Istanbul was Constantinople, and Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan was once Astana — and is Astana once again.

Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed into law Saturday a number of amendments, including reverting the name of the country’s capital. 

The name had been changed to Nur-Sultan in 2019 to honor the first president of post-Soviet Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled from 1991 to 2019. 

Since then, relations between President Tokayev and former President Nazarbayev have soured, and the country was wracked by violence in January as protesters decried both fuel prices and the country’s ossified political scene.

Mr. Nazarbayev was removed from his remaining political positions in the country after the January unrest.

Political reforms were also on the menu Saturday, as President Tokayev altered his office’s term limits. Presidents will no longer be able to run for reelection, but will now have a term of seven years instead of five.

The country’s parliament unanimously supported the measures, passing them through to President Tokayev on Friday.

“Our country has the bitter experience of re-elections without a term for the presidency. In 30 years we have had only two presidents. If we implement this amendment, we will have two presidents every 14 years and not every 30,” deputy Isa Kazibek said during the parliamentary debate, according to Spanish news wire agency EFE.

The term-limit amendment is itself now unamendable, the same status given to lines in the constitution about Kazakhstan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

President Tokayev has also called for early elections. He has previously expressed interest in running for reelection. If he is ruled eligible on the grounds of being first elected when there were no term limits, his second term would last the new seven-year duration.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a congressional delegation to Armenia this weekend intended to reaffirm U.S. commitment to peace and democracy in the tumultuous region.

Mrs. Pelosi, who landed in the country on Saturday, is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Armenia since its independence in 1991.

“Our congressional delegation’s visit to Armenia is a powerful symbol of the United States’ firm commitment to a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Armenia and a stable and secure Caucasus region,” Mrs. Pelosi said in a statement.

Mrs. Pelosi was joined by Reps. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Jackie Speier of California, who lead the congressional caucus regarding Armenian issues. Rep. Anna Eshoo of California also joined.

The visit comes amid deadly border clashes this week between Armenia and Azerbaijan over a decades-long dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

At least 49 soldiers were killed in overnight shelling attacks, according to the Armenian Defense Ministry. Azerbaijan reported that 50 of its own service members also died in the conflict. Armenian civilian casualties remain unknown.

The violence led to concerns that the two nations could be on the verge of reigniting their conflict, but a senior Armenian official reassured that a truce had been agreed with Azerbaijan.

Mrs. Pelosi asserted that in the wake of the war between Ukraine and Russia, the trip came with increased urgency to address violence.

“It is the moral duty of all to never forget: an obligation that has taken on heightened urgency as atrocities are perpetuated around the globe, including by Russia against Ukraine,” Mrs. Pelosi said.

Last year, President Biden became the first U.S. president to officially recognize the killing of millions of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.

Congress approved a resolution that would also recognize the genocide through an official remembrance of the 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 to 1923.

Mrs. Pelosi made another high-profile delegation trip earlier this year to Taiwan, becoming the first speaker to visit the country since Newt Gingrich in 1997.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The World Health Organization raised the alarm Saturday about a “second disaster” in the wake of the deadly floods in Pakistan this summer, as doctors and medical workers on the ground race to battle outbreaks of waterborne and other diseases.

The floodwaters started receding this week in the worst-hit provinces but many of the displaced – now living in tents and makeshift camps – increasingly face the threat of gastrointestinal infections, dengue fever and malaria, which are on the rise. The dirty and stagnant waters have become breeding grounds for mosquitos.

The unprecedented monsoon rains since mid-June, which many experts link to climate change, and subsequent flooding have killed 1,545 people across Pakistan, inundated millions of acres of land and affected 33 million people. As many as 552 children have also been killed in the floods.

“I am deeply concerned about the potential for a second disaster in Pakistan: a wave of disease and death following this catastrophe, linked to climate change, that has severely impacted vital health systems leaving millions vulnerable,” WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a statement.

“The water supply is disrupted, forcing people to drink unsafe water,” he said. “But if we act quickly to protect health and deliver essential health services, we can significantly reduce the impact of this impending crisis.”

The WHO chief also said that nearly 2,000 health facilities have been fully or partially damaged in Pakistan and urged donors to continue to respond generously so that more lives can be saved.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif left for New York on Saturday to attend the first fully in-person gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly since the coronavirus pandemic. Sharif will appeal for more help from the international community to tackle the disaster.

Before his departure, Sharif urged philanthropists and aid agencies to donate baby food for children, along with blankets, clothes and other food items for the flood victims, saying they were desperately waiting for aid.

The southern Sindh and southwestern Baluchistan provinces have been the worst hit – hundreds of thousands in Sindh live now in makeshift homes and authorities say it will take months to completely drain the water in the province.

Nationwide, floods have damaged 1.8 million homes, washed away roads and destroyed nearly 400 bridges, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

Imran Baluch, head of a government-run district hospital in Jafferabad, in the district of Dera Allah Yar in Baluchistan, said that out of 300 people tested daily, nearly 70% are positive for malaria.

After malaria, typhoid fever and skin infections are most commonly seen among the displaced, living for weeks in unhygienic conditions, Baluch told The Associated Press.

Pediatrician Sultan Mustafa said he treated some 600 patients at a field clinic established by the Dua Foundation charity in the Jhuddo area in Sindh, mostly women and children with gastrointestinal infections, scabies, malaria or dengue.

Khalid Mushtaq, heading a team of doctors from the Alkhidmat Foundation and the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, said they are treating more than 2,000 patients a day and were also providing kits containing a month’s supply of water-purification tablets, soaps and other items.

On Friday, the representative of the U.N. children’s agency in Pakistan, Abdullah Fadil, said after visiting Sindh’s flood-hit areas that an estimated 16 million children had been impacted by the floods. He said UNICEF was doing everything it can “to support children and families affected and protect them from the ongoing dangers of water-borne diseases.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to forge closer ties during a summit in Central Asia on Thursday that included a discussion of Chinese support for Russia’s troubled invasion of Ukraine and Russian support for Beijing’s claims to Taiwan.

The get-together in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the first meeting between the two leaders since Mr. Putin ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, took place on the sidelines of a regional summit.

“China is ready to work with Russia in extending strong support to each other on issues concerning their respective core interests,” Mr. Xi said during the meeting, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Mr. Xi used the meeting, part of his first trip outside China’s borders since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in Wuhan in late 2019, to highlight the joint efforts of the authoritarian governments of China and Russia to become leading world powers and challenge what they say is the “unipolar” dominance of the United States.

“In the face of historical changes in the world and times, as major countries, China is willing to work together with Russia to play a leading role and to inject stability into the turbulent world,” Mr. Xi said.

Before the talks, Mr. Putin said the Chinese leader is “my good friend” and that close relations between Russia and China are growing.

SEE ALSO: Taiwan pushing for greater international coordination to counter China’s aggression

“The Russia–China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is as stable as mountains,” said Mr. Putin, noting the strategic cooperation accord reached in February.

Mr. Putin offered thanks to “our Chinese friends’ balanced position in connection with the Ukraine crisis” but hinted at some daylight between Moscow and Beijing on the war. “We understand your questions and your concerns in this regard,” Mr. Putin said before the private talks. “During today’s meeting, we will certainly explain in detail our position on this issue.”

The meeting came at an awkward time for Mr. Putin. Russia’s war of attrition in Ukraine has become mired with rising casualties, and a recent lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive has reclaimed large swaths of land captured by the Russian army in Ukraine’s east.

The conflict has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and impacted the global economy with a confrontation between Russia and the West not seen since the Cold War.

Mr. Xi is preparing for a major Chinese Communist Party meeting next month. The session is expected to further consolidate Mr. Xi’s power with a third five-year term as party leader and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

On Taiwan, Mr. Putin reaffirmed that Russia is “firmly committed” to Beijing’s “one China” principle that views the island state as part of China. He condemned what he said were recent efforts by the U.S. and its allies to change the status quo regarding the island democracy, which Mr. Xi has vowed to absorb into the mainland.

“We intend to firmly adhere to the principle of ‘One China,’” Mr. Putin said. “We condemn provocations by the United States and their satellites in the Taiwan Strait.”

The U.S. version of the “One China” policy does not recognize China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and regards the island’s status as unresolved.

China also plans to consolidate and deepen bilateral ties with Russia and expand cooperation in areas such as trade and energy, according to the Chinese statement.

An economic lifeline for Russia

China has supported Russia’s economy by increasing purchases of Russian oil at a time when Moscow faces increasingly painful Western economic sanctions. In August, China’s purchases of Russian oil increased to more than 1 million barrels a day, double the amount it purchased in February.

Russia has increased oil sales to China and India at discounted prices. The sales have produced an estimated $20 billion a month so far this year, compared with about $14 billion last year.

U.S. officials and private analysts say Chinese companies have largely abided by other Western sanctions against commercial and military deals with Russia for fear of being shut out of even more lucrative markets in Europe, East Asia and North America.

The Russian leader hopes the meeting with Mr. Xi and other regional leaders will provide some diplomatic relief in the face of widespread opposition to the military aggression from the West.

Mr. Putin said of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party set for Oct. 16 that he wishes the “comrade president” success in his plans for developing China.

The Chinese leader is expected to achieve a historical third five-year term as party leader. The meeting sets policy and usually appoints new personnel to senior positions.

“Bilateral relations are a model for ensuring global and regional stability,” Mr. Putin said. “Together, we support building a just, democratic and multipolar world order based on international rules and the central role of the United Nations, not on certain rules that someone has invented and is attempting to impose on others without even explaining what it is all about.”

The talks were held during a regional summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a China-led regional grouping of Central Asian states.

In early February, Mr. Putin met with Mr. Xi in Beijing and signed a bilateral agreement calling for closer strategic relations. The agreement said there would be “no limits” on future ties.

Just weeks after that meeting, Mr. Putin ordered troops to invade Ukraine for what was thought to be a relatively quick and easy takeover of the country. Instead, Ukrainian military forces, with extensive support from the U.S. and other Western nations, have waged a fierce fight against the Russian invaders.

Mr. Xi has led an effort in China to eradicate the virus under a policy called “zero COVID.” In recent months, the government has imposed a string of draconian lockdowns in major cities and other measures that have produced widespread public anger. The policy also has produced a slowdown of the Chinese economy.

With China’s economic and military clout fast expanding, Mr. Xi is said to be seeking Russian support for his strategy of achieving global superpower status for China, analysts say. The Chinese Communist Party regards the United States as the main obstacle to Beijing’s rise on the world stage.

The Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Global Times outlet said the Xi-Putin summit highlights the growing alliance. “China and Russia have united to resist the political virus of the U.S. and the West while opposing hegemonism,” the outlet said in an editorial.

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, said Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin are seeking to forge a new global order that threatens international democracy and sovereignty.

“Today’s meeting demonstrates China and Russia’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the New Axis of Evil at the expense of freedom around the globe,” she said. “The United States must continue to stand firmly against these malign actors and support the people of Taiwan and Ukraine.”

Retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence director, said the meeting of the two leaders highlights the growing strategic alliance between China and Russia that bodes ill for the West.

“The larger strategic impact is that this new alliance represents a ‘two-front’ confrontation, or war, against the United States and its allies,” Capt. Fanell said.

Much discussion in national security policymaking circles has sought to play down or deny the impact of a new Chinese-Russian alliance.

“That would be a deadly mistake,” said Capt. Fanell. “It’s time for American leaders of all stripes to return to the Cold War standard of having the capability and capacity to support two major theater wars simultaneously.”

President Biden plans to meet at the White House on Friday with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom remain jailed in Russia, the White House announced Thursday.

“He wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day, on making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Thursday’s press briefing at the White House.

The separate meetings are to be the first in-person encounter between Biden and the families and are taking place amid sustained but so far unsuccessful efforts by the administration to secure the Americans’ release. The administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to get them home, but despite plans for the White House meetings, there is no sign a breakthrough is imminent.

“While I would love to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer and we are bringing their loved ones home — that is not what we’re seeing in these negotiations at this time,” Jean-Pierre said.

She added: “The Russians should accept our offer. The Russians should accept our offer today.”

Griner has been held in Russia since February on drug-related charges. She was sentenced last month to nine years in prison after pleading guilty and has appealed the punishment. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence on espionage-related charges that he and his family say are false. The U.S. government regards both as wrongfully detained, placing their cases with the office of its top hostage negotiator.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of announcing two months ago that the administration had made a substantial proposal to Russia. Since then, U.S officials have continued to press that offer in hopes of getting serious negotiations underway, and have been following up through the same channel that produced an April prisoner swap that brought Marine veteran Trevor Reed home from Russia, said a senior administration official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in advance of Thursday’s formal announcement.

The negotiations, already strained because of tense relations between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have also been complicated by Russia‘s apparent resistance to the proposal the Americans put on the table.

The Russians, who have indicated that they are open to negotiations but have chided the Americans to conduct them in private, have come back with suggestions that are not within the administration’s ability to deliver, said the administration official, declining to elaborate.

The administration has not provided specifics about its proposal, but a person familiar with the matter previously confirmed it had offered to release Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer who is imprisoned in the U.S. and who has long been sought by Moscow. It is also possible that, in the interests of symmetry, Russia might insist on having two of its citizens released from prison.

Biden spoke by phone in July with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, but both families have also requested in-person meetings. On Friday, Biden plans to speak at the White House with Cherelle Griner and with the player’s agent in one meeting and with Elizabeth Whelan in the other, according to the official.

The meetings are being done separately so as to ensure that each family has private time with the president. But the fact that they are happening on the same day shows the extent to which the two cases have become intertwined since the only deal that is presumably palatable to the U.S. is one that gets both Americans — a famous WNBA player and a Michigan man who until recently was little known to the public — home together at the same time,

In the past several months, representatives of both families have expressed frustration over what they perceived as a lack of aggressive action and coordination from the administration.

Cherelle Griner, for instance, told The Associated Press in an interview in June that she was dismayed after the failure of a phone call from her wife that was supposed to have been patched through by the American Embassy in Moscow left the couple unable to connect on their fourth anniversary.

Whelan’s relatives have sought to keep attention on his case, anxious that it has been overshadowed in the public eye by the focus on the far more prominent Griner — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA all-star. They also conveyed disappointment when Whelan, despite having been held in Russia since December 2018, was not included in a prisoner swap last April that brought home Reed.

Friday’s meetings were scheduled before news broke this week of an unconnected trip to Russia by Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has been a veteran emissary in hostage and detainee cases. Administration officials reacted coolly to that trip, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying Wednesday that dialogue with Russia outside the “established channel” risks hindering efforts to get Griner and Whelan home.

Administration officials say work on hostage and detainee cases persists regardless of whether a family receives a meeting with the president, though there is also no question such an encounter can help establish a meaningful connection.

Biden met in the Oval Office in March with Reed’s parents after the Texas couple stood with a large sign outside the White House calling for their son’s release. The following month, he returned home.

Taiwan‘s top diplomat in Washington said Taipei is in talks with the Biden administration on a variety of ways to counter Chinese “coercion,” but for now the island democracy is not calling publicly for more U.S. sanctions to counter Beijing’s increased aggression.

“We are exploring different policy tools to respond to China‘s threats,” said Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan‘s de facto ambassador to the United States, who pointed to Beijing’s recent expansion of military provocations toward Taiwan, as well as “cyberattacks” and “economic coercion.”

“What we’re facing at the moment are gray-zone attentions and coercion,” Ms. Hsiao told reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday evening. Her goal, she said, is to work with democracy-minded allies “to find means of strengthening Taiwan‘s economic security.”

Her comments came as a Taiwanese trade delegation inked a $3.2 billion in new deals with U.S. agriculture associations Tuesday, and as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee quickly approved a bill that calls for billions of dollars in new funding to bolster Taiwan‘s ability to resist Chinese military intimidation, a bill that China‘s Communist regime has sharply criticized.

Chinese officials on Thursday denounced the Senate bill, which includes language that would pressure the White House to level broad economic sanctions against Beijing in the event that China increases its military hostilities across the Taiwan Strait.

The sanctions issue has been a prickly one for the Biden administration, which has appeared wary of using the tactic out of concern that it may provoke retaliation from Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is expected to secure a third, five-year leadership term at next month’s Chinese Communist Party congress in Beijing, has expressed determination to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control and not ruled out the use of military force to make it happen.

The Biden administration criticized the expansion of Chinese military drills and ballistic missile tests near Taiwan following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island last month, accusing Beijing of “overreacting.”

But the White House has made it clear Mr. Biden is committed to the so-called “One China” policy, under which the U.S. has long acknowledged Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China — even as Washington maintains informal relations and substantial defense ties with the democratic government in Taiwan.

But Mr. Biden has made repeated comments that have muddied the traditional U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward the defense of Taiwan — leaving it open whether U.S. forces would respond militarily if the island were attacked by China.

Following the Senate’s advance Wednesday of the Taiwan legislation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing that China had “lodged serious complaints” with Washington. The measure still needs House and President Biden’s approval to become law.

“There is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of…China’s territory,” she said. “…If the bill continues to be deliberated, pushed forward or even signed into law, it will … cause extremely serious consequences to China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

Gathering of allies

The back and forth comes as officials from various democratic governments around the world gathered this week in Washington for a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), which is reportedly drafting a document calling for more aggressive international deterrence against Chinese military and other coercive actions toward Taiwan.

“Economic and political measures, including meaningful sanctions, should be considered to deter military escalation, and to ensure trade and other exchanges with Taiwan can continue unimpeded,” the document states, according to a draft reviewed early in the week by Reuters.

The news agency also reported that Ms. Hsiao hosted dozens of international lawmakers involved in IPAC on Tuesday at Taiwan‘s sprawling “Twin Oaks” diplomatic mansion in Washington, where she told the group — including officials from Australia, Britain, Canada, India, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Ukraine — that “it is important to demonstrate to the bully that we have friends too.”

“We are not seeking to provoke the bully, but neither will we bow to their pressure,” she reportedly said.

When pressed on Wednesday evening whether she advocates U.S. sanctions against China, Ms. Hsiao told The Washington Times: “I don’t want to talk about a worst-case scenario — a hypothetical circumstance — but what we’re facing at the moment are gray-zone attentions and coercion, and our formula for the present state of relations, whether it’s across the Strait or on a global level, is to find means of strengthening Taiwan‘s economic security.”

She added that “we haven’t discussed any specifics” on sanctions with the Biden administration.

“We talk about integrated deterrence in a broader sense of the need to explore different tools to ensure that the status quo in the Taiwan Strait can be maintained,” she said.

“This is a conversation in the context of broader deterrence, and the Pentagon has coined the phrase ‘integrated deterrence,’ and economic issues — not kinetic means of deterring aggression — of course is part of the broader context of discussing deterrence,” Ms. Hsaio said.

“Unfortunately,” she added, “the current trajectory is that we expect such gray zone threats to continue. But I think current actions of China [are] also generating tremendous international awareness and concern over the situation and it is clear that we are not alone in terms of asserting that maintaining the status quo [of] peace and stability in the region is of critical interest.”