Latest from Japan Times
Japan Times
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
ICC President Tomoko Akane criticizes U.S. sanctions
International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's sanctions against The Hague-based court, saying they risk destroying the system that supports it. "The sanctions have had impacts on third countries, and they violate international law," she told Japanese media outlets online Friday. "The ICC system based on the rule of war, which the international community has developed over the years, could collapse" if the sanctions continue, she added. The ICC had launched an official investigation into alleged war crimes by U.S. service members in Afghanistan. The court also issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The court's actions angered the United States, which is not an ICC member. On June 5, the State Department announced economic sanctions against four judges involved in the investigation and issuing the warrants, based on an executive order enabling U.S. sanctions against ICC personnel signed by Trump in February. "ICC, which punishes individuals who lead wars, is the last bastion of international law," Akane said from The Hague. She also stressed the importance of maintaining the court's presence. Akane called on ICC member states including Japan to take a stand against the U.S. actions, urging Washington to change its decision.
Japan Times
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Czechs say China followed and planned intimidation of Taiwan vice-president
Chinese diplomats and secret service followed Taiwan's Vice-President-elect Hsiao Bi-khim and planned to intimidate her physically when she visited Prague last year, Czech military intelligence said on Friday. Hsiao visited the Czech Republic in March 2024. Prague does not have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan but has fostered warm relations with the democratically-governed island, which China views as its own territory. Czech media reported last year that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light when following her car. Czech public radio news website said on Thursday that the Chinese had also planned to stage a demonstrative car crash. Czech Military Intelligence spokesman said Chinese diplomats in Prague had taken actions that violated diplomatic rules. "This consisted of physically following the vice-president, gathering information on her schedule and attempts to document her meetings with important representatives of the Czech political and public scene," spokesman Jan Pejsek said in emailed comments. "We even recorded an attempt by the Chinese civil secret service to create conditions to perform a demonstrative kinetic action against a protected person, which however did not go beyond the phase of preparation." A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, commenting on the matter, denied any wrongdoing by Chinese diplomats and also said the Czech Republic had interfered in China's internal affairs by allowing Hsiao's visit to go ahead. The Czech Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the Chinese ambassador over the incident at the time but did not comment further on Friday. Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said the Chinese actions "seriously threatened the personal safety of Vice President Hsiao and her entourage." "The Mainland Affairs Council today protested and strongly condemned the Chinese communist's bad behaviour and demanded that the Chinese side should immediately explain and publicly apologize," it said. In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said: "Chinese diplomats have always abided by the laws and regulations of the countries in which they are stationed." "China urges the parties concerned not to be provoked and exploited by separatist forces for Taiwan independence, and to not make a fuss over nothing, engage in malicious speculation, and interfere with and undermine the relations between the two countries." Hsiao assumed office, along with President Lai Ching-te, on May 20 last year. Czech relations with China have cooled in recent years. The Czechs accused China in May of being behind a cyberattack on the foreign ministry. Czech politicians have visited Taiwan and former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visited Prague last October.
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Trump's court win opens a path to clear hurdles to his agenda
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling curbing the power of judges to block government actions on a nationwide basis has raised questions about whether dozens of orders that have halted President Donald Trump's policies will stand. The conservative majority's ruling Friday came in a fight over Trump's plan to limit automatic birthright citizenship. But it may have far-reaching consequences for the ability of U.S. courts to issue orders that apply to anyone affected by a policy, not just the parties who filed lawsuits. Judges entered nationwide preliminary orders halting Trump administration actions in at least four dozen of the 400 lawsuits filed since he took office in January, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. Some were later put on hold on appeal. Nationwide orders currently in place include blocks on the administration's revocation of foreign students' legal status, freezes of domestic spending and foreign aid, funding cuts related to gender-affirming care and legal services for migrant children, and proof-of-citizenship rules for voting. The Supreme Court's new precedent doesn't instantly invalidate injunctions in those cases. But the Justice Department could quickly ask federal judges to revisit the scope of these and other earlier orders in light of the opinion. 'Fair game' "Everything is fair game,' said Dan Huff, a lawyer who served in the White House counsel's office during Trump's first term. A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment. Trump said at a news conference in the White House Friday that the administration will "promptly file to proceed with numerous policies that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis.' Trump listed cases that they would target, including suspending refugee resettlement, freezing unnecessary funding and "stopping federal taxpayers from paying for transgender surgeries.' The Trump administration has made it a priority to contest court orders that block policies on a nationwide, or universal, basis, although the controversy over whether those types of rulings are an appropriate use of judicial power has been brewing for years. Conservative advocates won such orders when Democratic presidents were in office as well. Noting the mounting pushback and debate, judges in dozens of other cases involving Trump's policies have limited their orders against the administration to the parties that sued or within certain geographical boundaries. Anastasia Boden, a senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation whose practice includes suing the federal government, said she didn't see the ruling as a total "retreat' from judges' authority to enter universal orders going forward. Multiple paths "It's addressing the case where a plaintiff is getting relief that applies to everyone across the country merely because judges think that it's an important issue,' she said. "But it doesn't change the case where the plaintiff needs that relief.' Boden offered the example of a challenge to government spending, in which the only way to halt an unlawful action would be to stop payment of federal dollars across the country, not just to individual plaintiffs or in certain areas. Trump's opponents say the justices' decision still leaves them with multiple paths to sue the administration over actions they contend are unlawful and even to argue for nationwide relief. Those options include class action lawsuits, cases seeking to set aside agency actions under a U.S. law known as the Administrative Procedure Act and even continuing to argue that nationwide relief is the only way to stop harm to individual plaintiffs, like parties did in the birthright citizenship cases. But they also acknowledged the court significantly raised the burden of what they have to prove to win those types of orders. "This is going to make it more challenging, more complicated, potentially more expensive to seek orders that more broadly stop illegal government action,' Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, said. "It is watering down the power of federal courts to check government misconduct.' The Supreme Court sent the birthright citizenship cases back to lower court judges to reconsider the scope of orders pausing Trump's restrictions while the legal fight on its constitutionality continues. The justices did not rule on the core question of whether the policy itself is lawful. The administration can't fully enforce the birthright policy for at least another 30 days. Democratic state attorneys general involved in the birthright litigation highlighted language in Justice Amy Coney Barrett's majority opinion that the court didn't shut off the possibility that the states could still successfully argue for a nationwide order. Speaking with reporters after the ruling, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said that he and his Democratic colleagues would "assess' the impact on other cases. He said they already had been judicious in asking judges for nationwide relief as opposed to orders that restricted administration policies in specific states. "The court confirmed what we've thought all along — nationwide relief should be limited, but it is available to states when appropriate,' Platkin said.
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
They voted for Trump. Most still back him — but not on everything
From her corner of the United States near Houston, Texas, stay-at-home mother Loretta Torres, 38, admires President Donald Trump's confidence and bargaining style. She has no complaints with his presidency. In Des Moines, Iowa, Lou Nunez, an 83-year-old U.S. Army veteran, has been horrified by Trump's cuts to federal agencies, whipsaw tariff announcements, and crackdowns on protesters. Terry Alberta, 64, a pilot in southwestern Michigan, supports most of Trump's policies but he thinks some of the slashed federal spending might have to be restored and he dislikes the president's demeanor. "I get really frustrated with him when he starts calling people names and just saying crazy things,' he said. Although they all helped elect Trump in November, Torres, Nunez and Alberta have very different reactions to his presidency so far. They are among 20 Trump voters interviewed monthly since February about the president's dramatic changes to the United States' government, trade policy and immigration enforcement, among other issues. Nunez and one of the other 20 voters now regret casting a ballot for the president. Torres and four others say they fully support his administration. But most — like Alberta — fall somewhere in between. The 20 voters were selected from 429 respondents to a February 2025 Ipsos poll who said they voted for Trump in November and were willing to speak to a reporter. They are not a statistically representative portrait of all Trump voters, but their ages, educational backgrounds, races/ethnicities, locations and voting histories roughly corresponded to those of Trump's overall electorate. Even monthly check-ins cannot always keep pace with the breakneck news cycle under Trump. Reporters most recently interviewed the group in May, before Trump deployed U.S. service members to Los Angeles and other cities to quell widespread protests against the administration's immigration crackdown and prior to tensions erupting with Iran. Loretta Torres, a stay at home mom who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, at her home in Baytown, Texas | REUTERS Trump's efforts to tighten border security were most popular among the group. Describing their concerns about the administration, these voters most often cited the economic uncertainty triggered by Trump's federal cuts and tariffs. That tracks with the latest Ipsos-Reuters poll findings, which show Trump polling below his overall approval rating on the economy, and above it on immigration. Recent polls also show that Americans who helped elect Trump to his second term overwhelmingly like what they see so far. In a six-day Ipsos-Reuters poll that concluded on June 16, 9 out of 10 respondents who said they voted for Trump in November also said they approved of his performance in office so far. "I like the way he portrays himself as being a strong leader," said Torres. "It makes us look stronger to other countries." White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that Trump had delivered on his campaign promises by reducing U.S. border crossings to historic lows and keeping inflation lower than expected. "The Administration is committed to building on these successes by slashing the waste, fraud, and abuse in our government and leveling the playing field for American industries and workers with more custom-made trade deals," Desai said. 'Anxiety is the buzzword' Most of the 20 voters interviewed say they now have qualms about some of Trump's most extreme measures. Brandon Neumeister, 36, a Pennsylvania state corrections worker and former National Guardsman, said he disagreed with a May request by the Department of Homeland Security for 20,000 National Guard members to help detain illegal immigrants. "To deploy troops on American soil in American cities, I think that sends a very severe message,' he said. Pilot Terry Alberta at the West Michigan Regional Airport, in Holland, Michigan | REUTERS Neumeister voted for Trump hoping for lower prices and inflation, and said he knows it will take time for the president's economic policies to yield results. But people close to him have lost jobs as a result of Trump downsizing the federal government, and several friends of his are anxious about losing pensions or health care due to budget cuts at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "Anxiety is the buzzword for everything right now,' Neumeister said, adding that it was "hard to say' whether he's glad Trump is president. Federal workforce reductions are also wearing on Robert Billups, 34, an accountant in Washington state currently searching for his next job. He has seen federal positions disappear from job sites, and he frequently gets worried calls from his mother, who is a contractor with the Internal Revenue Service. "This is more than my mom has ever reached out to me. I feel like it's freaking her out,' he said. Ethical concerns Several Trump voters in the group also said they were uneasy about actions by Trump that critics say overstep his presidential authority. Don Jernigan, 74, a retiree in Virginia Beach, said he likes the outcomes of most of Trump's policies but not the way he sometimes pushes them through, such as his record number of executive orders or his imposition of tariffs on other countries, a power that Jernigan says belongs to Congress. Nor does he like the fact that Trump accepted a jet given to the United States by Qatar, which Jernigan views as an enemy nation. "Trump works off of ideas. He doesn't work off of principles. He has no principles,' Jernigan said. Overall, however, he thinks Trump is protecting U.S. borders and deterring threats against the nation better than the other candidates for president would have. Veteran Lou Nunez outside his home in Pleasant Hill, Iowa | REUTERS Trump's acceptance of the Qatari jet also struck Amanda Taylor, 51, an insurance firm employee near Savannah, Georgia, as potentially unethical. "It just seems a little like he can do whatever he wants to without repercussion,' she said. Taylor, who voted for former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2020, says it is too early to tell yet whether Trump is an improvement. She likes Trump's pledges to deport criminals and gang members. But she has been most closely watching economic indicators, especially interest rates, because she and her husband closed on a new house this month. Changes they hope to see Among Trump voters with fewer complaints about the president's second term, there are still areas where they hope to see some change. David Ferguson, 53, hoped the Trump administration would revitalize U.S. manufacturing, and so far he is "pleased with the groundwork' and "at least the direction that they're communicating.' At the industrial supply company in western Georgia where he works as a mechanical engineer and account manager, Ferguson has seen Trump's tariffs drive up prices on a range of products, from roller bearings to food-processing equipment. He does not expect the prices to fall as quickly as they've risen. Ferguson would like the administration to offer tax incentives to companies like his that are making it possible for more things to be made in the United States. "It would help encourage businesses that are already domesticating manufacturing and give them some relief from the tariffs, kind of reward their good behavior,' he said. Several other Trump voters voiced support for a policy that might surprise left-leaning voters: a clearer legal immigration pathway for aspiring Americans who are law-abiding and want to contribute to the U.S. economy. Gerald Dunn, 66, is a martial-arts instructor in New York's Hudson Valley and "middle-of-the-road' voter who said he is frustrated by extremism in both U.S. political parties. Dunn said he knows people who have tried to enter the United States legally but encountered "horrendous' red tape. People with skills and stable employment offers could become "assets to the country" instead of liabilities if it were easier for them to immigrate, Dunn said. In Charlotte, North Carolina, engineer Rich Somora, 61, said he supports Trump's efforts to deport criminals but he also recognizes that immigrants are increasingly doing key jobs that U.S. citizens don't want to do, such as building construction. "If somebody's contributing, give them a pathway, you know? I got no problem with that,' Somora said.
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Thousands call for Thai prime minister's resignation
Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied in Bangkok on Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra resign after a leaked diplomatic phone call stirred public anger over her leadership. A Cambodian elder statesman leaked a call meant to sooth a border spat between the two nations in which Paetongtarn called him "uncle" and referred to a Thai military commander as her "opponent." A key party abandoned Paetongtarn's coalition, accusing the 38-year-old dynastic premier of kowtowing to Cambodia and undermining Thailand's military, leaving her teetering with a slim parliamentary majority. Around 4,000 demonstrators filled roads ringing the capital's Victory Monument, waving Thai flags and cheering for speeches interspersed with live music. The crowd was mostly senior-aged and led by veteran activists of the "Yellow Shirt" movement — which helped oust Paetongtarn's father Thaksin in the 2000s — as well as one of his former allies now among his harshest critics. "I'm here to protect Thailand's sovereignty and to say the PM is unfit," said 70-year-old protester Seri Sawangmue, who traveled overnight by bus from the country's north to attend. "After I heard the leaked call, I knew I couldn't trust her," he said. "I've lived through many political crises and I know where this is going. She's willing to give up our sovereignty." Thailand has seen decades of clashes between the bitterly-opposed "Yellow Shirts" who defend the monarchy and military and the "Red Shirts" backing Thaksin, who they consider a threat to Thailand's traditional social order. Around 4,000 demonstrators filled roads ringing the capital's Victory Monument, waving Thai flags and cheering for speeches interspersed with live music. | REUTERS Jamnong Kalana, 64, said she was once a "Red Shirt" but had now changed her colors and was demanding Paetongtarn's resignation. "I feel full of pain when I see a fellow Thai who doesn't love the country like I do," she said. Authorities said more than 1,000 police and 100 city officials had been deployed for the event which remained peaceful early on Saturday afternoon. Paetongtarn was visiting Thailand's flood-hit north but before departing Bangkok she told reporters: "It's their right to protest, as long as it's peaceful." The prime minister has been battered by controversy and abandoned by her largest backer the Bhumjaithai Party after her phone call with Cambodia's ex-leader Hun Sen leaked earlier this month. Tensions between the countries have soared after a border dispute boiled over into violence last month which killed one Cambodia soldier. Next week, both Paetongtarn and her father face legal battles that could reshape Thailand's political landscape. On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court will decide whether to take up a petition by senators seeking her removal over alleged unprofessionalism. That same day, her father is set to stand trial on royal defamation charges linked to decade-old remarks to South Korean media. Paetongtarn took office less than a year ago after her predecessor was disqualified by a court order and her father returned from exile after 15 years. She is the fourth Shinawatra-linked figure to become prime minister following her father, aunt and uncle-in-law.
