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Responding to a Guardian report that revealed thousands of tonnes of fuel was transported to Russia, Seoul said it was investigating the casesSouth Korea will take legal action if it finds that shipments of fuel from its ports to Russia broke domestic law, the government has said, responding to a Guardian report on the trade.The government, in a statement issued by the foreign and trade ministries and the customs service, said that it is “checking additional information concerning the loading cases reported by the Guardian” and “if the verification establishes that our laws and regulations have been violated, it plans to act in accordance with the law”. Continue reading...

Investigators probe Asahi, Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo breweries – which together control more than 90% of Japan’s beer marketJapanese authorities have raided the country’s four biggest breweries over suspicions they colluded to set the price of beer and other beverages – a practice media reports said could have forced drinkers to pay over the odds.Officials from the Fair Trade Commission this week searched the offices of Asahi Breweries, Kirin Brewery, Suntory Beer and Sapporo Breweries – which together control more than 90% of the domestic market. The quartet are suspected of violating the anti-monopoly law. Continue reading...

NGOs in Indonesian Borneo file class action lawsuit calling for government to better manage annual fires and The Indonesian government has been accused of “gross negligence” in a class action lawsuit over its handling of wildfires that have cloaked large parts of South-east Asia in a toxic haze, shuttered schools and caused a spike in respiratory illnesses.The lawsuit, filed by indigenous and civil society groups in the Indonesian part of Borneo, named President Prabowo Subianto and the governor of West Kalimantan among 10 defendants. The case seeks comprehensive recovery and rehabilitation measures that would include covering the healthcare costs of residents. Continue reading...

The Trump administration's seemingly flippant response to a new plague discovered in Russia left two political analysts stupefied Wednesday. Last week, the World Health Organization reported the discovery of a pneumonic plague in Russia after a 28-year-old lab worker died. Russian authorities have denied the cause of the lab worker's death, although the case has raised a specter of concern about another COVID-19-like plague spreading across the globe. In turn, Trump officials have been quick to dismiss concerns about the plague. For instance, Trump claimed that pneumonia has "gotten stronger" over the years and the administration "will help them." Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration is "watching and monitoring it closely."The answers from the administration officials stupefied former Obama administration staffers Tommy Vietor and Ben Rhodes, who discussed it on a new episode of their podcast, "Pod Save the World.""As we learned in COVID, transparency is your only friend when you're dealing with these types of things," Rhodes said. "And if you have these discrepancies between local authorities and the Kremlin, it makes you wonder what in the world you can trust, and that's concerning.""This is just highlighting, once again, that when you have a breakdown in geopolitical trust ... you just feel like this stuff happens and you hope it doesn't get worse because it doesn't seem like Trump, or Rubio, or the World Health Organization are going to share information to keep this thing in a box," Rhodes added. Vietor took issue with the way Trump communicates with the American public about it. "Trump is a g------- idiot," Vietor said.

Donald Trump’s suggestion that he would let Iran attack Los Angeles or San Diego at a Nebraska rally on Monday night led MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire to raise the possibility that the president might be teasing out something.During a “Morning Joe” panel discussion that focused an extensive amount of time on Trump telling the crowd, “They [Iran] can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego," Lemire added a warning.Asserting Trump is “…trying to justify a failed war of choice, a war that has made the economic situation for most Americans worse and there's no end in sight,” Lemire continued, "Despite what he claims, he's saddling Republicans with another unpopular issue.”“They're going to be asked about this,” he predicted.“Now, also, we know President Trump has next to no filter,” he observed. “He's blurting something out of nowhere about Los Angeles or San Diego. Is it possible he received some sort of briefing that there's actually a threat against one of those cities, and he's now just saying that? Or at the very least, this is now yet another moment of where there is no bottom.” - YouTube youtu.be

A glib rally comment by Donald Trump on Monday night that he would be fine with Iran bombing either Los Angeles or San Diego set off a call for his impeachment on MS NOW on Tuesday morning.Speaking in Grand Island, Nebraska, the American president made an off-the-cuff remark when talking about the cost of the war, telling the applauding crowd it was “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe."“They can take out a city,” he continued before adding, “Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.”After sharing the clip on “Morning Joe,” the hosts said the president’s defenders were already dismissing the comment as a “joke” no one should take seriously.They were not amused.“President Trump last night in Nebraska, again, trying to justify the higher prices Americans are paying for fuel and other goods, while also just casually calling for Iran to attack two of the most populous cities in the United States, “ co-host Mike Brzezinski remarked.Co-host Joe Scarborough added, “Yeah. You know, there will be some, ‘Oh, he's just joking. He's just —.' Well, okay, well, great. Tell me then, please, what other American president in our history post-Civil War, have called for the destruction of entire cities — joking. If this is your joke, this is your idea of a presidential joke, joking about the killing of 10 million or so people? Is that, is that where we are?”“I don't get when the president of the United States says Iran can obliterate Los Angeles and San Diego — not funny — if you're an American who actually believes that presidents should do more than divide us,” he added.Co-host Willie Geist pointed out, “As you say, Joe, it goes without saying that if any other president, especially a Democrat, let's say Barack Obama, for example, or Joe Biden made that joke, there would be outrage across the board and maybe calls for impeachment.”“Well, of course there would be calls for impeachment,” Scarborough agreed, “if he called for the obliteration of, say, Jacksonville or Birmingham, or if it were a Democratic president calling for the obliteration of Republican cities. Of course, of course, there would be immediate calls for impeachment.” - YouTube youtu.be

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board warned Monday that China is not living up to the rosy picture President Donald Trump painted after Chinese president Xi Jinping visited the White House. Xi's visit to the White House marked the first time a Chinese leader has set foot in America in more than a decade. Following the visit, the Trump administration put up pictures of Xi and Trump around the White House and Trump made fawning posts about his Chinese counterpart on his Truth Social account. However, the Wall Street Journal's editors noted there is evidence that China is not behaving like a newfound ally of the U.S. The editors issued a stark warning to Trump in a new editorial on Monday about the recent arrest of a Chinese spy on American soil. "The phrase of the hour in Washington is that the Trump Administration wants 'strategic stability' with China, and it’s a nice aspiration," the editorial reads in part. "But the Chinese Communist Party isn’t behaving like a force for peace in the world, and the latest evidence is Beijing’s alleged spying in the U.S. on the son of Taiwan’s president."The editorial pointed to the FBI's recent arrest of a 34-year-old woman who was charged with "[surveilling] the Taiwanese President’s son and his family—filming their home, vehicles," and reporting information back to someone connected to the Chinese Communist Party. China's interest in spying on a member of the Taiwanese president's family is easy to understand, the editorial argues. What's more difficult is the lack of pushback from the Trump administration. "Mr. Lai’s son appears to be living in the U.S. and working in Washington state. No doubt the Communist Party wants to collect information about Mr. Lai’s family that it could exploit to blackmail or harm the President and his party in Taiwan," the WSJ editors wrote. "And it is notable, if not a great surprise, that Beijing is brazen enough to think that it can get away with something like this in the U.S. homeland.""No matter President Xi Jinping’s pronouncements about steady relations with the U.S., what matters is Beijing’s conduct. China acts against U.S. interests around the globe, including on American soil.

President Donald Trump's critics sounded off on Monday after the president tried to shift blame for high gas prices onto a U.S. ally. Trump has repeatedly tried to blame Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil refineries for the surge in gas prices, especially diesel fuel. He attempted to cast blame on Ukraine again in a Truth Social post on Monday, suggesting that continued aggression between the two countries has done more to increase prices than Trump's disastrous war in Iran, which caused an economically damaging fight over the Strait of Hormuz. "What's driving up Gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, 'Refineries,' where Russia's are being blown up by Ukraine, and where ours are being closed up, in Blue States, like California, by the Dumocrats (sic)," Trump posted. The president's wild claim was posted at a time when the national average for a gallon of gas was $4.36 for regular and $6.23 for diesel. Political analysts and observers reacted to Trump's post on social media. "Here’s a thought. If it really is because of Ukraine’s response to the illegal Russian invasion, then why doesn’t Trump tell Putin to get back in his box and end the war? A war Trump said he would end on Day 1. Gas prices are all Trump’s fault, whichever way you look at it," Greg Bagwell, president of the U.K. Air & Space Power Association, posted on X. "Trump admits he is causing the diesel shortage (and global food insecurity), as U.S. military is funding Ukraine, supplying it with weapons and Intel to target Russia," Christine Duhaime, a fomer anti-fraud officer, posted on X. "When the President has to explain that it’s actually our proxy war in Eastern Europe, not our regime change war in the Middle East, that’s driving up the cost of living for hardworking Americans, it should be evident to everyone that our foreign policy does not serve the American people," Joe Kent, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted on X.