JAPAN
Takaichi’s popularity slips
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s sky-high poll numbers have slipped, as voters question how she intends to pay for her tax-cut pledge, media surveys released yesterday showed. Her approval rating fell to 67 percent from 75 percent last month, falling “below 70 percent for the first time since she took office last October,” a weekend survey by Nikkei Shimbun said. The dip came as Takaichi faced criticism for abruptly calling a snap election for Sunday next week. Among Takaichi’s campaign pledges was to waive the consumption tax on food for two years, but she has not offered details of how to pay for it. “But 56 percent of respondents to the new Nikkei poll said they did not think a zero tax rate on food would be effective against rising prices,” the daily said. A similar weekend poll by the liberal Mainichi Shimbun also showed Takaichi’s approval rating drop to 57 percent from 67 percent last month. The Mainichi said many people were frustrated over the abrupt election, as it slowed down legislative debates on a new government budget before the Japanese fiscal year ends in March.
Photo: AFP
VENEZUELA
104 political inmates freed
More than 100 political prisoners were freed on Sunday, as detainees are slowly being released under pressure from the US, the non-governmental organization (NGO) Foro Penal said. “At Foro Penal we have verified 104 releases of political prisoners in Venezuela today,” the NGO wrote on social media. Director Alfredo Romero said on X that the group was verifying the identities of those released from jails nationwide. Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who took power after then-president Nicolas Maduro was captured by US special forces early this month, has promised to release a “large number” of the hundreds of Maduro opponents languishing in prison.
INDIA
EU leaders feted at parade
EU leaders yesterday joined India’s Republic Day parade as guests of honor, a day before New Delhi and Brussels are expected to seal a long-awaited free trade agreement. Military bands and horse and camel cavalry units paraded through the capital, New Delhi, while fighter jets buzzed overhead and the latest military hardware was put on display. “The occasion inspires us in our collective resolve to build a developed India,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said before the parade. The fanfare also featured Indian air defense systems — including missiles and drones X— that were deployed in the four-day conflict with arch-enemy Pakistan last year. European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were both in attendance, before an EU-India summit today, when the two sides are expected to announce a landmark free-trade deal and security partnership.
BRAZIL
Lightning injures 89 at rally
Lightning struck near a rally of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia on Sunday, injuring 89 people, the fire department said. Thousands gathered in the rain in the capital to support Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison last year for leading a failed coup d’etat following his narrow re-election loss. Footage shared online shows crowds with colorful umbrellas and plastic ponchos stunned by a sudden flash of light and rumbling sound. The fire department said it treated 89 people at the scene, including 47 who were taken to hospital. Eleven people “required major medical care,” it added.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
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