SOUTH KOREA
Hunger striker hospitalized
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was hospitalized yesterday, days into a hunger strike in protest against government policies, while prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for him over corruption allegations. The leader of the Democratic Party of Korea began the protest on Aug. 31, citing the government’s economic mismanagement, threats to media freedom and failure to oppose Japan’s Fukushima wastewater release, among other reasons. The former presidential candidate was transferred to a hospital from the National Assembly in Seoul yesterday morning after suffering from dehydration and dizziness, his party said. Kim Gi-hyeon, the head of the ruling People Power Party, has urged Lee to stop fasting, saying he was ready to talk with him on policy issues. Prosecutors later said they had requested an arrest warrant for Lee as part of an investigation into a development project and bribery allegations. Lee has denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations “fiction” and a “political conspiracy.”
GREECE
Aid team members killed
Five members of a Greek humanitarian aid team, sent to Libya after the devastating floods that hit Derna, have been killed in a road accident, the army said yesterday, raising a previous toll. “Five bodies, including three officials of the Greek army and two translators from the Greek foreign ministry who were part of the aid team will be repatriated to Athens on Monday,” the chiefs of staff said in a statement. Libyan authorities had on Sunday said four people had died in an accident when the Greek team was en route from Benghazi to Derna. Libyan Minister of Health Othman Abdeljalil said the accident took place when a vehicle carrying 19 members of the Greek team collided with a car carrying a Libyan family. Three people in the family car died and two were seriously injured, he said.
CHINA
‘Dictator’ Xi raises ire
Beijing yesterday lashed out at German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock for calling President Xi Jinping (習近平) a “dictator,” branding the comment “an open political provocation” that was “extremely absurd.” Baerbock made the remarks in a Fox News interview on Thursday during a visit to the US. While talking about the Ukraine war, she said: “If [Russian President Vladimir] Putin were to win this war, what sign would that be for other dictators in the world, like Xi, like the Chinese president? So therefore Ukraine has to win this war.” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) said Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied” and that it had made “solemn representations to the German side through diplomatic channels.”
AUSTRALIA
Python surfer fined
As if sharks were not already enough to worry about, a surfer has been seen paddling out with a python coiled around his neck. The intrepid surfer caused a stir on the Gold Coast after footage emerged of him carving through the azure waves while carrying his pet carpet python. Authorities said he did not possess a permit to have the reptile in public, and fined the man A$2,322 (US$1,495). “To take an animal out in public or display it requires a separate permit,” Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science said in a statement yesterday. “Snakes are obviously cold-blooded animals, and while they can swim, reptiles generally avoid water.” It added that “the python would have found the water to be extremely cold, and the only snakes that should be in the ocean are sea snakes.”
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
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