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Every weekend, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.
This week, the following hot news you should know:
Top 1 | Biden administration sued over conditions at emergency sites housing migrant teens
Lawyers representing migrant children in U.S. custody on Monday asked a federal court to order the release of teenagers being held at two emergency housing sites in Texas.
As CBS News reports, teens at the facilities have reported mental distress, prolonged stays and substandard living conditions. The attorneys representing the migrants accused the Biden administration of violating the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which sets certain standards that facilities housing migrant minors must meet.
The two Texas facilities in question are located at the Fort Bliss Army base and at a camp for oil workers in the remote town of Pecos.
Top 2 | Russian, U.S. defense chiefs discuss strategic stability by phone
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed results of recent bilateral consultations on strategic stability during a phone call on Wednesday.
The officials also exchanged views on issues of global and regional security, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a brief statement.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at their first summit in Geneva in June to launch a Strategic Stability Dialogue for laying the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures.
The first round of such dialogue was held in Geneva on July 28, when both sides discussed approaches to maintaining strategic stability, the prospects for arms control and measures to reduce risks.
Top 3 | Taliban claim control over 2 major cities in S. Afghanistan
Taliban militants on Friday claimed to have taken control over key southern Afghan cities of Lashkar Gah and Kandahar, after weeks of heavy clashes between the Taliban and government forces.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on his social media account that they overran government offices, including provincial police headquarters, in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, on Thursday night. Helmand has been regarded as a Taliban stronghold during the past two decades, but Afghan soldiers were holding control over Lashkar Gah and many of the suburban districts.
He also claimed that the militants seized all parts of Kandahar city, capital of neighboring Kandahar province. Footages went viral on social media showed that Taliban fighters were patrolling in the city early Friday.
On Thursday night, Taliban declared that they captured Herat and Qala-e-Naw cities in western part of the country while unconfirmed reports said western city of Firoz Koah also has fallen to the Taliban.
Top 4 | American held in Russian prison released from solitary confinement
Paul Whelan, the U.S. Marine veteran being held in Russia on espionage charges, has been released from solitary confinement, CNN reported on Sunday.
Whelan reportedly spoke with his parents and his brother, David Whelan, upon his release from solitary confinment on either Thursday or Friday. During his month-long stint in the disciplinary cell, Paul Whelan wasn't permitted to make contact with his lawyer, Olga Karlova, or the U.S. Embassy, according to the outlet.
Top 5 | California wildfire spreads fast, growing to largest this year in U.S.
A fast-moving wildfire in the western U.S. state of California had grown to the largest one so far this year in the country on Friday.
The massive fire, dubbed Dixie Fire, had burned 434,813 acres (around 175,963 hectares) and was only 21 percent contained as of Friday night, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Official data showed that the area scorched by the fire grew by around 100,000 acres (around 40,469 hectares) in 24 hours from Thursday morning to Friday morning.
The fire, which started on July 13, was also the third largest wildfire in California's history, only behind 2020's August Complex Fire and 2018's Mendocino Complex Fire. It was only the 11th largest wildfire in the history of California on Tuesday and exploded to become the sixth largest in the state's history on Thursday.
Top 6 | Afghan air force pilot killed in targeted Taliban attack
Afghan Air Force pilot Hamidullah Azimi was killed in a bomb attack on Saturday.
Officials said that the bomb had been attached to his vehicle and detonated. The explosion wounded five other civilians.
Azimi flew U.S.-made UH60 Black Hawk helicopters and has been in the force for four years, Reuters reported.
The Taliban said in a statement that they carried out the attack.
He was the eighth Afghan pilot to be killed in recent weeks.
The killing appears part of a Taliban plan targeting and killing pilots with the aim of leveling the playing field as they continue ground offenses to seize territory, Reuters reports.
Top 7 | Senate votes to end debate on $1T infrastructure bill
The Senate on Sunday night voted to end debate on a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, putting it on a glide path, albeit a lengthy one, to passing this week.
Senators voted 68-29 to end debate on the bill, which required 60 votes. Eighteen GOP senators joined with all Democrats to help advance the legislation.
Even though the legislation - crafted by a bipartisan group of senators and the White House - is all but guaranteed to pass the Senate and head to the House, opponents could still use the chamber's rules to run the clock for an additional 30 hours before the Senate can take a final vote. That would delay passage of the bill, absent an agreement, until early Tuesday morning.
Top 8 | 46 GOP senators warn they will not vote to raise debt ceiling
Forty-six GOP senators are warning that they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling, as Republicans ramp up pressure on Democrats to increase the nation's borrowing limit on their own.
All but four members of the Senate GOP caucus signed onto the letter - addressed to "fellow Americans" and released Tuesday night - that warns that the 46 GOP senators won't support a debt hike, regardless of whether it's attached to another bill or brought up on its own.
"We, the undersigned Republican Senators, are letting Senate Democrats and the American public know that we will not vote to increase the debt ceiling, whether that increase comes through a stand-alone bill, a continuing resolution, or any other vehicle," the 46 GOP senators wrote in the letter.
"This is a problem created by Democrat spending. Democrats will have to accept sole responsibility for facilitating it," they added.
Raising the debt ceiling doesn't cover new spending, but allows the Treasury Department to cover money already greenlit by Congress.
Top 9 | Wisconsin heading toward record $1.7 billion surplus
Wisconsin is on track to end the next two years with an extra $1.7 billion in the bank.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau on Monday said the current state budget, written by Republicans and signed by Gov. Tony Evers, will wrap-up with the state’s largest surplus ever.
CJ Szafir, president of The Institute for Reforming Government, said taxpayers need to appreciate just how much money Republicans have saved them over the past decade.
Top 10 | Hochul prepares for spotlight as Cuomo steps aside
Kathy Hochul, a western New York Democrat unfamiliar to many people in the state even after six years as its lieutenant governor, was set to begin reintroducing herself to the public Wednesday as she prepared to take the reins of power after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he would resign from office.
Hochul, 62, in two weeks will become the state's first female governor, following a remarkable transition period in which Cuomo has said he will stay on and work to ease her into a job that he dominated over his three terms in office.
She stayed out of public sight Tuesday but said in a statement that she was “prepared to lead.” Hochul planned to hold her first news conference Wednesday afternoon at the State Capitol, in the very room where Cuomo became a familiar face to people across the U.S. and beyond for his televised briefings on New York's fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
