Japanese PM Ishiba to skip NATO summit
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will cancel his attendance at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in the Hague this week, a source with direct knowledge has said.
Ishiba was cancelling the trip because a planned meeting between NATO and the group of four Indo-Pacific nations (IP4) would likely not take place, and because a meeting with US President Donald Trump was also unlikely, Fuji Television reported on Monday.
South Korea and Australia, which along with Japan and New Zealand, make up the IP4, have also said their leaders would not attend the NATO summit meeting. Trump had wanted to hold a summit meeting with the IP4, a second source told Reuters.
Both sources declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to media.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will represent Japan, the first source said.
Japan's leader has attended every NATO summit since 2022, when the country was first invited to participate following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The foreign ministry had announced Ishiba's attendance just three days ago, saying he was set to "reaffirm with NATO allies and others the recognition that the security of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific is inseparable."
Ishiba had also planned to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
24 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
World Braces for Iran's Response to US Attacks on Nuclear Sites
Good morning. The world braces for Iran's response after the US strikes. The State Department warns Americans to be cautious. And the Oklahoma City Thunder are NBA champions. Listen to the day's top stories. The US airstrikes on Iran set markets and governments worldwide on edge, as the Islamic Republic vowed to retaliate and Israel showed no sign of letting up. Donald Trump has threatened further military action if Tehran doesn't make peace with Israel. The fallout is just starting: the State Department issued a 'Worldwide Caution' alert for US citizens, while some airlines are canceling flights to the Persian Gulf and Japan's biggest banks are considering pulling their staff from the region. Keep up with the latest developments via our Live Blog.
Associated Press
25 minutes ago
- Associated Press
What to know about debate over protesters and ICE agents wearing masks amid immigration crackdowns
CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly called for mask-wearing at protests to be banned and for protesters whose faces are covered to be arrested, with the most recent push following demonstrations in Los Angeles over immigration raids. Legal experts told The Associated Press there are a variety of reasons people may want to cover their faces while protesting, including to protect their health, for religious reasons, to avoid government retaliation, to prevent surveillance and doxing, or to protect themselves from tear gas. With legislative action happening across the U.S., they say it's only a matter of time before the issue returns to the courts. Protesters, meanwhile, have voiced anger over footage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents covering their faces at immigration raids and masked officers at the Los Angeles protests, calling it a double standard. Here are some things to know about the debate over face masks: Legislative efforts target masked protesters At least 18 states and Washington, D.C., have laws that restrict masks and other face coverings in some way, said Elly Page, senior legal adviser with the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law. Since October 2023, at least 16 bills have been introduced in eight states and Congress to restrict masks at protests, according to the center. Many of these laws date back to the 1940s and '50s when many states passed anti-mask laws as a response to the Ku Klux Klan, whose members hid their identities while terrorizing victims. Amid protests against the war in Gaza and the Republican president's immigration policies, Page said there have been attempts to revive these rarely used laws to target protesters, sometimes inconsistently. Concerns over masked ICE agents Trump's calls to arrest protesters for wearing masks came as federal agents were seen donning masks while conducting raids in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities. Democratic lawmakers in California have introduced legislation aiming to stop federal agents and local police officers from wearing face masks amid concerns that ICE agents were attempting to hide their identities and avoid accountability for potential misconduct during high-profile immigration raids. The issue also came up at a congressional hearing on June 12, when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, criticized ICE agents wearing masks during raids, saying: 'Don't wear masks. Identify who you are.' Republican federal officials have maintained that masks protect agents from doxing. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the California bill 'despicable.' Unresolved First Amendment question Geoffrey Stone, a University of Chicago law professor, said the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that the right to free speech includes the right to speak out anonymously. But he said how it should apply to protesters wearing masks remains 'an unresolved First Amendment question.' For Stone, that raises a key question: Why should protesters and ICE agents be subject to different rules? 'The government doesn't want them to be targeted because they engaged in their responsibilities as ICE agents,' Stone said. 'But that's the same thing as the argument as to why you want demonstrators to wear masks. They want to wear masks so they can do their 'jobs' of engaging in free speech properly. The same rationale for the officers wearing masks should apply to the protesters.'
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'We Are F**ked!: John Oliver Wades Through 'The S**t' We're Now 'Drowning In'
'Last Week Tonight' host John Oliver on Sunday sounded the alarm over the rapid rise of artificial intelligence-generated content that is increasingly appearing online. At one point, he summed it up: 'We are fucked!' Oliver explained how the explosion of new AI tools has made it easier than ever to produce so-called 'AI slop,' the low-quality music, images, videos and even news articles that are now dominating people's social media feeds. It's 'the newest iteration of spam' and is making some platforms 'unusable' because of their sheer volume, Oliver lamented. Many users don't realize the content isn't even real and 'bad actors' are also seizing on some of it, he added, pointing to when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump last year falsely dismissed photos of big crowds at a Kamala Harris campaing event as being AI-generated. 'We're going to be drowning in this shit for the foreseeable future,' Oliver warned. The comedian acknowledged there's no easy fix. AI models are often trained on the work of real-life creators, effectively ripping them off, he noted. He didn't offer a solution but did suggest 'a petty way' to seek revenge, by making genuine art by stealing from the slop. Find out how he did that here: Kayleigh McEnany's 'Every Dictator' Take On Trump Iran Strike Draws Online Fire Critics Point Out Glaring Contradiction In Trump's Iran 'Regime Change' Post JD Vance Roasted For Line That Inadvertently Seemed To Insult Trump Marjorie Taylor Greene Rages Against Trump Iran Strike With Chilling Warning
