PAKISTAN
Polio police escort killed
A police officer traveling to guard polio vaccinators was shot dead yesterday, police said, on the first day of a nationwide immunization effort after a year of rising cases. The officer was to guard vaccinators in the area of Jamrud town in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when he was killed, local police official Zarmat Khan said. “Two motorcycle riders opened fire on him,” he said. “The constable died instantly at the scene.” Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio is endemic and militants have for decades targeted vaccination teams and their security escorts. The nation recorded at least 73 polio infections last year compared with six in 2023. “Despite the incident, the polio vaccination drive [due to last a week] in the area remains ongoing,” Khan said.
AUSTRALIA
‘Terrorgram’ sanctioned
Canberra yesterday imposed sanctions on extreme right-wing online network “Terrorgram” as part of its efforts to combat a rise in anti-Semitism and online extremism. Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) said the government’s action would make it a criminal offense to engage with “Terrorgram” and help prevent children from becoming caught up in far-right extremism. “Terrorgram is an online network that promotes white supremacy and racially-motivated violence,” Wong said in a statement. “It is the first time any Australian Government has imposed counterterrorism financing sanctions on an entity based entirely online.” Offenders face up to 10 years in jail and heavy fines, she said. The government also renewed sanctions on four right-wing groups: the National Socialist Order, the Russian Imperial Movement, Sonnenkrieg Division and The Base, Wong said. It also renewed sanctions on four right-wing groups: the National Socialist Order, the Russian Imperial Movement, Sonnenkrieg Division and The Base, Wong said.
SOUTH AFRICA
President defends land move
President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday said he looked forward to engaging with Donald Trump after the US president said he would cut off funding for South Africa, citing land confiscations. Trump on Sunday said, without citing evidence, that “South Africa is confiscating land” and “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly” so he would cut funding until the matter was investigated. Ramaphosa last month signed into law a bill to make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, despite objections by some parties in his coalition government. “South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality. The South African government has not confiscated any land,” he said.
SOUTH KOREA
Samsung chief cleared
Samsung Electronics chief Jay Y. Lee was yesterday cleared again of a raft of charges linked to a controversial 2015 merger that prosecutors claimed was designed to seal his control of the tech giant. Lee was orginally cleared of the charges in a trial last year, but prosecutors appealed the verdict. “The evidence presented was not sufficient to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt,” court documents said. Lee was cleared of charges including stock price rigging, breach of trust, and accounting fraud. They relate to the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T — a construction and engineering firm — and Cheil Industries.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
FIREWALLS: ‘Democracy doesn’t mean that the loud minority is automatically right,’ the German defense minister said following the US vice president’s remarks US Vice President JD Vance met the leader of a German far-right party during a visit to Munich, Germany, on Friday, nine days before a German election. During his visit he lectured European leaders about the state of democracy and said there is no place for “firewalls.” Vance met with Alice Weidel, the coleader and candidate for chancellor of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, his office said. Mainstream German parties say they would not work with the party. That stance is often referred to as a “firewall.” Polls put AfD in second place going into the