Joe Biden to consult with Japan’s Kishida ahead of G7 summit

US President Joe Biden landed in Japan Thursday to attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima, skipping previously planned stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia. (Reuters)
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Updated 18 May 2023
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Joe Biden to consult with Japan’s Kishida ahead of G7 summit

  • Japanese leader’s home city of Hiroshima will play host to the gathering of major industrialized nations

HIROSHIMA: President Joe Biden arrived in Japan Thursday with plans to meet privately with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ahead of the larger Group of Seven summit — a sign of how the economic and national security alliance between the two countries has strengthened.

Kishida’s home city of Hiroshima will play host to the gathering of major industrialized nations. The setting of Hiroshima, where the US dropped the first nuclear bomb in 1945 during World War II, carries newfound resonance as the US, Japan and their allies strategize on dealing with Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said the Russian invasion looms large, and would be a significant conversation during the summit.

“There will be discussions about the battlefield,” Sullivan said aboard Air Force One, stressing that the G-7 leaders would work to seal off any loopholes in sanctions so their effect can be maximized.

“There’ll be discussions about the state of play on sanctions and the steps that the G-7 will collectively commit to on enforcement in particular.”

Sullivan said the alliance between the US and Japan was at a “genuine high-water mark.”

He said Biden and Kishida, in their meeting, will aim to advance a relationship that’s progressed over the course of the last two years “in every dimension, whether it’s the military dimension of the alliance, the economic dimension, the recently concluded agreement on clean energy, the work we’re doing together on economic security.”

Last year, Biden came to Tokyo to discuss Indo-Pacific strategy and launch a new trade framework for the region, with the US president and Kishida engaging in an 85-minute tea ceremony and seafood dinner.

Kishida was quick to call out the risks of nuclear-power Russia invading Ukraine in 2022, saying then, “Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow.”

China has declared a limitless friendship with Russia, increasing trade in ways that blunted the ability of financial sanctions to constrain the war. But the US and its allies say China has yet to ship military equipment to Russia, a sign that the friendship might have some boundaries.

Biden and Kishida also have economic matters to consider. The US and Japan have begun to redefine global trade with an eye toward supply chain resilience and national security. They recently signed an agreement on critical mineral supply chains. They’re also cooperating on the development of renewable energy sources and partnering on efforts to limit China’s access to advanced computer chips.

Kishida hopes to discuss further strengthening of deterrence and response capability with Biden in the face of China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as confirming the importance of the Taiwan Strait for global peace and stability. China has asserted that self-governing Taiwan should come under its rule. US officials have been briefed on the possible economic damage caused by a war over Taiwan, which would disrupt the supply of advanced computer chips.

Japan is also keen to discuss ways to reinforce its three-way partnership with the US and Seoul following an April agreement between the United States and South Korea to strengthen their tools to deter the risk of a nuclear attack by North Korea.

Kishida and Biden will hold a trilateral summit with South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol on the sidelines of the G-7 summit. But Kishida is in a complicated position by discussing efforts to respond to nuclear threats by North Korea with Japan’s history of also calling for a world free from nuclear arms, said Kan Kimura, a Kobe University professor and an expert on South Korea.

In the wake of World War II, Japan embraced pacifism. The atomic bomb scorched Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people and destroying most of the river delta city’s buildings. But current conditions are testing Japan’s pacifism and anti-nuclear weapon tradition.

“Kishida is from Hiroshima, believes deeply in the disarmament agenda,” said Christopher Johnstone, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “Of course, Kishida is walking a fine line. He recognizes the need for the nuclear umbrella, Japan’s dependence on US extended deterrence — that that’s more vital than ever, frankly, in the current security environment.”

There are outstanding issues between the US and China. During a January meeting with Kishida, Biden brought up the case of Lt. Ridge Alkonis, a US Navy officer deployed to Japan who last year was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to the negligent driving deaths of two Japanese citizens in May 2021, according to a senior administration official. Alkonis also agreed to pay the victims $1.65 million in restitution. His family is seeking his release, saying he was detained until he confessed.

As much as Biden believes he has improved relations with US allies, he still faces political turmoil at home. The president on Wednesday curtailed part of his trip across the Pacific Ocean. He will skip Papua New Guinea and Australia in order to return to Washington in hopes of finalizing a deal to raise the federal government’s debt limit.

“The work that we need to do bilaterally with Australia and with the Pacific Islands is work that can be done at a later date, whereas the final stretch of negotiations over the debt limit or the budget cannot be done at a later date,” Sullivan said Wednesday.


Children found malnourished in Greek migrant camp, MSF charity says

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Children found malnourished in Greek migrant camp, MSF charity says

  • MSF doctors diagnosed six children from Syria and Afghanistan aged between six months and six years with acute malnutrition
  • EU-funded Samos camp, a sprawling, heavily-surveilled facility surrounded by barbed wire, was opened by the government in 2021
ATHENS: Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Monday it had identified the first cases of malnourished children in a migrant camp on the Greek island of Samos, which has been criticized by rights groups for dangerous living conditions.
MSF doctors have diagnosed six children from Syria and Afghanistan aged between six months and six years with acute malnutrition needing immediate help, it said.
While it could not say if their malnutrition was due to living in the camp, conditions there — including insufficient food and medical care — endangered their health, MSF said.
“No child should suffer from malnutrition due to systemic neglect,” said Christina Psarra, director general of MSF Greece, calling for immediate action and adding that about a quarter of the camp’s residents were children.
The Greek migration ministry said the cases were isolated.
“Under no circumstances is there generalized malnutrition due to living conditions,” the ministry said, adding that asylum-seekers were provided with three meals a day.
On the forefront of Europe’s 2015-16 migration crisis, Greece saw a surge in arrivals in 2024, according to UN data. This year, nearly a third of arrivals to southern Europe from the Middle East and Africa were to Greece.
The EU-funded Samos camp, a sprawling, heavily-surveilled facility surrounded by barbed wire, was opened by the government in 2021 to replace the former camp of Vathy — once an overcrowded, rat-infested tent city of 7,000 people.
The six malnourished children arrived this year, MSF said.
Rights group Amnesty International has called conditions at Samos “inhumane and degrading” during periods of overcrowding, with water shortages and a lack of other basic services.
In December, a UN human rights expert accused Greece of failing to identify victims of sex trafficking in the camp.
MSF called on Greece and the EU to ensure adequate pediatric care and nutritional support in Samos and to restore financial support to asylum seekers suspended last June.

Thousands of Bangladeshi students join global strike in solidarity with Gaza

Updated 17 min 30 sec ago
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Thousands of Bangladeshi students join global strike in solidarity with Gaza

  • Student leaders call for more action from international community, Bangladeshi government
  • Protest comes in wake of Israel’s new massacres, after unilaterally breaking Gaza ceasefire 

DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshi students took to the streets of Dhaka on Monday to call for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, joining a global strike in solidarity with Palestine. 

The student protesters skipped classes and rallied in different parts of the capital throughout the day, with the biggest crowd gathering at Dhaka University, Bangladesh’s largest and oldest tertiary institution.

“We are observing today’s strike as part of a global solidarity call with the people of Palestine,” Mostafa Mushfiq, an anthropology student at Dhaka University, told Arab News. 

“We want to demonstrate to everyone that all students and people from different professions and classes are united against the mass killing in Gaza.”

The call for a global strike for Gaza comes after Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian group Hamas on March 18, launching a wave of deadly airstrikes that have since killed more than 1,300 people. 

Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates that at least 50,752 Palestinians have been confirmed dead and 115,475 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023. The real toll is likely to be much higher as thousands of people are missing under the rubble.

Monday’s strike and protests were joined by students from various universities across Bangladesh, many with the support of their lecturers and college administrators. 

“Our protests and struggles will continue … We are feeling a new spirit now. Our teachers are completely on our side in this movement,” Mushfiq said. 

Bangladeshi students have previously led other rallies in solidarity with Palestine, demanding more action from the international community to stop Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza.

“As a Bangladeshi, as a Muslim, it is my duty to be here to tell the world what is really going on, to let the Gaza people know that we are here, we hear them, we are praying for them,” Arafat Hossain Siam, a student from the Shanto-Mariam University in Dhaka, told Arab News.

“Don’t lose hope. Allah is watching. God willing, they will be free.”

The students were joined by ordinary Bangladeshis as they waved Palestinian flags, carried posters and chanted slogans in solidarity with Gaza. Some demanded that the Bangladeshi government do more. 

“We demand a strong stance from the Bangladeshi government on the issue of ongoing mass killing in Gaza,” Tahmid Hossain, a master’s student in Dhaka University, told Arab News. 

“The Palestinians are being suppressed for a long time. For around 100 years, we have noticed that day by day, aggression continues on the Palestinian land and their land is occupied by the Israelis … The Israeli attack on Gaza people, which began over a year ago, has crossed all the limits now.” 


King Charles III arrives in Rome on state visit, first overseas trip since brief hospitalization

Updated 07 April 2025
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King Charles III arrives in Rome on state visit, first overseas trip since brief hospitalization

  • Charles is traveling with Queen Camilla on the three-day visit, which includes the first address to the Italian Parliament of a British monarch
  • A planned meeting with Pope Francis was postponed by mutual agreement due to the pope’s bout with double pneumonia

ROME: King Charles III arrived in Rome on Monday for a state visit to Italy on his first overseas trip since being briefly hospitalized for side effects of cancer treatment.
Charles is traveling with Queen Camilla on the three-day visit, which includes the first address to the Italian Parliament of a British monarch, visits with the Italian president and premier and a side trip to Ravenna to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Adriatic city’s liberation by Allied forces.
A planned meeting with Pope Francis was postponed by mutual agreement due to the pope’s bout with double pneumonia. The 88-year-old pontiff returned to the Vatican two weeks ago, and made a surprise appearance to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.
Charles, 76, was briefly hospitalized March 27 due to “temporary side effects” from treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer diagnosed more than a year ago. The king appeared the next day, waving to well-wishers in central London, and has since resumed scheduled engagements.
In Rome, Charles will highlight the close links between Britain and Italy, two NATO allies, at a time when European nations are working to bolster support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression. The visit will include a joint flyover of Rome’s historic center by the Italian Air Force aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, or Tricolor Arrows, and their Royal Air Force counterparts, the Red Arrows.
The king and queen will attend a reception in Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, to mark the 80th anniversary of the region’s liberation from the Nazis by Allied forces on April 10, 1945. The royals will also celebrate the cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna region and meet with local farmers whose fields were devastated by floods that recently hit the area.


Thousands of Afghans depart Pakistan under repatriation pressure

Updated 07 April 2025
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Thousands of Afghans depart Pakistan under repatriation pressure

  • Thousands of Afghans have crossed the border from Pakistan in recent days as Islamabad ramped up pressure for them to return to Afghanistan
  • Families with their belongings in tow lined up at the key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan: Thousands of Afghans have crossed the border from Pakistan in recent days, the United Nations and Taliban officials said, as Islamabad ramped up pressure for them to return to Afghanistan.
Pakistan last month set an early April deadline for some 800,000 Afghans carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistan authorities to leave the country, another phase in Islamabad’s campaign in recent years to repatriate Afghans.
Families with their belongings in tow lined up at the key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south, recalling similar scenes in 2023 when tens of thousands of Afghans fled deportation threats in Pakistan.
“In the last 2 days, 8,025 undocumented & ACC holders returned via Torkham & Spin Boldak crossings,” the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a post on social media platform X on Monday.
“IOM stands ready to scale up its response at key border points with forced returns expected to surge in the coming days,” it said.
Taliban officials also said thousands of people had crossed the border, but at lower rates than the IOM reported.
Refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutalib Haqqani told AFP that 6,000-7,000 Afghans had returned since the start of April, saying “more than a million Afghans might return.”
“We are urging Pakistan authorities not to deport them (Afghans) forcefully — there should be a proper mechanism with an agreement between both countries, and they must be returned with dignity,” he said.
Fleeing successive conflicts
The UN says nearly three million Afghans live in Pakistan, many having lived there for decades after fleeing successive conflicts in their country and after the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021.
“We were forced to return. Two days ago I was stopped and asked for documentation when they were searching houses,” 38-year-old Abdul Rahman told AFP after passing the Spin Boldak crossing with his family from Quetta, in Pakistan’s southwest, where they lived for six years.
“They didn’t even gave me an hour (to leave), I sold a carpet and my phone to make some money to come here, all my other belongings we left behind,” he said.
Human rights activists have been reporting for months the harassment and extortion of Afghans in Pakistan, a country mired in political and economic chaos.
More than 1.3 million Afghans who hold Proof of Registration cards from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have also been told to move outside the capital Islamabad and the neighboring city of Rawalpindi.
Human Rights Watch has slammed “abusive tactics” used to pressure Afghans to return to their country, “where they risk persecution by the Taliban and face dire economic conditions.”
Ties between the neighboring countries have frayed since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s rulers of failing to root out militants sheltering on its soil, a charge that the Taliban government denies, as Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in violence in border regions with Afghanistan.


Ex-detainees at UK asylum center bring claim against govt

Updated 07 April 2025
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Ex-detainees at UK asylum center bring claim against govt

  • Inspector was ‘rendered speechless’ after seeing conditions at Manston site
  • Syrian woman suffered miscarriage, Sudanese man allowed to shower once in 33 days

LONDON: At least 250 asylum-seekers detained at a UK facility are suing the government for unlawful detention after it emerged that the site was dangerously overcrowded and faced infectious disease outbreaks.

Manston asylum center in Kent, used by the Home Office to process people who had crossed the English Channel on small boats, was once described by a union official as a “humanitarian crisis on British soil,” The Guardian reported on Monday.

David Neal, the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said he was “rendered speechless” after seeing conditions at Manston.

Andy Baxter, a senior official at the Prison Officers’ Association, also condemned conditions at the site after being warned by union members working there.

He described Manston as closely resembling a refugee camp in an unstable country after visiting the site, which he said was “in crisis.”

Marquees that were intended to be used for hours upon the arrival of asylum-seekers had been used for more than a month, despite the Home Office planning to relocate arrivals to more permanent accommodation. People slept on the ground using pieces of cardboard, he added.

Manston also faced diphtheria and scabies outbreaks, with one man dying after contracting the former, a rarity in the UK due to vaccination. Kent Police also investigated claims that guards at the facility had assaulted asylum-seekers.

One of the claimants against the government, a 19-year-old Sudanese national, was detained at the site for 33 days, and his past experience of being tortured and trafficked was never recorded by officials at Manston.

While at the facility, he was “often hungry” and was allowed one shower during the 33-day period.

He was also denied a change of clothes, and was told by officials to “go back to your country.”

A 17-year-old Kurd from Iraq, detained for 12 days, had his birth date recorded as five years older than his real age, despite telling officials he was a child.

A Syrian woman who arrived in the UK with her husband and five children outlined the troubling details of her ordeal in the claim.

Her husband was removed to a separate immigration center after complaining about conditions at Manston, yet she was not informed about his whereabouts and feared he had been deported.

The woman and her children spent 11 days in a freezing, dirty tent, and were only permitted to leave to go to the toilet.

Her children contracted a stomach bug that was circulating at the site, and she had nowhere to wash their vomit-stained clothes.

She later discovered that she was pregnant after suffering morning sickness, and was unable to access medical care in Manston.

After being released and seeking treatment, she discovered that she had suffered a miscarriage.

She has now reunited with her husband together with their children, but said the experience at Manston continues to affect the family.

Emily Soothill of law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn, who is representing some of the claimants, said: “We consider that our clients were falsely imprisoned and that the conditions in Manston were such that their human rights were breached.

“People seeking asylum are more vulnerable to physical and mental illness; they have the right to be treated with dignity and should not be detained in this way.”