Japanese government loses majority, Prime Minister Ishiba doubles down (for now)

Today's headlines: South Korea has counted 18 deaths after recent rains; In Sri Lanka dismisses police inspector deemed responsible for failing to prevent Easter Attacks;. Myanmar's online scam centres are increasingly relying on Starlink; At least 1,120 people have died in clashes in southern Syria.

JAPAN

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said he will not resign after the Liberal Democratic Party's poor showing in yesterday's House of Councillors elections, which means it no longer has a majority in either house. All opposition parties have ruled out forming an alliance with the conservatives and their allies in the Buddhist Komeito party, and pressure for Ishiba to resign is likely to grow in the coming days. As predicted by the polls, the far right, represented by Sanseito, won many votes in conservative areas, but the Democratic Party for the People, a new political party formed in 2018, also gained ground.

SOUTH KOREA

Following last week's heavy rains, 18 people have died and 9 are still missing, the South Korean government said this morning. Since the monsoon season began on Wednesday, more than 14,000 people have sought refuge in 15 major cities and provinces. Property damage has been extensive, according to authorities: yesterday, 1,999 cases of damage to public structures and 2,238 cases of damage to private structures were reported.

SRI LANKA

The National Police Commission has dismissed Inspector General Nilantha Jayawardena for failing to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019, in which nearly 300 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. Jayawardena, then head of intelligence and already suspended from subsequent posts, was charged last year and found guilty of ignoring warnings of an imminent attack by Islamic extremists.

MYANMAR

Online scam centres in Myanmar are increasingly relying on Elon Musk's Starlink satellites for internet connectivity after Thailand cut off signals from providers operating on the border between the two countries last year. Since then, according to information gathered by the International Justice Mission, a group fighting human trafficking, Starlink's use may have more than doubled.

SYRIA

Bedouin groups in the southern governorate of Suwayda have said they will respect the ceasefire with the local Druze community, but have not ruled out a resumption of fighting. The truce was announced yesterday by President Ahmed al-Sharaa after government forces were deployed to remove Bedouin tribes from areas where clashes had lasted for a week. More than 1,120 people have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of them are Druze who were “summarily executed by Ministry of Defence and Interior personnel”, the organisation said.

RUSSIA

According to analysis by the Russian foundation “Public Opinion”, the Russian population is increasingly distressed by rising public, municipal and state services, such as condominium fees, which have risen by 30% in recent months alone, with one in four respondents saying they had to take out loans to pay these costs, especially in the provinces.

GEORGIA

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has made it clear that the government does not intend to comply with the European Commission's recommendations, even if this means Georgians will lose the possibility of travelling to Europe without a visa, stating that this possibility ‘has no existential value, they are diktats like those of Moscow in Soviet times, from which Brussels does not seem to differ much’.