Japan: More victims from toxic food supplement

Today's news: Xiaomi will also enter the electric car market; Indonesian parliament votes law to keep Indonesia's economic heartland in Jakarta after capital's move to Nusantara;  Phone conversation between Putin and Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng; In Mohammad bin Salman's 'new course' Saudi Arabia will participate in Miss Universe.

JAPAN

There is alarm in Japan due to very serious poisonings linked to the consumption of some food supplements based on red yeast rice produced by the Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. Today two more deaths were announced, after the Ministry of Health had already announced in recent days that the products had been involved in two deaths from kidney disease and over 100 hospitalizations. The ministry suspects the presence of a toxic substance in the products, but the company has so far been unable to ascertain the specific cause.

HONG KONG-CHINA

In view of the "National Security Education Day" which will be celebrated on April 15, a text has been distributed to schools in Hong Kong to read to pupils in which Xi Jinping's attention to the protection of the country and the law is extolled on Article 23 it is presented as a "security barrier".

CHINA

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is entering the electric car market. CEO Lei Jun announced the launch of a car called Speed Ultra 7 (SU7) with a price of less than 500 thousand yuan (65 thousand euros). The move will see the tech giant take on rivals such as Tesla and BYD.

INDONESIA

Even with the transfer of the capital to Nusantara - the new city under construction in the jungle of East Kalimantan, in Borneo, which should be inaugurated on August 17th - Jakarta will remain the economic epicenter of Indonesia. The Indonesian parliament established this by approving a law that recognizes a special status for Jakarta. Nusantara is the flagship project of outgoing president Joko Widodo, who has pledged to redistribute the wealth and development currently concentrated in Java across the archipelago.

RUSSIA-VIETNAM

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with the secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, to evaluate the development of bilateral relations in the economic and commercial, technical-scientific and humanitarian fields, noting the "closeness of positions on issues hottest international events in the world today."

SAUDI ARABIA

For the first time, Saudi Arabia will be represented at the Miss Universe beauty pageant this year. Rumy al-Qahtani, a 27-year-old Saudi model and social media influencer, will participate in the global beauty pageant to be held in Mexico in September. She revealed it herself with a post on Instagram. In a country where until very recently the very rigid Wahhabi Islam dictated the law on the condition of women, this is yet another impressive gesture in the line of "openness" desired by Mohammad bin Salman.

KAZAKHSTAN

According to data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare in Astana, since the beginning of the year 2,800 ethnic Kazakhs from abroad have received the status of kandas, "repatriated" to Kazakhstan. Half come from China's Xinjiang, 31% from Uzbekistan, 6.8% from Turkmenistan, 6.5% from Mongolia, 3.9% from Russia and the remaining 1.5% from other countries.

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