JAPAN
Cooperation with US vowed
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and visiting US lawmakers yesterday reaffirmed their commitment to working together under a long-standing bilateral alliance on Saturday, amid heightened global tensions spanning the war in Ukraine to threats from China and North Korea. The delegation, led by US Senator Lindsey Graham, agreed with Kishida on the importance of maintaining a “free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The six lawmakers’ visit follows an earlier stop in Taiwan. Japan has long been nervous about China’s stance on Taiwan, but such views have heightened since the war in Ukraine. The question is sensitive because Japan’s pacifist constitution bans the use of force in international disputes.
AUSTRALIA
PM vows to set up watchdog
Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday said he would seek to establish an anti-corruption watchdog if re-elected next month, hitting out at the opposition Labor Party’s plan. Ahead of the May 21 general election, Morrison has come under pressure from Labor to set up a federal integrity commission, which he first promised in 2018. Labor leader Anthony Albanese said Morrison has failed to establish a commission because of integrity problems in his administration. “The reason why Scott Morrison doesn’t have a national anti-corruption commission is sitting on his front bench,” Albanese said.
ISRAEL
Over 150 injured in clashes
More than 150 people were on Friday injured in clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police near Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, the first face-off at the flashpoint holy site since the start of Ramadan. Witnesses said Palestinians threw stones at police, who fired rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 153 people were hospitalized and “dozens” of others were treated at the scene. Police said at least three officers were injured. About 400 people were arrested, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club said.
CHINA
Astronauts return to Earth
Three astronauts yesterday returned to Earth after 183 days in space, state television reported, completing the country’s longest crewed space mission to date. The astronauts landed nine hours after they left the country’s first space station. While in orbit, the astronauts took manual control in the Tianhe living quarters module for what state media called a “docking experiment” with the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft. The astronauts — Zhai Zhigang (翟志剛), Ye Guangfu (葉光富) and Wang Yaping (王亞平) — spent 183 days in space, completing the fifth of 11 missions needed to finish setting up the space station by the end of the year.
UNITED STATES
Biden pays 24.6% taxes
President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, earned US$610,702 during their first year in the White House and paid US$150,439 in federal income taxes. That was a tax rate of 24.6 percent, well above the country’s average of about 14 percent. The totals were similar to the Bidens’ 2020 returns, when they reported earning US$607,336. It is the second straight year that Joe Biden has released his tax returns from the White House, re-establishing the tradition after former US president Donald Trump declined to do so. This year and last were steep drops from 2019 for the Bidens, when they earned nearly US$1 million, primarily from book sales, speeches and teaching positions.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
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