JAPAN
Four missing in floods
Heavy rain in the past week has triggered floods and landslides, with four people missing as of yesterday, including two police officers. The rain had subsided in Yamagata and Akita prefectures, but the area was still at risk of flooding and landslides. One person was missing in Yuzawa city in Akita Prefecture after being hit by a landslide at a road construction site, while in Akita city, rescuers were searching for an 86-year-old man whose bicycle and helmet were found floating by a river, media reports and rescue agencies said. In Shinjo city in Yamagata Prefecture, two police officers were missing after reporting from a patrol vehicle that they were being swept away by floodwaters.
INDIA
Chinese border deal inked
New Delhi and Beijing have agreed to work to withdraw tens of thousands of troops stationed along their disputed border, the government said in a statement late on Thursday. Minister of Foreign Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on the sidelines of ASEAN meetings in Laos, where they stressed the need for an early resolution of outstanding issues along the disputed Line of Actual Control, the Himalayan border shared by the two nations. The two “agreed on the need to work with purpose and urgency to achieve complete disengagement at the earliest,” the statement said.
SRI LANKA
Presidential vote scheduled
The first presidential elections since an economic crisis spurred widespread unrest are to be held on Sept. 21, the election commission said yesterday. The election would be the first test of the public mood since the height of the 2022 downturn, which caused months of food, fuel and medicine shortages across the nation. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has hinted that he plans to run. He would face at least two rivals — opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and former minister of agriculture Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
VENEZUELA
Election campaigning ends
The government and the opposition on Thursday closed the official presidential campaign season with demonstrations that drew thousands of people to the streets of Caracas, three days before Sunday’s presidential election. President Nicolas Maduro, who is seeking a third term, spoke from a stage on one of the city’s main roads. He told the crowd that his opponents are promoters of violence and described himself as a man of peace. “Who of the 10 candidates guarantees peace and stability?” Maduro asked. He faces a challenge from former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who is representing the Unitary Platform coalition.
UNITED STATES
Cartel members arrested
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of another cartel leader, were arrested in Texas on Thursday, the Department of Justice said. A leader of the Sinaloa cartel for decades alongside Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Zambada is one of the most notorious drug traffickers in the world. A Mexican federal official told reporters that Zambada and Guzman Lopez arrived in the US on a private plane and turned themselves in to authorities. Zambada in February in the Eastern District of New York with conspiring to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, one of several charges he faces.
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
‘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,”
‘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
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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