CHINA
Lu Wei pleads guilty
Former Cyberspace Administration director Lu Wei (魯煒) yesterday pleaded guilty to accepting 32 million yuan (US$4.62 million) in bribes. Lu in 2016 stepped down and officials last year announced he was being investigated for suspected disciplinary violations. According to a Sina Weibo post from the Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court, Lu was charged with accepting bribes from 2002 to the latter half of last year. Prosecutors said that Lu used his influence and position at various government organizations to help others in exchange for benefits. At the end of the trial in Zhejiang Province, Lu pleaded guilty and “repented in court,” it said.
UNITED STATES
WTO dispute help requested
The government is requesting that a WTO dispute resolution panel get involved in a clash over international retaliation over US steel and aluminum tariffs, an official familiar with the matter said. The request, filed on Thursday, covers tariffs by China, the EU, Canada and Mexico. Canada, Mexico and China had also planned to ask for a WTO panel to examine the tariffs, another official said. Earlier on Thursday, Norway said that it, the EU and other nations would seek the WTO dispute group’s help.
MALAYSIA
Former deputy PM charged
Former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was yesterday charged with 45 criminal offenses, including money laundering and graft, the Bernama news agency reported. Ahmad Zahid is president of the United Malays National Organization, the party that ruled Malaysia for 60 years before being ousted in May. Ahmad Zahid was brought to a Kuala Lumpur court and charged with 10 counts of criminal breach of trust and eight counts of abuse of power involving sums totaling 42 million ringgit (US$10.1 million), the agency reported. He was also charged with 27 counts of laundering about 72 million ringgit, it said. Each charge carries jail terms of up to 20 years, with fines of up to five times the value of the illegal transactions. He pleaded not guilty to all charges, Bernama said.
NEW ZEALAND
Gender surgery cap lifted
The government has lifted a cap on gender reassignment surgery to address a more than 30-year waiting list. Under the previous government, the state funded three male-to-female surgeries and one female-to-male surgery every two years. The waiting list for about 100 people stretched into the decades. Under the new government, the old cap is to become the new minimum number of surgeries to be performed every two years. The news was greeted with elation by the transgender community, who said they felt they were finally being respected and acknowledged by the government.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not