World

TOKYO — Japan hit back on Saturday at US President Joe Biden’s comments about the Asian ally being “xenophobic” like China and Russia, calling the characterisation “unfortunate” and misguided.

Biden lumped together allies Japan and India with rivals China and Russia at a recent campaign event, arguing the four economic powers were struggling because of their unwillingness to accept immigrants.

“Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan in trouble? Why is Russia in trouble? And India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants,” the president said on Wednesday.

“One of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” the president added.

In response, Tokyo on Saturday said it was “unfortunate that comments not based on an accurate understanding of Japan’s policy were made”, according to a government statement.

The Japanese government had already delivered this message to the White House and explained once again about its policies and stances, the statement said.

Biden’s remarks came less than a month after he hosted a lavish state dinner for his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in a rare gesture of high-level diplomacy.

The 81-year-old Democrat’s unexpected digs at Japan soon prompted the White House to tone them down. The president was merely trying to send a broader message that “the United States is a nation of immigrants”, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

“It’s in our DNA,“ he said.

Tokyo, for its part, said this clarification hadn’t been lost.

“We’re aware of the US government’s explanation that the comments in question weren’t made for the purpose of harming the importance and perpetuity of the Japan-US relationships,” its statement said.

TBILISI — Tens of thousands of people rallied on Wednesday in Georgia against a controversial “foreign influence” bill, after parliament advanced the measure that Brussels has warned would harm Tbilisi’s long-standing European aspirations.

The Black Sea Caucasus nation has been gripped by mass anti-government protests since April 9, after the ruling Georgian Dream Party reintroduced plans to pass a law, which critics say resembles repressive Russian legislation used to silence dissent.

The bill cleared its second reading in parliament on Wednesday with a vote of 83 to 23, a day after police violently broke up a demonstration against it, firing tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets, and beating and arresting scores of people.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen condemned the violence and urged Georgia to stay on the path to Europe.

“I am following the situation in Georgia with great concern and condemn the violence on the streets of Tbilisi,” von der Leyen wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“The Georgian people want a European future for their country. Georgia is at a crossroads. It should stay the course on the road to Europe.”

Waving Georgian and European Union flags, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered on Wednesday evening outside parliament, according to an AFP reporter on the scene. Georgia’s national anthem and EU’s Ode to Joy were performed at the rally.

Later in the evening, police used pepper spray and water cannon against hundreds of demonstrators who attempted to block the legislature’s side entrance.

“Their senseless violence is futile — the protest will only grow as popular anger is growing against our government,” protester Tato Gachechiladze, 20, told AFP.

“Georgia belongs to Europe and we will not tolerate Russian laws and a pro-Russian government,” he added.

Interior ministry said police used “special means provided by the law — pepper spray and water cannons — in order to restore law and order”.

Coveted EU candidacy 

Similar rallies were held this week across the country, including in Georgia’s second-largest city of Batumi and the main city of the western Imereti region, Kutaisi.

The turmoil comes months before Georgia holds parliamentary elections in October, seen as a key test of democracy in the EU-aspiring former Soviet republic.

The ruling Georgian Dream Party has defended the bill, saying it serves to boost transparency of NGO’s foreign funding. It aims to sign the measure into law by mid-May.

The bill must pass a third reading and be signed by the president to become law.

President Salome Zurabishvili — who is at loggerheads with the ruling party — is expected to veto the measure, but the party has enough votes for an override.

If adopted, the law would require that any independent NGO and media organisation receiving more than 20 per cent of its funding from abroad to register as an “organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power”.

Last year, mass street protests forced Georgian Dream to drop plans for similar measures.

Georgia has sought for years to deepen relations with the West, but Georgian Dream has been accused of attempting to steer the former Soviet republic closer to Russia.

EU chief Charles Michel has said the bill “is not consistent with Georgia’s bid for EU membership” and that it “will bring Georgia further away from the EU and not closer”.

In December, the EU granted Georgia official candidate status but said Tbilisi would have to reform its judicial and electoral systems, reduce political polarisation, improve press freedom and curtail the power of oligarchs before membership talks are formally launched.

Georgia’s bid for membership of the EU and NATO is enshrined in its constitution and — according to opinion polls — supported by more than 80 per cent of the population.

ISTANBUL — Turkish police on Wednesday fired tear gas and rubber bullets and detained dozens of protesters after authorities banned May 1 rallies at Istanbul’s historic Taksim Square.

More than 40,000 police were deployed across Istanbul, blocking even small sidestreets with metal barriers in an attempt to prevent protesters gathering.

Police clashed with demonstrators near city hall in the Sarachane district, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to stop protesters breaching barricades, AFP reporters said. 

According to media reports, at least 150 people had been detained by midday, but authorities did not confirm the figure. AFP reporters saw many people being arrested.

Some were detained trying to enter Taksim Square.

Tall metal barriers were put up around the square, where authorities have banned rallies since 2013, when it was the focus of demonstrations against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

Taksim was a rallying ground for May Day celebrations until 1977, when at least 34 people were killed during demonstrations. Authorities opened it up again in 2010, but it was shut again after the 2013 protests.

In the Besiktas district, police detained at least 30 left-wing protesters who were shouting “Taksim cannot be banned”, an AFP journalist.

One protester was dragged along the ground by police and his group detained. 

Another 30 people were detained in the Sisli district.

The MLSA rights group said several journalists were pushed to the ground during the troubles.

‘Taksim belongs to workers’ 

Main roads across Istanbul were closed to traffic while public transport including ferries and subway trains were halted because of the security clampdown. Landmarks such as the Topkapi palace were cordoned off.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Taksim would be out of bounds for rallies to stop “terrorist organisations” using it for “propaganda”.

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and unions had pressed the government to open the square for labour rallies but Erdogan warned on Tuesday against any provocation. 

CHP leader Ozgur Ozel, accompanied by Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and labour unions, gathered at the Sarachane neighbourhood. 

“We will keep on fighting until Taksim is free,” Ozel said. “Taksim belongs to the workers.”

Addressing the police, Ozel declared: “These workers are not your enemies Our only desire is for the day to be celebrated as a festival. We do not want conflict.” 

In 2023, Turkey’s top constitutional court ruled that the closure of Taksim Square for protests was a violation of rights. 

NEW YORK — The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial fined the former president on Tuesday for defying a gag order and warned that further violations could see him thrown in jail.

Trump, 77, is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels just days ahead of the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton.

Ahead of the high-profile trial — the first ever of a former US president — Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump not to publicly attack witnesses, jurors or court staff and their relatives.

Merchan held Trump in contempt of court for multiple violations of the partial gag order.

He fined Trump $1,000 each for nine specific instances, and instructed him to remove seven “offending posts” from his Truth Social account and two from a campaign website by Tuesday afternoon.

Lamenting that he could not impose a fine “more commensurate with the wealth of the contemnor,” the judge warned the former president that he could be sent to jail if he continues to violate the gag order.

“Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” Merchan said.

The judge delivered his order before testimony resumed in Trump’s historic trial, which is restricting his time on the campaign trail less than seven months before his likely November election rematch with Democrat Joe Biden.

Prosecutors allege that Trump made the hush money payment to Daniels to silence her about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter that could have potentially derailed his 2016 White House bid.

Trump denies having sex with Daniels and has used appearances outside the Manhattan courtroom to rail against his indictment, claiming it is a “witch hunt” by Democrats to torpedo his campaign to recapture the presidency.

“I’d much rather be in Georgia. I’d much rather be in Florida,” the Republican candidate told reporters on Tuesday. “I’d like to be able to campaign. Biden’s out campaigning.”

‘Blockbuster Trump story’

Taking the witness stand on Tuesday was Keith Davidson, who served as an attorney for Daniels and Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who also claimed to have had an affair with Trump.

Davidson told the court he was negotiating before the 2016 election to sell McDougal’s story to ABC News or American Media Inc, publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid.

“I have a blockbuster Trump story,” Davidson told National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard in a message, to which Howard replied “Did he cheat on Melania?”

McDougal’s story was eventually purchased by AMI for $150,000 and then buried, according to testimony last week by David Pecker, the former publisher of the tabloid, a scheme known in the industry as “catch and kill”.

Asked why McDougal preferred to sell her story to AMI, Davidson said “because she, at that time, she had announced her desire to not tell the story of her interlude with Donald Trump”.

Testifying before Davidson was Gary Farro, a former senior managing director of the now defunct First Republic Bank.

Cohen, Trump’s “fixer”, set up an account at First Republic in the name of a company called Essential Consultants to arrange for the payment to Daniels.

Cohen, who has become a vocal Trump critic, and Daniels are expected to be star prosecution witnesses.

In addition to the New York case, Trump has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

He also faces charges in Florida of allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

LONDON — Donald, Ken and Henry wear their medals with pride, but reject the title of heroes even if they are among the last British veterans alive who took part in the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944.

The trio, all pushing 100 years or beyond, told AFP that their job now was to bear witness to history and tell the story of World War II to younger generations, as the country prepares for the 80th anniversary of the key military operation.

Despite the passing of the decades, their memories of those events remain precise and vivid.

Ken Hay, 98, set foot on Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer a few days after the first wave of soldiers landed on June 6.

“I should have been frightened. I don’t think we were. I’m no hero, I’m not trying to make myself one, but it was all part of the adventure,” he told AFP in London.

Tasked with advancing towards an inland observation post, his unit was attacked from the rear by German soldiers and he was captured, along with four other members of his regiment.

He was then transported by train to Poland with dozens of other prisoners and sent to work in a coal mine.

But Russian troops advancing from the east forced the Germans to empty the camps, with the prisoners having to walk hundreds of kilometres west.

Hay was finally liberated by American troops and was repatriated by aeroplane two days before Victory in Europe Day -- May 8, 1945 -- the date of the German surrender.

Henry Rice, also 98 years old, was in charge of communications aboard the HMS Eastway landing ship, delivering equipment to the soldiers on shore at Normandy.

“I was 50 percent excited, 50 per cent not sure,” he recalled of his mission. “For a young man, it was so big, so many ships.”

But his gaze clouded over at the memory of the thousands of men killed on the French beaches, including nearly 1,500 British on the first day.

“The mental picture I have of men in the water, I don’t like to think of that,” he said.

‘In the face of danger’ 

After participating in the Normandy landings, Rice served in the Mediterranean and in Asia, until the Japanese surrender that marked the end of the global conflict.

“I feel lucky” to have returned alive, he said.

Compared to other veterans, “particularly those soldiers who had landed and survived, I feel ‘petit’”, he added.

“I’m so proud of them. I was not in the face of danger like they were,” he recalled, despite dodging several enemy torpedoes.

Donald Howkins, 103, landed two days after D-Day, and recalled being “very frightened”.

“The sea was pretty rough, the barge was going up and down. But when I was on the beach I was OK. You just carried on with what you’ve got to do.”

When asked about how he feels ahead of the 80th anniversary commemorations, which many heads of state are expected to attend, he joked: “too bloody old”.

Howkins has already gone to several commemoration events in Normandy, but will not go this year as he now uses a wheelchair and the trip is too difficult.

But Ken Hay will be there and expects to experience a “mixture” of emotions.

“It’s very sad when you go to the graves... but it is also nice” to meet the French locals, he said, especially the children, who are taught about the historic events at school.

“They recognise us, want to shake your hands... it’s a lovely atmosphere.”

Like his frontline comrades, he considers it very important to keep the story of World War II alive for younger generations.

“I could warn them of the danger of war, but I would prefer to tell the leaders of countries, stop it,” said Rice.

“In this lifetime, we’ve had these horrible things,” he added, his eyes welling with tears as he recalled conflicts that have marred the globe since World War II.