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BEIJING: President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in China’s dealings with Taiwan during a phone call with his US counterpart, Joe Biden, that gave no indication of progress on trade, technology or other irritants, including Beijing’s opposition to a top American lawmaker’s possible visit to the island that the mainland claims as its own territory. Xi also warned against splitting the world’s two biggest economies, according to a Chinese government summary of Thursday’s unusually lengthy, three-hour call. Businesspeople and economists warn such a change, brought on by Chinese industrial policy and US curbs on technology exports, might hurt the global economy by slowing innovation and increasing costs. Meanwhile, Xi and Biden are looking at the possibility of meeting in person, according to a US official who declined to be identified further. Xi has been invited to Indonesia in November for a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies, making it a potential location for a face-to-face meeting. The Chinese government gave no indication Xi and Biden discussed possible plans by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan, which the ruling Communist Party says has no right to conduct foreign relations. But Xi rejected “interference by external forces” that might encourage Taiwan to try to make its decades-old de facto independence permanent. The tough language from Xi, who usually tries to appear to be above political disputes and makes blandly positive public comments, suggested Chinese leaders might believe Washington didn’t understand the seriousness of previous warnings about Taiwan. “Resolutely safeguarding China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity is the firm will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people,” foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Friday. “Those who play with fire will perish by it.” Taiwan and China split in 1949 following a civil war that ended with a communist victory on the mainland. They have no official relations but are linked by billions of dollars of trade and investment. Both sides say they are one country but disagree over which government is entitled to national leadership. A Ministry of Defense spokesperson said ahead of Thursday’s call that Washington “must not arrange for Pelosi to visit Taiwan.” He said the ruling party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, would take “strong measures to thwart any external interference.” Xi called on the United States to “honor the one-China principle,” according to Zhao, referring to Beijing’s position that the mainland and Taiwan are one country. The United States, by contrast, has a “one-China policy” that says Washington takes no position on the question but wants to see it resolved peacefully. “China’s opposition to to interactions between the United States and Taiwan is clear and consistent,” Zhao said. A foreign ministry summary of the conversation cited Biden as saying the United States doesn’t support independence for Taiwan. Coverage of the conversation in China’s entirely state-controlled media on Friday was limited to repeating government statements. Pelosi has yet to confirm whether she will go to Taiwan, but if she does, the Democrat from California would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997. Beijing criticized Gingrich for saying the United States would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack but did little else in response to his three-hour visit to the island. Since then, China’s position on Taiwan has hardened as the mainland economy grew to become second-largest after the United States. The ruling party poured hundreds of billions of dollars into developing fighter jets and other high-tech weapons including “carrier killer” missiles that are thought to be intended to block the US Navy from helping to defend the island. The conflict over a possible Pelosi visit is more sensitive to Beijing in a year when Xi, who took power in 2012, is expected to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as party leader. Xi, who wants to be seen as restoring China’s rightful historic role as a global leader, has promoted a more assertive policy abroad. The People’s Liberation Army has sent growing numbers of fighter planes and bombers to fly near Taiwan in an attempt to intimidate its democratically elected government. The United States has no official relations with Taiwan but has extensive commercial ties and informal political connections. Washington is obliged by federal law to see that Taiwan has the means to defend itself. Xi called for cooperation on reducing the risk of economic recession, coordinating macroeconomic policies, fighting COVID-19 and “de-escalation of regional hot spots,” according to the government statement. He also warned against decoupling, or separating, the US and Chinese economies for strategic reasons. Businesspeople and industry analysts have warned global industries might be split into separate markets with incompatible products due to China’s pressure on its companies to develop their own technology standards and US restrictions on Chinese access to technology that Washington see as a security risk. That might slow innovation and increase costs. “Attempts at decoupling or severing supply chains in defiance of underlying laws would not help boost the US economy,” the statement said. “They would only make the world economy more vulnerable.”

TASHKENT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow would soon propose a time for a call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which Blinken has said he wants to discuss an exchange of prisoners held in Russian and US jails. Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington had made a “substantial offer” to obtain the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, both detained in Russia. A source said that Washington was willing to exchange convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, jailed in the United States, as part of such a deal. Blinken and Biden have not spoken since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Families of the US detainees have been increasing pressure on President Joe Biden, most recently in the case of two-time Olympic gold medallist Griner, who was arrested on drugs charges at a Moscow airport on Feb. 17. Lavrov told a news conference that talks on prisoner exchanges had been taking place since a summit in Geneva last year where presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden had agreed to nominate officials to look into the issue. He said his ministry was not involved in that, but “nevertheless, I will listen to what he (Blinken) has to say.” Speaking during a trip to Uzbekistan, Lavrov said he would talk to Blinken when he returned to his office. “It’s clear this is unlikely to work out today. But in the coming days we will offer our American colleagues a convenient date,” he said. 

KYIV: Dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war appear to have been killed in an missile strike on Friday, with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of carrying out the attack. The incident overshadowed UN-backed efforts to restart grain shipments from Ukraine and ease a looming global hunger crisis stemming from the war, now in its sixth month. Russia’s defense ministry said 40 prisoners were killed and 75 wounded in the attack on the prison in the frontline town of Olenivka, in a part of Donetsk province held by separatists. It accused Kyiv of targeting it with US-made HIMARS rockets, Russian news agencies reported. Ukraine’s armed forces denied carrying out strike and blamed it on Russian forces, saying Russian artillery had targeted the prison. “In this way, the Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals — to accuse Ukraine of committing ‘war crimes’, as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executions,” the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said. The Russian defense ministry said the prison housed Ukrainian prisoners of war and that eight prison staff were also wounded. Russian-backed separatist leader Denis Pushilin was quoted as saying there were no foreigners among 193 people held there. Video released by a Russian war correspondent showed Russian-backed military personnel sifting through the burned-out remains of what he said was the prison. The smashed roof of the building was hanging down and the charred remains of bodies could be seen. Separately Ukraine said at least five people had been killed and seven wounded in a Russian missile strike on the southeastern city of Mykolaiv, a river port just off the Black Sea, as Russia fired across frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine. A missile struck near a public transport stop, regional governor Vitaly Kim said on Telegram. Russia, which denies targeting civilians, did not immediately comment on the situation and Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.

MOSCOW: Eight people died in a blaze in a 15-story building in Moscow overnight, after a fire alarm malfunctioned, officials said Friday. The fire erupted in the building in a southeastern district, an agency investigating criminal acts said, adding that four people were hospitalized. Emergency services said the blaze broke out on the ground floor of the building, adding that the flames were doused soon after midnight and that more than 200 people were evacuated. A senior emergency official told TASS news agency that a fire alarm in a hostel malfunctioned and that the people inside were trapped as all the windows had metal bars. A criminal negligence case has been opened. Russian buildings are regularly struck by fires and gas leaks blamed on poor maintenance, infrastructure or negligence.

MANILA: The Philippines has detected its first case of monkeypox in a person with a history of overseas travel, officials said Friday. The announcement comes within a week of the World Health Organization declaring the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency. Philippine officials did not identify the gender of the person, only saying they were 31 years old and tested positive on Thursday after an RT-PCR test. “The case had prior travel to countries with documented monkeypox cases,” said Beverly Ho, an acting undersecretary for the Department of Health. “Ten close contacts were recorded, of which three are from the same household. All have been advised to quarantine and are being monitored by the department.” A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that more than 18,000 cases have now been reported to the organization from 78 countries, with 70 percent of them in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas. Five deaths have been reported in the outbreak since May, he said. The Philippines sought to head off potential panic, saying monkeypox was not like Covid-19. “This is not like Covid that can be spread by air very easily and could possibly be fatal,” said Trixie Cruz-Angeles, press secretary for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “This is not particularly fatal.” Ho said the Philippines was working with the United States to secure monkeypox vaccines.

MEXICO CITY: Authorities in Mexico said Thursday that at least 94 migrants had to bash their way out of a suffocating freight trailer abandoned on a highway in the steamy Gulf coast state of Veracruz. Carlos Enrique Escalante, the head of the state migrant attention office, said migrants had to break holes in the freight container to get out, some apparently through the roof. Some were injured when they leapt from the roof of the trailer, but their injuries did not include any broken bones and were not considered life-threatening. Escalante said local residents near the town of Acayucan heard the noise, and helped open the freight container. A much larger number of migrants were believed to have been aboard and fled after escaping. But the 94 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were turned over to immigration authorities. The discovery of the trailer Wednesday recalled the tragedy in San Antonio, Texas on June 27, when 53 migrants died because they had been left in a sweltering freight truck. In the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala, yet another group of migrants continued demanding temporary visas they would permit them to travel across Mexico. They were still in the town of Huixtla on Thursday after leaving Tapachula earlier this week, saying they can’t wait months for slow immigration paperwork in Tapachula.