CHINA
Activist lawyer’s aide held
Police have taken away the aide of prominent lawyer Pu Zhiqiang (浦志強), who was detained last week in a government clampdown on activists ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, an attorney said yesterday. Pu’s aide, Qu Zhenhong, who is also his niece, was recently detained by Beijing police on suspicion of “illegally obtaining personal information,” said Zhang Sizhi (張思之), a veteran rights lawyer who is Pu’s attorney. Activists said police took two other people away in relation to the investigation into Pu, including an employee of leading Japanese newspaper, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The newspaper’s office in Tokyo said it was investigating the situation. The employee is not believed to be a Japanese journalist. Authorities placed Pu under criminal detention last week after he attended a forum on the June 4, 1989, crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Several other dissidents who attended the forum were also detained and accused of “creating a disturbance,” a vague charge increasingly used against government critics. Also detained by police was Chen Guang (陳光), a former People’s Liberation Army soldier who was deployed in 1989 to help clear out the protesters. Chen later became a painter and publicly urged authorities to allow for unfettered discussions of the crackdown.
SINGAPORE
PAP hits back over video fail
The People’s Action Party (PAP) has defended a promotional video produced by its youth wing that went viral after being lambasted online for its amateurish quality and “robotic” feel. The five-minute YouTube video clip, titled “Re-ignite the Passion of Servant Leadership,” featured youth leaders of the long-ruling party espousing a series of motivational messages. Some appeared to be reading from a script placed on either side of the camera. One segment featured a woman and a man clad in the all-white party uniform holding miniature toy guitars, as others around them took turns to complete a sentence: “We must empower our members... to make a positive impact... to those around us.” In a statement, the party said the effort by the Young PAP was “genuine and sincere.” “We did not expect that our humble [raw and unpolished] in-house production would go viral like this,” it said on Facebook on Wednesday. The video continued to draw a steady stream of derision yesterday, with local comedian Hirzi Zulkiflie writing “And here kids, you find yourself a bunch of brainwashed young adults. They even sound like robots. Amazing,” on Facebook, while another user wrote: “Sad to see youth talking like parrots, reading script and with bad diction/pronunciation.”
AUSTRALIA
MH370 search put on hold
The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean was put on hold yesterday after technical issues with a US Navy mini-submarine that require spare parts to be sent from Britain. The Joint Agency Coordination Agency, which is leading the search, said on Wednesday that the Bluefin-21 submersible lasted only two hours in the water this week before it had to be raised. The center blamed “communications problems” for the aborted mission and after a more thorough examination, announced that spare parts are needed before the sophisticated mini-sub can be used again. The jet vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board. It is believed to have crashed far off the country’s west coast after mysteriously diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route. No wreckage has been found, despite a massive international search.
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
VENEZUELAN ACTION: Marco Rubio said that previous US interdiction efforts have not stemmed the flow of illicit drugs into the US and that ‘blowing them up’ would US President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified a lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the US to send a message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said that the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the US. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops. The pair were were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby. The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple’s window. Authorities captured the panther by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home. No injuries were reported during the animal’s time on the loose. The court in the
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