World briefs

CHINA-US Facing new trade sanctions and a U.S. clampdown on its top telecommunications company, China issued a pointed reminder yesterday that it has yet to unleash all its weapons in its trade war with the Trump administration.

THAILAND The late British writer and social critic George Orwell appears to be back in the good graces of Thailand’s military ruler after a spell in the doghouse five years ago. 

PHILIPPINES An official says a cargo ship has arrived in a northern port to pick up and return 69 containers of Canadian garbage which the government in Manila says was shipped illegally to the Philippines years ago.

MALAYSIA The practice of advanced countries such as the U.S., Canada and Japan sending their non-recyclable waste to poorer countries is “grossly unfair” and should stop, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday.

RUSSIA and Japan have accused each other of military buildups as their foreign and defense ministers met in Tokyo for talks that failed to make progress on decades-long island disputes.

INDIA Narendra Modi has been sworn in for a second term as India’s prime minister after an overwhelming election victory for his Hindu nationalist party in a country of 1.3 billion people seeking swift economic change.

PERSIAN GULF Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Ibrahim al-Assaf (pictured] urged Muslim nations to confront with “all means of force and firmness” recent attacks in the Persian Gulf that U.S. and some Arab officials have blamed on Iran.

TRUMP President Donald Trump blasted special counsel Robert Mueller yesterday, calling him a “never Trumper” who led a biased investigation on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and failed to investigate his opponents who didn’t want Trump to be president.