UK prime minister goes further than G7 summit statement in outlining challenge posed by Beijing
China poses the biggest challenge to global security and prosperity of our age with the “means and intent to reshape the world order”, Rishi Sunak has said.
The UK prime minister said G7 leaders including Japan, the US, Canada and European nations had shown “unity and resolve” in confronting the problems posed by Beijing.
Continue reading...UK PM says at G7 summit that end to war will need to recognise country’s territorial integrity
Rishi Sunak has said a ceasefire in Ukraine would not be enough, as any end to the war will need to recognise the country’s territorial integrity and include a plan for “just and durable” peace.
The UK prime minister said the last session at the G7 summit in Japan had involved a “conversation about peace” in Ukraine and what it should look like, with more neutral countries India and Brazil also taking part.
Continue reading...Action by workers has trebled this year as the country emerges from its draconian coronavirus measures
Protests in China are often small- scale. On 17 May, a handful of workers at an air-purifier factory in Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian province, south-east China, gathered to demand the payment of wages that, they said, were in arrears. The protest was quiet, but it was one of nearly 30 similar demonstrations this month alone.
With China’s factories reopened and draconian coronavirus measures abandoned, workers are also going on strike at a remarkable rate.
Continue reading...Joint visit during G7 summit seen as further evidence of determination to overcome longstanding friction
Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, have paid their respects at a memorial to the tens of thousands of Korean victims of the atomic bombing, in a further sign of improving ties between the north-east Asian neighbours.
The pair, accompanied by their wives, laid bouquets of white flowers before lowering their heads at the memorial in the city’s peace park on Sunday on the sidelines of the G7 summit, where Yoon is one of several non-member leaders taking part in “outreach” sessions.
Continue reading...Economic resurgence may not be enough to win Kyriakos Mitsotakis a new term in Sunday’s election
With the Acropolis behind him, Kyriakos Mitsotakis ascends to the podium amid thunderous music and the cackle of whistles and horns. It is the last rally of the last day of his re-election campaign before polls open on Sunday, and the prime minister is in a combative mood.
“Do we want stability or continuous uncertainty?” he asks. “That is the dilemma we are being called to answer.” It is a question that has dominated an election that Mitsotakis once thought he had in the bag.
Continue reading...Simon Birmingham says ‘clarity should be there before the prime minister entertains a formal state visit to Beijing’
The shadow minister for foreign affairs, Simon Birmingham, says Anthony Albanese should not visit Beijing until all trade sanctions have been lifted.
Birmingham, a former trade minister in the Coalition government, said Australia “deserves to have absolute clarity that these sanctions are going to be lifted and that clarity should be there before the prime minister entertains a formal state visit to Beijing”.
Continue reading...US and Saudi Arabia announce deal that comes after six weeks of fighting between Sudan’s army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces
Sudan’s warring factions signed an agreement late on Saturday for a seven-day ceasefire, the US and Saudi Arabia said in a joint statement, as fighting that has plunged the country into chaos and displaced more than a million entered its sixth week.
The fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has led to a collapse in law. Stocks of food, cash and essentials are rapidly dwindling, and mass looting has hit banks, embassies, factories and aid warehouses.
Continue reading...Pilot and two passengers died at scene of accident in steep and forested area in west of country
A tourist plane crashed in a wooded, mountainous area of western Switzerland on Saturday, killing the three people onboard, police said.
The small tourist plane crashed in a steep and forested area near Ponts-De-Martel in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel at about 10.20am (0820 GMT), regional police said.
Continue reading...Beijing clearly target of joint statement by Quad group calling for ‘stability in Indo-Pacific maritime domain’
The leaders of the Quad group – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – delivered a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing’s behaviour on Saturday at a summit in Hiroshima.
The US president, Joe Biden, and his three partners in the group did not mention China by name but the communist superpower was clearly the target of language in a joint statement calling for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain”.
Continue reading...Indian rice tycoon Karan Chanana, who gave the Conservatives more than £220,000, is under scrutiny by India’s finance ministry
A leading Tory donor who has given more than £220,000 to the party is being investigated over allegations of fraud and money laundering.
Karan Chanana, head of the global rice brand Amira, is being investigated in India over claims that tens of millions of pounds of bank loans were unlawfully diverted into shell entities. Chanana has not responded to the claims.
Continue reading...Warning comes after Joe Biden said US would back joint effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly fighter jets
Providing Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets would be a “colossal risk” for western nations, a senior Russian minister has warned, as Washington and London reasserted their commitment to equipping the embattled nation with the military hardware it needs.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been pushing western allies to supply the jets for months, with Downing Street saying on Saturday that the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, had again discussed the matter with him at the G7 summit in Japan.
Continue reading...Report implicates Wagner group fighters in Moura atrocity, including the torture and rape of civilians
First came a single helicopter, flying low over the marshes around the river outside the village, then the rattle of automatic fire scattered the crowds gathered for the weekly market.
Next came more helicopters, dropping troops off around the homes and cattle pens. The soldiers moved swiftly, ordering men into the centre of the village, gunning down those trying to escape. When some armed militants fired back, the shooting intensified. Soon at least 20 civilians and a dozen alleged members of an al-Qaida affiliated Islamist group, were dead.
Continue reading...Ukraine denies Wagner claim that city has fallen and says fighting ongoing in some parts
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has arrived in Hiroshima, Japan, to attend the G7 leaders’ summit in the city.
Reuters reports that live footage broadcast by multiple media outlets showed Zelenskiy disembark from a French government aircraft.
With Russia likely maintaining relatively few uncommitted combat units in Ukraine, the redeployment represents a notable commitment by the Russian command.
Russia’s leadership likely continue to see capturing Bakhmut as the key immediate war aim which would allow them to claim some degree of success in the conflict.
Continue reading...Critics decry ‘egregious’ abuse after Fisa court shows repeated violations related to vast foreign intelligence database
FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when they searched a vast repository of foreign intelligence for information related to the January 6 insurrection and racial justice protests in 2020, according court order released Friday.
FBI officials said the thousands of violations, which also include improper searches of donors to a congressional campaign, predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and justice department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that law enforcement officials say is needed to counter terrorism, espionage and international cybercrime.
Continue reading...Leaders expected to form council that will discuss response if states such as Russia and China boycott trade for political reasons
The UK and other G7 countries are planning collective action against Russia and China if they threaten trade boycotts for political reasons, announcing a new body to deal with “economic coercion”.
Rishi Sunak will urge “bold and pragmatic collective action” against hostile states that stop trading with other countries when they disagree with their geopolitical decisions.
Continue reading...Marcelo Xavier accused of indirectly contributing on the grounds that he failed to take steps to protect workers in Amazon
Federal police have brought criminal charges against the former head of Brazil’s Indigenous protection agency for alleged acts of omission they believe indirectly paved the way for the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips in the Amazon last year.
Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro made Marcelo Xavier the head of the Indigenous agency Funai in July 2019, six months into his environmentally devastating four-year administration.
Continue reading...Salvatore Mancuso testified to peace tribunal that rightwing AUC worked hand in glove with business, military and political elite
A notorious former commander of Colombia’s largest paramilitary group has revealed new details of how rightwing death squads worked side by side with the country’s business, military and political elite to sow terror in the countryside and wipe out leftwing insurgencies.
Salvatore Mancuso told Colombia’s peace tribunal this week that state institutions were not only complicit in the expansion of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) but actively coordinated with them, giving orders to wipe out anyone suspected of aligning with communist rebels.
Continue reading...Moscow also denied consular access to detained journalist as US imposes more punitive measures in response to Ukraine invasion
Russia’s foreign ministry has said former President Barack Obama is among 500 US citizens who will be banned in response to the latest round of sanctions announced by Washington.
The ministry also said on Friday that Russia had refused the latest US request for consular access to the detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in March on suspicion of spying.
Continue reading...Korean media praises prime minister’s gesture, known as ‘manner legs’, while some Canadians say it is embarrassing country
Justin Trudeau’s hair has made international headlines, as have his fumbling handshakes and propensity to appear shirtless when cameras are near. Now, the Canadian prime minister’s well-mannered legs are getting their moment in the spotlight
Ahead of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Trudeau and a delegation of Canadian ministers were in South Korea to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as an attempt to salvage a multibillion-dollar battery plant deal.
Continue reading...Former Pakistan prime minister says ‘fascist tactics’ employed by those in power
Imran Khan has alleged his party and followers are facing an unprecedented crackdown, as thousands have been swept up in arrests and hundreds face trial in military courts.
When violence erupted in Pakistan last week, after the arrest of the former prime minister on corruption charges, the government and the military vowed stringent action against all those who took part in the attacks on dozens of government buildings and military leaders’ homes and headquarters. At least nine people were killed in the violence and hundreds injured.
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