Tag: politics

President Joe Biden’s campaign released its first television ad for the 2024 election on Thursday, warning of an “extremist” threat to democracy over images of the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The advertisement, entitled “Cause,” will get its first network showing on Saturday, the third anniversary of the historic assault by Donald Trump supporters which left five people dead. “All of us are being asked right now, what will we do to maintain our democracy?” the 81-year-old Democrat says in a passage lifted from a speech he gave in Arizona last year. “There’s something dangerous happening in America. There’s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy,” says the ad, released early on social media. During the one-minute ad, Biden...

Former US president Donald Trump’s businesses received at least US$7.8 million from foreign governments including China during his time in the White House, a congressional report claimed Thursday. Officials from Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey and Democratic Republic of Congo were among some 20 countries’ representatives who paid money to Trump’s hotel and real estate businesses during his presidency, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee wrote in their report. The authors claim that such revenues from overseas governments violated a constitutional ban on “foreign emoluments.” “As President, Donald Trump accepted more than US$7.8 million in payments from foreign states and their leaders, including some of the world’s most unsavoury regimes,” said the report titled “White Hou...

President Xi Jinping vowed today to resolutely prevent anyone from “splitting Taiwan from China in any way”, the official Xinhua news agency reported, a little more than two weeks before Taiwan elects a new leader. China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei, and has ramped up military and political pressure to assert its sovereignty claims. Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on January 13 and how the island handles relations with China is a major point of contention on the campaign trail. At a symposium commemorating the 130th anniversary of the birth of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, who in 1949 defeated the Republic of China government in a civil war which then fled to Taiw...

Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai went on trial in Hong Kong Monday for national security charges that could see him jailed for life, with the United States and Britain demanding his release. Lai, 76, stands accused of “collusion” with foreign forces under a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on the finance hub in 2020. He is the founder of the now-shuttered Chinese-language tabloid Apple Daily, which often criticised Beijing and supported the huge protest movement that roiled Hong Kong in 2019. The trial — scheduled to be heard in open court over the next 80 working days — will be closely watched as a barometer for Hong Kong’s political freedoms and judicial independence. A rags-to-riches millionaire who made his fortune selling clothes before expandin...

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida replaced four ministers Thursday as the unpopular leader reels from a major corruption scandal in the ruling party. The furore centres on alleged kickbacks of 500 million yen ($3.4 million) in the faction-riven Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed the world’s third-largest economy almost uninterrupted for decades. Media reports suggested that prosecutors would begin raiding offices and interviewing dozens of lawmakers later this week. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno was replaced by former foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, a high-ranking member of Kishida’s LDP faction. Ken Saito replaced Yasutoshi Nishimura as Economy and Industry Minister while Takeaki Matsumoto returned to his old post as internal affairs min...

The ruling by the court in releasing, as well as discharging not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) of several politicians and prominent figures from criminal charges has sparked a firestorm of argument among the public. The twists and turns of events during the proceedings of the cases have sided with this notable personnel, resulting in the charges that had been hanging over their head for years being disposed of. Among them are Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (picture), former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Kinabatangan Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin and his wife Datin Seri Zizie Izette Abdul Samad, as well as former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) audit tampering case. O...

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to reshuffle his cabinet Thursday in a bid to contain a funding scandal that threatens the future of his struggling government. The premier’s expected to replace four ministers who are among those accused of concealing income from fundraising events, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who has been a key player in Japan’s efforts to revive its semiconductor industry. Former Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will replace Matsuno, the Asahi newspaper said. Nishimura told reporters Thursday he has submitted his resignation. The step comes as reports from the Yomiuri newspaper and other media say prosecutors are preparing to raid the offices of lawmakers under suspicion, who are a...