JAPAN
New missile planned
The government is to develop a new land-to-sea missile as part of plans to beef up its defense of remote southern islands, as tensions with China increase over the islets known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyutais (釣魚台) in China and Taiwan, the Yomiuri Shimbun said yesterday. Tokyo plans to deploy the weapon, which reportedly will have a range of 300km, on islands such as Miyako in Okinawa Prefecture, it said without citing sources. The range will cover the disputed island chain, the Yomiuri said, adding that the deployment is expected by 2023. Officials at the Ministry of Defense could not be reached for comment.
PHILIPPINES
Floods kill five
Five people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled from floods caused by days of unrelenting rain, rescuers said yesterday. Civil defense officials warned residents of Manila and nearby provinces to expect more heavy seasonal rain over the coming days as more than 24,000 people sought refuge in schools and government buildings. “We are expecting more low-lying areas to experience flooding,” National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokeswoman Romina Marasigan said. “Those who are already in evacuation centers should stay there until the weather improves.” More than 70,000 people have had their houses swamped by floodwaters, the council said, though the majority of residents have remained at home.
BANGLADESH
Briton arrested for attack
Police have formally arrested a British national allegedly involved in the deadly attack on a Dhaka cafe that killed 22 people last month, officials said on Saturday. Hasnat Karim, 47, had initially been detained along with Tahmid Khan, 22, a University of Toronto student, as a suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group. A court on Saturday ordered Karim to be remanded in custody for eight more days after police said he was the “first person” to be formally arrested over the attack. Karim and Khan were both inside the Holey Artisan Bakery when gunmen raided the cafe on the night of July 1, taking a group of mainly Western diners hostage and then killing 20 of them, along with two policemen.
SYRIA
Evacuees returning home
Thousands of displaced residents on Saturday streamed back into the northern town of Manbij after US-backed fighters ousted the last Islamic State militants from their former stronghold, residents and US allies said. The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) on Friday they had seized full control of the city near the Turkish border after the departure of the last of the militants, who had been using civilians as human shields. Hundreds of cars and vehicles carrying families and their belongings flocked into the city from camps and villages in the countryside, according to an SDF official and relatives who were in contact with residents.
TURKEY
No compromise on Gulen
The government will not compromise with Washington over the extradition of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of orchestrating a failed coup, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday, warning of rising anti-Americanism if the US fails to extradite the cleric. Yildirim’s comments, at a briefing for local reporters, coincided with a report that an Istanbul prosecutor wrote to US authorities asking for Gulen’s detention. Gulen has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999.
UNITED STATES
California wildfire spreads
A fast-moving wildfire threatened scores of homes at a northern California lake community that was evacuated because of a devastating nearby wildfire last year. Authorities issued four evacuation orders for an unknown number of homes on Saturday as the wildfire south of Lower Lake, a town of about 1,300, spread to at least 240 hectares. Firefighters aided by water and retardant-dropping air tankers were trying to keep the fire away from homes north of the lake, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Suzie Blankenship said. The blaze is 15 percent contained. Blankenship said the fire was spreading rapidly because of parched conditions brought on by a drought.
PERU
Gender violence protested
More than 50,000 people marched in Lima and eight other cities on Saturday to protest violence against women and what they say is the indifference of the judicial system. Officials said the size of the protest against gender violence was unprecedented in the nation and followed several recent high-profile cases in which male perpetrators were given what women’s groups said were too-lenient sentences. The march in Lima ended at the palace of justice. President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski took part in the march along with First Lady Nancy Lange. “What we don’t want in Peru is violence against anyone, but especially against women and children,” he said.
SWEDEN
Authorities dig in on lobsters
Stockholm is digging in on a proposal to ban imports of live lobsters into the EU after a rebuke from US scientists, and the issue could go all the way to the WTO. The nation asked the EU to bar imports of live US lobsters into the bloc earlier this year after 32 US lobsters were found in the nation’s waters. The US government told the European Commission that the proposal is not supported by science, and US and Canadian scientists issued reports calling Stockholm’s claim into question. Now, the nation’s Agency for Marine and Water Management has issued a response to criticism saying that Stockholm is right to be cautious about the appearance of a foreign species in its waters. The response came out at the end of last month and defends the prevention of the spread of US lobsters as “environmentally desirable and cost-effective.”
ROMANIA
Queen Anne laid to rest
As church bells rang, thousands of people gathered in a central town on Saturday for the funeral of Queen Anne, the wife of Michael, the last king of the nation. The nation and neighboring Moldova both observed a national day of mourning on Saturday for Anne. A male Orthodox choir sang in a park outside the unfinished cathedral in Curtea de Arges to the hundreds who gathered before the funeral, which was to be a private service. Anne died on Aug. 1 in Switzerland at the age of 92. She only first visited the country when she was nearly 70 and did not speak the language. However, many respect her for her 68-year marriage to Michael, whom she wed months after he was forced to abdicate in 1947. “She was a symbol of our country,” said Eugenia Cristescu, a 79-year-old singer in a local church choir who was dressed in a gold-and-black embroidered peasant blouse and skirt. “The royal family brought about great change in Romania. It raised us from being simple people and brought respect to the country,” she said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese