Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises
Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises/node/2578617/world
Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pledged to elevate Japan’s ties with the United States and work closely with president-elect Donald Trump. (Reuters)
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Updated 09 November 2024
AP
Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises
Shigeru Ishiba: Security environment surrounding Japan and the international community has significantly worsened due to escalating tensions with China, Russia and North Korea
Updated 09 November 2024
AP
TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Saturday renewed a pledge to build up his country’s military and deepen its alliance with the United States under President-elect Donald Trump.
Ishiba, who made the comments at an annual troop review held at Camp Asaka in the Tokyo suburbs, said the security environment surrounding Japan and the international community has significantly worsened due to escalating tensions with China, Russia and North Korea. He pledged to reinforce Japan’s military power.
He said breaches of Japanese airspace by Chinese and Russian warplanes earlier this year “not only violated Japanese sovereignty but also threatened the safety of Japan and are absolutely unacceptable.” He said Japan faces growing threats from China’s accelerating military activity around Japanese coasts and from North Korea’s repeated missile firings.
“As we face the most severe and complex security environment, I will balance and strengthen Japan’s diplomacy and security,” Ishiba said in his speech before hundreds of troops gathered for the ceremony.
The Japan-US alliance is the lynchpin for achieving this, Ishiba said, pledging to elevate Japan’s ties with the United States and work closely with Trump as they agreed during a brief telephone conversation Thursday.
Ishiba took office on Oct. 1, replacing his unpopular predecessor Fumio Kishida but his governing coalition badly lost a recent parliamentary election and could face difficulty pursuing his party’s planned policies and budget plans in coming months.
Ishiba pledged to pursue the ongoing military buildup plan under the 2022 security strategy adopted by his predecessor, Fumio Kishida, which calls for a counter-strike capability with long-range cruise-missiles, a break from its self-defense only principle. Ishiba said he will pursue strengthening of command system to improve operation between Japanese and US troops.
After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan had prioritized economic recovery over defense under its war-renouncing constitution, but has steadily strengthened its defense capability over the past years.
Trump’s Arab American backers hail Gaza deal but worry it won’t hold
Updated 11 sec ago
Luqman and other Arab American Trump supporters who spoke to Reuters expressed guarded optimism about the recently announced agreement They are worried that Israel could violate the ceasefire, as it has done in the past in Gaza and Lebanon
DEARBORN, USA: Lifelong Democrat Samra’a Luqman became a vocal backer of Donald Trump in 2024, helping to rally support for him among the pivotal Arab American community in Dearborn, Michigan, in the hope that he could end the Gaza war. Now, after Trump helped to broker a ceasefire deal, Luqman feels thrilled and a bit vindicated after months of backlash from neighbors angry over Trump’s support for Israel. “It’s almost an ‘I told you so moment,’” said Luqman, who is Yemeni American. “No other president would have been able to force Bibi to approve the ceasefire,” she said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Luqman and other Arab American Trump supporters who spoke to Reuters expressed guarded optimism about the recently announced agreement, but said they worried that Israel could violate the ceasefire, as it has done in the past in Gaza and Lebanon. “We’re all holding our breath,” said Mike Hacham, a Lebanese American political consultant and Dearborn resident who campaigned hard for Trump in 2024. “I gotta give credit where credit is due ... but this isn’t a peace deal. It’s just the end of a bloody war and those lives that were lost on the Israeli side and the Palestinian side aren’t going to be brought back.”
GUARDED OPTIMISM OVER GAZA BUT MISTRUST OF ISRAEL Israeli airstrikes in Qatar and other Arab nations in recent months fueled deep mistrust of Israel among Michigan’s more than 300,000 people of Arab heritage. But the agreement is the biggest step yet to end two years of war that Palestinian health authorities have said killed more than 67,000 people in Gaza. In addition to a ceasefire, the deal calls for releasing the last 20 of 250 hostages seized by Hamas when it started the war with the October 7, 2023, attacks that killed more than 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government. It comes after months of deepening frustration among Arab Americans over what they see as Trump’s failure to rein in Netanyahu and end the war. Trump’s renewed ban on travel from several majority-Muslim countries and crackdowns on freedom of speech targeting pro-Palestinian protesters have also unnerved many, according to more than a dozen Arab American voters who backed Trump in Michigan last year and spoke to Reuters in recent weeks. Many of those interviewed also felt disappointed that their community’s support — thousands of votes that helped to push Trump to victory in Michigan — did not translate into more senior high-profile posts for Arab Americans and Muslims in his administration. It remains unclear whether the ceasefire deal will sway skeptical voters as Trump’s Republicans face competitive congressional and gubernatorial elections in Michigan next year, as well as the 2028 presidential election. Hacham said Trump would be hailed as a “champion of peace” after brokering the Gaza ceasefire, but added that Arab American voters could turn against him and other Republicans if it fails. “We are willing to abandon the Republicans and move back to the Democrats,” Hacham said. “We’ve shown Donald Trump that we have the power to swing whichever way we want.”
ANGER OVER GAZA FUELED SWITCH TO TRUMP Trump won Michigan by more than 80,000 votes in 2024, reversing his 154,000-count loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. An October 2024 Arab American Institute poll had shown Trump favored by 42 percent of Arab Americans nationwide versus 41 percent for Kamala Harris — down 18 percentage points from Biden’s share in 2020. In addition to anger over the Gaza war, Trump’s 2024 campaign tapped into concerns raised by some conservative community members about Democrats’ defense of transgender rights, Luqman said. She expected those voters probably would stick with Republicans. But a larger group of Arab Americans voted for Trump in 2024 “out of spite” at Democrats, and their continued support for the Republican Party likely depends on what happens with Gaza, Luqman said. “I don’t think they’ve found their political home with the Republicans just yet,” she said, adding that Trump’s pressure on Netanyahu could “solidify support for JD Vance in the next election and for the midterms for any Republicans that run.” Imam Belal Alzuhairi joined Trump on stage in Michigan just days before the 2024 election, alongside 22 other clerics, convinced that he offered the best chance for peace, but he said many Yemeni Americans later grew disenchanted after Trump reimposed a travel ban on many Muslim countries. “Now, a lot of people are very upset. They are fearing for themselves and their families. There’s a mistrust after the travel ban,” he said. After facing personal backlash for his endorsement, the Yemeni American cleric says he is pulling out of “soul-consuming” politics to focus on religion and his family.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVES TO TAMP DOWN FRUSTRATION Special envoy Richard Grenell, a Michigan native tapped by Trump to lead his outreach to Arab American and Muslim voters, returned to the Detroit area last month for his first in-person meetings with community leaders since November. His mission? To tamp down the mounting frustration and prevent Arab Americans from swinging to the Democratic Party, as they did after Republican President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. Alzuhairi, Luqman and a dozen others grilled Grenell at a coffeehouse in Dearborn over the travel ban and US arms sales to Israel. At a separate session, he was asked why the administration is not doing more to help Christians in Iraq. Grenell, former acting director of intelligence during Trump’s first term, told Reuters the dialogue was important. “I continue to believe that the Arab and Muslim communities in Michigan are the key to winning the state,” Grenell said. “I know these leaders well and they want and deserve access to political decision makers.” Although Grenell faced tough questions from Arab American leaders during four events in the Detroit area, he said he would remain closely engaged, and emphasized Trump’s commitment to peace around the world. “You can’t show up right before an election and expect to be a credible voice for any community,” he told Reuters. Ali Aljahmi, a 20-year-old Yemeni American who helped to galvanize young Arab Americans for Trump with a video viewed nearly 1 million times on X, credited him for coming to Dearborn twice during the 2024 campaign. But it’s too soon to predict the next election, said Aljahmi, whose family operates four restaurants in the Detroit area. “Trump promised a lot,” he said. “Okay, you came and showed your face, but I still think it’s a mixture. Three years from now, we’ll see what they’re doing.”
Madagascar army contingent calls on security forces to ‘refuse orders’/node/2618528/world
Madagascar army contingent calls on security forces to ‘refuse orders’
“Let us join forces, military, gendarmes and police, and refuse to be paid to shoot our friends, our brothers and our sisters,” soldiers said in a video
They called on soldiers in other camps to “refuse orders to shoot your friends“
Updated 56 min 49 sec ago
AFP
ANTANANARIVO: A Madagascar army contingent near the capital on Saturday called on soldiers and security units to “join forces” and “refuse orders to shoot” at protesters, while several thousand marched in the capital.
The United Nations on Friday called on the Madagascar authorities to avoid unnecessary force against protesters, after several were injured in clashes with police the day before.
“Let us join forces, military, gendarmes and police, and refuse to be paid to shoot our friends, our brothers and our sisters,” soldiers of a large military base in Soanierana district, on the outskirts of Antananarivo, said in a video released Saturday morning.
They called on soldiers in other camps to “refuse orders to shoot your friends.”
“Close the gates and await our instructions,” they said. “Do not obey orders from your superiors. Point your weapons at those who order you to fire on your comrades-in-arms, because they will not take care of our families if we die.”
It was unclear how many soldiers had joined the call on Saturday.
In 2009, the military base in Soanierana led a mutiny in a popular uprising that brought the current president, Andry Rajoelina, to power.
The newly appointed minister of the armed forces called on troops to “remain calm” in a press conference Saturday.
“We call on our brothers who disagree with us to prioritize dialogue,” Minister General Deramasinjaka Manantsoa Rakotoarivelo said.
“The Malagasy army remains a mediator and constitutes the nation’s last line of defense,” he said.
Russian attack cuts power to parts of Ukraine’s Odesa region
Kiper said: “Power engineers are making every effort to fully restore power supply“
Russia denies targeting civilians and says Ukraine uses the energy sites to power its military sector
Updated 11 October 2025
AFP
KYIV: An overnight Russian attack left parts of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region without power early Saturday, the latest strike to target Ukraine’s energy system ahead of winter, authorities said.
Authorities did not say how many people the latest power cut affected, but Ukrainian energy firm DTEK reported outages in parts of the region’s capital. DTEK later said it had restored power to over 240,000 households in the region.
“Last night, the enemy attacked energy and civilian infrastructure in the Odesa region,” regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.
“Power engineers are making every effort to fully restore power supply,” he added.
Moscow has targeted Ukraine’s energy grid each winter since it invaded in 2022, cutting power and heating to millions of households and disrupting water supply in what Kyiv says is a brazen war crime.
Russia denies targeting civilians and says Ukraine uses the energy sites to power its military sector. Kyiv says the strikes are primarily aimed against civilians.
Saturday’s outages come a day after a large-scale Russian strike cut electricity to large parts of the capital Kyiv and nine other regions.
DTEK said early Saturday it had restored power to over 800,000 households in the capital following that attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Friday’s Russian strikes as a “record for villainy” and called for Western countries to increase sanctions on Moscow.
“This is the third SBU deep strike in Bashkortostan in the last month,” the source said
Updated 11 October 2025
Reuters
KYIV: Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Bashneft oil refinery in Ufa, causing explosions and a fire, a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters on Saturday.
Strike on Bashneft refinery in Ufa, AVT-5 unit was damaged, - CyberBoroshno
AVT unit is the primary oil refining unit, which is key in the production process, and without which further processing is impossible.
— MAKS 25 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA)
“This is the third SBU deep strike in Bashkortostan in the last month — 1,400 kilometers from Ukraine. Such strikes demonstrate that there are no safe places in the deep rear of the Russian Federation,” the source said.
France’s re-appointed prime minister Lecornu calls for calm amid political chaos
Lecornu called for calm and for the support of political parties
“I don’t think there were a lot of candidates,″ Lecornu told reporters Saturday
Updated 11 October 2025
AP
L’HAY-LES-ROSES, France: France’s newly re-appointed prime minister acknowledged Saturday that there weren’t "a lot of candidates" for his job — and that he might not last long in the post given the country’s deep political divides.
Sebastien Lecornu, renamed by President Emmanuel Macron late Friday after a week of political chaos, called for calm and for the support of political parties to produce a budget for the European Union’s No. 2 economy before looming deadlines.
His appointment is seen as Macron’s last chance to reinvigorate his second term, which runs until 2027. His centrist camp lacks a majority in the National Assembly and he is facing increasing criticism even within its ranks.
But rivals from far right to far left slammed Macron’s decision to rename Lecornu, France’s fourth prime minister in barely a year. France is struggling with mounting economic challenges and ballooning debt, and the political crisis is aggravating its troubles and raising alarm across the European Union.
“I don’t think there were a lot of candidates,″ Lecornu told reporters Saturday during a visit to a police station in the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses.
Lecornu, who resigned Monday after just a month on the job, said he agreed to come back because of the urgent need to find financial solutions for France. But he said he would only stay as long as ″conditions are met,″ and seemed to acknowledge the risk that he could be brought down in a no-confidence vote by the fractured parliament.
″Either political forces help me and we accompany each other ... or they won’t,″ he said.
He wouldn’t say when he expects to form a new government or who could be in it, but has said it wouldn’t include anyone angling for the 2027 presidential election. He didn’t address opposition demands to scrap a contentious law raising the retirement age.
Over the past year, Macron’s successive minority governments have collapsed in quick succession, leaving France mired in political paralysis as it faces a debt crisis that has worried markets and EU partners, and a growing poverty rate.
