INDIA
Dragon fruit name changed
The government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat on Tuesday changed the name of dragon fruit, saying that the original name is associated with China. “The Gujarat government has decided ... the name ‘dragon fruit’ is not appropriate and is associated with China. The fruit’s shape is like a lotus, and hence we have given it a new Sanskrit name, kamalam. There is nothing political about it,” Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told reporters. The lotus, or kamal as it is called in Hindi, is the symbol of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
JAPAN
Dual citizenship rejected
The Tokyo District Court yesterday upheld a ban on dual citizenship, rejecting a suit that challenged the measure’s constitutionality and sought damages for those affected. Under current rules, Japanese who acquire another passport are asked to relinquish their Japanese citizenship, but in 2018, eight plaintiffs started legal proceedings against the rule. One of them, Hitoshi Nogawa, told reporters that it was a “painful experience” to give up his nationality. “I obtained Swiss nationality because my job requires it, but I’m emotionally attached to Japan and this is the foundation of my identity,” the Asahi Shimbun quoted him as saying.
UNITED STATES
China sanctions officials
China imposed sanctions on nearly 30 former officials of the administration of former president Donald Trump moments after they left office on Wednesday. In a statement released just minutes after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, Beijing slapped travel bans and business restrictions on Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; national security adviser, Robert O’Brien; UN ambassador, Kelly Craft; and health and human services secretary, Alex Azar. “Over the past few years, some anti-China politicians in the United States, out of their selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China, and showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people, have planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-US relations,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
WeChat users sue Tencent
WeChat users in California sued its parent company, Tencent, on Wednesday, saying that the mobile app is used for spying on and censoring users for the Chinese government. US-based nonprofit Citizen Power Initiatives for China filed the suit in Silicon Valley, joined by six California residents in urging a state court to order Tencent to change its ways and pay damages.
UNITED STATES
Twitter locks PRC account
Twitter has locked the official account for the Chinese embassy to the US after a post that defended Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang. The post, which said that Uighur women were no longer “baby-making machines,” was originally shared on Jan. 7, but was not removed by Twitter until more than 24 hours later. It has been replaced by a label saying: “This tweet is no longer available.” Twitter requires account owners to manually delete posts that breach its rules to regain access to their account. The account is still locked, a Twitter spokesman said, meaning that the embassy has not deleted the tweet.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
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