Weekly top 10 hot news (April 7-15)

APD NEWS

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Every Saturday, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.

This week, the following hot news you need to know:


TOP 1 | US and allies launch strikes on Syria chemical weapons sites

President Donald Trump says he has approved US military strikes against Syrian chemical weapons sites, in collaboration with the UK and France.

The strikes are in response to an alleged chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma last week.

"A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now underway," President Trump said in an address to the nation.

Explosions were reported near the Syrian capital Damascus.


TOP 2 | Chinese President Xi delivers keynote speech at Boao Forum

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 on Tuesday.

The conference runs from April 8 to 11 in Boao, a town in South China's island province of Hainan, and is themed "An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity."


TOP 3 | John Bolton takes charge as Trump’s third national security advisor

US President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser John Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador and arms control official, took charge Monday replacing HR McMaster.

Bolton is known for his extreme views on Iran, the DPRK and voicing opinions on many other issues.

Despite many years in the public eye, Bolton has only held high office once before – temporarily as the US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. He was in that position for less than a year and a half but never confirmed by the US Senate as he was considered too controversial.

But Bolton has been a fixture as an analyst on Trump’s favorite TV channel, Fox News, where he has been espousing his hawkish views for years.

Bolton believes in the preeminence of the US in world affairs and American exceptionalism. He often pushes unilateral military solutions to solve the thorniest of diplomatic problems. He supported the US invasion of Iraq before and after.


TOP 4 : Chinese president calls for establishment of world-class naval force

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday called for efforts to build the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy into a world-class force.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remark during a naval review in the South China Sea.


TOP 5 | Trump considering firing Rosenstein to check Mueller

The White House on Tuesday insisted Donald Trump has the power to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller, stoking fears that the president may try to kill an investigation inching ever-closer to the Oval Office.

"We have been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision," said Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, after months of denying Mueller's removal is under consideration.

The change in tone came as Trump reacted furiously to an FBI raid of his private lawyer's offices on Monday.

Special counsel Mueller was appointed last May to investigate Russian efforts to tip the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor.

Over the last year he has increasingly dug into evidence of alleged money laundering, fraud and obstruction of justice inside Trump's inner circle.


TOP 5 | 5 hours, 44 senators, no damage to Facebook

Dozens of senators attempted to take swipes at Mark Zuckerberg in his debut on Capitol Hill. None appeared to land a significant blow.

The Facebook CEO formally apologized to Congress on Tuesday for mistakes that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and stressed that his company is rethinking its responsibility to users and society.

"It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy," Zuckerberg said in opening remarks before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees.


TOP 6 | John Bolton takes charge as Trump’s third national security advisor

US President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser John Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador and arms control official, took charge Monday replacing HR McMaster.

Bolton is known for his extreme views on Iran, the DPRK and voicing opinions on many other issues.

Despite many years in the public eye, Bolton has only held high office once before – temporarily as the US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. He was in that position for less than a year and a half but never confirmed by the US Senate as he was considered too controversial.

But Bolton has been a fixture as an analyst on Trump’s favorite TV channel, Fox News, where he has been espousing his hawkish views for years.

Bolton believes in the preeminence of the US in world affairs and American exceptionalism. He often pushes unilateral military solutions to solve the thorniest of diplomatic problems. He supported the US invasion of Iraq before and after.


TOP 7 | Summit with Kim Jong Un to be held on May or early June, says Trump

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK)'s leader Kim Jong Un discussed future talks with the US at a party meeting, state media reported Tuesday, in his first official mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed last month to a landmark summit with DPRK -- which would be the first between a sitting US president and a DPRK leader -- but no specific dates or venue have been set, with questions mounting over Pyongyang's participation.

At the meeting of party officials Monday, Kim discussed the "development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue", the official KCNA news agency said, referring to DPRK by its official acronym.


TOP 8 | UK and US given case file on 'nerve agent made in Russian lab'

British and American authorities have been given several chemical analyses of a substance believed to be a novichok nerve agent produced in Russia’s closed Shikhany military facility, a Russian lawyer has told the Guardian.

Boris Kuznetsov, who fled Russia in 2007, said he had handed British diplomats the police case files from the 1995 murder of a Russian banker and his secretary with a toxic substance, which scientists have identified as a product of the Soviet-designed Foliant programme.

A related nerve agent was used in the Salisbury poisoning last month.


TOP 9 | UN Security Council fails to adopt Russian-drafted resolution to condemn military strikes on Syria

A Russian-drafted resolution, which would have condemned the military strikes on Syria carried out by the United States, France and Britain, failed to be adopted by the Security Council.

Three of the 15 members of the Security Council -- Russia, Bolivia and China -- voted in favor. Four countries -- Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Peru -- abstained. The remaining eight members of the council voted against it.

For adoption, a resolution requlires at least nine votes in favor on the condition that none of the permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States -- votes against.


TOP 10 | EU urges Facebook to 'cooperate fully' in data scandal

The European Commission on Thursday called on Facebook to "cooperate fully" with investigators into the scandal over the harvesting of personal data of millions of users which were then shared with the British political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook has admitted up to 2.7 million people in the EU may have been caught in the scandal.

And last week the EU had said that its justice commissioner, Vera Jourova, would hold phone talks with Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg to discuss what the company is doing to address the breach, which may have affected 87 million people around the world.

Related Stories :

Trump considering firing Rosenstein to check Mueller

Chinese President Xi delivers keynote speech at Boao Forum

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)