by an economic slowdown, profit downgrades and potential US tariffs. Traders looking for bargains within Asia are gravitating toward still-cheap Chinese equities, which are in the middle of a bull run sparked by developments in artificial intelligence.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday that scheduled flights to bring home Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. had been affected by "this unexplained, tremendous commotion", after the Trump administration canceled a license allowing Chevron to operate in the South American country.
Earlier in his remarks Maduro said that if it was up to him Chevron would remain in Venezuela, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's decision last week to reverse a key license for the company, citing lack of progress on electoral reforms and migrant returns.
Maduro, however, did not mention the company's name directly in reference to the migrant flights. He said that communication between the two countries had been damaged and flights affected.
Maduro and his government have always rejected sanctions by the U.S. and others, saying they are illegitimate measures that amount to an "economic war" designed to cripple Venezuela.
Maduro and his allies have cheered what they say is the country’s resilience despite the measures, though they have historically blamed some economic hardships and shortages on sanctions.
Update(1905ET):After several days of radical Sunni Islamist militants targeting religious minorities in Syria for mass killings, mainly in coastal areas, the mainstream media has belatedly begun to cover it (as the killings are growing to the point of getting too hard to ignore). Some correspondents estimated that there are thousands dead and wounded,mostly Alawites but also Syrian Christians among them, as post-Assad Syria unravels under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's (HTS) Jolani.
"The death toll from two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 1,000, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest acts of violence since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago," The Associated Press reports.
The jihadists, which include foreign fighters as well as ruling HTS members, in some cases are simply going into the homes of non-Sunnis and massacring whole families. The terrorists haven't been shy about uploading their killings on the internet as well as in livestreams. Men, women, children, and even babies are being brutally murdered.
"The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in addition to 745 civilians killed, mostly in shootings from close distance, 125 government security force members and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with Assad were killed. It added that electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around the city of Latakia," AP continues.
But instead of calling out the obvious ethno-religious genocide unfolding, the European Union had the audacity to issue this statement:
The European Union strongly condemns the recent attacks, reportedly by pro-Assad elements, on interim government forces in the coastal areas of Syria and all violence against civilians.
But the truth has been summarized by a priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is the predominant Christian faith of Syria and the Middle East. "As you see the unfolding tragedy in Syria, keep in mind, this is your tax dollars at work. This was brought to you by the US government, the State of Israel, and Turkey. They said Assad was bad. This is what they replaced Assad with," Priest John Whiteford said on X.
Gruesome images of bodies piled up on streets in and around Latakia have been widely circulating - many of them too disturbing to republish.
Fox has underscored that Tulsi Gabbard was right once again...
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's warning of a terrorist takeover in Syria looks to be coming true amid reports that al Qaeda-linked terror forces aligned with Syria’s interim new president—a former al Qaeda terrorist—are being accused of massacring Alawites as well as members of the country's dwindling Christian community.
...At Gabbard's Senate confirmation hearing she said "I have no love for Assad or any dictator. I just hate al-Qaeda. I hate that our leaders cozy up to Islamist extremists, calling them "rebels", as Jake Sullivan said to Hillary Clinton, "al Qaeda is on our side in Syria." Syria is now controlled by al-Qaeda offshoot HTS, led by an Islamist Jihadist who danced in the streets on 9/11, and who was responsible for the killing of many American soldiers."
So far Damascus has remained relatively quiet, but in areas where there are no media cameras, particularly countryside areas of Syria - the jihadists are going on a murderous rampage. Sadly it looks to get worse.
Entire Alawite families have been massacred, such as the below...
Meanwhile Syrian Christians fear they are next to be targeted on a large-scale. Their warnings have largely fallen on deaf ears in the West...
* * *
As Middle East Eye explained earlier, The UK has lifted sanctions on 24 Syrian entities, including the central bank, in a landmark move that could be a turning point for Syria's devastated economy. Britain has become the first country to unfreeze all assets of the Central Bank of Syria.
The state airline and state-owned oil companies are amongst other previously sanctioned entities removed from the sanctions list on Thursday afternoon. "This approach underscores our commitment to help the people of Syria rebuild their country and economy, including through support for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition process," a UK government spokesperson said. "We will continue to judge Syria’s interim authorities by their actions, not their words."
The new Syrian government inherited a daunting economic crisis from Bashar al-Assad's government, which was toppled in December.
Government corruption, devastating conflict and crippling international sanctions all contributed to wrecking Syria's economy under Assad. According to the UN, nine out of 10 Syrians live in poverty.
On December 17, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa [al-Qaeda name: Abu Mohammad al-Jolani] urged Britain and other countries to lift all the sanctions that had been imposed on the country under Assad.
"They should lift all restrictions which were imposed on the flogger and the victim. The flogger is gone now. This issue is not up for negotiation," he said.
'Desperately needs a boost'
The UK's major policy shift could bring new opportunities for Syria, if other nations follow suit. Western countries lifting sanctions could help stabilise the Syrian economy and facilitate foreign investment.
The Syrian government is led by the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which remains a proscribed terrorist organization in the UK, as well as in the US. Western countries have lifted some sanctions, but have made sanctions relief contingent on political reforms.
In February the European Union partially removed restrictions on the central bank and suspended sanctions on the energy and transport sectors. The US waived a ban on transactions with the Syrian government, facilitating humanitarian aid - but has kept sanctions in place.
As long as US sanctions remain, the material impact of Britain's move will be limited. But the policy could be a turning point in encouraging other European nations to lift more sanctions.
It is certainly a bold decision from the Labor government, which will be seen to be designing its own Middle East policy, distinct from that of the US.
It comes just days after Turkey's Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yilmaz met Britain's Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer to discuss Syria's future, including sanctions and economic development.
Chris Doyle, chair of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: "This is a belated if very welcome step by the UK. The Syrian economy desperately needs a boost and removing or easing sanctions is one of the key measures than can assist in this process."
He added: "Getting Syrians back to productive work, running their businesses, and getting out of a situation of being aid dependent is all part of ensuring a successful transition away from decades of Assad regime rule."
Watch: HTS militants drop 'barrel bombs' on civilians long the Syrian coast amid an ongoing ethno-religions cleansing campaign targeting Alawites(and the MSM remains silent)...
The developments come as the HTS-led government carried out helicopter strikes on Thursday on the former Assad stronghold of Latakia, after fighters loyal to an elite Assad unit killed security personnel.
Video purporting to show impact...
In the last few weeks, the government has launched extensive campaigns seeking to root out Assad loyalists from his former bastions. It is under further pressure in the southwest, where Israel has occupied a UN-buffer zone and now commands the high ground looking over Damascus.
Israel has also sought to portray itself as a protector of Syria’s Druze community, an ethno-religious minority, in a bid to deepen its foothold in Syria.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened military action to “defend” a suburb three kilometres southeast of Damascus that is home to many Druze.
