Chinese research ship spotted in Japanese EEZ
Japan Coast Guard vessel PS206 Houou sails in front of Uotsuri island, one of the disputed islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea August 18, 2013. Boats carrying about 20 members of a Japanese nationalist group headed back to port on Sunday after sailing near tiny islands in the East China Sea that are at the centre of a dispute between Japan and China. The boats ships were surrounded by about 10 Japanese coast guard vessels when they approached within 1 nautical mile of the islands on Sunday morning. Coast guard crews in rubber boats urged them to leave through loudspeakers. REUTERS/Ruairidh Villar (JAPAN - Tags: MARITIME POLITICS) |
Japan Coast Guard vessel PS206 Houou sails in front of Uotsuri island, one of the disputed islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea August 18, 2013. Boats carrying about 20 members of a Japanese nationalist group headed back to port on Sunday after sailing near tiny islands in the East China Sea that are at the centre of a dispute between Japan and China. The boats ships were surrounded by about 10 Japanese coast guard vessels when they approached within 1 nautical mile of the islands on Sunday morning. Coast guard crews in rubber boats urged them to leave through loudspeakers. REUTERS/Ruairidh Villar (JAPAN - Tags: MARITIME POLITICS) A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of one of the disputed islands in the East China Sea
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Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
South Korea votes for new president after months of turmoil
South Korean voters headed to the polls to pick a new president on Tuesday, with the two leading candidates vowing to revive an ailing economy and put months of turmoil over a failed martial law attempt in the rearview mirror. The poll is effectively pitting Liberal front-runner Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party (DP) against conservative rival Kim Moon-soo of the governing People Power Party (PPP). Tuesday has been designated a public holiday, with voting precincts opening at 6 a.m. local time and due to close at 8 p.m, while South Koreans overseas were allowed to vote early from May 20 to 25. The snap election was triggered by the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, who briefly imposed martial law in December, unsettling many South Koreans who saw the move as a reminder of the country's authoritarian past. The winner must face the challenge of stabilizing the country after months of political turmoil that saw Yoon booted from office — fracturing the country along party lines and putting the South Korean economy in a state of limbo. But the results will also have far-ranging foreign policy implications, including for closer relations with Japan and the U.S., as well as soured ties with China. Depending on the victor, the result could also signal a shift in South Korea's approach to nuclear-armed North Korea. Barring an unforeseen development, observers say a victory by Lee — who has consistently led in opinion polls since entering the race — appears all but certain. Lee, who lost by a razor-thin margin to Yoon Suk Yeol in the 2022 election, held commanding leads in polls throughout the campaign, and remained ahead with 49% support against 35% for Kim Moon, one final opinion poll released by Gallup Korea on May 27 showed. Another right-leaning candidate, the Reform Party's Lee Jun-seok, received 11% support. While Kim had eroded a more than 20 percentage point gap with Lee at the start of the campaign on May 12, he failed to convince the Reform Party candidate to back him to avoid splitting the conservative vote. Exit polls released immediately after polls close could offer clarity about the winner far more quickly than the last presidential election, when the victor remained unknown until the early hours the following day. The next president — who will take office immediately for a single, five-year term and will not have the advantage of a formal transition, unlike with many prior elections — will instantly face a host of challenges. First and foremost, he will be expected to tackle a deepening economic downturn and shepherd through tough tariff negotiations with the U.S., which has slapped its South Korean ally with a 25% levy on key exports such as steel, aluminium and automobiles. In a nationwide survey conducted early last month by the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper , 40.7% of respondents cited 'revitalizing the economy and securing future growth engines' as the next president's most pressing task. Resolving social conflict and promoting national unity was a distant second at 21.7%. But there's a host of other challenges the next president will also need to face. These include the country's rapidly graying society and plummeting birthrate, an urgent demographic crisis also seen in neighboring Japan and China. Young couples and singles commonly complain about the soaring costs of child care, discrimination against working parents and gender inequality. With women making up 50.5% of South Korea's 44.39 million eligible voters, the demographic could have a sizable impact on the result despite all of the candidates remaining in the race being men — the first time since 2007 that no women are in the final lineup. South Korea has elected only one female leader: Park Geun-hye, who took office in 2013 and was impeached in 2017.
Japan Today
3 hours ago
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Colorado attack suspect charged with federal hate crime
Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, U.S. June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS By Patrick Wingrove and Rich McKay A Colorado man has been charged with a federal hate crime for his alleged role in a gasoline-bomb attack on a pro-Israeli rally in Boulder that injured eight people, according to an affidavit issued by the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday. Mohamed Sabry Soliman was already facing an array of state charges, including attempted murder, after the attack on Sunday in the city of Boulder on a group seeking to draw attention to hostages seized in Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the suspect would be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law for what was described as an "antisemitic terror attack." The affidavit, seen by Reuters, said Soliman, 45, had planned the attack for more than a year. Investigators found 14 gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails near where the suspect was detained. The police also found a gasoline canister in his car parked nearby and a weed sprayer filled with gasoline at the scene. Soliman told investigators that he had learned how to make the fire bombs from YouTube. The affidavit references a video posted on social media during the attack showing Soliman "shirtless, pacing back and forth while holding what appear to be Molotov cocktails." The suspect, who was being detained in lieu of $10 million bail, according to official records, told police he "wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead," the affidavit said. The attack was the latest act of violence aimed at Jewish Americans linked to outrage over Israel's escalating military offensive in Gaza. It followed the fatal shooting of two Israel Embassy aides that took place outside Washington's Capital Jewish Museum last month. According to the complaint, Soliman lived with his wife and five children in Colorado Springs, a city about 100 miles (161 km) south of Boulder. The affidavit says that he waited until after his daughter's graduation to conduct the attack. Few other details were available about him. Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Soliman had overstayed a tourist visa and had an expired work permit. Federal documents make no reference to his nationality but the New York Times said he was Egyptian, citing the Department of Homeland Security. The departments of Homeland Security and Justice did not respond to requests for comment. The Denver office of the FBI, which is handling the case, did not immediately respond to emails or phone calls seeking details in the case. Officials from the Boulder County Jail, Boulder Police and Boulder County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to inquiries. "There are millions of individuals like this that we are attempting to locate from the past administration that weren't properly screened that were allowed in," Lyons said during a press conference in Boston. "I will tell you that's a huge effort for ICE right now." Under former President Joe Biden, ICE prioritized arrests of serious criminals and called for officers to consider humanitarian factors when making arrests. Lyons declined to provide more information, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously said Soliman had entered the country in August 2022 and filed for asylum the following month. "The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country," the spokesperson said. U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post that such attacks would not be tolerated. "This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland," he said. Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years of age were transported to hospitals after the attack, Boulder police said. The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district near the University of Colorado, during an event organized by Run for Their Lives, an organization devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel. Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told CBS Colorado that the 88-year-old victim was a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe. Sunday's attack was not the first high-profile incident of mass violence in Boulder, a university town that attracts many young professionals and outdoor enthusiasts. In 2021, a gunman fatally shot 10 people, including an off-duty police officer, in a local supermarket. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
U.S. pushes countries for best offers by Wednesday as tariff deadline looms
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