JAPAN
DPP leader admits affair
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP), said that a tabloid report about his extramarital affair with a model was “basically true.” “I apologize for the trouble caused,” Tamaki told reporters at a hastily called news conference after tabloid SmartFlash yesterday reported the affair. Despite the scandal, Tamaki retained the unanimous support of the party’s lawmakers to stay on as party leader, DPP Secretary-General Kazuya Shimba told reporters. SmartFlash reported that Tamaki, 55, and a 39-year-old model and entertainer rendezvoused in July and last month.
AUSTRALIA
Chef Oliver withdraws book
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has withdrawn his latest children’s book from sale after criticism it stereotyped members of the indigenous community. Billy and the Epic Escape, released in May, contains a passage where an indigenous Australian girl living in foster care is abducted by the story’s villain — a sensitive issue in a country where indigenous children were for decades forcibly removed from their parents. It also contained errors made by mixing different indigenous languages. “I am devastated to have caused offence and apologise wholeheartedly,” the Guardian reported Oliver, who is currently in Australia promoting his latest cookbook, as saying in a statement on Sunday. “It was never my intention to misinterpret this deeply painful issue. Together with my publishers we have decided to withdraw the book from sale.” Oliver’s publisher Penguin Random House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SINGAPORE
Priest ‘stabber’ charged
A Singaporean man was yesterday charged with stabbing a priest celebrating a weekend Mass, court papers showed, but the Ministry of Home Affairs said there was no evidence the attack was religiously motivated or an act of terror. Basnayake Keith Spencer, 37, is accused of using a foldable knife to stab parish priest Christopher Lee Kwong Heng, 57, in the mouth during Saturday’s evening Mass at St Joseph’s Church in the upmarket Bukit Timah District, the charge sheet showed. Spencer was disarmed and held by members of the congregation until police officers arrived. Among the four other weapons on him were a penknife and a mallet, authorities said. Spencer was charged with voluntarily causing grievous hurt using a weapon likely to cause death, which carries a life sentence, or up to 15 years in jail, along with a caning and a fine. Media said he was not represented in court. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear. The ministry said he had a history of offenses of causing serious hurt and drug use. The priest, who suffered cuts to his tongue, upper lip and a corner of his mouth, is recovering in hospital.
MEXICO
Mariachis ‘break’ record
More than 1,000 mariachis on Sunday gathered in Mexico City’s main plaza, strumming guitars and singing classics like Cielito Lindo to end a mariachi congress celebrating the musical form. The number of musicians apparently topped the previous record of 700 mariachis at an earlier gathering in the city of Guadalajara. The Guinness World Records organization has not replied to a message from The Associated Press asking whether Sunday’s gathering broke the previous record. The musicians, many of whom had traveled from other cities, expressed their joy at singing in the giant iconic plaza, saying the music is a family tradition they start learning at a young age.
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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