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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 | Trump wanted to deploy 10,000 troops in Washington D.C., official says
U.S. President Donald Trump told his advisors at one point this past week he wanted 10,000 troops to deploy to the Washington D.C. area to halt civil unrest over the killing of a black man by Minneapolis police, according to a senior U.S. official.
The account of Trump’s demand during a heated Oval Office conversation on Monday shows how close the president may have come to fulfilling his threat to deploy active-duty troops, despite opposition from Pentagon leadership.
At the meeting, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, and Attorney General William Barr recommended against such a deployment, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The meeting was “contentious,” the official added.
Top 2 | Biden: U.S. cannot "again turn away from racism"
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Tuesday the U.S. cannot "again turn away from racism that stings at our very soul."
The former vice president made the remarks in a speech via video at George Floyd's funeral, noting that if justice is served for Floyd, the U.S. will be on its way to racial justice.
Biden sympathized with Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, following the death of her father. Earlier, the 77-year-old in an interview with CBS news, said Floyd's death was "one of the great inflection points in American history." George Floyd died on 25 May after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes as he and his colleagues arrested him.
Top 3 | Trudeau attends anti-racism rally and takes a knee
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended an anti-racism protest Friday and took a public knee in solidarity with demonstrators.
Trudeau arrived on Parliament Hill in Ottawa with security guards, wearing a black cloth mask. After a few protesters asked him to kneel, he did. They thanked him afterwards. He nodded as demonstrations chanted “Black lives matter.”
Trudeau said earlier this week that Canadians are watching what is unfolding in the United States with “horror and consternation” and he paused for 21 seconds when asked about U.S. President Donald Trump and the use of tear gas against protesters to clear the way for a photo opportunity. The Ottawa protest was one of multiple events in Canada on Friday, following days of demonstrations against racism and police brutality in numerous American cities.
Top 4 | 'He is going to change the world': Funeral held for Floyd
George Floyd was fondly remembered Tuesday as “Big Floyd” — a father and brother, athlete and neighborhood mentor, and now a catalyst for change — at a funeral for the black man whose death has sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice.
More than 500 mourners wearing masks against the coronavirus packed a Houston church a little more than two weeks after Floyd was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis police officer who put a knee on his neck for what prosecutors said was 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
The funeral capped six days of mourning for Floyd in three cities: Raeford, North Carolina, near where he was born; Houston, where he grew up; and Minneapolis, where he died. The memorials have drawn the families of other black victims whose names have become familiar in the debate over race and justice — among them, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin.
Top 5 | Trump directs U.S. troops reduction in Germany: media
U.S. President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to reduce U.S. military presence in Germany by September, U.S. media reported on Friday.
Citing U.S. government officials, The Wall Street Journal said in a Friday piece that the move would reduce 9,500 troops from the 34,500 troops that are permanently assigned in Germany.
The move also limits the size of U.S. troops deployed in Germany at any one time at the 25,000-troop level. According to the report, overall troop levels under current practice can rise to as high as 52,000 as units rotate in and out or take part in training exercises. The report came days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said due to the coronavirus pandemic, she will not attend the Group of Seven (G7) Summit that initially scheduled at the White House in late June.
Top 6 | Joe Biden officially clinches Democratic presidential nomination
Joe Biden has officially captured the Democratic presidential nomination, crossing the delegate threshold to represent the party in a general election contest against Donald Trump.
The Associated Press called the nomination for the former vice-president on Friday night.
Though Biden has been the presumptive nominee for months, his primary victories in states across the country on Tuesday helped him secure the 1,991 unpledged delegates necessary to win the nomination. His rival, Bernie Sanders, who exited the race in April, is still collecting delegates in an effort to influence the party’s platform at its August convention.
Top 7 | Bolsonaro threatens to pull out of WHO as coronavirus kills 'a Brazilian per minute'
President Jair Bolsonaro threatened on Friday to pull Brazil out of the World Health Organization after the U.N. agency warned Latin American governments about the risk of lifting lockdowns before slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the region.
A new Brazilian record for daily COVID-19 fatalities pushed the county’s death toll past that of Italy late on Thursday, but Bolsonaro continues to argue for quickly lifting state isolation orders, arguing that the economic costs outweigh public health risks.
Latin America’s most populous nations, Brazil and Mexico, are seeing the highest rates of new infections, though the pandemic is also gathering pace in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia. Overall, more than 1.1 million Latin Americans have been infected. While most leaders have taken the pandemic more seriously than Bolsonaro, some politicians that backed strict lockdowns in March and April are pushing to open economies back up as hunger and poverty grow.
Top 8 | Europe moves ahead with reopening as global virus cases top 7 mn
European countries experimented with further lifting coronavirus restrictions Monday as New Zealand declared victory over the pandemic, even as global cases topped seven million and deaths mounted in Latin America.
The number of COVID-19 fatalities has now passed 403,000 worldwide since the disease emerged in China last year before sweeping the globe, subjecting billions to some form of lockdown and paralysing economies.
But even the hardest-hit countries are lurching back to a new kind of normal, with bars and restaurants coming back to life and travel restrictions lifted from London to Brussels to Moscow.
Top 9 | Israelis protest Netanyahu's annexation plan
Several thousand Israelis demonstrated on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to extend sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank, de-facto annexation of land that the Palestinians seek for a state.
Protesting in face masks and keeping their distance from each other under coronavirus restrictions, they gathered under the banner “No to annexation, no to occupation, yes to peace and democracy”. Some waved Palestinian flags.
The protest was organised by left-wing groups and did not appear to be the start of a popular mass movement. Around half of Israelis support annexation, according to a recent opinion poll. The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in a 1967 Middle East war.
Top 10 | S.Korea urges DPRK to maintain inter-Korean communication lines
South Korea urged the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Tuesday to maintain communication lines between the two Koreas after Pyongyang's threat to cut off all inter-Korean hotlines, multiple local media reported.
An unidentified South Korean unification ministry official was quoted as telling local reporters that the inter-Korean communication lines, which are a basic tool for communication, should be kept in place as agreed upon between the two Koreas. The official said South Korea will follow the inter-Korean agreement while makings efforts for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.
The remark came after the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported earlier in the day that the DPRK will "completely cut off and shut down the liaison line between the authorities of the north and the south, which has been maintained through the north-south joint liaison office" starting from 12:00 (0300 GMT) on June 9.
Related news:
APD | Modi following ‘golden opportunity’ doctrine
APD | China is working hard for the prosperity of Hong Kong
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)