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Guterres Renews Call for Global Ceasefire to Tackle COVID-19 Pandemic

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (AP)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (AP)
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Guterres Renews Call for Global Ceasefire to Tackle COVID-19 Pandemic

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (AP)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (AP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called again on all parties to conflicts to respond to his call for a global cease-fire to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

He noted that more than 20,000 civilians were killed or injured in attacks in 10 countries last year and millions more forced from their homes.

In a report to the UN Security Council released Thursday he Guterres said that the pandemic is “the greatest test the world has faced” since the world body was established 75 years ago.

Guterres said that according to the United Nations, more than 20,000 civilians were killed last year in conflicts in 10 countries — Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.

“As the world confronts the monumental challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to silence the guns could not be more acute,” he stressed.

His new appeal focuses on the protection of civilians, stressing that the most effective way to protect them “is to prevent the outbreak, escalation, continuation and recurrence of armed conflicts,” The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Guterres said that figure is almost certainly an underestimate because it doesn’t include civilian casualties in Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Sudan’s western Darfur region and the Palestinian territories.

In Syria, Guterres said hostilities resulted in the deaths of at least 2,404 civilians, including 466 women and 688 children. In Yemen, 3,217 civilians were reported to have been killed or injured, with children accounting for 25%, And in South Sudan there were 1,405 civilian casualties, while in Somalia 1,459 died.

He added that the millions of civilians forced out of their homes in 2019 added to the 70.8 million people already displaced by conflict and violence. For example, he said, almost 1 million people were newly displaced in Congo, 455,553 in Afghanistan and 200,000 in Nigeria.

According to AP, he warned that the pandemic may create "incentives for some parties to conflict to press for an advantage, leading to an increase in violence, while others may see opportunities because the attention of governments and the international community is absorbed by the health crisis.”

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World

Rains in Southern Brazil Kill at Least 37

General view shows an area affected by the floods in Lajeado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, May 2, 2024. Jeff Botega/Agencia RBS via REUTERS
General view shows an area affected by the floods in Lajeado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, May 2, 2024. Jeff Botega/Agencia RBS via REUTERS
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Rains in Southern Brazil Kill at Least 37

General view shows an area affected by the floods in Lajeado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, May 2, 2024. Jeff Botega/Agencia RBS via REUTERS
General view shows an area affected by the floods in Lajeado, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, May 2, 2024. Jeff Botega/Agencia RBS via REUTERS

Heavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul killed 37 people, with another 74 still missing, the state civil defense agency said Friday, as record-breaking floods devastated cities and forced thousands to leave their homes.
It was the fourth such environmental disaster in a year, following floods in July, September and November 2023 that killed 75 people in total.
The flooding statewide has surpassed that seen during a historic 1941 deluge, according to the Brazilian Geological Service. In some cities, water levels were at their highest since records began nearly 150 years ago, the agency said.
On Thursday, a dam at a hydroelectric plant between the cities of Bento Goncalves and Cotipora partially collapsed and entire cities in the Taquari River valley, like Lajeado and Estrela, were completely overtaken by water. In the town of Feliz, 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the state capital, Porto Alegre, a massively swollen river swept away a bridge that connected it with the neighboring city of Linha Nova.
Operators reported electricity, communications and water cuts across the state. More than 23,000 people had to leave their homes, according to the civil defense agency.
Without internet, telephone service or electricity, residents struggled to provide updates or information to their relatives living in other states. Helicopters flew continually over the cities while stranded families with children awaited rescue on the rooftops.
The downpour started Monday and is expected to last at least through Saturday, Marcelo Seluchi, chief meteorologist at the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters, told Brazil's public television network Friday.
On Thursday night, Gov. Eduardo Leite alerted the state's population — known as gauchos — about the persistence of rains and floods. The situation was expected to worsen in Porto Alegre, he said, according to The Associated Press.
“As a human being, I am devastated inside, just like every gaucho is," he said. "But as governor, I am here steadfast and I guarantee that we will not falter. We are doing everything with focus, attention, discipline, and outrage, to ensure that everything within our reach is done.”

World

Russia Promises 'Devastating Revenge' if Ukraine Attacks Crimean Bridge

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade with the call sign 'Sokil' (Falcon) and his brother-in-arms prepare an FPV (first person view) drone for a test flight at a training ground, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 3, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
A Ukrainian serviceman of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade with the call sign 'Sokil' (Falcon) and his brother-in-arms prepare an FPV (first person view) drone for a test flight at a training ground, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 3, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
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Russia Promises 'Devastating Revenge' if Ukraine Attacks Crimean Bridge

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade with the call sign 'Sokil' (Falcon) and his brother-in-arms prepare an FPV (first person view) drone for a test flight at a training ground, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 3, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
A Ukrainian serviceman of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade with the call sign 'Sokil' (Falcon) and his brother-in-arms prepare an FPV (first person view) drone for a test flight at a training ground, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 3, 2024. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Russia warned on Friday it would launch a "devastating revenge strike" if Ukraine, backed by the West, strikes Crimea or the Crimean Bridge which links southern Russia to the Black Sea peninsula and has been targeted by Kyiv twice before.
Moscow said it believed that Ukraine, which has recently taken delivery of long-range ATACM guided missile systems from the United States, was plotting to attack the bridge ahead of or on May 9, the day when Russia marks the Soviet Union's World War Two victory over Nazi Germany.
Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv has repeatedly said it deems as illegal the construction of the road and rail bridge, which has been used in the past to move troops and weaponry. Ukraine says it wants Crimea back.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, listed statements and social media posts by officials from Ukraine and European Union member states that she said suggested the bridge was in Kyiv's sights, Reuters reported.
Ukraine's UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya on May 1 posted on X what he called a "2024 list of 6 Main Types of Bridges" with a set of images.
The final image, labelled "Kerch", the name of the Crimean town at one end of the Crimean Bridge, was left blank, perhaps suggesting it would be destroyed.
Some East European diplomats and officials have posted similar content.
"The Crimean Bridge is once again in the crosshairs," Zakharova told a news briefing.
"Preparations for an attack on it, which is hard to believe, are now being carried out openly, with ostentatious bravado and with the absolute direct and shameless support of the collective West.
"I would like to warn Washington and Brussels that any aggressive actions against Crimea are not only doomed to fail, but will also be met with a devastating revenge strike," she said.
Zakharova noted that British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Thursday that Ukraine had the right to use weapons supplied by Britain to hit targets inside Russia, something she said was proof the West was waging a hybrid war against Moscow.
Crimea was part of the Russian Empire and later of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1783 till 1954 when Moscow gifted it to what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, when both were part of the Soviet Union.
Moscow now says that decision was a mistake.

World

Bus Falls into Ravine in Pakistan's Far North, Killing 20

Injured people transferred to an ambulance in Pakistan (AP archive)
Injured people transferred to an ambulance in Pakistan (AP archive)
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Bus Falls into Ravine in Pakistan's Far North, Killing 20

Injured people transferred to an ambulance in Pakistan (AP archive)
Injured people transferred to an ambulance in Pakistan (AP archive)

A bus veered into a ravine in Pakistan's far north early on Friday, a local government spokesman said, killing 20 passengers, while 21 injured were rescued and taken to hospital.
The bus was headed to the mountainous northern area of Gilgit-Baltistan from the garrison city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan's eastern province of Punjab, when the accident happened in the early hours.
"The bus was passing through Diamer district in Gilgit-Baltistan when it fell into a deep ravine," Faizullah Firaq, a spokesman for local government authorities in the area, told Reuters, adding that 21 people were injured.
The government immediately launched a rescue operation to evacuate all the injured, who were taken to hospital, he added.
Fatal road accidents are common in Pakistan, where traffic rules are rarely followed and roads in many rural areas are in poor condition.
For decades Pakistan has done extensive work in carving roads through its dramatic rugged northern terrain, home to some of the world's highest mountain ranges, approached by narrow roads perched on sheer cliffs.
Militant attacks, including one in March nearby in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that killed six people, pose another risk to travelers in the area, targeting Chinese-backed dams and hydropower infrastructure projects.

World

UK's Labor Claim Big Early Win over PM Sunak’s Conservatives

A voter arrives at a polling station located at Saint Savior Church in Chalk Farm, north London, to cast her vote in local elections, on May 2, 2024. (AFP)
A voter arrives at a polling station located at Saint Savior Church in Chalk Farm, north London, to cast her vote in local elections, on May 2, 2024. (AFP)
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UK's Labor Claim Big Early Win over PM Sunak’s Conservatives

A voter arrives at a polling station located at Saint Savior Church in Chalk Farm, north London, to cast her vote in local elections, on May 2, 2024. (AFP)
A voter arrives at a polling station located at Saint Savior Church in Chalk Farm, north London, to cast her vote in local elections, on May 2, 2024. (AFP)

Britain's opposition Labor Party won a parliamentary seat in northern England on Friday and control of several councils, inflicting heavy losses on the governing Conservatives to pile more pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The thumping victory set the tone for what will be a closely watched two days of local results before a national election this year, which polling shows could put Labor leader Keir Starmer in power and end 14 years of Conservative government.

Voters cast their ballots on Thursday for more than 2,000 seats on local authorities across England and a handful of high-profile mayoral elections, including in the capital, London.

Blackpool South was the only parliamentary seat up for grabs after the Conservative lawmaker quit over a lobbying scandal.

Labor candidate Chris Webb won the Blackpool election with 10,825 votes. The Conservative candidate came in second with 3,218. The swing of 26% to Labor from the 2019 result was the third biggest in post-war by-election history, polling expert John Curtice said.

The defeat in Blackpool and early signs of deep losses at the council level will boost Labor’s hopes for a sweeping victory over Sunak's Conservatives in the national election.

"This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today," Starmer said.

"This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunak's Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change."

The chairman of the Conservative Party said it had been "a tough night".

"Obviously not a great set of results," Richard Holden told Times Radio.

POOR SHOWING BY CONSERVATIVES

Sunak's Conservatives are about 20 percentage points behind Labor in most opinion polls for the national election, which Sunak has said he intends to call in the second half of the year.

The British leader had hoped his announcement on increased defense spending and the passing of his divisive plan to send illegal asylum seekers to Rwanda might win over voters, but the losses could again fuel calls for him to step down.

Curtice said that, based on results so far, the Conservatives could be looking at their worst local election results for 40 years and were on course for defeat in the national election.

The first 500 of the more than 2,600 local council results showed Labor making gains at the expense of the Conservatives - in line with finance minister Jeremy Hunt's pre-vote prediction of significant losses for the governing party.

The Conservatives seized on Starmer's failure to win control of one southeastern council that it had targeted.

Labor said anger over the party's stance on Gaza, where Palestinian health authorities say more than 34,500 people have been killed in Israel's military offensive, had tempered some council results but the overall message from the polls was that people wanted change.

"This is on the eve of a general election ... The mood is that it's time for a change," said Labor's national campaign coordinator, Pat McFadden.

Although local elections do not always reflect how people will vote in a national contest, a heavy defeat could trigger renewed anger in the Conservative Party over Sunak's leadership.

The extent of that unrest could hinge on the results of two mayoral elections in which the Conservatives hope to show they can still hold ground in central and northeast England.

The Tees Valley mayoral result is due on Friday, while the West Midlands mayor is to be announced on Saturday. The result in London, where current Labor mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to win another term, is also due on Saturday.

World

Taiwan Says Chinese Planes Crossed Median Line, China Carries Out Landing Drills

Members of Taiwan's Navy and media onboard a special operation boat navigate near a Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat, during a drill part of a demonstration for the media, to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, on the waters near a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan January 31, 2024. (Reuters)
Members of Taiwan's Navy and media onboard a special operation boat navigate near a Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat, during a drill part of a demonstration for the media, to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, on the waters near a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan January 31, 2024. (Reuters)
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Taiwan Says Chinese Planes Crossed Median Line, China Carries Out Landing Drills

Members of Taiwan's Navy and media onboard a special operation boat navigate near a Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat, during a drill part of a demonstration for the media, to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, on the waters near a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan January 31, 2024. (Reuters)
Members of Taiwan's Navy and media onboard a special operation boat navigate near a Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat, during a drill part of a demonstration for the media, to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, on the waters near a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan January 31, 2024. (Reuters)

Taiwan's defense ministry said on Friday it had detected a renewed incursion by Chinese military aircraft across the sensitive Taiwan Strait, as China reported its navy had carried out combat drills with landing craft.

Over the past four years, China's military has significantly ramped up its activities around democratically-governed Taiwan. Beijing views the island as its own territory, a position the government in Taipei strongly rejects.

The defense ministry, in its daily morning update on Chinese activities in the previous 24 hours, said 14 Chinese military aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line, getting as close as 41 nautical miles (76 km) to the northern Taiwanese port city of Keelung, home to a major navy base.

The median line previously served as an unofficial border between the two sides, but Chinese military aircraft now regularly cross it. China says it does not recognize the line's existence.

Taiwan said on Thursday that China had carried out a "joint combat readiness patrol" near the island for the second time in a week.

China's defense ministry did not answer calls seeking comment on Friday, the country being in the middle of its Labour Day holiday.

On Thursday, the Eastern Theatre Command of China's People's Liberation Army, which is responsible for the area around Taiwan, showed pictures on its WeChat social media account of ships carrying out what it called live combat landing drills.

It did not say when or where exactly the exercises took place, but showed images of ship-mounted guns opening fire and operating in formation.

"The vanguard of the landing team are always ready to fight," it said in text to accompany the pictures.

The island's top security official said on Wednesday that Taiwan is on alert for China to carry out military exercises following the inauguration of President-elect Lai Ching-te later this month.

Taiwan National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen said China had begun using unusual new tactics, including staging nighttime combat patrols and using landing ships and minesweepers in those patrols.

China's coast guard this week has also been carrying out more patrols around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands which sit next to the Chinese coast. The patrols began in February following a dispute about the death of two Chinese nationals who tried fleeing Taiwan's coast guard upon entering prohibited waters.

Chinese state media said Friday's "normal law enforcement inspection" by its coast guard near Kinmen was to help protect fishermen. Taiwan has decried the patrols as an intimidation tactic.

Lai, who is inaugurated on May 20 after winning election in January, is strongly disliked by China which believes him to be a dangerous separatist. China's government has rejected his repeated offers of talks, including one made last week.

Lai, like current President Tsai Ing-wen, rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims; both say only the island's people can decide their future.

Lai has been Taiwan's vice president for the past four years.

World

Russia Says It Downs Six Ukraine-Launched Drones

A view shows an apartment block destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, May 2, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows an apartment block destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, May 2, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Says It Downs Six Ukraine-Launched Drones

A view shows an apartment block destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, May 2, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows an apartment block destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, May 2, 2024. (Reuters)

The Russian defense ministry said on Friday that its air defense forces destroyed six drones that Ukraine launched overnight.

Five of the drones were downed over the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine and one over the Crimean Peninsula, the defense ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

The ministry did not provide any details on possible damage due to the attack.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Russian defense ministry's comments.

Russia rarely discloses information about the full impact of Ukraine's attacks on its territory and infrastructure.

Kyiv officials say targeting Russia's military, energy and transport infrastructure undermines Moscow's war effort.

World

Iran Says Crew of Israel-Linked Ship Freed

13 January 2023, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian addresses reporters during a press conference in Beirut. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian addresses reporters during a press conference in Beirut. (dpa)
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Iran Says Crew of Israel-Linked Ship Freed

13 January 2023, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian addresses reporters during a press conference in Beirut. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian addresses reporters during a press conference in Beirut. (dpa)

Iran has released the crew of a seized Portuguese-flagged ship linked to Israel, but remains in control of the vessel itself, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized the container ship MSC Aries, with a crew of 25, in the Strait of Hormuz on April 13, days after Tehran vowed to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus.

“The seized ship, which turned off its radar in Iran's territorial waters and jeopardized the security of navigation, is under judicial detention,” Amir-Abdollahian said, according to a foreign ministry post on X late Thursday night.

He said the release of the crew was a humanitarian act and they could return to their countries along with the ship’s captain.

Iran’s foreign ministry had earlier said the Aries was seized for "violating maritime laws" and that there was no doubt it was linked to Israel.

MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, which is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

Recent attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi militias, claiming solidarity with Palestinians during Israel's war on Gaza, have affected global shipping.

World

Paris Police Remove Pro-Palestinian Students Occupying Sciences Po University

A person holds a sign as pro-Palestinian students and activists demonstrate after protesters were evicted from the library on campus earlier in the day at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon on May 2, 2024. (AFP)
A person holds a sign as pro-Palestinian students and activists demonstrate after protesters were evicted from the library on campus earlier in the day at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon on May 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Paris Police Remove Pro-Palestinian Students Occupying Sciences Po University

A person holds a sign as pro-Palestinian students and activists demonstrate after protesters were evicted from the library on campus earlier in the day at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon on May 2, 2024. (AFP)
A person holds a sign as pro-Palestinian students and activists demonstrate after protesters were evicted from the library on campus earlier in the day at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon on May 2, 2024. (AFP)

Police in Paris entered France's prestigious Sciences Po university on Friday and removed student activists who had occupied its buildings in protest against Israel's conduct in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

A Reuters witness saw police go into the buildings and take out many of the 70-odd protesters inside. Unlike in some college campuses across the United States, the French protests have been peaceful and there were no signs of violence as the students were brought out of the buildings.

Sciences Po has become the epicenter of French student protests over the war and academic ties with Israel, which have spread across France but have remained much smaller in scale than those seen in the United States.

The university was closed for the day on Friday, with a heavy police presence around its main building.

Jack, a Sciences Po student who declined to give his surname, said he was one of around 70 students who spent Thursday night occupying one of the university's main buildings in central Paris.

He told Reuters on Friday morning that protesters had declined an ultimatum by university officials to clear large parts of the building and restrict their movement to a determined smaller area.

A Sciences Po spokesperson, speaking before the police intervention, said the university was seeking a "negotiated solution to end the standoff" with its students, and that some of its satellite campuses in Reims, Le Havre and Poitiers were also affected by protests.

Sciences Po Lyon, an unaffiliated university in France's third largest city, was also blocked by protesting students on Friday, as well as the Lille school of journalism, images broadcast by French news channels showed.

Sciences Po's director Jean Basseres on Thursday rejected demands by protesters to review its relations with Israeli universities, prompting protesters to continue their movement with at least one person entering a hunger strike, according to a student speaking on behalf of the protesters.

Samuel Lejoyeux, who heads the Union of Jewish Students of France, said French student protests had remained more peaceful than those in the United States as there was a greater desire for dialogue in France.

"With the overwhelming majority of students at French universities, including Sciences Po, it is still possible to have a debate. I even think there is an increased hunger for debate," he told broadcaster BFM TV.

World

Pro-Palestinian Protesters Set up Encampments at Universities in Australia

Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney in Sydney on May 3, 2024. (AFP)
Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney in Sydney on May 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Pro-Palestinian Protesters Set up Encampments at Universities in Australia

Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney in Sydney on May 3, 2024. (AFP)
Members of the Australian Palestinian community shout slogans at the Palestinian Protest Campsite at University of Sydney in Sydney on May 3, 2024. (AFP)

Pro-Palestinian protesters were camped on university campuses across Australia on Friday, with some scuffling with pro-Israel protesters in Sydney, mirroring similar events in the United States.

Students have set up encampments at universities in major Australian cities over the last two weeks to protest Israel's offensive in Gaza. The students are demanding that universities sever all academic ties with Israel and cut off research partnerships with arms manufacturers.

No arrests were made, as the violence seen on some American campuses has not occurred in Australia.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters on Friday met a counterprotest supporting Israel at the University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported a scuffle between the groups.

Supporters of both sides later backed down because of a heavy security presence.

University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott said there was space for both groups of protesters.

“They may strongly disagree with the matters that have been discussed. ... We can host that conversation and we should be able to do that in a non-threatening way,” he told ABC.

Scott said not all of the protesters were students, and that some might not be committed to peaceful and productive engagement. “We are working with security and police,” he said.

World

Biden Calls Japan and India ‘Xenophobic’ Along with China, Russia

US President Joe Biden (AFP)
US President Joe Biden (AFP)
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Biden Calls Japan and India ‘Xenophobic’ Along with China, Russia

US President Joe Biden (AFP)
US President Joe Biden (AFP)

Japan and India are struggling economically because they are “xenophobic,” US President Joe Biden told a campaign event, lumping the American allies in with rivals China and Russia as countries rejecting immigrants.
“Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan in trouble? Why is Russia in trouble? And India? Because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants,” Biden said on Wednesday, with a transcript not made public until Thursday.
The 81-year-old Democrat, who is seeking reelection against Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential vote, made the remarks at a campaign fundraising event in Washington marking the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month.
Such events are neither filmed nor recorded, but a small number of journalists attend and provide a written account.
“One of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” the president said.
While China and Russia are considered US rivals, Biden's remarks on Japan and India came as a surprise.
Since taking office in 2021, Biden has made a point of strengthening ties with US allies in Asia, in particular with New Delhi and Tokyo.
He has hosted state dinners -- a rare high-level diplomatic gesture -- for both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The White House sought to downplay the president's remarks on Thursday.
“The broader point the president was making, and I think people all around the world recognize this, is that the United States is a nation of immigrants, and it's in our DNA,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“Our allies know very well how much the president respects them, values their friendship, values their contributions,” he added.