JAPAN
Kishida to meet Biden
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office last month, is planning to visit Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden, Jiji news agency reported yesterday. Kishida and Biden spoke briefly in Glasgow, Scotland, on the sidelines of the COP26 summit this week and agreed to hold a formal meeting before the end of the year for talks on issues of mutual concern, such as relations with China and maintaining a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” it said. Kishida has a full schedule at the end of the year, including budget deliberations and taking part in an extraordinary session of parliament likely to convene at the end of this month at the earliest, so an ideal time for the visit would be before that, Jiji added.
EUROPE
WHO warns of virus spike
Europe registered a 55 percent rise in COVID-19 cases in the past four weeks, despite the availability of vaccines, which should serve as a “warning shot” to other regions, WHO officials said on Thursday. WHO Health Emergencies Program executive director Mike Ryan said that some European countries have “sub-optimal vaccination coverage.” despite availability. “It’s a warning shot for the world to see what is happening in Europe,” Ryan said. The warning came after the agency granted emergency use listing for the COVID-19 vaccine of India’s Bharat Biotech, after it showed about 70 percent efficacy against the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.
UNITED STATES
Ahmaud Arbery trial begins
Three white men were to stand trial yesterday for allegedly chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man whose death was largely ignored until a leaked cellphone video stirred outrage over the shooting and deepened a US-wide outcry over racial injustice. Greg McMichael and his adult son, Travis McMichael, allegedly armed themselves and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after they spotted him running in their neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, on Feb. 23 last year. Greg McMichael said his son killed Arbery in self-defense after Arbery attacked him. Prosecutors say that Arbery was merely out jogging, was unarmed and had committed no crimes in the neighborhood. Controversy erupted on Wednesday, the final day of jury selection, when prosecutors objected to a final jury consisting of 11 whites and one black juror, saying that the defense attorneys had cut eight potential jurors from the final panel because they are black.
INDONESIA
Flash floods kill five people
Flash floods from torrential rains on the main island of Java killed at least five people and four others were missing, officials said yesterday. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said rivers on the slopes of Mount Arjuno overflowed their banks on Thursday and their muddy waters inundated five hamlets in Kota Batu, a city in East Java province. It previously said 15 people were swept away and five were later rescued. Agency head Ganip Warsito said heavy rains are expected to continue and increase until February next year, partly because of a La Nina weather pattern.
Rescuers retrieved a body near the Brantas River late on Thursday and four more bodies were found yesterday morning, acting agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said in a statement. Rescue workers are still searching for the four missing people, he said.
Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday urged so-called middle powers to become a “poisonous shrimp” to carve out strategic economic leverage in a more turbulent global environment. Sunak drew from a metaphor by former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀): A big fish will eat a smaller fish, and the smaller fish will eat the shrimp. Lee made the point a year after the Asian nation’s independence in 1966 that the city-state needed to build up its defense mechanisms — like a shrimp that stings — so it would be left alone by predators. “He was thinking about what Singapore’s
POLL POSITION: Democrats criticized the timing of the raid, saying that the US justice department historically avoids public investigations within 60 days of an election Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed focus to the frequent target of White House derision in the final weeks of her re-election bid. The search of the Minnesota congresswoman’s home so close to next month’s midterm contests that would determine control of the US House and the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress, who raised questions about the timing given longstanding US Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an
A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the record by nearly 136kg. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin on Saturday at a contest in New England and is waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England. Wallace said he has been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified. “It’s truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow,” Wallace said on Monday. Guinness World Records lists
BUILDUP: The report comes as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi boosts defense spending in the face of China’s military expansion and the North Korean threat French defence contractor Thales will establish a maintenance and operational support base in Japan in what is seen as the first such move by a foreign firm in the country, a report said yesterday. Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine told the Nikkei business daily that the base “will mark a milestone toward Thales’ long-term engagement in Japan.” It is believed to be the first time a foreign defense company has established a dedicated base in Japan for the maintenance and operation of Japanese defense equipment, the Nikkei said. It added that Thales might also expand its Japan-based business to
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