NEW ZEALAND
China must de-escalate: PM
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday urged China to help curb tensions in a “more contested, less predictable” Pacific, and to preserve access to critical trade routes. Nearly half of New Zealand’s trade passes through the South China Sea, Hipkins said. The way China exerts its clout in the world is a “major driver” in escalating strategic competition, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, Hipkins told the China Business Summit in Auckland. Unimpeded access to shipping and air routes is “vital” to New Zealand, he added. “New Zealand is concerned about a worsening strategic environment and rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region in particular in places like the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait,” the prime minister said. “We have direct interests in these areas and are therefore focused on the need for tensions to be carefully managed and de-escalated in the wider interests of the Pacific, and we look to China to play its part in this regard,” he said.
MALAYSIA
Swatch Pride watches seized
Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group has filed a suit against the government and Ministry of Home Affairs officials challenging the seizure of Pride-themed rainbow watches, local media reported. Swatch Group (Malaysia) Sdn sought an order from the High Court to cancel the ministry’s seizure notices in May for the 172 watches worth 64,795 ringgit (US$14,272), and for the return of the confiscated pieces within five days of the order, MalayMail reported, citing the judicial review application filed by the company on June 24. Swatch said the ministry issued seizure notices stating the watches as promoting or having LGBT “elements,” and that the timepieces contravened the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) of 1984. Swatch said the seizures were illegal as the watches are not a publication that can be prohibited under the PPPA, the report said.
SOUTH KOREA
Deaths lead to Yoon pledge
President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday vowed to “completely overhaul” the country’s approach to extreme weather from climate change, after at least 40 people were killed by flooding and landslides during monsoon rains. Rescue workers waded through thick mud as they drained a flooded underpass in central Cheongju, searching for more victims after vehicles were trapped in the tunnel by flash floods, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said, with nine people still missing nationwide. “This kind of extreme weather event will become commonplace — we must accept climate change is happening and deal with it,” Yoon said at an emergency response meeting. The country would “mobilize all available resources,” including the military and police, to help with rescue efforts, he said. “The rainy season is not over yet, and the forecast is now that there will be torrential rain again tomorrow,” he added.
UNITED STATES
Death Valley hits 53.33°C
Long the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley put a sizzling exclamation point on a record warm summer that is baking nearly the entire globe by flirting with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, meteorologists said. Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada, reached 53.33°C on Sunday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said. The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 56.67°C in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
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