UNITED STATES
Chin to run for Congress
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin, who has been fighting President Donald Trump’s travel ban and other policies over the past year, has announced he will run for Congress. Chin, a Democrat, seeks to replace Hawaii Representative Colleen Hanabusa, who is running for governor. Hanabusa is also a Democrat. Chin made the announcement on Monday, saying that the past year of legal battles over White House actions sparked him to run for the House of Representatives seat. Chin has been a vocal opponent to decisions by Trump’s administration. Before Trump was sworn in, Chin and five other attorneys general asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general.
UNITED STATES
Trump’s pick withdraws
US President Donald Trump’s judicial nominee, whose inability to answer basic legal questions at his confirmation hearing brought him widespread ridicule, has withdrawn, a White House official said on Monday. Matthew Peterson, nominated by Trump to the District Court for the District of Columbia, became an Internet sensation after the video of his confirmation hearing — during which Peterson was unable to define basic legal terms — was posted online. A White House official said Peterson withdrew from consideration and Trump accepted the withdrawal.
TURKEY
German journalist freed
A court on Monday ordered German journalist Mesale Tolu and five codefendants released from prison pending the outcome of their trial on terror-related charges. Tolu, 33, a German citizen with Turkish roots, is charged with engaging in terrorist propaganda and being a member of a banned left-wing group — the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. She has denied the accusations. The court in Istanbul said Tolu could go free, but it barred her from leaving the country. Prosecutors considered her attendance at the funerals of several members of the party as evidence of her membership in the outlawed group.
LEBANON
Uber driver arrested
An Uber driver has been arrested in the killing of a woman who worked at the British embassy in Beirut. The driver confessed to murdering 30-year-old Rebecca Dykes, whose body was found on a highway outside the capital on Saturday, according to the official National News agency. Uber confirmed the suspect was registered to drive for the company. “We are horrified by this senseless act of violence. Our hearts are with the victim and her family,” Uber said in a statement. “We are working with authorities to assist their investigation in any way we can.”
UNITED STATES
Streep denies knowledge
Meryl Streep has said she did not know Harvey Weinstein was allegedly harassing and assaulting women when they worked together. Streep on Monday in a statement said that Weinstein “needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn’t know.” The Oscar winner said her association with him brought him credibility, which she said he used “to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt.” Streep said she composed the statement in response to a since-deleted tweet from Rose McGowan, who called out Streep for working with Weinstein.
SYRIA
France terror sponsor: Assad
President Bashar al-Assad yesterday accused France of supporting bloodshed in his country, making it unfit to talk about a peace settlement. “France spearheaded support for terrorism and their hands are soaked in Syrian blood from the first days and we do not see they have changed their stance fundamentally,” al-Assad was quoted in state media as telling reporters after meeting a Russian delegation on Monday. “Those who support terrorism have no right to talk about peace,” he added. France on Friday accused Syria of doing nothing to reach a peace agreement after almost seven years of war and said it was committing mass crimes in the Eastern Ghouta region, where 400,000 people are besieged by government forces. French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said Paris would push for peace talks involving all parties in the six-year-old Syrian conflict, including al-Assad, promising “initiatives” early next year.
TONGA
PM Akilisi back in power
Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva has been returned to power for a second term, just months after the king effectively sacked him by dissolving parliament and calling a snap election. Pohiva won a parliamentary ballot late on Monday to decide the prime ministership by 14 votes to 12 over rival candidate Siaosi Sovaleni, his former deputy. It caps a remarkable comeback for the 76-year-old, whose career appeared over following King Tupou VI’s dramatic political intervention in August. In an unprecedented move, the monarch dissolved parliament a year before the next scheduled election, ordering a poll to be held on Nov. 16. Against expectations, Pohiva’s Democratic Party won a resounding 14 of the 17 seats elected by the people, five more than in the 2014 election. It gave Pohiva a majority in the 26-seat parliament, in which nine seats are taken by hereditary nobles, paving the way for Monday’s vote to select the prime minister.
JAPAN
Two executed for murder
The nation yesterday executed two convicted murderers, including one who committed his crime while in his teens, the Ministry of Justice said, ignoring calls from international rights groups to end capital punishment. The hangings of Teruhiko Seki and Kiyoshi Matsui bring to 21 the total number of executions since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in late 2012. Seki, 44, was convicted of killing four people in Chiba in 1992 when he was 19, the ministry said. It was the first execution of a death-row prisoner who committed crimes as a minor since 1997 in Japan, local media said. Matsui, 69, was sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend and her parents in 1994.
PHILIPPINES
Man dies after rescue
Filipino fishermen rescued three Australians adrift at sea for days after their yacht capsized in the nation’s south, but one died on the way to hospital, police said yesterday. Two fishermen on Sunday picked up the Australians, who waved for help while clinging to a life buoy, about 80 km off Surigao province. Police in the provincial capital of Tandag said the men had been in the water for several days after the holed yacht capsized near Mindanao while sailing to Subic Bay. “Unfortunately, Anthony John Mahoney did not make it as he was already unconscious at the time of the rescue,” police official Evelyn Tidula said. The Australian embassy in Manila is to help repatriate Mahoney’s remains, while the other two are in stable condition in hospital. One of them has an address in the nation’s north.
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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