cross-posted from: https://piefed.jeena.net/post/179335

• Voter turnout reaches 79.4 percent, 4th highest since 1987
• Lee's projected victory expected to turn page on political crisis that shook the nation for past 6 months

German automakers became the latest to warn that China's export restrictions threaten to shut down production and rattle their local economies, following a similar complaint from an Indian EV maker last week

China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

Diplomats, automakers and other executives from India, Japan and Europe were urgently seeking meetings with Beijing officials to push for faster approval of rare earth magnet exports

About 320 tons of fin whale meat were unloaded at Sendai port in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday, with some 1.6 tons set to be transported to six markets across the country including Tokyo and Osaka as raw meat.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/65387935

Data analysed by the BBC show that Ukraine's Western allies have paid Russia more for its hydrocarbons than they have given Ukraine in aid.

U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the U.S.-led military alliance.

https://archive.is/vt6mi

the US struck a secret agreement with Ishii. In a memo to General Douglas MacArthur (1880 – 1964), commander of Allied forces in Japan, Washington recognized that although war crimes had been committed, the experiments led by Ishii and his colleagues were "almost incalculable and incredibly valuable to the United States."

In exchange for the records of Unit 731's experiments, the US granted Ishii and his assistants immunity. Ishii died, and his collaborators went on to have careers in prestigious universities and private laboratories.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/65282199

• French Environment Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher will fly to China on Wednesday night with hopes of moving the EU and China closer on international climate action, as the US refuses to join the global effort.
• Pannier-Runacher wants to see France and China publicly reaffirm their commitment to the deal that was sealed in the French capital in 2015 while she is in Beijing to prepare the ground for an EU-China summit in July.

• Accordingly, the total value of yuan-based import payments reached $19.5 billion in 2024, marking a nearly eightfold increase from $2.5 billion in 2014.

• The findings came as the yuan has overtaken the euro as the world’s second most-widely used currency after the dollar.

Australia on May 28 approved a 40-year extension to a major liquified gas plant, brushing off protests from Pacific island neighbours fearful it will inflame climate damage.

• The inaugural Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-China Summit comes as ASEAN embarks on a concerted push for new trading partners amid steep tariffs threatened by the United States.

• The proposed railway would connect Brazil to a new port on Peru's Pacific coast, creating a trade route with China that would allow it avoid routes going through the Panama Canal and around the southern tip of South America.

The Israeli government's actions in Gaza "can no longer be justified," said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday, signalling a profound shift in tone from one of Europe's traditionally most staunch supporters of Israel.

• South Korean young adults aged 15 to 34 who remained economically “inactive” rather than seeking employment reached 590,000 in 2024, an increase of 197,000 from 2019, according to a report released by the state-run Korea Employment Information Service on March 23.

Representatives from European countries including France, Britain, Germany and Italy are joining envoys from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Norway, Iceland, Ireland and Slovenia, who like Spain have already recognised a Palestinian state, are also taking part, alongside Brazil.