CHINA
Toad reports disappear
Reports about a giant inflatable toad have been deleted from the Internet after social-media users compared the puffed-up animal to former Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民). The 22m-high toad appeared in a Beijing park last weekend, but met with mockery from social-media users who compared its appearance to that of Jiang. The Web site of Xinhua news agency and popular Web portal Sina had deleted their reports on the toad by yesterday. A spokesman for Yuyuantan Park in Beijing said there were no immediate plans to remove the toad.
CHINA
Flights face delays
Flights to and from Shanghai International Airport and 11 other airports in the east are facing major delays until the middle of next month due to military exercises, according to an official microblog. The posting by Beijing’s public securities bureau did not give any details about the “large scale” military exercises. It said flights would be affected from Sunday to Aug. 15.
CHINA
Crackdown on Internet porn
Authorities have tightened already rigorous Internet controls by cracking down on online pornography and what state media called “rumormongers” and “slanderous content.” Xinhua reported yesterday that the country would target pornography on smartphones and punish pornographic app creators. Xinhua said the government would also increase punishments for spreading rumors online. As part of the new campaign, the government has shut down Web sites and punished nearly 40 people it called rumormongers. According to Xinhua, the government issued a statement saying it aims to protect Chinese Internet users’ rights in their life, work and studies.
ENGLAND
Queen’s horse fails test
A horse owned by Queen Elizabeth II that won one of the nation’s most prestigious races has failed a drugs test, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday. Estimate, which won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last year and came second in this year’s edition, has tested positive for morphine, a banned substance. A statement issued by the queen’s racing adviser said initial indications were the positive test had resulted from the “consumption of a contaminated feed product.” Morphine is banned by the British Horseracing Authority because it can be used to numb pain. Estimate made sporting history for the queen last year when she became the first reigning monarch to own a Gold Cup-winning horse.
RUSSIA
Navy expansion announced
The nation yesterday announced that it had begun expanding and modernizing its Black Sea fleet based in Crimea with new ships and submarines, just months after annexing the peninsula from Ukraine. “Today, we have started forming a powerful Black Sea fleet with an absolutely different level of air service, coastal missile and artillery troops and marines,” Black Sea fleet commander Alexander Vitko said in a message to servicemen. “We are preparing bases and crews to serve on new ships and submarines.” Vitko said the modernization of the fleet “lays the foundation for the future of the fleet, both in the short term and looking far ahead.” President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the national security council on Tuesday that Russia will bolster its defenses to counter the creeping influence of NATO close to its borders.
UNITED STATES
Vietnam deal approved
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation between the US and Vietnam. The agreement, approved on Tuesday by the committee, would allow US firms into Vietnam’s expanding market for nuclear power. The US and Vietnamese governments reached the agreement in October last year, and it was approved by President Barack Obama in February. It now has to be endorsed by the full Senate. The prospects for passage remain uncertain.
CANADA
Hungarian slavers extradited
Ottawa announced on Tuesday the extradition of 20 Hungarians convicted in what authorities described as the largest human trafficking case in the nation’s history, for forcing eastern European refugee claimants into slavery. Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney made the announcement in Hamilton, Ontario, where the criminal ring operated. The last of the 20 was expelled in May. Ferenc Domotor pleaded guilty in 2012 to running the gang, which lured men from his native Hungary and coerced them into forced labor at his stucco companies in Hamilton. Domotor and his extended Roma family reportedly forced at least 19 people to claim refugee status when they arrived in Canada from the town of Papa, Hungary, work without pay sometimes as much as 17 hours per day and sleep on mattresses in a locked basement of his house. The people were fed only one meal a day and alarms on the windows and doors kept them from escaping. The scheme was uncovered when police were tipped off by a contractor who was approached by one of the people held captive. Domotor was not among those extradited as he is still serving the remainder of a nine-year prison sentence.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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