China diluting Buddhist identity in Himalayas through marriages: RSS leader

Indresh Kumar claimed that after usurping Tibet, China is manoeuvring marriages of Chinese youth with Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhist girls to dilute their identity.

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First Post

35 minutes ago

• First Post

President Lai Ching-te asserts Taiwan's sovereignty, slams China's ‘separatist' label

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te reaffirmed Sunday that Taiwan is 'of course' a country, rejecting China's sovereignty claims as lacking legal and historical basis. Beijing continues to dismiss Lai as a separatist and has refused repeated offers for dialogue read more Taiwan is 'of course' a country and China lacks both the historical evidence and legal proof to back up its sovereignty claims, President Lai Ching-te said on Sunday in a strong rebuke to Beijing and its stepped up political and military pressure. China says democratically-governed Taiwan is 'sacred' Chinese territory that has belonged to the country since ancient times, and that the island is one of its provinces with no right to be called a state. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Lai and his government strongly reject that view, and have offered talks with China multiple times but have been rejected. China calls Lai a 'separatist'. Giving the first of 10 speeches in a series called 'uniting the country', Lai drew on Taiwan's history, including the millennia-long connection of its indigenous people to other Austronesians, like native Hawaiians, to show what he said was Taiwan's separate and distinct development from China. Taiwan's people have a record of opposing invasion, like uprisings against Japan's 1895-1945 colonial rule, and under the last imperial Chinese dynasty, the Qing, Taiwan was only considered a Chinese province for eight years, he added. 'Of course Taiwan is a country,' he said at a speech to a Taiwan branch of Rotary International, pointing also to its presidential elections. 'But China says no, that Taiwan is not a sovereign country.' China's Taiwan's Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment outside of office hours. China says the 1971 United Nations resolution, which took away Taipei's seat in the body and gave it to Beijing, is one of the legal bases of its claims. Lai, who in March called China a 'hostile foreign force', said it was 'totally wrong' for Beijing to say that U.N. resolution had anything to do with Taiwan's sovereignty as it was only about which government was represented at the body. China's threat to Taiwan is real, added Lai, pointing to its daily military activities around the island. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Taiwan's future can only be decided by its 23 million people - does everyone approve of this?' he said, to a round of applause. The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists, and that remains the island's formal name.

The Hindu

43 minutes ago

• The Hindu

U.S. bombs Iran: What we know about the nuclear sites that were hit

In a major escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict, the United States has launched airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear and military facilities: Natanz, Fordo, and Isfahan. U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice-President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, confirmed the strikes, calling them 'very successful.' Iran's state news agency also acknowledged the attacks. Natanz is Iran's primary uranium enrichment site and the uranium had been enriched to up to 60% purity at this site. Part of the site lies underground, to protect it from airstrikes. The aboveground part of the facility were already destroyed when Israel conducted airstrikes targeting this facility earlier, the International Atomic Energy Agency or the IAEA which is the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, said. Next, the U.S. struck Fordo, located deep beneath a mountain southwest of Tehran. It is a heavily fortified facility that hosts centrifuge cascades, but isn't as big as Natanz. Experts say only advanced U.S. 'bunker buster' bombs—like the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb —can reach such a target, suggesting direct American military involvement was essential. The third site, Isfahan, houses thousands of nuclear scientists. It is also home to three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country's atomic programme. While Israel had previously struck parts of this site, there are no current signs of radiation leaks. Trump, while calling Iran 'the bully of the Middle East', warned of additional attacks if it didn't make peace. He warned Iran that there are many targets left. 'If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed, and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes,' he said. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that the U.S. attacks 'will have everlasting consequences' and that Tehran 'reserves all options' to retaliate. In a post on X, he wrote, 'The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences', adding, 'In accordance with the U.N. Charter and its provisions allowing a legitimate response in self-defence, Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interests and people.' These strikes follow Israel's offensive on June 13, which it said was meant to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. Iran launched a wave of drone and missile strikes into Israeli territory in retaliation. So far, the U.S. had only helped intercept attacks, but this is the first time in the current war that Washington has directly struck Iranian territory. This marks an unprecedented escalation of a war in West Asia, in a region already on the edge.

Deccan Herald

2 hours ago

• Deccan Herald

Taiwan is 'of course' a country, president says in rebuke to China

China says democratically-governed Taiwan is 'sacred' Chinese territory that has belonged to the country since ancient times, and that the island is one of its provinces with no right to be called a state.