From ‘love hotel’ meetings to abuse, Japanese politicians get mired in scandals

From ‘love hotel’ meetings to abuse, Japanese politicians get mired in scandals

As Japan grapples with an uncertain leadership transition, a rash of domestic scandals risks further contributing to its political circus. In recent months, a female mayor has been accused of repeatedly taking a male subordinate to a nearby “love hotel”, another dissolved a city council after it was discovered that she had falsified her academic records, and a male mayor from Okinawa is accused of sexually harassing female staff. Elsewhere, a female mayor stepped down after being accused of...

The Nobel Peace Prize should now be called the Nobel war prize

The Nobel Peace Prize should now be called the Nobel war prize

Donald Trump is reportedly furious that he didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, it went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. But if the US president could see beyond his megalomania for a moment, he would realise that the Norwegian Nobel Committee has bent over backwards to placate his administration. The far-right Machado, after all, was nominated by Trump’s own Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he was still a senator, and former national security adviser and now US...

Trump says US strike on another alleged drug boat off Venezuela kills 6

Trump says US strike on another alleged drug boat off Venezuela kills 6

The United States struck another small boat accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, killing six people, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday. Those who died in the strike were aboard the vessel, and no US forces were harmed, the president said in a social media post. It was the fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean as Trump’s administration has asserted it was treating alleged drug traffickers as unlawful combatants who must be met with military force. US Defence Secretary...