There has been intense speculation that she may visit the self-ruled island.
Taiwan is claimed by China - which has warned of "serious consequences" if she goes there.
No high-ranking US elected official has visited Taiwan in 25 years.
Arnold Donald, CEO and president of Carnival Corp., the parent company to several cruise lines, is scheduled to step down Monday, after helming the cruise giant for nearly a decade.
Donald told USA TODAY the decision came as part of an ongoing planning and leadership development process that's been going on at the company internally.
"I've been in the role for nine years. And I'm also, you know, getting to an age where it makes sense to have the next generation step in, and so that's how we got there," he said.
Carnival Corp. announced in April that Donald would transition to vice chair and a member of the company's board of directors after his tenure as CEO and president was completed.
Donald, who started in the role in 2013 and led Carnival through the COVID-19 pandemic, will be succeeded by Josh Weinstein, who previously served the company as its chief operations officer.
The CDC ended its COVID-19 program for cruise ships:What does that mean for travelers?
Cruises are a cheaper way to travel right now:Here's what to know, when to book
In a statement shared with USA TODAY, Weinstein said that he feels privileged to have been given the opportunity to take on the role, adding that succeeding Donald is "quite an honor."
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that must become a part of the country. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this in the future.
Chinese officials have expressed anger over what they view as growing diplomatic engagement between Taipei and Washington. There was a surprise visit to the island by six US lawmakers in April.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged residents of the country’s eastern-most Donetsk region to leave the province as Russia continues its offensive to conquer the area. In a regular nightly video address to the nation, Zelenskyy said hundreds of thousands of people were still living in the industrial heartland where “the fiercest fighting” was taking place. He told Ukrainians that an evacuation of Donetsk “needs to be done . . . now” so that “the Russian army” will kill fewer people. Moscow is trying to take over the whole of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, made up of the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russian forces now occupy all of Luhansk. The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented more than 5,200 civilian deaths in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began and believes more have been killed amid Russia’s bombardment of civilian areas. Moscow has since late March refocused its war efforts on eastern Ukraine, having failed to capture the capital Kyiv in the weeks after its February 24 invasion, concentrating on taking the remaining Donbas territory, the region Russian covertly invaded in 2014. Ukraine, now using advanced weaponry supplied by the west, has been able to disrupt Russian supply lines and logistics. Kyiv has been slowly regaining territory in the south, and the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in June Ukrainian forces have liberated more territory than they have lost since the start of the invasion. In the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, also forcibly seized in 2014, the Russian governor of Sevastopol said on Sunday that a drone had struck the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet, wounding five people. The unmanned aerial strike took place on Russia’s revered Navy Day and festivities in Sevastopol were subsequently cancelled. On his Telegram channel, governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said the Federal Security Service was investigating the incident. The Black Sea fleet’s press service said “a low-yield explosive device mounted on a makeshift drone” had struck the area. The reported Sevastopol strike comes after an agreement between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN was signed last week to clear maritime waterways for the export of Ukrainian grain to bordering countries. A regional Ukrainian official denied involvement in the drone strike. Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa Military Administration, described the incident as a “false-flag” operation and said “Ukraine would liberate the Crimea by other means”. In April Russia’s Moskva missile cruiser, its flagship in the Black Sea, was sunk by Ukrainian missiles. Neither of the warring sides has disclosed its casualty figures in the bloodiest war on the European continent since the second world war. Zelenskyy has urged the west to designate Russia a “terrorist state” in response to civilian atrocities including sexual violence, indiscriminate killing of civilians and looting.
The US has formal diplomatic ties with China, and not Taiwan.
Ms Pelosi has long been a vocal critic of the Chinese leadership, denouncing its human rights record. She has met pro-democracy dissidents and visited Tiananmen Square to commemorate victims of the 1989 massacre.
- Nancy Pelosi's long history of opposing Beijing
Her original plan was to visit Taiwan in April, but she postponed the trip after she tested positive for Covid-19.
Earlier this month she said it was "important for us to show support for Taiwan".
President Joe Biden has said the US military believes a Pelosi visit to Taiwan is "not a good idea right now".
The statement from her office on Sunday said the tour would "focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region".
Their talks will also cover trade, the climate crisis and human rights.
The delegates accompanying Ms Pelosi are leading members of the House of Representatives: Gregory Meeks, Mark Takano, Suzan DelBene, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Andy Kim.
The last House Speaker to visit Taiwan was Republican Newt Gingrich, in 1997.
The war between Russia and Ukraine recently surpassed the five month mark. What initially started out as a fast-paced, dynamic war has turned into a slow-moving, crushing war of attrition that neither side desired. Indeed, Russia’s initial strategy was to overwhelm Ukrainian defense forces, seize Kiev, and force the government to capitulate. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian strategy projected that international pressure, coupled with crushing the initial invasion, would force the Russians to pull out of their country.
At the strategic level, the military leadership and governments of both countries have remained committed to their initial objectives. The Russian military seeks to “demilitarize” Ukraine, a euphemism for destroying their military and taking control of the country. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military wants to expel the Russian invaders from their country. While many are skeptical of either country achieving their objectives, both countries have adopted strategies that could eventually allow them to achieve their goals.
Next month marks one year since Kabul fell. On Aug. 15, 2021, after 20 years of occupation, the United States was withdrawing from Afghanistan as the Taliban encroached upon the capital.
Memories of past civil wars still haunted Kabul. Many of my relatives rushed to the Kabul airport hoping to make it out. Some waited days at checkpoints, amid massive crowds, but after a suicide bombing rocked the airport — at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel were killed in the chaos — the last planes flew out of Kabul without them. In West Sacramento, Calif., my family and I watched the news and called our relatives for updates, feeling helpless.
A few weeks later, I began to hear of a U.S. government program called “humanitarian parole.” Essentially, it was a special program that could grant temporary entry into the U.S. for “urgent humanitarian reasons.” Online, I read that Afghans qualified for humanitarian parole because of Kabul’s fall and a majority of Afghans had no other pathway out. The applications were expensive, $575 per person, but it seemed like a legitimate route into the U.S. My father, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1983, was less optimistic. “It’s a scam,” he said. “Only those with connections will get out.”
Much of the Russian strategy is focused on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. In this region, the Russian military has adopted a traditional “fire-and-maneuver” tactic, where they barrage a region with artillery and then move their infantry into the region to secure it. This process is fairly effective for taking territory, albeit slow, expensive, and resulting in extensive collateral damage. The Russian military can achieve this type of maneuver given the large amount of artillery allocated to each Battalion Tactical Group. This slow-moving process allows the Russian ground forces to have cover from their artillery and air-defense assets, limiting the ability of Ukrainian artillery and drones.
No comments:
Post a Comment