News of the World

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ASIAN NEWS

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US approves sale of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Japan

The US State Department has approved a possible sale of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Japan and notified Congress of its decision.

The department gave the greenlight for the sale of up to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles to Japan on Friday.

The estimated total cost including the system's related equipment is 2.35 billion dollars.

The approval came after an agreement last month between Japanese Defense Minister Kihara Minoru and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. They agreed to Japan's plan to acquire the missiles starting in the fiscal year that begins in April 2025. The weapons are currently deployed mainly by US forces.

The Tomahawk is a US-developed guided cruise missile with the capability to strike targets with high precision.

So if you wonder why Japan would desperately need such missiles nowadays, just read the following article.

Cambodia inaugurates new China-backed airport

Officials in Cambodia inaugurated the country's biggest airport on Thursday. The facility was constructed with the help of a Chinese loan. It is being hailed as a new gateway to one of the nation's most important tourist attractions, Angkor Wat.

Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport is located about 40 kilometers east of the Angkor Wat temple complex. It is designed to handle seven million passengers a year. There are also plans to expand the facility. It will be able to serve up to 12 million travelers by 2040.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet attended the inauguration ceremony with a Chinese delegation.
He said that the airport represents the fruit of peace. He added that it is a product of the friendship between Cambodia and China.

The 1.1 billion dollar project is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Whenever they talk about the Belt and Road Initiative, think on a modern version of that ancient Silk Road and Marco Polo the explorer.

Australia: Sonar from Chinese warship injured Australian naval divers

Australia's defense ministry has criticized a Chinese military destroyer for engaging in "unsafe and unprofessional conduct." It says Australian naval divers were injured when the Chinese vessel used sonar in an area where they were operating.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles issued a statement on Saturday. He said an Australian frigate was in international waters inside Japan's exclusive economic zone on Tuesday when it stopped to clear away fishing nets that had become entangled around its propellers.

Marles said the Chinese destroyer approached the Australian vessel while diving operations were underway. He said the Australian side informed the Chinese ship that divers were operating in the area and asked the ship to stay clear. But the minister said the ship used its sonar in a manner that posed a risk to the safety of the Australian divers. Marles said the divers sustained minor injuries.

New York City tourism officials hold promotional event in Tokyo

Tourism officials from New York City have held a promotional event in Tokyo aimed at attracting more Japanese travelers to the Big Apple.

Japanese travel agents and media personnel were among the attendees at Friday's event, which featured hip-hop music to mark the 50th anniversary of the genre's birth in New York.

City officials said New York is seeing a major rebound in domestic and international tourism as the world emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.

They also said that the city's airports and tourism infrastructure are being revamped.

The officials predict that the number of Japanese travelers to New York this year will be less than 60 percent of the level in 2019, before the pandemic.

They have a mayor accused of corruption, immigration gone out of control, a  rat plague that made them hire a rat terminator of sorts, oh and its budget has a deficit because people are leaving the city for good.

Nonetheless, they organize such a promotional event abroad days after the mayor had visited Mexico to tell them not to visit NYC.  How come?

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Spanish Civil War? Dozens of Retired Military Officers Call on Army to Remove Socialist Prime Minister over Catalan Separatist Amnesty Deal

Amid large-scale protests and warnings of “civil war” over the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez’s move to push for amnesty for politicians and activists in the Catalonian separatist movement, many of whom were accused of sedition and rebellion after seeking to launch an independence referendum in 2017 for which they were removed from office and figures such as former Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont fled the country to avoid prosecution.

While Sánchez even admitted before the July elections that giving amnesty to the separatists would likely be unconstitutional, he struck the bargain with the regional separatist parties to form a coalition government after his Socialist Workers Party of Spain (PSOE) came in second behind the centre-right People’s Party (PP) which despite securing the most votes fell short of enough seats to form a government of its own.

The decision by Sánchez to side with the separatists in a craven attempt to cling to power has re-opened the deep political divisions from the 2017 constitutional crisis and has seen millions of Spaniards take to the streets over the past weeks.

Ahead of the prime minister being sworn in again before King Felipe VI at the Zarzuela Palace, a group of 51 retired military officers released a “manifesto” calling for the Spanish Armed Forces to remove Sánchez from office and launch fresh elections.

French Senator Accused of Drugging Fellow Lawmaker in Attempted Rape

Joel Guerriau, a 66-year-old representing the Loire-Atlantique region in western France, was detained for 48 hours and given preliminary charges Friday, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

He is suspected of putting ecstasy in a glass of Champagne he served parliament member Sandrine Josso, who left after she started feeling sick, according to French media reports. The incident occurred Tuesday evening in the senator’s apartment.

His lawyer said Guerriau didn’t intend to drug Josso to abuse her and has apologized to her. In a statement, lawyer Remi-Pierre Drai said “it was a handling error” that caused the lawmaker to fall ill. He did not elaborate.

“Joel Guerriau is not a predator,” the lawyer said. “He is an honest, respected and respectable man who will restore his honor and that of his family however long it takes.”

Guerriau was given preliminary charges of use and possession of drugs, and of secretly administering a discernment-altering substance to commit a rape or sexual assault. He was released under judicial supervision and barred from contact with the victim and witnesses while the investigation continues.

Preliminary charges under French law mean investigating magistrates have strong reason to suspect wrongdoing but allow more time before determining whether to send a case to trial.

Italy Officially Bans Sale of Lab-Grown Meat

Voting by a measure of 159 to 53, the Italian parliament voted to prohibit the sale of lab-grown meat for food or animal feed that was “produced from cell or tissue cultures deriving from vertebrate animals”.

The legislation also prohibits plant-based protein substitutes from using meat-related terms on their packaging or marketing, thereby outlawing the use of phrases like veggie “hamburger” or soy “meatballs”, the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper reported.

Fines ranging from 10,000 to 60,000 euros, or 10 per cent of annual turnover with a maximum of 150,000 euros, will be imposed on those who violate the ban on selling lab-grown meat.

Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy party, said in comments reported by the BBC: “We are safeguarding our food, our system of nutrition, by maintaining the relationship between food, land and human labour that we have enjoyed for millennia.”

“We have to protect our workers, our agricultural entrepreneurs and citizens who have the right to eat well,” he added.

20,000 Military Age Ukrainian Men Fled Abroad to Avoid Conscription, Another 20,000 Caught at Border

Huge numbers of young Ukrainian men fled the country to avoid being drafted in the army to fight Russia, a report states, with many swimming border rivers or walking cross-country to avoid detection.

Under Ukraine’s martial law, for the vast majority of Ukrainian males, it has been illegal to leave the country since the Russian invasion, a step taken by Kyiv to maintain its access to conscripts for the fight against Moscow’s occupation. Yet figures reveal tens of thousands have attempted to flee and avoid fighting.

Data from the border services of Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia acquired for an investigation by British state broadcaster the BBC claims 19,740 men aged between 18 and 60 are known to have “illegally crossed” into their territories from Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion last year. In addition to those that made it to a European neighbour, the Ukrainian government has claimed 21,113 people trying to flee Ukraine illegally have been caught during the war.

In all, the figures from Ukraine and its Western neighbours amount to some 40,853 Ukrainians who are known to have at least attempted to escape conscription and the war, a number of men equivalent to an entire medium-sized European army such as that of Romania or Hungary.

According to the BBC report, getting out of Ukraine saw many walk across the land border to Moldova, and others swim across Ukraine’s border rivers. In some cases, those who attempted to swim out of Ukraine drowned, it was noted. It was reported last year that others had frozen to death while trying to cross the Carpathian mountains to Romania.

Russian artist sentenced over antiwar price-tag protest

A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced a Russian artist to seven years in prison for replacing supermarket price tags with messages protesting the invasion of Ukraine.

Alexandra Skochilenko was convicted on Thursday of spreading false information about the military. She was arrested in April last year, one month after a legal revision made the charge punishable with a prison term.

Russian media say one of the replaced price tags accused the military of bombing an arts school in Mariupol in eastern Ukraine where 400 people were taking shelter.

Skochilenko admitted swapping the price tags. She said she was not a terrorist but a pacifist, and that her arrest was unjust.

Her supporters chanted "disgrace" after the court found her guilty.