The US and Canada sent warships through the Taiwan Strait, with China issuing a warning on Monday, claiming such actions “undermine” peace in the region.

According to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet, which operates in the Asia-Pacific, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76) and the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331) conducted a “routine” transit of the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.

The US 7th Fleet’s statement said the warships navigated through a “high seas corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial waters of any coastal state.”

The voyage was also described as demonstrating the two nations’ “commitment” to “upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle,” the statement added.

Rejecting any “assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedom of navigation, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air,” the US military emphasized that the international community’s rights in the Taiwan Strait “should not be restricted.”

However, China’s military warned that the passage of the US and Canadian warships “disrupted the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.”

Li Xi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), stated that China is “on high alert at all times and resolutely safeguards national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability.”

Li added that naval and air forces organized by the command “closely followed and monitored the vessels’ passage through the strait, addressing the situation in accordance with laws and regulations.”

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry also confirmed the voyage, stating that the warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait from south to north on Sunday. The Taiwanese armed forces “maintained full control over the surrounding sea and airspace, with the situation remaining normal,” it said on the social media platform X.

India’s envoy to Canada, who is being expelled over what Ottawa says are links to the murder of a Sikh leader, insisted in an interview he was innocent and said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had wrecked bilateral political ties.

Both countries on Monday ordered out six diplomats in tit-for-tat moves over Ottawa’s allegations that New Delhi was targeting Indian dissidents on Canadian soil.

Trudeau specifically tied the six to the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year in British Columbia. Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s envoy to Canada, told CTV that Trudeau had been relying on intelligence rather than evidence.

“On the basis of intelligence, if you want to destroy a relationship, be my guest. And that’s what he did,” Verma said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Asked whether he had had anything to with Nijjar’s murder, Verma said: “Nothing at all. No evidence was presented. (This is) politically motivated.”

Canada is home to the highest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab and demonstrations in favor of a separate homeland carved out of India have irked New Delhi.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Friday put the last of India’s diplomats in the country “on notice” that Canada will not tolerate any more criminal activity on its territory.

The warning follows the expulsion earlier this week of six Indian diplomats after Canada’s national police force said there is ample evidence of murder and extortion by agents in Canada operating on orders from New Delhi.

India’s high commissioner was among those kicked out of Canada after he was identified as a person of interest in the June 18, 2023, assassination of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

India has hotly denied the charges and it ordered six Canadian diplomats to leave the country.

But Joly said evidence shows that New Delhi has used criminals in Canada for violent acts, including the targeting of Sikh separatists who want to carve out a Sikh state in India.

“There was definitely a threat and that’s exactly why the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) decided to take the extraordinary measure of making public the fact that Canadians were being intimidated, victims of extortion or even (received) death threats because agents and diplomats from India were linked to these criminal actions,” Joly said at a news conference in Montreal, reported the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

“We’ve never seen that in our history. That level of transnational repression cannot happen on Canadian soil.”

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Toronto — Beaches across Canada’s far northeast Newfoundland and Labrador province have increasingly been littered with mysterious white blobs. Their appearance has so far befuddled scientists, and led Canadian officials in the region to launch an investigation.

Beachgoers first noticed the unusual blobs on the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador in September. People quickly started sharing photos of the gelatinous clumps on a Facebook group with more than 40,000 members that is dedicated to exploring the region’s coastal areas.

“Anyone know what these blobs are. They are like touton dough and all over the beach,” wrote Philip Grace on the Beachcombers Facebook group, comparing the finds to a regional dish. “These were in sizes ranging from dinner plate size right down to a toonie [Canadian 2-dollar coin].”

Some people speculated online that the mystery blobs could be the result of ships dumping substances into the ocean. Others suggested they could be whale sperm, whale vomit or even ambergris, a byproduct of sperm whales that’s valued for its use in perfumes and other products. 

But the experts weren’t to be dragged into the speculation.

Environment and Climate Change Canada, the government agency responsible for investigating the mystery, simply referred to the blobs as “a mystery substance” when asked by CBS News on Tuesday.

Newfoundland resident David McGrath told The Guardian newspaper that he’d seen hundreds of the items scattered across his local beaches.

“They looked just like a pancake before you flip it over, when it has those dimpled little bubbles. I poked a couple with a stick and they were spongy and firm inside,” he told the newspaper. “I’ve lived here for 67 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. Never.”

“They sent the Coast Guard over and I asked them how bad it was. They told me they had 28 miles of coastline littered with this stuff and had no idea what it was,” McGrath said. “Is it toxic? It is safe for people to touch?” 

Samantha Bayard, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada, told CBS News the agency was first informed about the “mystery substance” on beaches on Sept. 7. Environmental emergency officers visited sites at least three times to assess the situation and collect samples.

“To date, ECCC has conducted several aerial, underwater and manual surveys of the beaches and shorelines in the area to determine the extent of the substance, what it is and its potential source,” she said. “At this time, neither the substance nor its source has been identified.”

Bayard said a preliminary laboratory analysis by the agency suggested the material “could be plant-based,” but stressed that additional analysis was required “before a final determination can be made on the substance and its potential impacts.”

Stan Tobin, a local environmentalist, told CBS News’ partner network BBC News that he’d found “hundreds and hundreds of blobs — big blobs, little blobs.”

“Somebody or somebodies know where this came from and how it got there, and knows damn well it’s not supposed to be here,” Tobin told the BBC.

Bayard said the ECCC was committed to addressing pollution incidents and environmental threats with urgency.

“If enforcement officers find evidence of a possible violation of federal environmental legislation, they will take appropriate action in accordance with the applicable Compliance and Enforcement Policy,” she told CBS News.

The United States on Tuesday urged India to take seriously Canada’s allegations of an assassination plot, following the expulsion of each other’s ambassadors by India and Canada, two US partners.

As tensions between the countries escalate, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller emphasised the importance of cooperation between the two counteries as he spoke to reporters on Tuesday.

“When it comes to the Canadian matter, we have made clear that the allegations are extremely serious and they need to be taken seriously. And we wanted to see the government of India cooperate with Canada in its investigation,” Miller told reporters.

“Obviously, they have not,” he said. “They have chosen an alternate path.”

Canada accused India of involvement in a campaign against Sikh separatists that went beyond what was previously known, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying New Delhi had made a “fundamental error.”

The dispute intensified after Canada alleged that the Indian government was involved in last year’s killing outside a Sikh temple of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an advocate for an independent Sikh state who had immigrated to Canada and become a citizen.

The US has alleged a similar, albeit unsuccessful, assassination plot by India on US soil but has handled the matter more quietly.

An Indian “Enquiry Committee” formed in response to the US allegations was visiting Washington on Tuesday to discuss the case, the State Department said.

India “has informed the United States they are continuing their efforts to investigate other linkages of the former government employee and will determine follow up steps, as necessary,” the State Department said.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said of India: “The fact that they sent an Enquiry Committee here, I think, demonstrates that they are taking this seriously.”

The US has been courting India for more than two decades, seeing it as a natural partner in the face of a rising China, despite rights groups’ charges of a closing democratic space under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Canada has formally expelled India’s High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five other diplomats, ahead of the Canadian national police force revealing new details about the Indian government’s connection to “violent criminal activity” in Canada, mainly targeting pro-Khalistan separatists.

Soon after Canadian officials notified India of the expulsion of the six diplomats, New Delhi recalled them, the Canadian sources said.

The sources also said that the Canadian police and intelligence have concrete evidence that the six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner, were involved in the plot to murder Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June, 2023 – a close ally of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) founder and General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who has survived several assassinations Indian plots.

The Canadian government presented the evidence to India last week and the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and told them that its top diplomats were involved in the assassination plots, the sources said.

The senior Canadian government official said that Canada has evidence that India has been involved in other murders and violence in this country. Since the slaying of Nijjar, the source said a dozen people of Indian descent Sikhs – who support Khalistan Referendum – have been warned there was credible evidence that they could be targets of Indian agents.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme is set to release the new information today at the Mounties’ headquarters in Ottawa.

Before the press conference, the Indian government said it pre-emptively withdrew its High Commissioner to Canada and other diplomats in response to a notice it received on Sunday that they are “persons of interest” in an investigation.

“The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is cantered around vote bank politics,” the statement from New Delhi said.

India said it is withdrawing its top envoy to Ottawa and other diplomats because the Canadian government is investigating them as “persons of interest” in an investigation, reigniting a diplomatic row over the killing of Nijjar.

Soon after Canada expelled Indian diplomats, India announced it has decided to expel the following 6 Canadian Diplomats: Stewart Ross Wheeler, Acting High Commissioner; Patrick Hebert, Deputy High Commissioner; Marie Catherine Joly, First Secretary; lan Ross David Trites, First Secretary; Adam James Chuipka, First Secretary; and Paula Orjuela, First Secretary.

They have been asked to leave India by or before 11:59pm on Saturday, October 19, 2024.

India-Canada relations have been tensed since September 2023 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada had credible evidence to link Indian agents to the assassination of Nijjar on Canadian soil earlier that year.

On Monday, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said it had summoned the Canadian charge d’affaires to denounce the “completely unacceptable” and “baseless targeting” of the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats and officials.

“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” it said in a statement.

Canada pulled out more than 40 diplomats from India in October 2023 after New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence.

In June this year, a committee of Canadian parliamentarians named India as the main foreign threats to its democratic institutions, based on input from intelligence agencies.

Soon after Canada’s allegations after Nijjar’s killing, the United States claimed that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot of SFJ leader Pannun in New York in 2023.

$500,000 allocated to track expelled Indian High Commissioner

By expelling six diplomats, PM Trudeau has demonstrated his government’s unwavering commitment to bringing to justice those who facilitated the assassination of Nijjar on Canadian soil irrespective of the pressure Trudeau Government faced from Modi government and pro Hindutva lobby in Canada, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said after Canadia expelled India’s top diplomats in a bombshell development.

Since July 2023, SFJ has been consistently writing to PM Trudeau asking to investigate and expel Verma for providing logistical support for the assassination of Nijjar and for heading a spy network in Canada.

Allocating a hefty budget of $500,000, the body announced that even after Verma’s expulsion and departure from Canada, it will continue tacking his movements and whereabouts in pursuit of bringing him to justice for his role in the assassination of Shaheed Nijjar.

Pannun said: “Expelling Verma proves that Indian High Commissioner and his team of diplomats were not only involved in providing logistics and intelligence information to the foot soldiers who assassinated Nijjar but also escalated their criminal activities directly threatening the life and liberty of Pro-Khalistan Sikhs on Canadian soil by operating a robust Spy Network manned by pro Hindutva Indo Canadian.”

“Hate speech by Indo Canadian MP Chandra Arya against peaceful pro Khalistan activism is an apt example of mouth pieces of Indian government funded and propelled by Indian diplomatic missions.”

He further said: “In July 2023, when pro Khalistan Sikhs demanded investigation of Indian Diplomats’ role in the assassination Nijjar, MP a known admirer and follower of PM Modi, spewed venom against peaceful Khalistan Referendum in Canada as ‘Snakes in our backyard’

The Union government made yellow pea imports duty free in December 2023 to stabilize the prices of pulses, but its utilization pattern has shown unintended consequences.

Given India’s demand for besan to make batter, sweets, bread and snacks, duty-free yellow pea imports have surged to 2.2 million tonnes in the December 2023-September 2024 period. Yellow pea imports were negligible prior to December 2023.

“The Centre is now working on a plan that will require manufacturers to clearly disclose the ingredients on besan packaging, ensuring that consumers benefit from lower prices, as besan made from yellow peas is much cheaper than that made from whole chana,” the people cited above said.

Also read | Can India become ‘atmanirbhar’ in pulses by 2027 or is it a pipedream?

“The ministry will also be writing to the food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), to ensure that the labelling requirements for besan made from yellow pea and chana are strictly enforced across the industry,” the first of the two persons mentioned above said.

“Although yellow peas are safe for consumption, consumers deserve to know whether they are paying for a premium product or a cheaper alternative.”

“The concern is that traders should not make excessive profits from it. Ideally, mixed besan should be available in retail at below ₹50 per kg—not at the current ₹110 per kg,” this person said.

The high margins raked in by gram flour manufacturers can be gauged from the fact that while yellow pea costs ₹35 per kg, the chana dal price averages ₹74 per kg. In comparison, besan is being sold in the retail market at ₹110 per kg.

“It has come to our notice that an adequate quantity of yellow peas is being used to make besan, so consumers should benefit from lower prices. Why should traders make such huge profit margins?” the second person said.

“Testing of besan samples to check for yellow pea mixing is currently underway. All major players will be instructed to lower their prices accordingly,” this person said.

“The government’s decision to allow duty-free import of yellow peas until the end of this year may have discouraged farmers from growing this variety of pulses,” said Bimal Kothari, chairman, India Pulses and Grains Association.

“Since the duty-free import is for a limited time, big companies may have hesitated to introduce yellow pea besan separately, as they could face a shortage of raw material once the duty-free import facility is lifted. It’s a substitute for pulses like chana and tur, and everyone is taking advantage of it,” he said.

Also read | Yellow peas, ready-to-cook rice remain key ingredients in India’s food price battle

“Last year, the total production of yellow peas and green peas was around 1 million tonnes, and this will decrease further due to cheaper imports. It is estimated that by the end of the year, total imports will reach around 3.3 million tonnes,” Kothari said.

“The duty-free import was allowed to stabilize the prices of pulses, which are a key ingredient in food inflation. It’s because of yellow peas that the prices of pulses have remained under control,” the second person said.

In terms of chana production, the figures have shown a downward trend, from 13.5 million tonnes in FY22, to 12.2 millon tonnes in FY23, and 11 million tonnes in FY24.

In May, the government extended the duty-free import of yellow peas by four more months, allowing it until October. Imports are permitted without the minimum import price (MIP) and port restriction conditions. However, this duty-free period was further extended until the end of December in September.

The import duty on yellow peas was implemented in November 2017 at 50%. India primarily imports yellow peas from Canada and Russia. As a significant consumer and producer of pulses, India fulfills part of its consumption requirements through these imports.

According to the findings of a Crisil report, the prices of pulses, which account for 9% of the vegetarian thali cost, rose by 14% due to a drop in production in 2023. This led to a lower opening stock this year, further contributing to the uptick in thali prices, the Crisil report said.

India’s retail inflation rose to 3.65% in August from a five-year low of 3.54%. Food inflation, making up half of the Consumer Price Index basket, increased to 5.66%.

Queries emailed to consumer affairs ministry remained unanswered till press time.

Read more | Grow in India: Pulse self-reliance dream fades amid rising imports and low yields