MYANMAR
WFP to cut food aid to 1m
The World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday said it would be forced to cut off 1 million people in the war-torn nation from its vital food aid because of “critical funding shortfalls.” The US last year provided US$4.4 billion of the WFP’s US$9.7 billion budget, but US President Donald Trump’s administration has slashed international aid funding. The WFP said more than 15 million people in the country of 51 million are unable to meet their daily food needs, while the UN last year warned that Rakhine state in the west faces an “imminent threat of acute famine.” “More than one million people in Myanmar will be cut off from WFP’s lifesaving food assistance starting in April due to critical funding shortfalls,” the WFP said a statement. “These cuts come just as increased conflict, displacement and access restrictions are already sharply driving up food aid needs,” it added. Without immediate new funding, the “WFP will only be able to assist 35,000 of the most vulnerable people,” including children under five, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people with disabilities.
JAPAN
Ishiba criticized over gifts
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is under fire for distributing gift certificates to 15 first-year lawmakers in his party in a scandal shaking his already weak grip on power. Ishiba has denied breaking political funding laws and said he would not resign. However, opposition lawmakers and rivals in his own party have said the gifts were excessive and showed Ishiba was out of touch, especially after the governing Liberal Democratic Party had a disastrous election loss last year due to its earlier political funding irregularities. Local media reported earlier this week that Ishiba’s aide delivered gift certificates worth ￥100,000 (US$672) to the offices of the 15 lawmakers prior to their private dinner with the prime minister.
CHINA
Two deported for mooning
Two Japanese tourists in their 20s were detained for two weeks and then deported for taking photos showing one of the traveler’s exposed buttocks at the Great Wall, local media reported. The incident at the World Heritage site near Beijing concerned a man who showed his bottom and a woman who took photos, NTV and other Japanese media outlets reported on Thursday. The embassy of Japan confirmed in a statement yesterday that the two Japanese were detained on Jan. 3, then released and returned to Japan the same month. Exposing the lower half of the body in a public place is against the law in China, reports said. The tourists reportedly told the Japanese embassy they did it as a prank. “Out of protection for individual privacy,” the Japanese embassy declined to comment on specific details, including whether the tourists would be barred from traveling to China or face additional punishment such as fines or jail time.
AUSTRALIA
Wombat snatcher leaves
A US influencer who outraged Australians by snatching a baby wombat from its apparently distressed mother flew out of the country yesterday, the government said. In a now-deleted video posted to Instagram this week, the woman can be seen picking up and running with the hissing wild animal before declaring to the camera: “I caught a baby wombat.” The marsupial’s mother is seen in the nighttime images chasing her joey. The woman — identified in local media as US outdoors influencer Sam Jones — then places the wombat back on the side of the road. “There’s never been a better day to be a wombat in Australia,” Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke said of the influencer’s departure. The minister earlier said that the woman’s tourist visa was under review in light of the video. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the influencer for pestering the rotund, burrowing marsupial. “To take a baby wombat from its mother, and clearly causing distress from the mother, is just an outrage,” he told reporters on Thursday. “I suggest to this so-called influencer, maybe she might try some other Australian animals. Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.”
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is leaning into his banking background as his country fights a trade war with the US, but his financial ties have also made him a target for conspiracy theories. Incorporating tropes familiar to followers of the far-right QAnon movement, conspiratorial social media posts about the Liberal leader have surged ahead of the country’s April 28 election. Posts range from false claims he recited a “satanic chant” at a campaign event to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of him in a pool with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “He’s the ideal person to be targeted here, for sure, due to
DISPUTE: Beijing seeks global support against Trump’s tariffs, but many governments remain hesitant to align, including India, ASEAN countries and Australia China is reaching out to other nations as the US layers on more tariffs, in what appears to be an attempt by Beijing to form a united front to compel Washington to retreat. Days into the effort, it is meeting only partial success from countries unwilling to ally with the main target of US President Donald Trump’s trade war. Facing the cratering of global markets, Trump on Wednesday backed off his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, saying countries were lining up to negotiate more favorable conditions. China has refused to seek talks, saying the US was insincere and that it
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