🇯🇵🇹🇼📊 — 📰 Taiwan News (May 1, 2023): 80% of Japanese worried Japan will be involved in war for Taiwan: Asahi

— "The Japanese news media company Asahi conducted a national poll on Japanese citizens' opinions on the role the Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF) should play in a potential Taiwan conflict.

The poll revealed that 80% of respondents are worried that Japan will become involved in a conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, with 52% expressing “great concern.” Of those polled, 56% said that the JSDF should limit its role in the conflict to rearguard support for the U.S. military.

In contrast, 11% of respondents said that the JSDF should support the U.S. in an active combat role, while 27% of respondents believed the JSDF should not assist U.S. forces at all.

The poll was conducted by traditional mail with a relatively small sampling. Asahi reports that 3,000 voters were selected at random nationwide, but only 1,967 (66%) returned valid survey responses."

Link
https://archive.is/LyIyo

🇯🇵🪖💰📈 — 📰 East Asia Forum: Fighting to fund Japan’s historic defence budget increase

— "Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration dramatically increased Japan’s 2023 defence budget by 26.3 per cent in 2022 to 6.82 trillion yen (US$52 billion). During former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s leadership, the defence budget steadily increased to 5.3 trillion yen (US$39 billion) but stayed between 5–5.2 per cent of the whole government budget. Kishida has now increased the defence budget to 5.9 per cent.

Future obligations concerning new contracts for the updated Defense Build-up Program amount to 7.06 trillion yen (US$52 billion). As procurement takes several years, Japan is making as many contracts as possible in the first year of the program to deliver equipment to the Self-Defense Force (SDF) units swiftly.

As of May 2023, a month from the start of the Japanese financial year, the government had already announced a 380 billion yen (US$2.8 billion) contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to upgrade and mass-produce Type-12 surface-to-ship missiles. The government also signed a 110.4 billion yen (US$816 million) contract with the United States to purchase 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles."

Link
https://archive.is/o3na7

🇸🇾❌🇹🇷 — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at Arab League: We are facing the dangers of a expansionist Neo-Ottomanist Turkey thought grafted with a deviant Brotherhood flavour

🇨🇳❌🇨🇳🇭🇰 — 📰 The Guardian (May 16, 2023): Tiananmen Square books removed from Hong Kong libraries in run-up to anniversary

— "Books about the Tiananmen Square massacre, Hong Kong protest movements, and other subjects deemed politically sensitive by Beijing have been removed from the former British colony’s public libraries in the lead-up to the 34th anniversary of the killings.

Hong Kong media have reported a marked increase in the number of book and documentary removals, which have been growing since the authoritarian clampdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the introduction of the national security law in 2020. It has resulted in a significant curtailing of political freedoms in the city and multiple arrests.

Late last month, the government’s audit commission report said the leisure and cultural services department, which operates Hong Kong’s libraries, needed to “step up efforts in examining library materials for safeguarding national security and taking follow-up actions”."

Link
https://archive.is/B6viz

🇱🇧🗳📃 — Arab League's Jeddah Declaration: We call for the election of a president for Lebanon and the formation of a government as soon as possible

🇹🇷🗳📸 — Photo: Former Presidential Candidate and Turkish nationalist Sinan Oğan met with Turkish President Erdogan today in 'Istanbul' today, despite before Mr. Erdogan saying that wouldn't negotiate with him

🔗 Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu)

🇹🇷🗳📃 — Turkish President Erdogan: "We have prepared housing projects in Syria for the return of nearly 1 million refugees to their lands. We will ensure that the refugees return to their homelands."

🔗 Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu)
https://archive.is/4UqnM

🇺🇸💸📉 — 📰 CNN: US Secretary of Treasury Yellen told Bank CEOs that more mergers may be necessary in a near future

Link
https://archive.is/CZLdd

tl;dr: More Bank failures incoming

🇺🇸💸📉❗️ — 📰 Bloomberg: Republican Debt-Ceiling Negotiators Walk Out of Meeting, Say White House ‘Unreasonable’

— "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s top debt-ceiling negotiators abruptly left a closed-door meeting with White House representatives soon after it began Friday morning.

“Look, they’re just unreasonable,” Republican Representative Garret Graves said, adding that the talks were on a “pause.”

Graves said he did not know if the negotiators would meet again Friday or over the weekend.

“Unless they are willing to have reasonable conversations about how you can actually move forward and do the right thing, we’re not going to sit here and talk to ourselves,” Graves said, as House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry stood near him."

Link
https://archive.is/6tAFK

🇺🇸❌🇳🇬 — 📰 Reuters: U.S. imposes election-related visa restrictions on Nigerians

— "The United States has imposed entry restrictions on more Nigerians for undermining the democratic process during the African nation's 2023 election cycle, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.

"These individuals have been involved in intimidation of voters through threats and physical violence, the manipulation of vote results, and other activity that undermines Nigeria’s democratic process," Blinken said in a statement."

Additional details were not provided.

The action is the latest in a series of visa restrictions imposed on Nigerian individuals in recent years.
Nigeria's election tribunal this month was to begin hearing opposition petitions challenging president-elect Bola Tinubu's victory in the disputed February presidential vote, court records showed."

Link
https://archive.is/n2bRr

🇷🇼❌🇪🇹 — According to Minnesota-based KSTP, a Curious incident took place in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as the local Police arrested the suspect of burning a local Mosque

Per the St. Paul police, 42-year-old Said Ntamugabumwe — An etnhic Hutu migrant living in United States — was booked at the Ramsey County jail at around 8 p.m. Wednesday.

He’s suspected of intentionally starting a fire at Oromo American Tawhid Islamic Center earlier Wednesday, an Mosque where ethnic Oromos worship

Driver records show Ntamugabumwe also goes by Said Murezeki. KSTP TV says he has multiple convictions, including a felony conviction for arson stemming from an incident at the Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul in 2020.

The mosque was undergoing renovations at the time and was extensively damaged by the fire.

The fire also marked the sixth attack on a Minnesota mosque this year and the third in the past month, and so to speak a curious case of Bantu-on-Cushite violence in US Soil

Link
https://archive.is/A1Xzm