Putin, Xi Meet for High-stakes Talks in Challenge to West

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province on June 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province on June 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
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Putin, Xi Meet for High-stakes Talks in Challenge to West

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province on June 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province on June 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping gather with other Asian leaders in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand from Thursday for a regional summit touted as a challenge to Western global influence.

Xi and Putin will be joined by the leaders of India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and several other countries for the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Uzbek city on Thursday and Friday, AFP said.

The main summit day will be Friday, but it is a meeting of the Russian and Chinese leaders on Thursday that will be the most closely watched.

For Putin, the summit is a chance to show that Russia cannot be isolated internationally, at a time when Moscow's forces are facing major battlefield setbacks in Ukraine.

For Xi -- on his first trip abroad since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic -- it is an opportunity to shore up his credentials as a global statesman ahead of a pivotal congress of the ruling Communist Party in October.

And for both leaders, the summit will be a chance to thumb their noses at the West, especially the United States, which has led the charge in imposing sanctions on Russia over Ukraine and angered Beijing with recent shows of support for Taiwan.

"The SCO offers a real alternative to Western-centric organizations," Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow this week.

"All members of the SCO stand for a just world order," he said, describing the summit as taking place "against the background of large-scale geopolitical changes".

- Tight security, empty streets -
Entry to Samarkand, a city of grand tiled mosques that was one of the hubs of Silk Road trade routes between China and Europe, was restricted in the days ahead of the summit, with its airport shut to commercial flights. 

The streets and even its famed markets stood largely empty as AFP journalists visited on Wednesday, and schools were to be closed for the two days of the summit.

Security was tight across the city, with a huge police presence on the streets and armored vehicles parked downtown.

The SCO -- made up of China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- was set up in 2001 as a political, economic and security organization to rival Western institutions.

It is not a formal military alliance like NATO or a deeply integrated bloc like the European Union, but its members work together to tackle joint security issues, cooperate militarily and promote trade.

The summit's main joint session will be on Friday but much of the focus will be on bilateral talks.

As well as Xi, Putin will meet Thursday with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, then on Friday with Indian premier Narendra Modi and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Iran is an SCO observer state and Erdogan has been a key broker in deals between Russia and Ukraine on issues like grain shipments.

- 'No-limits' friendship -
It was not clear who Xi might meet separately, though talks with Modi would be their first since 2019, after relations between China and India turned frosty over deadly fighting in 2020 on their disputed Himalayan border.

Xi arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday for the start of his Central Asian tour, holding talks with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Formerly Cold War allies with a tempestuous relationship, China and Russia have drawn closer in recent years as part of what they call a "no-limits" relationship acting as a counterweight to the global dominance of the United States.

Xi and Putin last met in Beijing in early February for the Winter Olympic Games, days before Putin launched the military offensive in Ukraine.

Beijing has not explicitly endorsed Moscow's military action, but has steadily built economic and strategic ties with Russia over the six months of the conflict, with Xi assuring China's support of Russian "sovereignty and security".

Russia has in turn backed China over Taiwan, calling US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island this summer a "clear provocation".

There were more signs of ties being bolstered in recent weeks.

Beijing sent hundreds of troops to take part in joint military exercises in Russia's Far East, and Moscow recently announced that China would be switching from US dollars to yuan and rubles to pay for deliveries of Russian natural gas.



Worker Dies after US Immigration Raid on California Farm

California National Guard troops face off with protestors during a federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. BLAKE FAGAN / AFP
California National Guard troops face off with protestors during a federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. BLAKE FAGAN / AFP
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Worker Dies after US Immigration Raid on California Farm

California National Guard troops face off with protestors during a federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. BLAKE FAGAN / AFP
California National Guard troops face off with protestors during a federal immigration raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. BLAKE FAGAN / AFP

A farm worker died on Friday after being injured during a raid by US immigration agents on a legal cannabis farm in California that resulted in the arrests of 200 undocumented migrants and clashes with protestors.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called demonstrators involved in attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents "slimeballs" and said they should be arrested, reported AFP.

In another development, a district judge ordered a halt to "roving patrols" in Los Angeles by federal agents who were detaining suspected undocumented migrants without probable cause and denying them due process.

District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ordered an end to the arrests, which she said were being made "based upon race alone," on whether a person was speaking Spanish or English with an accent or because of their place of work and ordered them stopped.

Trump's remarks and the court order come a day after a chaotic raid on a cannabis plantation in Ventura County some 56 miles (90 kilometers) from Los Angeles left one farm worker critically injured.

The United Farm Workers labor union said in a post on X on Friday that the worker had "died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday's immigration enforcement action."

Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman, said the man who died was never in custody.

"Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet (10 meters)," McLaughlin said. "(Customs and Border Patrol) immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible."

The DHS said 200 undocumented migrants were arrested during raids on marijuana growing sites in Carpinteria and Camarillo on Thursday and 10 children were rescued "from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking."

Glass House Brands, which owns the farms, said in a statement that it has "never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors."

DHS said more than 500 "rioters" had attempted to disrupt the operation and four US citizens are facing charges for assaulting or resisting officers.

Tear gas was used against the protestors, some of whom were seen in television footage throwing projectiles at law enforcement vehicles.

The department said immigration agency vehicles were damaged and a $50,000 reward was being offered for the arrest of an individual who allegedly fired a gun at law enforcement officers.

Showdown

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he had watched footage of "thugs" throwing rocks and bricks at ICE vehicles, causing "tremendous damage."

Trump said he was authorizing law enforcement officers who are "on the receiving end of thrown rocks, bricks, or any other form of assault, to stop their car, and arrest these SLIMEBALLS, using whatever means is necessary to do so."

"I am giving Total Authorization for ICE to protect itself, just like they protect the Public," he said.

Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to deport millions of migrants, has been involved in a showdown over immigration enforcement with Democratic-ruled California for weeks.

The Republican president sent thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles last month to quell protests against roundups of undocumented migrants by federal agents.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the troops were not necessary to address the mostly peaceful protests, but his legal efforts to have them removed have failed so far.

The cannabis farm in Camarillo was calm during a visit by an AFP reporter on Friday as workers waited in line to collect their belongings and paychecks.

"We've been here since six this morning asking questions but they're not giving us any information," said Saul Munoz, a 43-year-old Colombian whose son was detained on Thursday.

"I just want to know how he's doing," Munoz said. "Bring him back to me and if it's time for us to leave, we'll leave.

"The truth is the American dream is no longer really the American dream."