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US issues stark warning on China's South China Sea 'bullying'

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reaffirmed the country's commitment to defend the Philippines' armed forces from attack in the South China Sea, under a 70-year-old mutual defence treaty.

Mr Blinken made the comments on Sunday (Monday AEST), in a statement marking the fifth anniversary of a ruling by an independent arbitration tribunal rejecting China's expansive territorial claims over the waterway, siding with the Philippines.

Tensions in the South China Sea, which is also contested by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam have ratcheted up this year, with Manila accusing Beijing of trying to intimidate its coast guard vessels, as well as sending its so called "maritime militia" to crowd out Philippine fishing boats.

READ MORE: Biden's 'Cold War plan' to contain Chinese security threats

The US' top diplomat said the US could invoke the US-Philippine mutual defence pact in the event of any Chinese military action against Philippine assets in the region.

"We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke US mutual defence commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty," Mr Blinken said.

He also called on the Chinese government to "abide by its obligations under international law (and) cease its provocative behaviour" in the South China Sea.

The 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague dismissed China's claims to the South China Sea outright, while making clear that China was infringing on Philippine sovereignty through activities such as island-building in Manila's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Beijing has disavowed the tribunal ruling and continued to build up and militarily reinforce its positions in the South China Sea. It claims the US and other countries are increasing tensions in the region by sending their warships there in violation of its sovereignty.

Washington counters that its naval presence in the South China Sea supports freedom of navigation under international maritime law.

READ MORE: China vows retaliation after US blacklists companies

Underscoring the US stance, the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold performed a freedom of navigation operation near the Paracel Islands in the nort-western part of the South China Sea on Monday, the US Navy's 7th Fleet said in a statement.

This islands, referred to as the Xisha chain in China, are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, but China has controlled them since the 1970s.

US Navy spokesman Lieutenant Mark Langford said Monday's operation challenged the claims by all three parties.

"This freedom of navigation operation … upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognised in international law by challenging the unlawful restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam and also by challenging China's claim to strait baselines enclosing the Paracel Islands," Lieutenant Langford said.

China said it put forces in place to "warn and drive away" the US destroyer, which it said violated its sovereignty.

The US last challenged claims in the Paracels in May.

READ MORE: China, North Korea vow closer ties as 'hostile forces become more desperate'

An aerial view of construction at Mabini (Johnson) Reef by China, in the disputed Spratley Islands, in the south China Sea.

"This is another ironclad evidence of the US' aggressive navigational hegemony and militarisation of the South China Sea," PLA Air Force Colonel Tian Junli, spokesperson for the PLA's Southern Theatre Command, said in a statement after Monday's US FONOP.

"Facts show that the United States is an out-and-out 'South China Sea security risk maker,'" Colonel Tian said.

In his statement on Sunday (Monday AEST), Mr Blinken called on China to "take steps to reassure the international community that it is committed to the rules-based maritime order that respects the rights of all countries, big and small."

"Nowhere is the rules-based maritime order under greater threat than in the South China Sea. The People's Republic of China (PRC) continues to coerce and intimidate Southeast Asian coastal states, threatening freedom of navigation in this critical global throughway," the US secretary of state said, referring to China by its official name.

Mr Blinken said the US stood behind the 2016 ruling against China, as reiterated last year by then secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who said at the time "Beijing's claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them"

In response to Mr Pompeo's comments, the Chinese Embassy in Washington accused the US of "distorting" international law and "exaggerating" the situation in order to "sow discord".

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Barbados Records Spike in COVID Cases; New Restrictions Announced

CNW- Barbados Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kenneth George on Sunday called on all local establishments to re-evaluate all protocols related to COVID-19 in the wake of a hike in cases across the country.

George, who was speaking during a press conference on Sunday, following reports that 40 people, 20 males and 20 females, were diagnosed with COVID-19, also announced new restrictions.

He said that a curfew from 11 pm to 5 am (local time) has been reinstated. In addition, there were be no social gatherings and churches be allowed to have only 100 persons.

During a press conference, the Chief Medical Officer revealed that a church and local business registered 33 and 21 new COVID-19 cases respectively, over the last few days.

He added that the Health Ministry was aware of businesses that were not adhering to protocols with employers and employees ditching most protocols while they are out of the eye of the public.

“What we are noticing, is that when you go into businesses across Barbados, you get some businesses doing a temperature check, you get hand sanitizer. The worrisome part of these businesses is the operations that you do not see. We have good reason to believe those operations include how people mix and mingle within the business.

“There is a feeling of comfort with your peers, and the worrisome part of this is where persons mix for example when they have their lunch break or other breaks, they are close to each other, they are not social distancing, and they are not wearing their masks. So, it looks like a facade, that what is happening in the front is not necessarily what is being translated in the back of the business,” he said.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Lt Col Jeffrey Bostic, also echoed the sentiments expressed by George and promised the COVID Monitoring Unit will step up its efforts to bring businesses in line with the health guidelines.

He told reporters that he will be meeting with the management of the COVID monitoring unit on Monday “because we have to enforce the protocols, and where people are not doing it on their own, then we have to take the necessary action to ensure that they do, if we are going to keep Barbados safe.”

CMC

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Biden: U.S. Stands with Cuban People, Protests are a Call for Freedom’

President Joe Biden said the United States supports the Cuban people and called their rare protests a “clarion call for freedom and relief” from the pandemic and generations of dictatorship.

“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said in a statement obtained by McClatchy.

“The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights,” Biden said. “Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.”

The president’s response comes one day after thousands of people took to the streets in cities and towns across Cuba, including Havana, to call for an end to the nation’s decades-old dictatorship and demand food and vaccines, as shortages of basic necessities have reached crisis proportions and COVID-19 cases have soared.

The unprecedented protests erupted in several of the island’s largest cities – Havana, Santiago, Santa Clara, Matanzas, Cienfuegos and Holguín – but also in smaller towns like San Antonio de los Bañols, Palma Soriano, Cárdenas, Colón, Guira de Melena, Artemisa and others.

Videos show members of the police beating and even shooting demonstrators, after Cuba’s handpicked president told his loyalists to go out and confront protesters. “We´ll do anything,” he said, to stop the uprising. “The streets are for the revolutionaries.”

On Sunday evening, National Security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted that the U.nited States “would strongly condemn any violence or targeting of peaceful protesters who are exercising their universal rights.”

Last time Cubans took to the streets to protest against the Communist government was in 1994, when Fidel Castro was alive.

But the uprising, known as the Maleconazo, only took place in Havana and didn’t last long, as the former Cuban leader quickly turned the demonstrations into a massive exodus after he opened Cuba’s maritime borders.

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People march in the streets and wave Cuban flags during a protest in solidarity with thousands of Cubans who took to the streets this Sunday in various locations in Cuba, in one of the largest protests to take place on the island, at Versailles Cuban Restaurant off 8th Street in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, Florida, on Sunday, July 11, 2021. Daniel A. Varela dv*****@*********ld.com

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