Japan releases 200,000 tonnes of emergency rice stockpile as prices soar

Agriculture minister says rising prices have ‘had a significant impact on people’s lives’ amid record heat, surges in demand and distribution problems

Japan is to flood the market with almost a quarter of a million tonnes of stockpiled rice in an unprecedented attempt to arrest soaring prices caused by record summer heat, panic buying and distribution problems.

The government will release up to 210,000 tonnes of rice, the agriculture minister, Taku Eto, said on Friday, as consumers battled a surge in prices of more than 50% in recent months.

Continue reading...

Sweet romance: Japanese boys start buying into gift giving on Valentine’s Day

Women are traditionally expected to buy chocolates for male colleagues on Valentine’s Day but teenage boys are shunning the one-sided custom

It has been several years since Japanese women first signalled their contempt for the long tradition of showering male colleagues with chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Now the country’s young people are slaying another sacred cow associated with Friday’s orgy of commercialised romance: one-sided gift giving.

Traditionally, women are expected to buy gift-wrapped chocolates for the men in their working lives, usually senior colleagues and others to whom they feel indebted – a tradition called giri choco, literally “obligation chocolates”.

Continue reading...

Nissan and Honda end $60bn merger talks

Both Japanese carmakers say they will continue to cooperate on electric vehicle technology

Japan’s Nissan and Honda have said that their boards have voted to end talks over a merger that would have created a $60bn (£48bn) auto group, but added that both companies would continue to cooperate in electric vehicles.

A merger would have spawned the world’s fourth-biggest carmaker by vehicle sales after Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai.

Continue reading...

Australia condemns ‘unsafe’ airspace encounter and rejects Chinese allegations RAAF plane ‘deliberately intruded’

Australian defence department says it is monitoring three Chinese ships in the Coral Sea

Australia has rejected Chinese allegations an Australian airforce plane “deliberately intruded into China’s airspace” and undermined its national security, saying the actions of a Chinese navy fighter pilot who released flares near the Australian aircraft were “wrong … and very very dangerous”.

Australia’s defence department accused the Chinese navy of an “unsafe and unprofessional” incident by allegedly dropping flares dangerously close to an Australian patrol flight on what it described as routine operations in the South China Sea on Tuesday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Philippines storm survivors join climate protest outside Shell HQ in London

Greenpeace protest draws attention to worsening typhoons and demands accountability from major polluters

For two days and two nights, Ronalyn Carbonel and her four children clung to the roof of their home as a huge storm raged around them. With the wind battering her village of Rizal, about 10 miles east of Manila in the Philippines, and water swirling through the rooms below them, they had no choice but to wait, hoping that someone would come to rescue them and hundreds of their neighbours.

“We did not have shelter, we did not have food … we just had to wait for the government for two days,” Carbonel said. “It is not easy, no electricity, no light, we just wait for the sun to rise. The children were scared, we had never experienced anything like this.”

Continue reading...

China tops list of countries trying to silence exiled dissidents over past decade, study shows

Russia, Turkey and Egypt also among worst perpetrators of transnational repression around the globe

A quarter of the world’s countries have engaged in transnational repression – targeting political exiles abroad to silence dissent – in the past decade, new research reveals.

The Washington DC-based non-profit organisation Freedom House has documented 1,219 incidents carried out by 48 governments across 103 countries, from 2014 to 2024.

Continue reading...

Solomon Islands landowners seek compensation over catastrophic oil spill

Claim over the 2019 Rennell Island disaster, which saw more than 300 tonnes of fuel leak into the water, filed in the Solomons High court

The companies allegedly responsible for the one of the worst environmental disasters in Solomon Islands’ history are being sued over the catastrophic oil spill that caused harm to an ecologically sensitive island.

The claim over the 2019 Rennell Island disaster was filed in the Solomons high court last week, just days before the statute of limitations expired.

Continue reading...

Top Republican condemns Elon Musk for ‘supplication’ to China in new book

Exclusive: Tom Cotton, Senate intelligence chair, risks angering key Trump ally with harsh words for ‘tech titans’

In a new book, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton condemns Elon Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers”, in order to advance his own interests as chief executive of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.

It’s an explosive charge from the Republican chair of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, given that Musk, the world’s richest person, is a major donor and close adviser to Donald Trump, now working at the heart of the president’s administration to slash costs and reshape the federal government.

Continue reading...

Asian stock markets mixed after Trump tariffs announcement while gold reaches record high

Analysts say measures so far have been less than feared but traders still cautious as uncertainty about US policy ‘has basically exploded’

Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday as traders kept a nervous eye on Donald Trump’s next moves after he signed off on 25% tariffs for steel and aluminium imports, having warned of more measures to come.

The president has lived up to his campaign pledges to resume his hardball trade diplomacy to extract concessions on a range of issues, including commerce, immigration and drug trafficking.

Continue reading...

New Zealand government loses ground in polls as economic concerns grow

1News Verian poll shows Christoper Luxon dropped 22% in the preferred prime minister stakes, his lowest result as leader

New Zealand’s National-led coalition government is losing support among voters, new polling shows, amid frustrations over the economy and deepening concern the country is heading in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary left bloc has taken a narrow lead for the third poll in a row, enough that the opposition would be able to form a government were an election held today.

Continue reading...

New Zealand raises ‘concern’ as Cook Islands prepares to sign China deal

Deputy PM says New Zealand hasn’t been adequately consulted on an agreement the Cook Islands leader is expected to sign in Beijing this week

A diplomatic row has erupted between two tight-knit Pacific countries, after New Zealand said the Cook Islands failed to properly consult on its plans to deepen ties with China amid growing concerns over Beijing’s push for influence in the region.

The Cook Islands was a dependent New Zealand colony from 1901-1965 but has since operated as a self-governing nation in “free association” with New Zealand. Its roughly 17,000 citizens hold New Zealand citizenship. There are obligations between the two nations to regularly consult on matters of defence and security.

Continue reading...

‘We never gave up’: tears and elation as freed Thai hostages return home from Gaza

The group of five workers were greeted at Bangkok airport by overjoyed family members and officials after being held for over a year in Gaza

The families of five Thai farm workers held hostage in Gaza for over a year wept with joy and hugged their loved ones as they arrived in Bangkok on Sunday.

The group smiled as they walked into the arrivals hall at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport after being freed on 30 January as part of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the Israel-Gaza war.

Continue reading...

Trump and Japanese PM Ishiba talk tariffs and vow to stand against Chinese ‘aggression’

Leaders praise each other at White House but president warns Japan could face tariffs if it doesn’t cut US trade deficit to zero

The Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and the US president, Donald Trump, struck a warm tone at their first meeting on Friday, with Tokyo avoiding tariffs that Trump has slapped on other allies – for now.

Heaping praise on each other at the White House, the two leaders pledged to stand together against Chinese “aggression” and said they found a solution for a blocked deal for troubled US Steel.

Continue reading...

Trump delays key piece of China tariff plan amid threats to other countries

President halts plan to put tariffs on low-value packages but says he will impose duties on more countries next week

Donald Trump halted a key part of his tariff attack on China on Friday, as he threatened to impose new US duties on goods from many more countries next week.

Plans to ensure shipments from China to the US worth less than $800 still face tariffs – removing the longstanding duty-free status of low-cast packages – have been delayed to give more time to federal agencies to prepare for the change.

Continue reading...

US cedes ground to China with ‘self-inflicted wound’ of USAid shutdown, analysts say

Sudden suspension of aid funding a ‘perfect opportunity’ for Beijing to fill the gap and grow its own soft power

Donald Trump’s shutdown of USAid has already had disastrous effects on humanitarian aid and development programmes around the world, but it has also ceded ground to the US’s chief rival, China, analysts have said.

The result of the sudden 90-day suspension of USAid funding – which accounts for 40% of global foreign aid – has been chaos: employees locked out of offices, humanitarian shipments left to rot, and lifesaving assistance stopped. Around the world, development programmes previously assisted by the USAid are panicking, warning of disastrous risks of escalating famine, death and disease.

Continue reading...

Japan’s PM heads to Washington hoping he can recreate rapport of Trump-Abe era

Shigeru Ishiba will seek familiar guarantees: that the US will continue to stand on Japan’s side against China and North Korea

Donald Trump had yet to get his feet under the Oval Office desk when he held his first meeting with a foreign leader in late 2016. Shinzo Abe, then Japan’s prime minister, arrived at Trump Tower in November that year bearing a gift of a gold-plated golf club and harbouring a determination to get the Japan-US relationship under Trump off to the best possible start.

The success, or otherwise, of Abe’s charm offensive had potentially serious repercussions. During the election campaign, Trump had suggested he would withdraw US troops from Japan, contingent on Tokyo’s willingness to make a bigger financial contribution to their countries’ postwar alliance.

Continue reading...

Parts of Japan blanketed by thick snow during strongest cold front for years

Hokkaido and the Japan Sea coast have been hardest hit, forcing domestic airlines to cancel flights between cities in the region and Tokyo

Large parts of Japan have been blanketed with snow, as the lowest temperatures this winter disrupted rail and air travel, amid warnings that more heavy snowfall was expected through the weekend.

Residents struggled to dig out cars that had been buried by snow in just a few hours, with the meteorological agency describing the cold front as the “strongest in several years”.

Continue reading...

Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte impeached over allegations including plot to kill president

Move likely to deepen political rift between Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr

Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte has been impeached on a range of accusations that include plotting to assassinate the president, large-scale corruption and failing to strongly denounce China’s aggressive actions against Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea.

Wednesday’s move by legislators in the House of Representatives, many of them allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, deepens a bitter political rift between the two highest leaders of one of Asia’s most rambunctious democracies.

Continue reading...

US Postal Service briefly halts packages arriving from China and Hong Kong

Normal service resumes after initial suspension, in latest episode of growing trade war between the US and China

The US Postal Service briefly suspended incoming parcels from China and Hong Kong on Tuesday before returning to normal service on Wednesday after accusations of “unreasonable suppression” from Beijing, in the latest episode of a growing trade war between the US and China.

The initial suspension came as Donald Trump said he was not in a hurry to speak to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, despite expectations that they would hold talks after announcing tit-for-tat tariffs.

Continue reading...

EU to tighten checks on goods sold by sites such as Shein and Temu

European Commission also urges EU lawmakers to phase out exemption on customs duties for parcels under €150

Parcels sent from China by online retailers such as Shein and Temu will face strict new customs controls as part of a crackdown by the European Commission on “dangerous products” flooding the EU market.

Brussels officials also urged EU lawmakers to phase out the exemption on customs duties that is allowed for parcels under €150 (£125), which enables foreign suppliers to sell cheap goods in the bloc without paying the tax.

Continue reading...