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Every weekend, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.
This week, the following hot news you should know:
Top 1 | UK to reunify national rail network under government control
Britain plans to bring the national rail network back under government control, reversing one of the most controversial elements of the privatization drive carried out by the Conservative governments of the 1980s and ’90s.
Under plans announced Thursday, the government will create a new entity known as Great British Railways that will own all railroad infrastructure, set most fares and schedules, collect ticket revenue and run a single ticketing website. Private companies will continue to operate trains under contracts with the state.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government said the move would end “a quarter-century of fragmentation” that created a confusing, expensive patchwork of privately run rail franchises. That system was created after the railroads were privatized in the 1990s under former Prime Minister John Major who, like Johnson, led a Conservative Party government.
Top 2 | Spain speeds up Ceuta expulsions after migrant tide from Morocco ebbs
Spanish authorities carried out mass expulsions of migrants on Wednesday from its North African enclave of Ceuta after thousands crossed from Morocco, as the tide of humanity swimming around the border fence turned into a trickle.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said as many as 4,800 of the more than 8,000 who entered Ceuta during the previous two days had been sent back, and security forces on both sides intervened to prevent more from crossing.
On Wednesday morning, Spanish soldiers in combat gear and police officers were escorting some swimmers directly back to Morocco, while Moroccan police drove hundreds of young man away from the border fence.
Top 3 | Austria Summons Turkish Ambassador After Erdogan 'Curses' Country for Hoisting Israel Flag
The Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs has summoned Turkish Ambassador Ozan Ceyhun after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "cursed" Vienna for raising the Israeli flag over government buildings in solidarity amid hostilities on the Gaza border, the ministry told Sputnik on Tuesday.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, in turn, said in a statement obtained by Sputnik that the conflict in the Middle East could not be settled "with foam at the mouth."
The Turkish president previously accused Israel of "heinous attacks against the Al-Aqsa Mosque", one of the holiest places in Islam, saying the Israeli authorities have provoked the recent round of tensions in the region.
Top 4 | Russian Senate to Discuss Withdrawal From Open Skies Treaty on 2 June
The upper chamber of the Russian parliament plans to discuss a bill on withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty on 2 June, Grigory Karasin, head of the international affairs committee, confirmed to Sputnik.
Earlier on Tuesday, a source in the upper house told Sputnik that the matter could be discussed "no earlier than 2 June" The source expressed the belief this was a chance for Washington to change its mind and rejoin the deal.
The Open Skies Treaty grants member states the right to fly over each other's territories to observe military activity and regulates the conduct of such flights. The deal, signed in 1992, is considered to be a confidence-building measure in post-Cold War Europe.
Top 5 | France, Germany and Spain strike deal over joint combat jet
France, Germany and Spain said on Monday they had reached a deal over the next steps of the development of a new fighter jet, Europe's largest defence project at an estimated cost of more than 100 billion euros ($121.4 billion).
France in particular has billed the combat jet project -- which includes a next-generation manned and unmanned aircraft -- as crucial for Europe to strengthen its defence autonomy and face competition from China, Russia and the United States.
The next development phase for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) is expected to cost 3.5 billion euros ($4.25 billion), to be shared equally by the three countries.
Top 6 | The Israel Defence Forces Confirms Gaza on the Verge of Running Out of Electricity
The Gaza Strip is slated to experience a power outage on Sunday (16 May) due to the lack of fuel for its power plant, which is expected to run out soon, the Israel Defence Forces said.
On Thursday, an anonymous Israeli official told the Times of Israel that Gaza will run out of fuel for its electricity generators by Sunday partially due to Israel’s closure of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, through which Gaza receives most of its fuel.
The official also said that the water supply in Gaza has also been affected by the power cuts, with local residents getting tap water only intermittently.
Top 7 | Biden faces an angry rift in his own party over Israeli-Palestinian conflict
So much attention has been focused on the rift in the GOP over former President Donald Trump's antidemocratic lies about the 2020 election.
But Democrats have their own brewing disagreement over how the US should react to violence between Israelis and Palestinians, leading Democrats to question President Joe Biden's commitment to human rights and demanding he do more to pressure Israel.
It's an awkward public fight for a party that has made its commitment to social and racial justice a main part of its platform. As the US comes to grips with its own history of racism in new ways and adopts the Black Lives Matter movement in a mainstream way, liberals want to apply similar notions of justice to foreign policy, where an increasing number see apartheid in Israel's approach to the Palestinians.
Top 8 | Nonprofit group bankrolled large portion of Michigan governor's use of private plane
A nonprofit group tied to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration financed most of the charter flight when she visited her father in Florida at a time when the Democrat's administration was urging residents not to travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
JoAnne Huls, the governor's chief of staff, made the announcement in an unaddressed email memo on Friday, according to a Detroit News report which noted that the disclosure raised questions about the financial arrangement.
Michigan Transition 2019, a social welfare nonprofit organization that state business records show was formed in late 2018 to assist in funding Whitmer's inauguration, chartered the private plane, which brought her to Florida on March 12 and returned her to Lansing on March 15.
Top 9 | Ex-Indian FM Yashwant Sinha: Modi Government Directly Responsible for World's Worst COVID Surge
India's former foreign minister and ex-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha told Sputnik that despite warnings from various international agencies, the Narendra Modi government has failed miserably in handling the current COVID-19 situation. He also explained how the BJP used the Election Commission of India (ECI) as "its puppet" in the recently held state assembly elections. Sinha left the BJP after he reached ideological dissent within his party in 2018 and recently joined Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Sputnik: How do you assess the work of the Narendra Modi government in handling the current COVID-19 situation?
Yashwant Sinha: The problem with the Narendra Modi government is that it starts celebrating and taking credit too early. In January, while addressing the World Economic Forum, Narendra Modi declared that India saved the world by controlling COVID in the country, and the party office bearers gathered on February 21 to congratulate PM Modi for the victory over the deadly virus.
Top 10 | Americans Rejoice at Relaxed Mask Rules, Wary of Cheaters
Yet for the first time in her life she admits feeling herself an oppressed and stigmatized minority now that the US government is moving to ditch masks - the single most conspicuous attribute of the coronavirus pandemic.
The milestone initiative benefits only fully vaccinated people and is perceived by the woman, still expected to social distance and wear face coverings both in- and outdoors, as a coercion into getting a shot she doesn’t want in return for normalcy she craves for like everyone else.
She distrusts inoculations in general, downplays COVID-19 as merely "a severe type of flu," has confidence in her physical fitness and makes no secret of an intention to try and shed a mask like vaccinated people. "How can they check? Will they be stopping random people and ask for their vaccination cards? I will say that I left it home," she theorizes.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
