JAPAN
Record rain recorded
Several prefectures have been deluged by their heaviest daily rains since records began, officials said yesterday, with reports of more than 100 landslides after a tropical storm. Mobara in Chiba Prefecture, which borders the capital, Tokyo, recorded 392mm of rain overnight into yesterday — the largest amount to hit the city in a 24-hour span since the Japan Meteorological Agency began the survey in 1976. On Friday, Tropical Storm Yun-yeung disrupted some railway services and left thousands of households without power in Chiba, Ibaraki and Fukushima prefectures. In Mobara, “a river near the city hall flooded on Friday and a car that was running nearby had to be rescued,” a city spokesman said, adding that levels had mostly receded.
UNITED STATES
Fewer missing in Maui
The number of missing persons following a massive wildfire that leveled a town on Maui last month has fallen from 385 to 66, Hawaii Governor Josh Green said on Friday. Green made the announcement one month after the fire that destroyed the town of Lahaina, the deadliest in the US in more than a century. The death toll from the blaze remains at 115 people, but could rise as a police investigation unfolds, Green said. The Maui Police Department is investigating the cases of missing persons, he said, adding that “the numbers are getting sorted out,” causing the reduction. The high initial numbers of missing stirred fears that the death toll could rise sharply from the blaze.
CANADA
China warns Ottawa
China is warning of “consequences” for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration unless it stops spreading “lies and false information” about alleged interference in domestic affairs. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa issued a stern statement on Friday, a day after the government announced a public inquiry into meddling by China, Russia and other actors in national elections in 2019 and 2021. “China urges the Canadian side to abandon its ideological bias, stop hyping up China-related lies and false information, stop misleading the public and stop undermining China-Canada relations. Otherwise, Canada will have to bear the consequences,” an embassy spokesman said in the statement. In an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday, Trudeau said that there was no room for political “rapprochement” with China, as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) muscular foreign policy has made it impossible for the two countries to have a normal relationship.
UNITED STATES
Musk refused Kyiv request
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk late on Thursday said that he refused a Ukrainian request to activate the company’s Starlink satellite network in Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol last year to aid an attack on Russia’s fleet there, saying he feared complicity in a “major” act of war. His comment on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, came after CNN cited an excerpt from a new biography of Musk that says he ordered the Starlink network turned off near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack. Musk said that he had no choice but to reject an emergency request from Ukraine “to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol.” He did not give the date of the request and the excerpt did not specify it. “The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor,” Musk wrote. “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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