JAPAN
Kobayashi raids continue
Health officials yesterday inspected a factory producing health supplements linked to at least five deaths and the hospitalization of more than 100 people, one day after the authorities investigated another plant that manufactured the product. A team of 17 health officials from the central and prefectural governments raided a plant operated by the Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co’s subsidiary in Kinokawa, in western Wakayama Prefecture. The Wakayama plant took over the production of the supplements after Kobayashi Pharmaceutical closed another plant in nearby Osaka, which authorities searched on Saturday, NHK public television reported.
SYRIA
Car bomb kills eight
A bomb early yesterday exploded in a market in a northern city held by pro-Turkish forces. At least “eight people were killed and 23 others wounded” when “a car bomb exploded in the middle of a popular market” in Azaz, in Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding that the toll was provisional. The Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside the country, said the blast caused “significant damage” and sparked a fire.
EUROPEAN UNION
Schengen area expanded
Bulgaria and Romania yesterday joined Europe’s vast Schengen area of free movement, opening up travel by air and sea without border checks after a 13-year wait. However, a veto by Austria means the new status would not apply to land routes, after Vienna expressed concerns over a potential influx of asylum seekers. Despite the partial membership, the lifting of controls at the two countries’ air and sea borders is of significant symbolic value. Admission to Schengen is an “important milestone” for Bulgaria and Romania, symbolizing a “question of dignity, of belonging to the European Union,” foreign policy analyst Stefan Popescu said. “Any Romanian who had to walk down a lane separate from other European citizens felt being treated differently.”
PERU
President Boluarte raided
President Dina Boluarte on Saturday slammed raids on her home and office as “arbitrary, disproportionate and abusive” after authorities carried out overnight searches in a corruption probe centered on Rolex watches she has been wearing publicly. TV footage showed agents with a metal bar breaking down the door of Boluarte’s home. A lawyer for Boluarte said police found watches in her office at the government palace. “They did not take them away. They were noted and photographed. There were around 10, and among them were some nice ones but I cannot say if they were Rolex,” attorney Mateo Castaneda told radio station RPP.
UNITED STATES
Chance Perdomo dies at 27
Actor Chance Perdomo, who rose to fame as a star of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Gen V, has died at the age of 27. “On behalf of the family and his representatives, it is with heavy hearts that we share the news of Chance Perdomo’s untimely passing as a result of a motorcycle accident,” a publicist said in a statement issued on Saturday evening. The statement said no one else was involved in the crash, and no details were immediately released. “We can’t quite wrap our heads around this. For those of us who knew him and worked with him, Chance was always charming and smiling, an enthusiastic force of nature,” the producers of Gen V said in a statement.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese