CHINA
No emerging illness: official
A surge in respiratory illness is caused by known pathogens and there is no sign of new infectious diseases, a health official said yesterday as the country faces its first full winter since lifting strict COVID-19 restrictions. The spike in illness attracted attention when the WHO sought information last week, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children. Authorities are to open more pediatric outpatient clinics, seek to ensure more elderly people and children receive flu vaccines and encourage people to wear masks and wash their hands, National Health Commission official Mi Feng (米鋒) told a news conference.
PHILIPPINES
Troops kill 11 militants
Troops, backed by airstrikes and artillery fire, killed 11 suspected Islamic militants near a hinterland village in the south, authorities said yesterday, in one of the military’s bloodiest anti-insurgency offensives this year. The military launched the offensive on Friday after receiving intelligence about the whereabouts of suspected leaders and armed followers of the Dawla Islamiyah and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters groups near Tuwayan in Maguindanao province, military officials said.
UNITED STATES
Trump immunity rejected
Former president Donald Trump is not entitled to absolute presidential immunity against criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge ruled, saying the office does not come with a “lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.” US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday rejected Trump’s early efforts to get the federal indictment against him in Washington tossed out, including his contention that he could not be prosecuted over actions he took after the 2020 election while he was president. Trump’s “four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens,” the judge wrote. The decision came hours after the US Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia Circuit rejected Trump’s effort to claim presidential immunity against civil claims seeking to hold him responsible for the violence at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
JAPAN
Officials worry over Ospreys
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno on Friday expressed concern that the US military is continuing to fly Osprey aircraft in the country without providing adequate information about Wednesday’s fatal crash near Yakushima Island, in which one crew member was killed and seven others remain missing. “We are concerned about the continuing Osprey flights despite our repeated requests and the absence of a sufficient explanation about their safety” from the US military, Matsuno said.
NICARAGUA
Pageant head faces charges
The director of the national beauty pageant was accused of “treason” on Friday, after a woman seen as a symbol of opposition to the government was crowned Miss Universe. A police statement said that Karen Celebertti, her husband and her son — all owners of the Miss Nicaragua pageant — had participated “in the terrorist actions of the failed coup attempt,” a reference to the 2018 mass protests against President Daniel Ortega. Sheynnis Palacios, 23, has been widely portrayed as a symbol of opposition to the longtime president since she was crowned as the first Miss Universe from Nicaragua last month.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would make a decision about how the US government would refer to the body of water commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week. Trump told reporters at the White House that he expects his hosts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will ask him about the US officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. “They’re going to ask me about that when I get there, and I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s
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