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.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
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