JAPAN
Import curbs must stop: G7
The G7 industrial powers yesterday called for the “immediate repeal” of import curbs on Japanese food products, a reference to China’s restrictions after the nation began releasing wastewater from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The G7 trade ministers, in a statement after a weekend meeting in Osaka, did not mention China, but they also denounced what they consider its rising economic coercion through trade. “We deplore actions to weaponize economic dependencies and commit to build on free, fair, and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationships,” the 10-page statement said.
KAZAKHSTAN
Dozens die in mine fire
The nation was in mourning yesterday after 36 people died in a fire at an ArcelorMittal mine, the worst such disaster in years which has prompted the nationalization of the company’s local affiliate. The Ministry of Emergency Situations said at 10am that “the bodies of 36 miners were found and 10 workers were still being sought.” However, the chances of finding them alive are “very low,” rescuers said the night before, due to the lack of ventilation in the mine and the force of Saturday’s explosion, which spread over 2km. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev traveled to the scene on Saturday and ordered that cooperation with ArcelorMittal be “brought to an end.” Speaking to victims’ relatives at the Karaganda mine in the country’s center, Tokayev called ArcelorMittal “the worst enterprise in Kazakhstan’s history in terms of cooperation with the government.” The Kazakh government and the steel giant announced a preliminary agreement to “transfer ownership of the [local] firm in favor of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov said.
CHINA
Defense forum begins
The Beijing Xiangshan Forum, the nation’s biggest annual show of military diplomacy, started yesterday, although China is still missing a defense minister, who typically hosts this event. Beijing hopes to use the forum to promote President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) vision and draw developing countries closer, as it faces increased coordination between the US and its allies to curtail its military ambitions. Russia is being given center stage at the forum. Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu was initially listed as the first guest speaker at today’s opening ceremony, but as of last night, his name was not on the agenda. The US Department of Defense has sent a delegation led by Xanthi Carras, China country director in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense.
MYANMAR
Former minister charged
Former minister for information Ye Htut has been arrested and charged with encouraging dissent against the military, the junta said yesterday, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests. In a statement, the junta information team said the 64-year-old had been detained on Saturday evening in connection with “spreading wrong information on social media.” “U Ye Htut was arrested last night and charged under section 505 (a),” a security source said. Section 505 outlaws any action deemed to undermine the military. The law carries a maximum jail term of three years. His arrest comes a week after pro-junta Telegram channels accused him of exposing the address of a retired military officer on social media.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
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