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SYDNEY (AP) — Narendra Modi has arrived in Sydney for his second Australian visit as India’s prime minister and told local media he wants closer bilateral defense and security ties as China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region grows. Modi is the only one of the Quad nations’ leaders to continue with his Australian visit plans after President Joe Biden pulled out last week to return to Washington to focus on debt limit talks. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hosted a Group of Seven meeting last week, later canceled his Australia trip as well. Modi is giving an address to the Indian diaspora at a sold-out 20,000-seat Sydney stadium Tuesday.
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s opposition Move Forward Party. the top vote-getter in last week’s national election, signed an agreement with seven other parties on Monday on a joint platform they hope will lead to the formation of a coalition government in July. The 23-point agreement sidesteps several volatile issues while seeking to preserve most of the agenda that brought the progressive Move Forward Party its stunning May 14 victory, in which it captured 152 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives by promoting change after nine years of conservative army-backed rule. The most contentious issue, amendment of a harsh law against criticizing the monarchy, was not included in the pact.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Chinese petroleum giant Sinopec signed an agreement with Sri Lanka on Monday to enter the South Asian island country’s retail fuel market as it struggles to resolve a worsening energy crisis amid an unprecedented economic upheaval. The contract agreement would enable Sinopec to import, store, distribute and sell petroleum products in Sri Lanka, which has had a fuel shortage for more than a year. The move comes as Beijing looks to consolidate investments in Sri Lanka’s ports and energy sector amid growing security concerns raised by the island nation’s immediate neighbor, India, which considers Sri Lanka to be its strategic backyard.
BOGOR, Indonesia (AP) — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will meet his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo on Tuesday during a two-day trip aiming to strengthen economic ties between the Muslim-majority nations amid heightened global geopolitical tensions. Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Raisi is visiting at Widodo’s invitation as Indonesia aims to speed up its post-pandemic recovery by increasing its exports. The visit is expected to deepen Iran’s ties with Indonesia as Tehran seeks alternatives to the United States-led Western domination of international affairs and seeks further cooperation after the two nations concluded negotiations on the Indonesia-Iran Preferential Trade Agreement this month, Indonesia’s Trade Ministry said.
BANGKOK (AP) — As residents of Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin states worked Monday to repair the devastation from last week’s Cyclone Mocha, concern is rising about whether the urgent needs for shelter, food, drinking water and medical assistance can be met before the onset of seasonal monsoon rains. Mocha hit the coastline of Bangladesh and Myanmar on May 14 with winds of up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour. The damage was worst around the coastal city of Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, but was severe even as the weakened storm moved inland into Chin state.
BANGKOK (AP) — Six people, including four children, died Monday when strong winds from a rainstorm caused a metal roof on a school’s activity center to collapse in northern Thailand, officials said. Eighteen other people were hospitalized, they said. Some students had gone inside the activity center at the Wat Nern Por primary school in Phichit province to shelter from the rain, according to Facebook posts from the official disaster prevention department and public relations office in the province, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Bangkok. Patcharin Siri, a staff member of the provincial Public Relations Department, said four children, one parent and one member of the school’s cleaning staff had died.
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Swathes of India from the northwest to the southeast braced for more scorching heat Monday, with New Delhi under a severe weather alert, as extreme temperatures strike parts of the country. The Indian Meteorological Department issued a heat wave alert for seven southern and central states last week and broadened it to the capital and some northern states on Monday as sizzling temperatures breached normal levels. It warned that blistering heat will continue for the next few days before rains bring some relief. The southwest monsoon is slightly delayed this year and will hit in the first week of June, causing temperatures to stay high longer than usual, it said.
HONOLULU (AP) — Guam’s governor urged residents to stay home and warned the island could take a direct hit from Typhoon Mawar as the storm strengthened on a path toward the U.S. territory in the Pacific. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero urged residents in a YouTube message to remain calm and prepare for Mawar, which the weather service said could hit the southern part of Guam around midday local time on Wednesday. “We may take a direct hit,” Patrick Doll, lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tiyan, Guam, told The Associated Press. “If we don’t take a direct hit, it’s going to be very close.” The center of the Category 3 storm was about 195 miles (313.8 kilometers) southeast of Guam Tuesday, and moving northwest at 9 to 10 mph (14.4 to 16 kph) toward Guam, according to the weather service.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Prominent Australian Indigenous journalist Stan Grant quit television hosting duties on Monday in response to online racist abuse over his comments during King Charles III’s coronation about historic Aboriginal dispossession. Grant, a member of the Wiradjuri tribe of Indigenous Australians and former international correspondent for U.S.-based CNN, said at the end of Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s weekly national panel discussion program “Q+A,” that he was “stepping away for a little while” because his soul was hurting. “To those who have abused me and my family, I would just say: If your aim was to hurt me, well, you’ve succeeded,” Grants said.
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Delegates from the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations began a meeting on tourism in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday that was condemned by China and Pakistan, as authorities reduced the visibility of security in the disputed region’s main city. The meeting is the first significant international event in Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the Muslim-majority region of its semi-autonomy in 2019. Indian authorities hope the meeting will show that the contentious changes have brought peace and prosperity to the region. The delegates will discuss topics such as ecotourism, destination management and the role of films in promoting tourist destinations.
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