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LONDON (AP) — Britain on Thursday froze the assets of three Russian airlines, preventing them from selling landing slots at UK airports that are worth up to 50 million pounds ($62 million).

The latest sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine stop state-owned Aeroflot, Russia’s biggest carrier, Rossiya Airlines and Ural Airlines from transferring the valuable landing rights, which are going unused because of an earlier ban on Russian aircraft flying to the United Kingdom.

Wide-ranging international sanctions intended to pressure President Vladimir into withdrawing his troops from Ukraine are already having a significant impact on Russia, the UK Foreign Office said. Russian oil exports, a key source of income for Putin’s government, were down 30% in April, and the nation’s economy is forecast to shrink as much as 15% this year.

“As long as Putin continues his barbarous assault on Ukraine, we will continue to target the Russian economy,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement. “We’ve already closed our airspace to Russian airlines. Today, we’re making sure they can’t cash in their lucrative landing slots at our airports.”

Sanna Marin says Helsinki does not want its membership bid to result in a scaled-up military footprint.

Finland is opposed to NATO deploying nuclear weapons or setting up military bases on its territory even if it succeeds in its bid to become a NATO member, Prime Minister Sanna Marin has said.

Marin told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Thursday that such moves were not part of Helsinki’s membership document with the military alliance.

“Nor do I think there is any interest in deploying nuclear weapons or opening NATO bases in Finland,” she said on a visit to Rome to meet with her Italian counterpart, Mario Draghi.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has also said her country does not want permanent NATO bases or nuclear weapons on its territory.

Finland formally applied to join the 30-member alliance on Wednesday, alongside Sweden, signaling an end to decades-long military non-alignment.

The Nordic countries were spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there is no intrinsic threat to Moscow from Sweden and Finland joining NATO but warning that the Kremlin will be forced to respond if the installs military bases or equipment in either country.

Turkey opposed to membership bids

The countries’ NATO membership process is expected to be fast-tracked.

All 30 NATO allies must unanimously approve a new country becoming part of the United States-led alliance.

Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, has expressed opposition but is not expected to stand in the way of the Nordic pair’s way. Ankara has accused Finland and Sweden of harboring individuals linked to groups it considers to be “terrorist” organisations. Ankara has also cited the countries’ arms export embargoes on Turkey after its Syria incursion in 2019.

Finland’s Marin said she believed the matter could be solved through dialogue.

“I think at this stage it is important to stay calm, to have discussions with Turkey and all other member countries, answering questions that may exist and correcting any misunderstandings,” she told Corriere della Sera.

After meeting Marin on Wednesday, Draghi said Italy supports the NATO bids and is willing to support speeding up NATO’s internal procedures to expedite their membership.

Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and Sweden’s Andersson are expected to hold talks with US President Joe Biden in Washington later on Thursday.

Biden has backed the membership bids and pledged US support in case they face any “aggression” while their applications, which could take up to a year to be settled, are considered.

Andersson has warned Sweden will be “in a vulnerable position” while its application is being processed.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A ship in the Red Sea came under attack on Thursday off the coast of war-torn Yemen, a monitoring group run by the British military said.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations group said the attack happened off Hodeida, a contested port city amid that country’s yearslong civil war. It said an investigation was ongoing into the incident, without elaborating.

The US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet said it was aware of the attack, but declined to immediately comment further.

A Saudi-led coalition has been at war since March 2015 against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have long held the Yemeni capital of Sanaa as well as Hodeida. The Houthis, Yemen’s exiled government and the Saudi-led coalition did not immediately acknowledge the attack.

The incident marked the latest at-sea attack amid the war. In January, the Houthis seized the Emirati ship Rwabee. The Houthis described the vessel as carrying military weapons, while the Saudi-led coalition described it as carrying disassembled hospital equipment.

The ship’s Indian crew were released last month after the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition reached a truce during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. The fragile truce is still ongoing now.

The Syrian government and its Russian backers have tightened their blockade on Rukban camp, a makeshift settlement housing about 10,000 internally displaced Syrians in the arid “no man’s land” between the Jordanian, Iraqi, and Syrian borders.

Nearly 80 percent of the camp’s residents are women and children, living in squalid conditions. For more than three years the al-Assad regime has blocked United Nations aid from entering the camp, forcing its residents to survive off menial amounts of smuggled-in goods.

“The lack of food is killing us,” said Ahmad, a resident of the camp who has been stuck there for seven years, using a pseudonym for security reasons.

Ahmad told Al Jazeera that his wife had recently miscarried her baby five months into pregnancy and that his elderly parents were in poor health conditions.

“There’s literally nothing in the camp. There are no professional doctors. People die and we do not know the cause of death,” Ahmad said.

The camp sits within a 55km (34 miles) “deconfliction zone” that surrounds the United States’ al-Tanf base, where the US trains its partner forces against ISIL (ISIS) and disrupts the activities of Iranian proxy forces

US forces are able to patrol the deconfliction zone, alongside Syrian opposition forces, after a deal with Russia in 2016.

However, outside the zone’s perimeters, the camp residents are forced to return to regime-controlled territory, said Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF) which is in direct contact with those in Rukban.

A 2021 Amnesty International report documented the torture, enforced disappearance, and sexual violence dozens of Syrian refugees faced upon their return to regime-held areas.

According to the report, at least 10 individuals who returned from Rukban were detained, three of whom faced torture or ill-treatment, and two were forcibly disappeared. Another 174 returnees were arrested and sent to “terrorism” courts, despite Russian and Syrian government safety guarantees.

“We would rather die here than go back to the Syrian regime,” said Ahmad.

Unbearable conditions in the camp have now forced out most of its 2019 population of 30,000. But “no matter how desperate they are,” those that remain in the camp are highly unlikely to leave victims, Moustafa said, and the only option left for these of the geopolitical impasse is to plead for help.

“My mother is suffering in front of me and I can’t do anything about it, and my father is about to lose his sight,” Ahmad said. “I cry like a small baby seeking help.”

Failed humanitarian approach

The US continues to rely on the United Nations office in Damascus to support Rukban despite its own presence at al-Tanf base.

“We reiterate that the Assad regime and Russia should provide unhindered humanitarian access to the camp, and that humanitarian supplies should accompany any access to the camp,” a US State Department spokesperson said.

Jordan has prevented humanitarian aid from crossing its border with Syria since 2016 after six soldiers were killed in an ISIL suicide bombing.

In line with a number of other Arab countries, Jordan now seems to be warming its relations with President Bashar al-Assad.

An official spokesperson for the Jordanian government told Al Jazeera, “Rukban camp is located within the Syrian territories. Therefore, responsibility for the camp falls on the United Nations and the Syrian government.”

For its part, the Iraqi government keeps the main road towards Rukban closed, making it impossible for aid to come from Iraq.

Early last month, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers urged the Biden administration to address the crisis in Rukban, but no actionable response has yet materialised.

“The US needs to admit that this process has obviously failed and look at other ways to get aid into the camp,” Moustafa stated.

Health situation deteriorates

In 2019, Jordan shuts the doors of an NGO-run clinic allowed to operate near its border with Syria, cutting off the only remaining lifeline for those in the camp with emergency health cases.

“We need everything, but most importantly, we need medical aid and healthcare,” Abu Mohammad, a civilian leader in the camp, told Al Jazeera. “Many people die from treatable illnesses.”

“My father died in Rukban, he had a stroke,” Mohammad said, “He needed medical attention. But there were no doctors or anything.”

Children in the camp, who make up half of the population, are at extreme risk of severe illness and malnutrition, according to Moustafa. In just the first two months of 2019, one child died every five days due to the lack of healthcare, a SEFT report noted.

Babies continue to be born at the camp, but the health center lacks proper incubators and oxygen cylinders to care for the newborns, which has resulted in the death of some infants, according to a Syria Justice and Accountability Center report.

The report also states that multiple pregnant women who required a caesarean section were forced to the regime-held areas, where they were placed in detention centers and made to pledge to not return to their families.

“We either have to go to the Assad regime or die in the camp,” Mohammad stated.

Boiling point

As the sieges, people have “become more and more desperate”, said Moustafa. “It’s coming to a boiling point.”

“We’ve lost all hope,” said Mohammad, “There is no education … no one is looking towards us. No one is answering our pleas. No one has cared.”

Over the past few weeks, camp residents have participated in sit-ins near the US base; a demonstration of their mounting frustrations, noted Mustafa. He said the residents have proposed two solutions: either to get sustained aid into the camp or to facilitate safe passage to an area in Syria outside of the government’s control.

“Never in a million years did we think we would be in the position we are in now,” Mohammad said. “We, the Syrian people, we’re not used to not having education, we’re not used to being in the place we’re in now. We’re not used to asking for help.”

Loud Christian prayers ring out each day like a song as relatives of men trapped a month ago in a mine in Burkina Faso try desperately not to give up hope.

It has taken the rescue team 31 days to reach the first rescue chamber in which the missing miners might have sought refuge from the flood waters that engulfed the Canadian-owned Perkoa zinc mine after unexpected torrential rains on 16 April.

But when the chamber was opened this week, none of the men – six Burkinabès, a Zambian and a Tanzanian – were there.

Now their families’ hopes rest on a second chamber located right at the bottom of the 710m mine.

Also known as survival rooms, they are sealed off and can offer safety with oxygen and are stocked with water and snacks.

The relatives – about 20 women – sit on mats and wooden chairs shuffling rosaries in their hands in an open area set up for them in the town of Réo, about 12km (seven miles) from the site of the mine.

The authorities arrived on Tuesday to announce the bad news about the first shelter chamber, located between 560m below ground.

Journalists were asked to leave to give them more privacy; A Muslim cleric joined the officials and ended with prayers to calm the gathering as shock set in.

But gasping and sobbing could be heard – one woman cried so hard and for so long that she looked like she was going to vomit.

‘We won’t give up’

But Edith Moné, a wife of one of the missing miners, tells me she will stay here with the other women, who act as a support group for each other.

“When I go home and I see my children, I remember how they used to greet my husband when he would come back from work, and how he used to behave with them. I dread going back home now. I flee the house because I cannot handle it.

She looks fragile, with eyes weary from crying: “We will stay here until our husbands get out of the hole.”

She still has hope and faith that her husband will make it out alive, but admits she is ready to face the worst: “If our husbands pass away, we will have no choice than just being courageous and bear it.”

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Aisha Kinda, who is pregnant, told me that the women came to this field on 5 May – initially to protest and ask about the whereabouts of their husbands.

She says she is praying for a miracle: “I need him in our lives. He used to make me laugh, I miss it all.”

Experts from around the world

All mining work at the site, located about 120km west of the capital, Ouagadougou, has been stopped – everything is focused on rescue efforts.

A stony path that leads to the mine’s entrance is usually busy with heavy vehicles and workers.

For now, it is just rescue workers leaving and entering the mine, which looks like a black hole.

More than a month after the tragic event, a 24-hour-a-day rescue mission has been under way using specialized equipment that has been brought in from Ghana and South Africa.

Millions of litres of water has so far been pumped out of the mine, allowing the rescue workers to reach the first shelter chamber.

After the thunderstorm the waters settled at about 520m below ground.

Conditions have been difficult for the engineers trying to locate their missing colleagues, working in very humid conditions.

While hope is focused on the rescue chambers, there has been no actual sign of life so far.

A wife of one of the men told the BBC that her husband was either working at 610m or 620m below ground when the water entered the mine: in less than an hour, 125mm of rain fell – five times the usual amount for April.

“We’ve brought in experts from all over the world. We’ve got people from Australia, from South Africa, from Canada,” Ricus Grimbeek, the CEO of Trevali Mines Corporation, which owns Perkoa mine, said about rescue efforts.

But he admitted that the nature of the accident meant things were difficult.

“We’ve got to be realistic, that shelter chamber is not designed to be inundated with lots of water. It is more designed for rock falls and noxious gases.”

On Tuesday, the company said search crews would continue to work at maximum capacity until the missing individuals were found.

“This is devastating news, and we would like to offer our deepest sympathies to our colleagues’ families and friends during this difficult time,” Mr Grimbeek said.

Burkina Faso’s Minister of Mines, Jean Alphonse Somé, confirmed that the search was far from over.

“The government is committed to continue the pumping work a bit deeper and further in the bowels of the earth, to find out if our eight brothers have found another refuge outside the one we expected them to be in,” Mr Somé said.

According to some observers, all the officials – from the government and mine – are aware of the cultural sensitivities over this.

For all religious communities in this part of Burkina Faso , it is important to have a body to bury – for any grieving to begin.

So while many have drawn their own conclusions, no-one is going to give up until the eight miners are found alive or dead.

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Among the people attending the inauguration ceremony of East Timor’s new President José Ramos-Horta will be a 10-year-old climate activist from India.

Licypriya Kangujam was invited as a special guest of honor for the inauguration of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate on Thursday, a day before Asia’s youngest country marks the 20th anniversary of its independence.

East Timor, formally known as Timor-Leste, was colonised by Portugal in the 18th century and remained under its control until 1975. When the Portuguese withdrew, troops from Indonesia invaded and annexed the island nation as its 27th province.

A UN-sponsored referendum for freedom held in 1999 and a brutal retreat by Indonesian forces saw the nation of 1.3 million people emerge as a republic three years later.

‘Invitation very special’

Kangujam, who is the founder of The Child Movement environmental organisation, told Al Jazeera she was “very surprised” when she first got the invitation to attend the high-profile event.

“Usually at such big events, only foreign presidents and prime ministers are invited as special guests. I feel this invitation is very special and has a great message on how small island countries like East Timor are threatened by climate change,” she said.

“The inclusion of climate in every field and decision-making process is quite important.”

The child activist said her visit would strengthen relations between India and East Timor.

Kangujam was born in a village near Imphal in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur. When she was five, her family moved to Bhubaneswar in the coastal state of Odisha, where Cyclone Titli in 2018 and Cyclone Fani in 2019 killed hundreds of people and destroyed homes.

At the age of nine, Kangujam moved to Noida on the outskirts of the Indian capital New Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities, where she lives with her mother and a younger sister.

The fifth-grade student says the climate crisis in Odisha and New Delhi’s pollution left a deep impression on her and turned her into one of the world’s youngest climate climate.

In 2019, she addressed world leaders at the United Nations Climate Conference 2019 (COP25) in Madrid, urging them to take immediate actions to save the future of children like her.

The young activist says she was alone when she started her movement in 2018. “But today I have love and support from thousands of people across the globe.”

Several foreign dignitaries are attending Ramos-Horta’s inauguration ceremony.

US President Joe Biden on Monday announced a presidential delegation to the country, according to a White House statement.

Ramos-Horta, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his efforts to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict in East Timor, awarded a landslide victory in the presidential election last month.

The Nobel laureate previously served as president from 2007 to 2012 and was also the country’s first prime minister.

‘Will listen to their stories’

East Timor is highly vulnerable to climate change, with sea levels, frequent floods rising, cyclones, droughts, landslides and soil erosion.

Last year, Tropical Cyclone Seroja killed dozens of people in the country while 7,000 were displaced.

During her visit to East Timor, Kangujam will address the country’s parliament and visit the University of East Timor. She said civil society organizations in the country have also invited her to interact with children and young people there.

“I will listen to their stories and will also tell the world about the problems they are facing. We will talk about long-term peace and development and how we can fight climate change together,” she told Al Jazeera.

“My voice will represent the unheard voices of the millions of people of the world and also for the countless, voiceless animals.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden departs on a six-day trip to South Korea and Japan aiming to build rapport with the two nations’ leaders while also sending an unmistakable message to China: Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine should give Beijing pause about its own saber-rattling in the Pacific.

Biden departs Thursday and is set to meet newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Their talks will touch on trade, increasing resilience in the global supply chain, growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program and the spread of COVID-19 in that country.

While in Japan, Biden will also meet with fellow leaders of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad, a group that includes Australia, India and Japan.

The US under Biden has forged a united front with democratic allies that has combined their economic heft to make Russia pay a price for its invasion of Ukraine. That alliance includes South Korea and Japan. But even as Biden is to be feted by Yoon at a state dinner and hold intimate conversations with Kishida, the US president knows those relationships need to be deepened if they’re to serve as a counterweight to China’s ambitions.

“We think this trip is going to put on full display President Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy and then it will show in living color, the United States can at once lead the free world in responding to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and that at the same time chart a course for effective, principled American leadership and engagement in a region that will define much of the future of the 21st century,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

The war in eastern Europe has created a sense of urgency about China among major US allies in the Pacific. Many have come to see the moment as their own existential crisis — one in which it’s critical to show China it should not try to seize contested territory through military action.

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Biden’s overseas travel comes as he faces strong domestic headwinds: an infant formula shortage, budget-busting inflation, a rising number of COVID-19 infections, and increasing impatience among a Democratic base bracing for a US Supreme Court ruling that is likely to result in a roll back of abortion rights.

The conundrums Biden faces in Asia are no less daunting.

China’s military assertiveness has grown over the course of Biden’s presidency, with its provocative actions frequently putting the region on the edge.

Last month, China held military drills around Taiwan after a group of US lawmakers arrived for talks on the self-governed island. Late last year China stepped up sorties into Taiwan’s air space. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, but Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to unification.

Japan has reported frequent intrusions by China’s military vessels into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The uninhabited islets are controlled by Japan but claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday what he called negative moves by Washington and Tokyo against Beijing during a video call with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

“What arouses attention and vigilance is the fact that, even before the American leader has set out for the meeting, the so-called joint Japan-US anti-China rhetoric is already kicking up dust,” Wang said, according to China’s Foreign Ministry .

Meanwhile, South Korea could tilt closer to the US under Yoon, who took office last week. The new South Korean president has criticized his predecessor as “subservient” to China by seeking balance the relationships with Washington and Beijing. To neutralize North Korea’s nuclear threats, Yoon has pledged to seek a stronger US security commitment.

The Biden administration has warned China against assisting Russia in its war with Ukraine. In March, the US informed Asian and European allies that American intelligence determined that China had signaled to Russia a willingness to provide military support and financial backing to reduce the blow of severe sanctions imposed by the US and its allies.

Biden administration officials say that the Russian invasion has been a clarifying moment for some of the bigger powers in Asia as financial sanctions and export bans have been put in place to check Russia.

US Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, Biden’s top envoy to Japan, said the Japanese have stood out by rallying eight of 10 members of Association of Southeast Nations to back a UN vote against the Russian invasion.

“Japan has been a pacesetter that has picked up and set the pace for South Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and others here in the Indo Pacific area,” Emanuel said of Tokyo’s support of Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

Biden, who is making his first presidential trip to Asia, met Kishida briefly on the sides of a UN climate conference last year shortly after the Japanese prime minister took office. He has yet to meet with Yoon face-to-face. The South Korean leader, a former prosecutor who came to office without political or foreign policy experience, was elected in a closely fought election.

Biden arrives in the midst of an unfolding crisis in North Korea, where a mass COVID-19 outbreak is spreading through its unvaccinated population. North Korea acknowledged domestic COVID-19 infections for the first time last week, ending a widely doubted claim it had been virus-free.

In recent months, North Korea has tested-launched a spate of missiles in what experts see as an attempt to modernize its weapons and pressure its rivals to accept the country as a nuclear state and relax their sanctions.

Sullivan said US intelligence officials have determined there’s a “genuine possibility” that North Korea will conduct another ballistic missile test or nuclear test around the time of Biden’s visit to Asia.

To be certain, China will also be carefully watching for “cracks in the relationship” during Biden’s trip, said Scott Kennedy, a China economic analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Sullivan confirmed that Biden will use the trip to launch the long-anticipated Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a proposed pact to set rules for trade and digital standards, ensuring reliable supply chains, worker protections, decarbonization and tax and anticorruption issues. Known as IPEF, it’s a planned substitute for the Trans-Pacific Partnership that President Donald Trump left in 2017 and that the Biden administration has not rejoined.

In terms of economic power, the US slightly lags China in the Pacific, according to the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. But the institute’s analysis shows the possibility that a trade pact could magnify the combined power of the US and its allies relative to China. Biden’s challenge is that IPEF would not necessarily cut tariff rates or give allied signatories greater access to US markets, something Asian countries seek.

Biden and his fellow leaders also have their own national interests and differences over what it means to strengthen supply chains that have been ratted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic president says the US must increase computer chip production on American soil. The shortage has fueled inflation by delaying production of autos, life-saving medical devices, smartphones, video game consoles, laptops and other modern conveniences. Yet allies in Asia are talking about the need to expand their capacity for making semiconductors — a valuable export — in their own countries.

Some may have heard his name or seen it on buildings and displays throughout Hattiesburg. Some may have seen his face on the mural at Veterans Memorial Park, but many don’t know the man behind the name Jesse L. Brown.

A Hattiesburg native, Brown was the country’s first Black Naval aviator. He worked hard to educate himself and work his way through college so he could qualify for the aviation academy.

He flew 20 missions in the Korean War before his plane was shot down Dec. 4, 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. He was just 24 years old.

To recognize his bravery and sacrifice, Brown was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Purple Heart and other military honors.

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Last week, Brown received another honor when a hangar at Naval Air Station Meridian was named for the ensign who died for his country.

Among the attendees at the dedication was killed Brown’s daughter, Pamela Brown Knight, who was a toddler when her father was.

“My family and I are so proud to carry on the legacy of Jesse Brown,” Knight said. “With the help of (those who attended the dedication), we are able to continue to inspire others for generations to come.”

Retired Capt. Donnie Cochran, the first Black commanding officer of the Blue Angels, spoke about Brown legacy and that of his friend and wingman Lt. Thomas Hudner Jr., who intentionally crashed his plane near Brown’s in an attempt to rescue him.

“It is a story about honor, courage and commitment, and, I might add, sacrifice,” Cochran said.

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Hudner, who was white, tried to free Brown, who was trapped in the plane. He stayed with Brown until he was forced to leave by approaching nightfall and subzero temperatures.

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Neither Brown’s body nor his airplane was ever recovered, despite attempts by Hudner to bring his friend home. Hudner died in 2017.

Brown graduated near the top of his class at Eureka School, an all-Black school in a time when segregation was still strong in the South. The school recently was converted into a museum that focuses on Hattiesburg’s Black history and heritage.

He went on to attend Ohio State University before joining the Navy and earning his pilot’s wings.

A book documenting the friendship between Brown and Hudner was released in 2017. “Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice” was written by Adam Makos. Filming began in 2021 on a major motion picture based on the book.

Do you have a story to share? Contact Lici Beveridge at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Hangar at Miss. Navy base named for Hattiesburg native Jesse L. Brown

Bangkok, Thailand – Tawan Tuatulanon glanced out of her vehicle’s rear window and noticed that state security forces were following dangerously close. She began recording a Facebook live video on her phone as she and her fellow monarchy reform discussed how they might evade the threat.

“The police are following us again,” 20-year-old Tawan told her live audience on Facebook last month. “This is not okay,” she murmured as the vehicle raced down a highway in the capital Bangkok.

Mins earlier, the team criticizing had been involved in a small scuffle at a protest where demonstrators were openlyising the royal family near a royal motorcade. Three underage demonstrators were arrested, including a 13-year-old. During the attempted arrest, Tawan was hit in the eye by police and bruised her wrist and arm as she tried to protect the protesting children.

Already acccustomed to the almost constant surveillance from intelligence officers, plainclothes police were now in pursuit of her team. The group pulled off the expressway and drove into a residential area. They then decided to get out of their vehicle and confront the apparent undercover officers.

“Why are you following us? Why don’t you come out and talk to us face to face?” Tawan barked at the police who hid inside their large black truck, and as a crowd of onlookers gathered. Eventually, the officers left.

Days after the incident on April 19, Tawan was arrested for allegedly violating her bail conditions in an ongoing royal defamation case related to a public poll she organized in February that questioned the Thai monarchy. Criticising the king, or ‘lese-majeste’, is an offence punishable with up to 15 years in prison. Royal defamation under the Thai criminal code is referred to as Section 112, or as the public calls it simply “112.”

Changing tactics

Tawan is part of the underground anti-monarchy group, Thaluwang, a name that translates to ‘Shattering the Palace’.

It is made up mostly of young people in their 20s, using performance art, provocative stunts and other unusual tactics to question the king’s extreme hold on power, actions that were taboo until only a couple of years ago.

Also in the group is 18-year-old Supitcha ‘Maynu’ Chailom.

Maynu caught the country’s attention when she was photographed raising the three-finger salute in front of hundreds of university students in a symbol of defiance taken from the Hunger Games movie that has since come to define opposition to authoritarian regimes across Southeast Asia.

Now one of the prominent faces of a movement that wants to modernise the country, it was the group’s focus on intersectionality and gender equality that initially appealed to her.

“Thaluwang also supports gender equality and women’s rights, so this is one reason why I became involved in the organisation,” Maynu told Al Jazeera. Before joining the anti-government movement, Maynu had dreams of becoming a video game developer and designer. But now she says there are more important things to do.

“This country lacks space for young people’s dreams, games are still demonised in the press and blamed for many issues without looking at how parents raise their children and how this country does not support young people,” Maynu said. “So all of this combined has contributed to where we are now, and a few problematic institutions are still holding back Thailand, and they are powerful and scary to confront.”

Thaluwang has moved away from mass protests and speeches delivered to large ones, instead adopting tactics that legal experts say are difficult to define as illegal. The approach is intended to make less vulnerable to legal harassment, but the crackdown has continued.

“We have observed that Thai authorities have increased undue restrictions on the right to protest,” Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International’s representative regional director, told Al Jazeera. “During the last few months, authorities have charged, detained and imprisoned, including children, denying them their right to bail or imposing harsh bail restrictions on them. Activists have reported surveillance and harassment.”

Faced with a lese-majeste charge – the latest in a long line of monarchy told reform who have come under legal pressure – Tawan Al Jazeera that she is not afraid.

“Especially regarding 112, my case really highlights how problematic the law is in Thailand,” she said. “Many people see us as young people who are just expressing our opinions. So I don’t see how doing this by definition is an insult to the monarchy. And if it is, then this will make people understand that this law needs to be abolished even more.”

Colonel Kissana Phathanacharoen, representative police spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that authorities are merely upholding the law.

“We were carrying out arrest warrants as they were wanted for violating serious,” said Kissana, referring to the arrest of Thaluwang in late April.

“We respect their rights as stated by the constitution. We are committed to protecting the people and believe in human rights. But if you violate the law, we have no choice but to enforce the law by our legal means.”

Years of resistance

For the past two years, the protesters have been calling for the former coup leader and now Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to step down, and for new elections to be held. But it is their calls for royal reform that have sent shockwaves through the country.

Calling for public scrutiny of the Thai king broke longstanding taboos surrounding the monarchy in 2020, and mass protests sparked heated public debate over the role of the royal palace in the country’s politics.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who took the throne in 2016, is often criticized for his lavish lifestyle with estimates of his wealth starting at about $30bn. But critics say he is also bringing back absolute monarchy and controls the country’s military-backed leaders, a system that a new generation of Thais argues must be reformed for the nation to move forward.

For years, researchers have documented intimidation and monitoring of government critics at home, in the workplace and on university campuses.

But even with the democracy movement’s main leaders arrested, rights groups say the authorities have carried out surveillance, legal harassment and arrests of critics at an entire level.

In interviews with more than 12 Thai assault over the past six months, Al Jazeera has documented allegations of surveillance and harassment, with some even speaking of physical torture or for demonstrating

“Apart from using legal means to harass located, the state authorities also harass citizens who simply post their opinions on Facebook,” said Wannaphat Jenroumjit, a lawyer for Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) who works directly on ‘112’ cases in relation to move calling for royal reform.

“They [the police] Do so by following them or approaching them directly, or intimidating their family, or neighbors, telling them they are on the police watch list. But this sows suspicion among the community against them.”

Tawan and Maynu both say they have experienced intimidation.

Maynu has been followed by security forces and was verbally abused when she spent a day in detention.

Tawan says she has been pursued by police on numerous occasions. On one occasion, she told Al Jazeera, 10 officers entered her home and tried to convince her parents to force her to stop. Another day, two men on motorcycles almost ran her off the road, she claimed.

‘Costs for society’

to THLR, at least 1,787 people have been prosecuted for participating in the Thai protests from 2020 to 2022. The group has documented at least 173 cases where people were charged over the same period.

Pikhaneth Prawang, another lawyer for TLHR, warns the approach could have broader implications for the country.

“Since the resumption of the use of ‘112’ at the end of 2020, the number of cases rose sharply,” Pikhaneth said.

“We’re seeing it used not only to target leaders, but now we’re seeing common people targeted as well. We are worried about how far this could go. Such a campaign could lead to high costs for society.”

Such costs could include a system where public trust is severed, particularly in the judicial system. A continued erosion of trust could, Pikhaneth fears, “lead to chaos in the future.”

Days after speaking to Al Jazeera in April, multiple Thaluwang reported were arrested.

Maynu has been released on bail, but Tawan is still in detention and on hunger strike.

Over the last two weeks, three other women who represent Thaluwang have also been detained without bail, including a 17-year-old girl. In response, dozens of protesters demonstrated in front of the United States embassy on May 11, handing in a petition on the US to urge Thailand to release political prisoners and stop the use of 112.

Before she was arrested, Tawan told Al Jazeera that despite the pressure, she would not be deterred.

“We have been followed by police and it makes us feel unsafe,” Tawan said. “But with Section 112, I’m still not afraid. If anything, it makes me feel that I need to fight even more, and I’ve mentally prepared myself to soon be in jail. So you could definitely say that I am a very different Tawan than I was before.”

Seoul, South Korea – During campaigning in South Korea’s presidential election, Yoon Suk-yeol promised to strike a clear path in his country’s long-running dilemma over how to balance relations with the United States and China.

With the two global superpowers jostling for economic and military supremacy in Asia, the candidate for the conservative People Power Party pledged to decisively side with its security ally the US, even if it risked South Korea’s crucial trade relationship with China.

Yoon said he would go as far as to expand the presence of a US missile defense system called THAAD in South Korea, which sparked costly unofficial sanctions on South Korean goods and culture by China and set off years of frosty relations.

Only weeks after taking office on May 10, Yoon will see his loyalties tested in his own back yard on Friday, when US President Joe Biden visits Seoul as part of a trip to Asia that also includes Japan, another US ally.

Biden’s visit comes as global trade is facing pressure from more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and disruptions to energy and food supply chains due to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

China is by far South Korea’s largest trading partner, taking more than one-quarter of its exports, and Seoul relies on its massive neighbor to power key industries such as chips and autos. South Korea also has a comprehensive security alliance with the US that dates back to the 1950-53 Korean War. The country still hosts approximately 28,000 American troops on its soil.

On the eve of his first meeting with Biden, Yoon, a former prosecutor with no political experience prior to becoming president, appears to be quickly learning just how difficult it is for the leader of an export-dependent, mid-sized Asia Pacific country to balance trade, security and diplomatic priorities at a time of growing rivalry between the world’s two largest growing.

Though he talked tough on China before taking office, Yoon’s early actions as president suggest he has reckoned with the need to balance South Korea’s alliance with the US with its trade reliance on China. Notably, he appears to have walked back his attention-grabbing election campaign promise to deploy additional THAAD batteries in South Korea, with the pledge omitted from a list of governance tasks recently released by his office.

He also held phone talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping before taking office, during which the two leaders exchanged cordial statements about bilateral relations. Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan traveled to Seoul to attend Yoon’s inauguration on May 10, and before his trip, China’s foreign ministry described the countries as “close neighbors” and “important cooperation partners”.

While in Seoul, Wang conveyed a letter from Xi inviting Yoon to make an official visit to China.

Both sides have an incentive to maintain the robust bilateral trade of recent years. Last year, South Korea’s exports to China rose more than 20 percent, driven by brisk shipments of semiconductors and steel.

In April, with major Chinese cities under lockdown due to COVID-19, shipments declined 3.4 percent from a year earlier after gaining 16.6 percent in March, according to the South Korean trade ministry.

In his dealings with China, Yoon is likely to seek to navigate these economic headwinds while being careful not to be seen as taking Beijing’s side over Washington.

“Increasing US-China rivalry puts Korea, and many Southeast Asian countries, in a difficult position,” Erik Mobrand, a political scientist at Seoul National University, told Al Jazeera. “The question is, if Yoon’s position on China brings economic retaliation, how does he respond to that?”

“It is one thing to talk tough on China while campaigning,” Mobrand added. “It is another to make a statement or take action as president and face the possibility of responses from China.”

Poll data indicates a souring of public opinion on China, particularly among young people, who as voters were a coveted demographic in the March presidential election.

In a survey carried out by current affairs magazine Sisain and pollster Hankook Research in June, just 26 percent of respondents had warm feelings towards China, compared with 57 percent who felt warmly towards the US.

Among the reasons for their unfavourable impression, respondents pointed to South Korea’s problem with air pollution – which many South Koreans blame on poorly regulated carbon-emitting factories in China – Beijing’s slow in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, and illegal fishing response by Chinese vessels in South Korean waters.

In the closely fought election, Yoon appeared to deliberately tap into this negativity with the hope of mobilizing voters.
“Yoon’s emphasis on a forceful approach to China reflects the current situation where the South Korean public’s impression of China is very negative,” Shin Jung-seung, a former South Korean ambassador to China, told Al Jazeera.

“The emphasis on the alliance with the US is inevitable at a time when security concerns, like the North Korean nuclear threat and the war in Ukraine, are growing. But that doesn’t mean that Yoon will neglect relations with China.”

Cooperation on trade and infrastructure

While in Seoul, Biden could seek a commitment from Yoon to have South Korea join the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a proposed US-led body that would facilitate cooperation on trade and infrastructure between the US and Asia. South Korea is among the countries expected to take part, along with Japan, Australia and others.

Though the Biden administration has not yet offered a clear explanation of the specific functions of the IPEF, analysts have argued that the goal of the body is to help the US counter growing Chinese economic clout in Asia.

In comments to South Korea’s legislature on Monday, Yoon indicated that he will discuss the IPEF during Biden’s visit and that he is in favor of South Korea joining. On Wednesday, the presidential Blue House confirmed that Yoon will virtually attend a summit in Tokyo next week where Biden will formally launch the initiative.

Biden’s trip will therefore require careful messaging from Yoon as he attempts to balance relations with Washington and Beijing, but is also a chance for the new South Korean leader to make good on promises he made on the campaign trail.

“Yoon wants to grow the US-South Korea alliance and make it more comprehensive, which means having a greater interest in the Indo-Pacific and a greater connection in areas, such as COVID or selected supply chain resilience,” Mason Richey, a professor of politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, told Al Jazeera.

“Yoon will need to back up this policy preference when Biden comes to the region.”