APD | Weekly top 10 hot news (Mar. 13 - Mar. 19)

APD NEWS

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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 |China, U.S. conclude high-level strategic dialogue in 'candid, constructive' manner

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The first face-to-face meeting between senior Chinese and U.S. officials from the Biden administration has wrapped up in Alaska.

The two-day dialogue marked the first high-level contact between the two countries after their heads of state had a phone call on the eve of the Chinese lunar new year.

In a press conference afterward, senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi said the China-U.S. talks were candid, constructive and beneficial. "But, of course, there are still differences between the two sides."

China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the Chinese delegation went to Alaska with strong sincerity. Dialogue is better than confrontation, he said, adding that China made it clear to the Americans that sovereignty is a matter of principle and they should not underestimate China's determination to defend it.


Top 2 | 21 GOP Attorneys General are pressing Biden's administration for clarity on stimulus element

Twenty-one Republican Attorneys General are warning President Joe Biden's administration that a provision in the $1.9 trillion economic aid package could limit state efforts to cut taxes and warned that without clarity they would take action.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the attorneys general of Arizona, Georgia, and West Virginia said the $350 billion allocated in the bill to help cities, counties, and states pay for the costs of the pandemic could be "the greatest attempted invasion of state sovereignty by Congress in the history of our Republic."

The Washington Post reported that some states are already planning a lawsuit.


Top 3 |Republicans seize on immigration as border crossings surge

Delegation trips to the border. Apocalyptic warnings. A flurry of new conferences.

Republicans still divided over former President Donald Trump’s legacy are seizing on his signature campaign issue, turning their focus to immigration as they try to regain the political upper hand.

Faced with President Joe Biden’s early popularity, good news about vaccinations, and Americans’ embrace of the COVID-19 relief bill Washington Republicans opposed, the GOP is leaning in on the highly charged issue amid a spike in border crossings. They hope immigration can unite the party heading into next year’s elections, when control of Congress is at stake.


Top 4 |Germany elections: Merkel's party slumps to defeat in regional polls

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party has suffered poor results in two key regional votes seen as major tests ahead of September's general election.

The Christian Democrats (CDU) won about a quarter of the vote in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, early results show.

The party has historically enjoyed strong support in these western states.


Top 5 |Post-Brexit UK to reshape its foreign policy

The government is to set out its post-Brexit foreign policy, promising to reshape an "outdated international system" into one that better protects the UK's interests and values.

Its year-long review of foreign and defence policy marks a shift towards Indo-Pacific countries such as India, Japan and Australia.

It will also pave the way for the UK to increase stocks of nuclear warheads.


Top 6 |French COVID-19 vaccine drive stalls as Macron halts AstraZeneca jabs

French President Emmanuel Macron has suspended use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the country for at least 24 hours.

Other European countries, including Germany, Italy Ireland and the Netherlands, have taken similar action amid growing concern about blood clots reported in Denmark and Norway.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there is no evidence the episodes in question are caused by the vaccine.


Top 7 |India's Election Commission Absolves BJP of Plotting Attack on Only Woman State Chief

India's West Bengal state, ruled by opposition leader Mamata Banerjee, is going to the polls on 27 March. While campaigning recently, Banerjee suffered a leg injury – she blamed India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the incident, alleging that four or five people pushed her.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday ruled out the involvement of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in an attack against West Bengal state chief and prominent opposition leader Mamata Banerjee. She suffered leg injuries while campaigning for the upcoming legislative polls on 10 March – she says she was assaulted by a "group of four or five people."

The ECI said in its report that Banerjee, India’s only woman state chief, sustained the injuries due to an “accident” and not an “attack.” Banerjee's outfit Trinamool Congress alleged that the BJP was behind the incident.


Top 8 |Italy's health minister expects COVID cases to start falling in late spring

Italy is seeing a steady rise in coronavirus infections but a national vaccination campaign and tougher restrictions mean numbers should start improving in late spring, the health minister said.

Italy, the first Western country hit hard by the pandemic, saw infections rise by 10% last week compared with the week earlier, and officials have warned that the situation is deteriorating as highly contagious variants gain ground.

“The application of more rigorous measures and the progressive rise in the number of vaccinated people make us think that already in the second half of spring (contagion) numbers will be improving,” Health Minister Roberto Speranza told daily la Repubblica in an interview.


Top 9 |Another South Korean state housing official found dead amid property scandal

A second senior official from Korea Land and Housing Corp (LH) was found dead in Paju, north of South Korean capital Seoul, in an apparent suicide amid a growing insider property speculation scandal, an officer from the Paju Police Station said.

Yonhap news agency had reported the death earlier on Saturday, and had said the LH official did not appear to be a subject of a probe into the accusations of insider speculation by dozens of employees of the state housing corporation.

This is the second death of an LH official since the South Korean government this week declared war on property crime.


Top 10 |Yemeni Houthis Launch Drone Attack on Saudi Arabia's Abha Airport, King Khalid Airbase, Reports Say

The movement stated it had attacked Saudi forces last month, targeting facilities located in the southwestern part of the kingdom in response to operations by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

Yemen's Houthi movement declared that it has launched armed drones to attack Abha Airport as well as the King Khalid Airbase in the southern town of Khamis Mushait, Saudi Arabia.

"It is part of our legitimate right to respond to the crimes of the aggression and its continuing blockade", a military spokesman for the group Yahya Sarea said on Twitter.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)