JAPAN
Death penalty defended
Minister of Justice Hideki Makihara said abolishing the death penalty would be “inappropriate,” despite the recent acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row prisoner. The policy — always carried out by hanging — “would be inappropriate to abolish,” as “heinous crimes continue to occur,” Makihara told reporters on Wednesday after being nominated by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba the previous day. He pledged to be “cautious and extremely sincere” when making the decision to sentence someone to death, Nippon Television reported.
SINGAPORE
Ex-minister sentenced
Former minister of transportation S. Iswaran was yesterday sentenced to 12 months in prison for obstruction of justice and accepting illegal gifts. Iswaran was charged this year with 35 counts mostly related to graft. His sentence was more severe than the six-to-seven months requested by the prosecution, which High Court Justice Vincent Hoong said would have been “manifestly inadequate” given the impact of the case on public trust. “Trust and confidence in public institutions are the bedrock of effective governance, which can all too easily be undermined by the appearance that an individual public servant has fallen below the standards of integrity and accountability,” Hoong said as he delivered the sentence.
UNITED KINGDOM
Johnson interview canceled
The BBC canceled an interview with former prime minister Boris Johnson after Laura Kuenssberg, one of its presenters, sent him the notes prepared for her questions. Kuenssberg, the host of the BBC’s Sunday morning news program, said she sent Johnson the notes “in a message meant for my team” and this meant the interview had to be canceled. “It’s very frustrating, and there’s no point pretending it’s anything other than embarrassing and disappointing, as there are plenty of important questions to be asked, but red faces aside, honesty is the best policy,” Kuenssberg wrote on X.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Deportation plans unveiled
The government on Wednesday unveiled a plan to start expelling 10,000 undocumented Haitians a week as part of a crackdown on migration from its neighbor. “This operation aims to reduce the excessive migrant populations detected in Dominican communities,” presidential spokesman Homero Figueroa said, adding the expulsions would start “immediately” and be done “according to strict protocols that ensure respect for human rights.”
MEXICO
Migrants killed in shooting
Six international migrants are dead after soldiers opened fire on a truck carrying a group near the border with Guatemala, the Department of Defense said on Wednesday. The soldiers claimed they heard shots as the trucks and two other vehicles approached their position late on Tuesday in Chiapas state, near the town of Huixtla, the department said in a statement. Two soldiers opened fire on the truck, which was carrying migrants from Egypt, Nepal, Cuba, India, Pakistan and at least one other country, it said. Soldiers then approached the truck and found four of the migrants dead and 12 wounded, it said, adding that two of the wounded later died of their injuries. The department did not say whether the migrants died as a result of army fire, or whether any weapons were found in the truck.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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