Bangladesh opens trial of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
DHAKA (AP) -- A special tribunal set up to try Bangladesh's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began proceedings Sunday by accepting the charges against humanity filed against her in connection with a mass uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year.
Accepting the charges, the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal directed investigators to produce Hasina, a former home minister and a former police chief before the court on June 16.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
South Koreans Vote for New President in Wake of Yoon's Ouster over Martial Law
The Associated Press South Korea's Democratic Party's presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, arrives for a presidential election campaign in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, June 2, 2025. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Millions of South Koreans are voting Tuesday for a new president in a snap election triggered by the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who now faces an explosive trial on rebellion charges over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. Pre-election surveys suggested Yoon's liberal archrival, Lee Jae-myung, appeared headed for an easy win, riding on deep public frustration over the conservatives in the wake of Yoon's martial law debacle. The main conservative candidate, Kim Moon Soo, has struggled to win over moderate, swing voters as his People Power Party remains in a quagmire of internal feuding over how to view Yoon's actions. This election serves as another defining moment in the country's resilient democracy, but observers worry a domestic divide worsened after Yoon's martial law stunt is far from over and could pose a big political burden on the new president. The past six months saw large crowds of people rallying in the streets to either denounce or support Yoon, while a leadership vacuum caused by Yoon's impeachment and ensuing formal dismissal rattled the country's high-level diplomatic activities and financial markets. The winning candidate will immediately be sworn in as president Wednesday for a single, full term of five years without the typical two-month transition period. The new president will face major challenges including a slowing economy, President Donald Trump's America-first policies and North Korea's evolving nuclear threats. Voting began at 6 a.m. at 14,295 polling stations nationwide that will close at 8 p.m. Observers say the winner could emerge as early as midnight. South Korea has 44.4 million eligible voters. As of 10 a.m., about 6 million people had cast their ballots, while more than 15 million people had already voted during a two-day early voting period last week, according to the National Election Commission. Final pitches made by rival candidates In a Facebook posting on Tuesday, Lee, whose Democratic Party led the legislative effort to oust Yoon, called for voters to 'deliver a stern and resolute judgement' against the conservatives over martial law. In one of his final campaign speeches Monday, Lee argued that a win by Kim would mean the 'the return of the rebellion forces, the destruction of democracy and the deprival of people's human rights.' He also promised to revitalize the economy, reduce inequality and ease national divisions. He urged the people to vote for him, Kim, a former labor minister under Yoon, warned that a Lee win would allow him to wield excessive power, launch political retaliation against opponents and legislate laws to protect him from various legal troubles, as his party already controls parliament. Lee 'is now trying to seize all power in South Korea and establish a Hitler-like dictatorship,' Kim told a rally in the southeastern city of Busan. Lee's positions would impact nation's direction Lee, who served as governor of Gyeonggi province and mayor of Seongnam city, has been a highly divisive figure in South Korean politics for years. As a former child laborer known for his inspirational rags-to-riches story, Lee came to fame through biting criticism of the country's conservative establishment and calls to build a more assertive South Korea in foreign policy. That rhetoric has given him an image as someone who can institute sweeping reforms and fix the country's deep-seated economic inequality and corruption. His critics view him as a dangerous populist who relies on a political division and backpedals on promises too easily. On foreign policy, Lee has not made any contentious remarks recently and has steadfastly vowed to pursue pragmatic diplomacy. He has called South Korea's alliance with the U.S. the foundation of its foreign policy and promised to solidify a trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo partnership, a stance that is not much different than the position held by South Korea's conservatives. Experts say there aren't many diplomatic options for South Korea as it tries to address Trump's tariff hikes and calls for South Korea to pay more for the cost of the U.S. military presence, as well as North Korea's headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons. Experts say that has made both Lee and Kim avoid unveiling ambitious foreign policy goals. Lee's government still could become engaged in 'a little bit of friction' with the Trump administration, while Kim's government, which prioritize relations with Washington, will likely offer more concessions to the U.S., said Chung Jin-young, a former dean of the Graduate School of Pan-Pacific International Studies at South Korea's Kyung Hee University. Chung predicted Lee won't be able to pursue overly drastic steps on foreign policy and security, given the country's foreign exchange and financial markets are very vulnerable to such changes. Lee has preached patience over Trump's tariff policy, arguing it would be a mistake to rush negotiations in pursuit of an early agreement with Washington. Kim has said he would meet Trump as soon as possible. On Monday, South Korean trade officials held an emergency meeting to discuss a response to Trump's announcement that the U.S. will raise tariffs on steel and aluminum products to 50% beginning June 4. South Korea's central bank last week sharply lowered its 2025 growth outlook to 0.8%, citing the potential impact of Trump's tariff hikes and weak domestic demand worsened by the political turmoil of past months. Prospects for improved North Korea relations are unclear Relations with North Korea remain badly strained since 2019, with the North focused on expanding its nuclear arsenal while refusing dialogues with South Korea and the U.S. Since his second term began in January, Trump has repeatedly expressed his intent to resume diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but Kim has so far ignored the offer while making Russia his priority in foreign policy. Lee, who wants warmer ties with North Korea, recently acknowledged it would be 'very difficult' to realize a summit with Kim Jong Un anytime soon. Lee said he would support Trump's push to restart talks with Kim Jong Un, which he believed would eventually allow South Korea to be involved in some projects in North Korea. Foreign policy strategists for Lee understand there isn't much South Korea can do to bring about a denuclearization of North Korea, said Paik Wooyeal, a professor at Seoul's Yonsei University. He said Lee also doesn't share the Korean nationalistic zeal held by ex-liberal President Moon Jae-in, who met Kim Jong Un three times during his 2017-22 term.
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Wall Street Drifts Higher as Oil Prices Jump and US Manufacturing Slumps
The Associated Press Traders William Lawrence, left, and Mark Mueller work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, May 29, 2025. NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted closer to their records on Monday, coming off their stellar May, which was Wall Street's best month since 2023. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% after erasing an early loss from the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 35 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.7%. Indexes had been down close to 1% in the morning following some discouraging updates on U.S. manufacturing. President Donald Trump has been warning that U.S. businesses and households could feel some pain as he tries to use tariffs to bring more manufacturing jobs back to the country, and their on-and-off rollout has created lots of uncertainty. But stocks rallied back as the day progressed, and gains for a few influential stocks helped lift the S&P 500 even though more stocks within it fell than rose. Nvidia climbed 1.7%, and Meta Platforms rose 3.6%, for example. Some of Monday's strongest action was in the oil market, where the price of crude spurted more than 3%. The countries in the OPEC+ alliance decided to increase their production again, a move that often pushes crude prices down because it puts more on the market, but analysts said investors were widely expecting it. The past weekend's attacks by Ukraine in Russia, meanwhile, helped to raise uncertainty about the flow of oil and gas around the world. Monday's market moves also came after more harsh rhetoric crossed between the world's two largest economies, just a few weeks after the United States and China had agreed to pause many of their tariffs that had threatened to drag the economy into a recession. China blasted the United States for moves that it said hurt China's interests, including issuing AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China and planning to revoke Chinese student visas. 'These practices seriously violate the consensus' reached during trade discussions in Geneva last month, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement. That followed President Donald Trump's accusation at the end of last week, where he said China was not living up to its end of the agreement that paused their tariffs against each other. Hopes for lower tariffs because of potential trade deals between Trump and other countries were the main reasons for Wall Street's big rally last month, which brought the S&P 500 back within 3.8% of its all-time high. The index had dropped roughly 20% below the mark in April. But Trump on Friday told Pennsylvania steelworkers he's doubling the tariff on steel imports to 50% to protect their industry, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, autos and other goods. That helped stocks of U.S. steelmakers climb. Nucor jumped 10.1%, and Steel Dynamics rallied 10.3%. On the losing side of Wall Street were automakers and other heavy users of steel and aluminum. Ford fell 3.9%, and General Motors reversed by 3.9%. All told, the S&P 500 rose 24.25 points to 5,935.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 35.41 to 42,305.48, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 128.85 to 19,242.61. Lyra Therapeutics soared nearly 311% for one of the market's biggest gains after reporting positive late-stage trial results of an implant to treat chronic sinus inflammation in some patients. In the bond market, Treasury yields rose as worries continue about how much debt the U.S. government will pile on due to plans to cut taxes and increase the deficit. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.44% from 4.41% late Friday and from just 4.01% roughly two months ago. That's a notable move for the bond market. Besides making it more expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money, such increases in Treasury yields can deter investors from paying high prices for stocks and other investments. Yields had dipped briefly in the morning, before rallying back, following the updates on manufacturing, which suggested that effects of Trump's tariffs are taking root in the economy. 'The impact of ever-changing trade policies of the current administration has wreaked havoc on suppliers' ability to react and remain profitable,' one manufacturer in the transportation equipment industry said in the Institute for Supply Management's survey, which came in weaker than economists expected. A separate report from S&P Global on manufacturing came in better than expected, but the overall figure 'masks worrying developments under the hood of the U.S. manufacturing economy,' said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. He said uncertainty caused by tariffs has worries high about supplier delays and rising prices. In stock markets abroad, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.6% following the harsh words tossed between the United States and China. A report over the weekend also said that China's factory activity contracted in May, although the decline slowed from April. Indexes also dipped across much of the rest of Asia and Europe. Japan's Nikkei 225 was one of the biggest movers after falling 1.3%.
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Ukraine and Russia Agree to Swap Dead and Wounded Troops but Report No Progress toward Ending War
The Associated Press The head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky, center, speaks to the media at the Ciragan Palace following the Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday, June 2, 2025. ISTANBUL (AP) — Representatives of Russia and Ukraine met Monday for their second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, but aside from agreeing to swap thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops, they made no progress toward ending the 3-year-old war, officials said. The talks unfolded a day after a string of stunning long-range attacks by both sides, with Ukraine launching a devastating drone assault on Russian air bases and Russia hurling its largest drone attack of the war against Ukraine. At the negotiating table, Russia presented a memorandum setting out the Kremlin's terms for ending hostilities, the Ukrainian delegation said. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation, told reporters that Kyiv officials would need a week to review the document and decide on a response. Ukraine proposed further talks on a date between June 20 and June 30, he said. After the talks, Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti published the text of the Russian memorandum, which suggested that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured as a condition for a ceasefire. As an alternate way of reaching a truce, the memorandum presses Ukraine to halt its mobilization efforts and freeze Western arms deliveries, conditions were suggested earlier by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The document also suggests that Ukraine stop any redeployment of forces and ban any military presence of third countries on its soil as conditions for halting hostilities. The Russian document further proposes that Ukraine end martial law and hold elections, after which the two countries could sign a comprehensive peace treaty that would see Ukraine declare its neutral status, abandon its bid to join NATO, set limits on the size of its armed forces and recognize Russian as the country's official language on par with Ukrainian. Ukraine and the West have previously rejected all those demands from Moscow. In other steps, the delegations agreed to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action and to set up a commission to exchange seriously wounded troops. Kyiv officials said their surprise drone attack Sunday damaged or destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia, including the remote Arctic, Siberian and Far East regions more than 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) from Ukraine. The complex and unprecedented raid, which struck simultaneously in three time zones, took over a year and a half to prepare and was 'a major slap in the face for Russia's military power,' said Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Ukrainian security service, who led its planning. Zelenskyy called it a 'brilliant operation' that would go down in history. The effort destroyed or heavily damaged nearly a third of Moscow's strategic bomber fleet, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia on Sunday fired the biggest number of drones — 472 — at Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine's air force said, in an apparent effort to overwhelm air defenses. That was part of a recently escalating campaign of strikes in civilian areas of Ukraine. Hopes low for peace prospects U.S.-led efforts to push the two sides into accepting a ceasefire have so far failed. Ukraine accepted the proposed truce, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war. The previous talks on May 16 in the same Turkish city were the first direct peace negotiations since the early weeks of Moscow's 2022 invasion. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the fact that the two sides met again Monday was an achievement in itself amid the fierce fighting. 'The fact that the meeting took place despite yesterday's incident is an important success in itself,' he said in a televised speech. Zelenskyy said during a trip to Lithuania on Monday that a new release of prisoners of war was being prepared after the Istanbul meeting. The May 16 talks also led to a swap of prisoners, with 1,000 on both sides being exchanged. During the talks, Zelenskyy said, the Ukrainian delegation handed over a list of nearly 400 abducted children. Russia responded by proposing to 'work on up to 10 children.' 'That's their idea of addressing humanitarian issues,' Zelenskyy said Monday during an online briefing with journalists. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in 2023 for Putin and the country's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin, said Kyiv had made a 'show' out of the topic and that children would be returned if their parents or guardians could be located. Zelenskyy also told journalists that the Russian side said it was ready for a two- to three-day ceasefire to collect bodies from the battlefield, not a full ceasefire. 'I think they're idiots, because the whole point of a ceasefire is to prevent people from being killed in the first place. So you can see their mindset — it's just a brief pause in the war for them,' he added. The relentless fighting has frustrated U.S. President Donald Trump's goal of bringing about a quick end to the war. A week ago, he expressed impatience with Putin as Moscow pounded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third straight night. Trump said on social media that Putin 'has gone absolutely CRAZY!' Ukraine upbeat after strikes on air bases Ukraine was triumphant after targeting the distant Russian air bases. The official Russian response was muted, with the attack getting little coverage on state-controlled television. The Russia-1 television channel on Sunday evening spent a little over a minute on it with a brief Defense Ministry statement read out before images shifted to Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian positions. Zelenskyy said the setbacks for the Kremlin would help force it to the negotiating table, even as its pursues a summer offensive on the battlefield. 'Russia must feel what its losses mean. That is what will push it toward diplomacy,' he said Monday in Vilnius, Lithuania, meeting with leaders from the Nordic nations and countries on NATO's eastern flank. Ukraine has occasionally struck air bases hosting Russia's nuclear-capable strategic bombers since early in the war, prompting Moscow to redeploy most of them to the regions farther from the front line. Because Sunday's drones were launched from trucks close to the bases in five Russian regions, military defenses had virtually no time to prepare for them. Many Russian military bloggers chided the military for its failure to build protective shields for the bombers despite previous attacks, but the large size of the planes makes that challenging. The attacks were 'a big blow to Russian strategic air power' and exposed significant vulnerabilities in Moscow's military capabilities, said Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Edward Lucas, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis, called it 'the most audacious attack of the war' and 'a military and strategic game-changer.' 'Battered, beleaguered, tired and outnumbered, Ukrainians have, at minimal cost, in complete secrecy, and over vast distances, destroyed or damaged dozens, perhaps more, of Russia's strategic bombers,' he said. Front-line fighting and shelling grinds on Fierce fighting has continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and both sides have hit each other's territory with deep strikes. Russian forces shelled Ukraine's southern Kherson region, killing three people and wounding 19 others, including two children, regional officials said Monday. Also, a missile strike and shelling around the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed five people and wounded nine others, officials said.
