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The United States said Tuesday it has approved the possible sale of $5.58 billion in F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines, as Washington backs its ally in rising tensions over China.The State Department said it was green-lighting a sale that includes 20 F-16 jets and related equipment to the Philippines, a treaty-bound ally of the United States.The sale would “improve the security of a strategic partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in Southeast Asia,” a State Department statement said.It would also boost “the Philippine Air Force’s ability to conduct maritime domain awareness” and “enhance its suppression of enemy air defenses,” the statement said.The news follows months of increasing confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.A State Department spokesperson said Wednesday that the deal would be final only after “a signed Letter of Offer and Acceptance” was received from the “purchasing partner”. Philippine defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told AFP he had “not received any official notice of such a decision.”But China warned Manila against the purchase, saying the Philippines was “threatening” regional peace.”The Philippines’ defense and security cooperation with other countries should not target any third party or harm the interests of a third party. Nor should it threaten regional peace and security or exacerbate regional tensions,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.Manila and Washington have deepened their defense cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims.In December, the Philippines angered China when it said it planned to acquire the US mid-range Typhon missile system in a push to secure its maritime interests.Beijing warned such a purchase could spark a regional “arms race”.- ‘Inevitably’ involved -President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to redirect US military efforts to Asia to face a rising China, especially as tensions rise over Taiwan, and to lessen involvement in Europe despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.On Tuesday, as Chinese ships and warplanes surrounded Taiwan in a simulated blockade, Philippines military chief General Romeo Brawner said his country would “inevitably” be involved should the self-ruled island be invaded.”Start planning for actions in case there is an invasion of Taiwan,” he told troops in northern Luzon island, without naming the potential invader.”Because if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved.”He also said that the bulk of this month’s joint military exercises would be conducted in northern Luzon, the part of the Philippines nearest Taiwan. “These are the areas where we perceive the possibility of an attack. I do not want to sound alarmist, but we have to prepare,” he added.Asked about Brawner’s comments, Beijing foreign ministry spokesman Guo said resolving “the Taiwan issue is a matter for the Chinese people.” “We advise certain individuals in the Philippines not to play with fire or make provocations on the Taiwan issue — those who play with fire will only get burned,” he said.On a visit to Manila last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to “reestablish deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region” in light of “threats from the Communist Chinese.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also reiterated US defense commitments to the Philippines, a contrast to the Trump administration’s frequent talk of “freeloading” off the United States by allies in Europe.

Mitch Hay’s rollicking 99 not out backed by some feisty seam bowling steered New Zealand to an 84-run win over Pakistan on Wednesday to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the one-day international series.New Zealand made 292-8 and bowled Pakistan out for 208 in the 42nd over in Hamilton in the second of three one-day internationals.Hay’s lusty hitting snapped a mid-innings slump by the hosts as he raced to a career-best ODI knock, which included blasting 22 off the final over by Mohammad Wasim.He downplayed his innings as “just swinging from the hip and hoping” but Hay’s captain Michael Bracewell and rival skipper Mohammad Rizwan saw it as a match-defining performance. “We lost a few wickets then the way Mitch batted at the end was outstanding, and throughout his whole innings, to get us through to a competitive total,” Bracewell said.Rizwan lamented his side’s inability to handle the swing and bounce of the New Zealand bowlers. “Mitch Hay, he played very well and that’s why they put a good target on the board,” he said.Hay smacked seven fours and as many sixes in his 78-ball innings to steer New Zealand from a perilous 132-5 in the 27th over.In reply, Pakistan were in early trouble when Will O’Rourke had Abdullah Shafique caught at first slip for one in the third over.Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq quickly followed, dismissed by Jacob Duffy, to leave Pakistan tottering at 9-3 midway through the sixth over. Ben Sears, who finished with 5-59, took two wickets in his first over — Salman Agha for nine and Mohammad Rizwan for five — to reduce the visitors to 32-5. Tayyab Tahir and Faheem Ashraf put on 33 off nine overs but when Sears removed Tahir and Wasim it was 72-7 .Haris Rauf on three was hit by a nasty blow to the helmet from a rising delivery from  O’Rourke and had to retire hurt.It was his concussion replacement, Naseem Shah, who began to show some fight as he put on rearguard 60 stand with Ashraf.Both posted maiden ODI fifties with Ashraf scoring 73 and Naseem 51.Earlier, novice Black Caps openers Nick Kelly and Rhys Mariu put on 54 after being asked to bat by Rizwan.Kelly was caught behind for a hard-hitting 31 which included four fours and two sixes and debutant Mariu made 18. Henry Nicholls and Daryl Mitchell took New Zealand past 100 in the 16th over.Mitchell was stumped by Rizwan off Sufyan Moqim for 18 and Nicholls went for 22 in the following over.Michael Bracewell and Muhammad Abbas trod water to add only 30 runs in 10 overs until Bracewell was caught behind off Wasim for 17. Pakistan-born Abbas and Hay set about restoring the innings with a patient 77-run partnership until Abbas went for 41. Moqim was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with 2-33.The third and final match is at Mount Maunganui on Friday.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Prabhsimran Singh scored an explosive 69 off 34 balls as Punjab Kings cruised to an eight-wicket victory over Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday for their second win this IPL. Punjab chased down the target of 172 set by Lucknow with nearly four overs to spare, and captain Shreyas Iyer remained unbeaten on 52 off 30 balls.  “This is the start we required,” Iyer said. “Boys actually played their roles well, they contributed to the best of their ability, and whatever we planned, they executed it to the fullest.”Playing their first home game of the season, Lucknow Super Giants started poorly, losing in-form opener Mitchell Marsh for a golden duck in the first over of the match to Arshdeep Singh. Marsh’s opening partner Aiden Markram hit Arshdeep for three boundaries in his next over but fell for 28 off 18 soon after to New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson, who was playing his first match for the Kings. Captain Rishabh Pant’s stint at the crease was short-lived getting out for just two runs from five balls, leaving Lucknow reeling at 35-3 just prior to the end of the powerplay.  Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni steadied the innings with a 54-run partnership for the fourth wicket, but Pooran eventually fell to spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the 12th over after an entertaining 44 off 30 balls.   The attacking David Miller, who came in next, did not last long either, falling to fellow South African Marco Jansen for 19 off 18 deliveries.Badoni (41) and Abdul Samad (27), both of whom were dismissed by Arshdeep in the last over of the innings, provided some late momentum to Lucknow, propelling them to a total of 171-7. Skipper Pant conceded it was “not enough”. “We were 20-25 runs short,” he said.”That is part and parcel of the game — our first home game, so still assessing the conditions.”   In response, Punjab lost opener Priyansh Arya cheaply for eight runs off nine balls to spinner Digvesh Rathi in the third over.But Lucknow’s bowling attack only again tasted success in the 11th over when Prabhsimran fell, courtesy of a spectacular catch at the fence by Ravi Bishnoi.   By then, Iyer and Prabhsimran’s quickfire partnership of 84 — powered largely by the latter — had taken the match away from Lucknow. Left-handed batter Nehal Wadhera (43) then teamed up with Iyer to take Punjab over the line without any further setbacks.  Rathi (2-30) was the only Lucknow bowler to be among the wickets.

Emergency workers in Myanmar rescued a woman on Tuesday who had been trapped for more than 90 hours under the rubble of a building after a devastating earthquake that has killed at least 2,700 people.The woman, around 63 years old, was found alive and transferred to a hospital, the Myanmar Fire Services Department said, a rare moment of hope as the country held a minute’s silence to honour the dead.Four days after the shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck, many people in Myanmar are still sleeping outdoors, either unable to return to ruined homes or afraid of further aftershocks.The head of the ruling junta, Min Aung Hlaing, said 2,719 people were confirmed dead so far, with more than 4,500 injured and 441 still missing.The toll is expected to rise significantly as rescuers reach towns and villages where communications have been cut off by the quake.At 12:51:02 (0621 GMT) — the precise time the quake struck on Friday — sirens wailed to bring the country to a standstill to remember those lost.Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city with 1.7 million inhabitants, suffered some of the worst destruction.Outside the Sky Villa apartment complex, one of the city’s worst-hit disaster sites, rescue workers stopped and lined up with hands clasped behind their backs to pay their respects.Officials and attendants stood behind a cordon, watching relatives further back, as the sirens wailed and a Myanmar flag flew at half-mast from a bamboo pole tied to a rescue tent.The moment of remembrance is part of a week of national mourning declared by the ruling junta, with flags to fly at half-mast on official buildings until April 6 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages”.More than 1,000 foreign rescuers have flown in to help and Myanmar state media reported that nearly 650 people have been pulled alive from ruined buildings around the country.- Sleeping in the open -Hundreds of Mandalay residents have been forced to sleep in the open, with their homes destroyed or fearing aftershocks would cause more damage.”I don’t feel safe. There are six or seven-floor buildings beside my house leaning, and they can collapse anytime,” Soe Tint, a watchmaker, told AFP after sleeping outside.Some have tents but many — including babies and children — have been bedding down on blankets in the middle of roads, staying as far away as possible from damaged buildings.At an examination hall, where part of the building collapsed on hundreds of monks taking an exam, book bags were piled on a table outside, the uncollected belongings of the victims.The smell was “very high”, one Indian rescue worker said. The stench of bodies rotting in the heat was unmistakable at several disaster sites around the city.On the outskirts of Mandalay, a crematorium has received hundreds of bodies for disposal, with many more to come as victims are dug out of the rubble.- International aid effort -Even before Friday’s quake, Myanmar’s 50 million people were suffering, the country ravaged by four years of civil war sparked when the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021. At least 3.5 million people were displaced by the conflict before the quake, many of them at risk of hunger, according to the United Nations. The junta says it is doing its best to respond to the disaster but there have been multiple reports in recent days of the military carrying out air strikes on armed groups opposed to its rule, even as the country reels from the quake’s devastation.UN special envoy to Myanmar Julie Bishop called Monday for all parties to cease hostilities and focus on protecting civilians and delivering aid.An alliance of three ethnic minority armed groups that have been fighting against the junta announced a one-month pause in hostilities to support humanitarian efforts in response to the quake.Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for foreign assistance, breaking with the isolated ruling generals’ customary practice of shunning help from abroad in the wake of major disasters.Hundreds of kilometres away, Bangkok authorities said the death toll there had risen to 20, the vast majority killed when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed.burs-pdw/dhw

Thailand’s search and rescue dogs are taking on the role of emotional support animals for grieving relatives of victims of a Bangkok skyscraper flattened in a deadly earthquake.The 30-storey high-rise under construction collapsed in seconds on Friday when a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck neighbouring Myanmar, with effects felt as far as the Thai capital.As of Tuesday, 13 people — thought to be on-site construction workers — were pronounced dead, with nine injured and more than 70 still believed to be buried in the rubble.Their tearful families waited near the scene of the collapse, watching on with hopes fading as rescue workers and diggers scraped through the mountain of rubble.But their faces lit up when they saw golden retrievers Lek and Safari — decked out in official search uniforms — brought to the relatives’ waiting area.Several canine teams have been deployed to help the search and rescue operation at the site, including from the military and police.Rescue workers have recruited 11 dogs — not just in their usual capacity sniffing through the debris for signs of life, but also as emotional support for victims’ friends and relatives.Alongkot Chukaew, deputy director of K9 USAR (urban search and rescue) Thailand, which handles the trained canines, said his team had learned from experience during the Turkey earthquake in 2023 that the dogs’ presence offered a light in the dark for those waiting for news of their families.”The children whose families were lost, they walked over to our two dogs during their break. They came to play with our dogs, even as their head injuries were clearly visible,” he tol AFP.It was then that he realised the dogs were doing more than just searching for the victims — they made people feel “less anxious and less sad, even for a short while”.He said he felt it was important to introduce the dogs to victims’ relatives for them to meet the vital team members searching for their loved ones.”They are very valuable part of the crew,” said Alongkot, “A team that is on a mission to search for many more people around the world.”

Myanmar held a minute’s silence on Tuesday in tribute to victims of a catastrophic earthquake that has killed more than 2,000 people, buckling roads and flattening buildings as far away as Bangkok.Four days after the shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck, many people in Myanmar are still sleeping outdoors, either unable to return to ruined homes or afraid of further aftershocks.Sirens rang out at 12:51:02 (0621 GMT) — the precise time the quake struck on Friday — bringing the country to a standstill to remember those lost.Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city with 1.7 million inhabitants, suffered some of the worst destruction.Outside the Sky Villa apartment complex, one of the city’s worst-hit disaster sites, rescue workers stopped and lined up with hands clasped behind their backs to pay their respects.Officials and attendants stood behind a cordon, watching relatives further back, as the sirens wailed and a Myanmar flag flew at half-mast from a bamboo pole tied to a rescue tent.The moment of remembrance is part of a week of national mourning declared by the ruling junta, with flags to fly at half-mast on official buildings until April 6 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages”.The junta said Monday that more than 2,000 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 3,900 injured and 270 missing. At least 20 people died in neighbouring Thailand.The toll is expected to rise significantly as rescuers reach towns and villages where communications have been cut off by the quake.But in one miraculous development, a woman was rescued in the Myanmar capital of Naypyidaw on Tuesday, after being trapped by debris for 91 hours.The woman around 63 years old was found alive on Tuesday morning, then “successfully rescued” and transferred to a hospital, the Myanmar Fire Services Department said in a Facebook post.More than 1,000 foreign rescuers have flown in to help and Myanmar state media reported that nearly 650 people have been pulled alive from ruined buildings around the country.- Sleeping in the open -Hundreds of Mandalay residents spent a fourth night sleeping in the open, with their homes destroyed or fearing aftershocks would cause more damage.”I don’t feel safe. There are six or seven-floor buildings beside my house leaning, and they can collapse anytime,” Soe Tint, a watchmaker, told AFP after sleeping outside.Some have tents but many — including babies and children — have been bedding down on blankets in the middle of roads, staying as far away as possible from damaged buildings.At an examination hall, where part of the building collapsed on hundreds of monks taking an exam, book bags were piled on a table outside, the uncollected belongings of the victims.Fire engines and heavy-lifting vehicles were parked outside and an Indian rescue team worked on the pancaked remains of the building. The smell was “very high”, one Indian officer said. The stench of bodies rotting in the heat was unmistakable at several disaster sites around the city.On the outskirts of Mandalay, a crematorium has received hundreds of bodies for disposal, with many more to come as victims are dug out of the rubble.- International aid effort -Even before Friday’s quake, Myanmar’s 50 million people were suffering, the country ravaged by four years of civil war sparked when the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021. The UN says at least 3.5 million people were displaced by the conflict before the quake, many of them at risk of hunger. The junta says it is doing its best to respond to the disaster but there have been multiple reports in recent days of the military carrying out air strikes on armed groups opposed to its rule, even as the country reels from the quake’s devastation.United Nations special envoy to Myanmar Julie Bishop called Monday for all parties to cease hostilities and focus on protecting civilians and delivering aid.In response to the quake, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for foreign assistance, breaking with the isolated ruling generals’ customary practice of shunning help from abroad in the wake of major disasters.Hundreds of kilometres (miles) away, Bangkok city authorities said the death toll there had risen to 20, the vast majority killed when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed.City governor Chadchart Sittipunt told a news conference on Tuesday that recovery efforts at the site of the collapse have entered a “second phase” that involves “lifting all the heavy materials, such as columns”.”We have hope there are survivors,” he said. “We will keep going”.burs-pfc/dhw

A Chinese construction company is facing questions over the deadly collapse of a Bangkok skyscraper — the only major building in the capital to fall in a catastrophic earthquake that has killed more than 2,000 people in Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar.The 30-storey tower, still under construction, was to house government offices, but the shaking reduced the structure to a pile of rubble in seconds, killing at least 13 people and injuring nine.It was the deadliest single incident in Thailand after Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake, with the majority of the kingdom’s 20 fatalities thought to be workers on the building site and hopes fading for around 70 still trapped. Sprawling Bangkok bristles with countless high-rise blocks, but none have reported major damage, prompting many to ask why the block under construction gave way.”We have to investigate where the mistake happened,” said Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who has ordered a probe into the materials and safety standards at the construction site.”What happened from the beginning since it was designed? How was this design approved? This was not the first building in the country,” she told reporters on Saturday.The development near Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market was a joint project involving China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group (Thailand) — an offshoot of China Railway Group (CREC), one of the world’s largest construction and engineering contractors.- Questions raised -Testing of steel rebars — struts used to reinforce concrete — from the site has found that some of the metal used was substandard, Thai safety officials said on Monday.Industry Minister Akanat Promphan announced that a committee would be set up to investigate, saying one supplier of the steel had failed safety tests in December and may have its licence withdrawn. He did not name the supplier.Professor of Civil Engineering at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang Suchatwee Sunaswat said there were questions to be answered.”We have to look at the design. At the beginning, how they calculate, how they design. And in the rescue mission, how they collect evidence at the same time,” he told reporters on Saturday.- Safety complaints – The local partner in the project, Italian-Thai Development (ITD) offered condolences on Monday to quake victims but said it was “confident” the incident would not impact its other projects.Beijing-owned building conglomerate CREC is one of the world’s largest construction and engineering contractors, with projects in more than 90 countries and regions, according to its website.The Bangkok construction collapse is not the first time CREC and its subsidiaries have come under fire after deadly incidents.A tide of anger was unleashed at authorities in Serbia following the deaths of 14 people when a roof collapsed in November last year at a train station built by CREC subsidiaries — largely focused on reports of alleged shortcuts made with building projects.Roisai Wongsuban of the Migrant Working Group advocacy organisation said there have been a large number of complaints from migrant workers employed by Chinese companies in Thailand about lax safety standards and poor labour rights.”For Chinese companies we can’t see the human rights due diligence, to see if labour standards are being met,” she told AFP. “There is always a power imbalance between employer and employee.”Bangkok’s construction boom is powered by an army of labourers, a large proportion of them migrant workers from Myanmar, toiling on hot building sites for low pay.The Migrant Working Group has called on Thailand’s labour ministry to hold the employers involved in the construction project criminally liable if they have failed to meet health and safety laws.- China sensitivities -AFP has asked China Rail No. 10 Engineering Thailand and CREC for comment but has not had a response.An announcement celebrating the completion of the main structure at the Chatuchak construction site posed on China Rail No. 10’s official WeChat channel was deleted soon after Friday’s quake.AFP archived the post shortly after the tremors hit but before the page was removed.Local media said that four Chinese nationals were apprehended on Saturday for attempting to retrieve documents from the collapse site.But China is the largest source of foreign direct investment in Thailand, injecting $2 billion into the kingdom in 2024, according to Open Development Thailand, and the government typically handles anything linked to Beijing with kid gloves.Paetongtarn said an investigation into the collapse launched on Monday would not be “specific to one country”.”We do not want one particular country to think we are only keeping eyes on (it),” she said on Tuesday.At a small shelter near the site on Monday, 45-year-old Naruemol Thonglek waited for news of her boyfriend, electrician Kyi Than, who was missing under the enormous mound of concrete and twisted metal being lifted by mechanical diggers.”I’m devastated,” she told AFP. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life.”

Daria Kasatkina has been ranked as high as number eight in the women’s tennis world rankings but the openly gay player is attracting headlines for criticising the country of her birth, Russia.The 27-year-old cut ties definitively with her homeland — who she inspired to victory in the Billie Jean King Cup in 2021 — when Australia granted her application for permanent residency last weekend.Russia banned what it calls “gay propaganda” among adults in 2022, extending an earlier law that forbade it among minors. That effectively outlawed any representation of “non-traditional sexual relations” in public and in the media.It has also put “the international LGBT movement” on its list of terrorist and extremist organisations.AFP Sport picks out three things about Kasatkina:Russia in her sights over gay rightsKasatkina was living in Spain when she bit the bullet in July 2022, and came out, not mincing her words in an interview with Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko.”Seriously, if there is a choice, no one would choose being gay,” she said.”Why make your life harder, especially in Russia? What’s the point? “Living in the closet is impossible. It is too hard, it is pointless.”Kasatkina, who hails originally from Tolyatti, best known as the centre of Lada car production, was more concerned about what her parents — former ice hockey player Sergey and her lawyer mother Tatyana — thought.”My primary concern was how my parents would react, yet they are proud of me and supportive of my journey,” said Kasatkina.They respect her frankness too, a trait that she says she is most proud of.”I’m not afraid of speaking my mind and I’m not different at being myself and I would say with this one and I’m quite proud to be looking in the mirror and seeing who’s in front there,” she told the wearetennis website in September 2024.Speaking ahead of her first tournament playing under the Australian flag, Kasatkina told reporters at the Charleston Open on Monday: “With everything going on in my previous country, I didn’t have much choice.”For me, being openly gay, if I want to be myself, I have to make this step, and I did it.”Feeling the pain of her Ukrainian rivalsFrom the outset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian tennis players have refused to shake hands with their Russian opponents, who are competing ostensibly as neutral athletes.Many Ukrainians said they have been disappointed by the lack of support they received from people they previously considered friends on the tour. Kasatkina has been the exception to the rule, indeed the invasion sparked her coming out.”It’s unsafe for me now with the regime we have,” she said in 2022.”As a gay person who opposes the war, I simply cannot go back.”However, I regret nothing. When the war commenced, I felt overwhelmed and just decided enough was enough! I could no longer hide who I am.”She also said she understood why Ukrainian players refused to shake hands: “I accept it and it is how it is,” she said in April 2023.   Her stance was welcomed by the Ukrainian players, including world number 18 Elina Svitolina.”She’s a really brave person to say it publicly, that not so many players did,” Svitolina said. “She’s a brave one.”Courting home comfortsInspired by her older brother Aleksandr to take up tennis aged six, Kasatkina was crowned French Open junior champion in 2014, reached the 2022 French Open semi-finals and has won eight singles titles in all.Away from tennis — she intends to make Melbourne her new home — she says she is determined not to live and breathe the sport 24 hours a day.”When I’m outside of the tennis court, outside of the tennis club I don’t want to hear anything about it because it’s enough, we have more than enough,” she told wearetennis.”I want to like spend a good time with the people I love.”For me the best activities when we are at home is to go to the supermarket with Natasha (Zabiiako, her partner) and just to get groceries and I would get something for our apartment.”It makes me so happy.”

South Korea’s Constitutional Court will issue its long-awaited ruling on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment Friday, months after he was suspended for declaring martial law.Yoon’s December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule plunged South Korea into political chaos after he sent armed soldiers into parliament.Lawmakers defied the troops to vote the measure down and impeached Yoon soon after, but months of political instability have hit South Korea’s economy and left the country in leadership limbo, as US President Donald Trump targets the region with sweeping tariffs.The court held weeks of impeachment hearings to determine whether to officially remove Yoon from office and then took weeks to deliberate on the case, giving rise to speculation that the judges were locked in intense disagreements.”The president’s impeachment case verdict will be on April 4, 2025 at the Constitutional Court,” the court finally said in a statement Tuesday.For Yoon to be removed from office, at least six of the court’s eight justices must vote in favour. Confirmation of his impeachment would trigger elections which must be held within 60 days.Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans have been rallying for and against Yoon every weekend in the capital Seoul.Yoon, a former prosecutor, was detained in January on insurrection charges but released in early March on procedural grounds. He has remained defiant throughout and blamed a “malicious” opposition for the case against him.He is also the first sitting South Korean president to stand trial in a criminal case, facing charges of insurrection over the martial law bid.”I expect the Constitutional Court to issue a unanimous ruling to remove Yoon from office this Friday, as the case does not involve complex legality of his martial law declaration,” said Noh Hee-bum, attorney and a former Constitutional Court research judge. “The primary role of the Constitutional Court is to protect and uphold the Constitution, which Yoon’s declaration of martial law directly violated.”- Fresh elections? -Yoon’s party said it welcomed the court’s move to issue a ruling, saying it hoped the verdict would be “fair and impartial” and would not lead to further social unrest.The People Power Party “will respect and accept the court’s decision, and after the ruling, both the ruling and opposition parties… must take the lead in easing public divisions and promoting national unity,” PPP party floor leader Kweon Seong-dong said.”After four long months of waiting, the Constitutional Court has finally responded to the people,” the opposition Democratic Party’s spokesperson said.”We believe the Court will demonstrate its firm resolve to defend the constitutional order and founding principles of the Republic of Korea by removing Yoon Suk Yeol, the insurrectionist, from office.”Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is currently frontrunner to win an election that would be triggered by Yoon’s formal dismissal.An appeals court last week overturned an election law conviction against Lee, potentially clearing the way for him to mount a presidential campaign.But if it is reinstated on appeal before the election, he will be stripped of his parliamentary seat and barred from running for office for five years, including the next presidential vote.Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the ruling on Lee may have appeared “to many Koreans to be reading the political tea leaves”.”This is the judiciary trying to unwind the lawfare of the past three years to allow South Korea’s political crisis to be resolved by an election rather than by the courts,” he said.In a separate case, the Constitutional Court last week dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, reinstating him as acting president — a role he took after the president was suspended for declaring martial law.Experts said the ruling did not have a direct legal correlation with the pending decision on Yoon’s impeachment, as it was not focused on the legality of martial law itself.

Bangladeshi Junayed Akter is 12 years old but the toxic lead coursing through his veins has left him with the diminutive stature of someone several years younger.Akter is one of 35 million children — around 60 percent of all children in the South Asian nation — who have dangerously high levels of lead exposure. The causes are varied, but his mother blames his maladies on a since-shuttered factory that hastily scrapped and recycled old vehicle batteries for profit, in the process poisoning the air and the earth of his small village. “It would start at night, and the whole area would be filled with smoke. You could smell this particular odour when you breathed,” Bithi Akter told AFP. “The fruit no longer grew during the season. One day, we even found two dead cows at my aunt’s house.”Medical tests showed Junayed’s blood had twice the level of lead deemed by the World Health Organization to cause serious, and likely irreversible, mental impairment in young children.”From the second grade onward, he didn’t want to listen to us anymore, he didn’t want to go to school,” Bithi said, as her son sat next to her while gazing blankly out at the courtyard of their home. “He cried all the time too.”Lead poisoning is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh, and the causes are manifold. They include the heavy metal’s widespread and continued use in paint, in defiance of a government ban, and its use as an adulterant in turmeric spice powder to improve its colour and perceived quality. A great many cases are blamed on informal battery recycling factories that have proliferated around the country in response to rising demand. Children exposed to dangerous levels of lead risk decreased intelligence and cognitive performance, anaemia, stunted growth and lifelong neurological disorders. The factory in the Akter family’s village closed after sustained complaints from the community. But environmental watchdog Pure Earth believes there could be 265 such sites elsewhere in the country. “They break down old batteries, remove the lead and melt it down to make new ones,” Pure Earth’s Mitali Das told AFP.”They do all this in the open air,” she added. “The toxic fumes and acidic water produced during the operation pollute the air, soil and water.”- ‘They’ve killed our village’ -In Fulbaria, a village that sits a few hours’ drive north of the capital Dhaka, operations at another battery recycling factory owned by a Chinese company are in full swing.On one side are verdant paddy fields. On the other, a pipe spews murky water into a brackish pool bordered by dead lands, caked with thick orange mud.”As a child, I used to bring food to my father when he was in the fields. The landscape was magnificent, green, the water was clear,” engineer and local resident Rakib Hasan, 34, told AFP.”You see what it looks like now. It’s dead, forever,” he added. “They’ve killed our village.”Hasan complained about the factory’s pollution, prompting a judge to declare it illegal and order the power be shut off — a decision later reversed by the country’s supreme court. “The factory bought off the local authorities,” Hasan said. “Our country is poor, many people are corrupt.”Neither the company nor the Chinese embassy in Dhaka responded to AFP’s requests for comment on the factory’s operations.Syeda Rizwana Hasan, who helms Bangladesh’s environment ministry, declined to comment on the case because it was still before the courts. “We regularly conduct operations against the illegal production and recycling of electric batteries,” she said. “But these efforts are often insufficient given the scale of the phenomenon.”- ‘Unaware of the dangers’ -Informal battery recycling is a booming business in Bangladesh.It is driven largely by the mass electrification of rickshaws — a formerly pedal-powered means of conveyance popular in both big cities and rural towns.More than four million rickshaws are found on Bangladeshi roads and authorities estimate the market for fitting them all with electric motors and batteries at around $870 million.”It’s the downside of going all-electric,” said Maya Vandenant of the UN children’s agency, which is pushing a strategy to clean up the industry with tighter regulations and tax incentives.”Most people are unaware of the dangers,” she said, adding that the public health impacts are forecast to be a 6.9 percent dent to the national economy.Muhammad Anwar Sadat of Bangladesh’s health ministry warned that the country could not afford to ignore the scale of the problem.”If we do nothing,” he told AFP, “the number of people affected will multiply three or fourfold in the next two years.”