Japan: Prime Minister Fumio Kishida set to resign

Today's headlines: A prominent Pakistani general linked to former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been arrested. Doctors stage protests in India. The Chinese foreign minister travels to Myanmar. Elections are underway in Kiribati.

JAPAN

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced this morning that he will not run for the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), preparing the ground for his resignation after months of scandals, the latest related to funds raised illegally by some party members. Traditionally, the leader of the majority party is chosen as prime minister. “As a first step to impress on the public that the LDP has changed, I have decided not to run in the presidential race,” Kishida said at a press conference. It seems that the party asked Kishida not to seek re-election because of collapsing voters’ support.

PAKISTAN

Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, former head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's notorious spy agency, has been arrested on charges of abuse of power and other offences and will face court martial. This is a rare case of a high-ranking officer to be arrested. Lt Gen Hameed had close ties to former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been in prison for over a year after falling out of favour with the army, but according to some, the arrest could be a settlement of scores within the military.

INDIA

Indian doctors are protesting in several cities across the country after the body of a 31-year-old trainee was found in Kolkata last week. According to the autopsy, the victim was raped before she was killed. The protests have provided doctors an opportunity to speak out against the precarious conditions in which they find themselves in public hospitals, where overcrowding often leads to violence.

MYANMAR – CHINA

Several rumours began circulating yesterday about the replacement of the head of Myanmar’s military junta, General Min Aung Hlaing. The information, however, has not been confirmed. Meanwhile, China has announced that Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Myanmar today and then go to Thailand. In recent weeks, Chinese and Myanmar representatives have held several meetings.

KIRIBATI

The small nation of Kiribati goes to the polls today. The strategic archipelago is relatively close to Hawaii and controls more than 3.5 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean. In 2019 President Taneti Maamau broke off diplomatic ties with Taiwan to get development funding from China, which later also sent its own police force to Kiribati, raising concerns in the United States.

TURKMENISTAN

Turkmenistan recently banned forced employment of minors in the cotton industry; instead, before the new school year starts, it has conscripted teachers and students to go into the fields together with soldiers and state employees upon threat of dismissal, since it cannot give up the main source of state revenue after gas and oil.

RUSSIA

At the behest of the Moscow Patriarchate, a granite bust will be installed in front of the church of Saint Alexander Nevsky in the northern city of Pskov on a 3.5-meter pedestal representing the priest Alexander Tsyganov, who died during fighting in Ukraine. Across Russia, other monuments are being erected to commemorate military chaplains-martyrs.

• japan
• pakistan
• myanmar
• china
• kiribati
• turkmenistan
• russia