JAPAN
Carrier to deploy today
Tokyo is to dispatch its biggest warship since World War II to protect a US supply ship into the western Pacific Ocean, media reports said yesterday. The helicopter carrier Izumo is to leave its home port of Yokosuka today. It is to be the first deployment — outside of troop exercises — to protect the US fleet since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expanded the nation’s military capabilities in 2015. Defense officials declined to comment on the reports.
GERMANY
Alleged Swiss spy arrested
A man suspected of spying for Switzerland was allegedly surveilling finance investigators involved in the purchase of data CDs on tax cheats, Die Welt reported yesterday. Prosecutors on Friday said a man identified only as Daniel M, 54, had been arrested for suspected espionage activities since 2012. Federal police also raided several residences and businesses around Frankfurt, they said. The newspaper said the man, who is thought to have worked for Swiss intelligence service NDB, was trying to identify investigators involved in the purchase of “tax cheat” CDs listing information on Germans with accounts at Swiss and Liechtenstein banks.
VENEZUELA
Call for more protests today
A opposition figure on Saturday called for more marches aimed at taking back the courts and the National Electoral Council that he said had been “hijacked” by President Nicolas Maduro. National Assembly Vice President Freddy Guevara urged the public to protest May Day today with marches to the Supreme Court and the council’s offices. “We want to summon all Venezuelans … to hit the dictatorship with a one-two punch,” he said.
AUSTRALIA
Police probe filmed threat
Police yesterday said that they were investigating a report that the eight-year-old son of a notorious Islamic State group fighter was filmed wearing a suicide vest and threatening to kill Australians. The footage was allegedly of the youngest son of Khaled Sharrouf, who in February became the first Australian to be stripped of his citizenship under anti-terrorism laws. Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph reported that the boy was recently filmed holding two guns and a knife and making threats as a voice off-camera asked him: “How do you kill an Australian?”
HUNGARY
Mixed messages from Orban
Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday told leaders of his center-right EU political group that he would comply with demands from Brussels to change measures branded an attack on academic freedom, the party said. However, Orban, speaking in Hungarian to domestic television viewers, said he was not climbing down and said he would “negotiate” with the EU executive in the coming months and “implement the final result.” “Nobody will set conditions for Hungary,” he told a news conference. On Wednesday, the EU executive gave Budapest a month to adapt a higher education law passed on April 4, saying it was not compatible with fundamental freedoms.
RUSSIA
Thousands present petitions
Thousands of people on Saturday lined up in cities nationwide to present letters of protest at government offices, the second widespread show of public discontent in two months. The protests, initiated by the Open Russia organization, centered on the public’s right to present letters listing grievances to the government.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was