GERMANY
Military probes reporters
The military is investigating what information three Chinese reporters collected while Chancellor Angela Merkel visited a NATO unit, signaling heightened mistrust of the state-run Xinhua news agency. The Xinhua reporters raised suspicion by filming military equipment and interviewing soldiers about their daily routines, according to a person familiar with the incident, who asked not to be identified discussing security matters. They were accredited along with other journalists to enter the base and report on Merkel’s visit to the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force training area at Munster on Monday. An intelligence official said Xinhua has been under observation for some time due to its links to the Chinese Communist Party.
JAPAN
Trump arrives in Tokyo
US President Donald Trump yesterday arrived in the country for a four-day trip likely to be dominated by warm words and friendly images, but relatively light on substantive progress over trade. Air Force One touched down in Tokyo just before 5pm on a sunny afternoon. Japanese and US officials hail as “unprecedented” the relationship between Trump and his “golf buddy” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the pair would again find time for a round to cement their diplomatic bromance. The official centrepiece is Trump’s meeting tomorrow with new Emperor Naruhito.
THAILAND
Fire on ship injures 25
A fire erupted on a cargo ship docked at a port, triggering a blast and leaving at least 25 workers suffering from smoke inhalation and other injuries, officials said yesterday. The district around Laem Chabang deep-sea port in Chonburi Province, two hours south of the capital, Bangkok, has been declared a “danger zone,” port director Yuthana Mokkhao said. The fire broke out at 6:35am on the cargo ship named KMTC Hong Kong, which was moored to the port terminal. Photographs circulated on local media showed thick smoke billowing from the freight ship as the fire blazed. Yuthana said people on the port were “affected by smoke inhalation and hit by shrapnel.”
AFGHANISTAN
Floods kill 24, injure 11
At least 24 people have been killed and 11 injured in the past month as a new wave of heavy rains and flooding has swept parts of the country, the government said yesterday. The Ministry for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement that flooding has affected six of the country’s 34 provinces, including the capital, Kabul. About 500 people were rescued in central Bamyan Province’s Sheber district, it said. Floods have destroyed more than 220 homes this month and partially damaged 116 more nationwide, it added.
FRANCE
Boat firm boss jailed
The boss of a second-hand boat firm was on Friday sentenced to prison for selling dozens of vessels to desperate migrants, who used them to cross the English Channel. Emmanuel Desreux, 45, was given 18 months behind bars and another 18 months suspended sentence for selling what investigators said was 39 inflatable boats with motors to migrants to navigate across the busy waterway from to the UK. A taxi driver accomplice who organized the transport of the boats and some of the migrants to beaches, Jean-Claude Demeyer, 54, was also sentenced by the court in Boulogne-sur-mer to one year in prison.
‘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