APD | Weekly top 10 hot news (March 31 - April 6)
Every weekend, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.
This week, the following hot news you should know:
TOP 1 | U.S. to designate Iranian Guards Corps as terrorist organization: report
The United States is expected to designate Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another country's military a terrorist group.
The decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the U.S. State Department, perhaps as early as Monday, the officials said. It has been rumored for years.
The Pentagon declined to comment and referred queries to the State Department. The State Department and White House also declined to comment.
TOP 2 | Pompeo voices confidence for another Trump-Kim summit
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that he is confident that there will be a third meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un.
Pompeo made the remarks in an interview with the CBS TV network. He did not specify on any concrete timetable about the next meeting, only saying that he hopes it could occur soon.
The top U.S. diplomat also noted that the diplomatic channels are still open between Washington and Pyongyang.
The DPRK-U.S. talks on the Korean peninsula denuclearization have advanced little after the second summit between Kim and Trump in late February in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi ended without an agreement.
TOP 3 | Maduro announces 30 days of electricity rationing in Venezuela
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro announced 30 days of electricity rationing on Sunday, after his government said it was reducing the length of the workday and keeping schools closed due to devastating blackouts plaguing the country.
The measures are a stark admission by the government -- which has sought to blame repeated blackouts in March on sabotage -- that there is not enough electricity to go around, and that the power crisis is here to stay.
Speaking on state television, Maduro said he had approved "a 30-day plan" to ration power, "with an emphasis on guaranteeing water service."
Crippled infrastructure, little investment in the power grid and poor maintenance have all contributed to electricity problem.
TOP 4 | Boeing CEO admits bad data plays role in 737 MAX air crashes, saying "sorry" for loss of lives
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg Thursday said the company was "sorry for the lives lost" in the two crashes involving its 737 MAX planes while acknowledging for the first time that bad data played a role in the accidents.
"We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 accidents and are relentlessly focused on safety to ensure tragedies like this never happen again," Muilenburg said after the Ethiopian authorities released a preliminary investigation report earlier in the day.
The ill-fated 737 MAX aircraft of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (ET 302), which crashed in Ethiopia and killed all 157 people aboard on March 10, was of the same model as the Indonesia Lion Air Flight 610 that crashed in October last year. The two crashes killed a total of 346 people.
TOP 5 | May asks for Brexit extension to 30 June as Tusk offers up to a year
Theresa May has written to Donald Tusk to ask for Brexit to be delayed until 30 June while she battles to win cross-party agreement on a way forward.
Rather than the year-long flexible extension to article 50 recommended by the European council president, the prime minister suggested 30 June as the new departure date, but with an option to leave earlier if the necessary legislation has been passed.
That is the same date requested by the government last month but rejected by EU leaders in Brussels. Unless a new date is signed off at an emergency EU summit on Wednesday, Britain is due to leave without a deal.
Tusk is pushing the EU27 to offer a one-year “flexible” extension to article 50, with an option to leave earlier once the withdrawal agreement is ratified by parliament. He is said to have described the plan as “the only reasonable way out”.
TOP 6 | US will run out of avocados in three weeks if Trump closes Mexico border
US consumers would run out of avocados in three weeks if Donald Trump makes good on his threat to close down the US–Mexico border.
Trump said on Friday that there was a “very good likelihood” he would close the border this week if Mexico did not stop immigrants from reaching the United States.
But a complete shutdown would disrupt millions of legal border crossings in addition to asylum seekers, as well as billions of dollars in trade, about $137bn of which is in food imports.
Avocados would run out in three weeks if imports from Mexico were stopped, said Steve Barnard, president and chief executive of Mission Produce, the largest distributor and grower of avocados in the world.
TOP 7 | Top Venezuela court calls to strip Guaido's immunity
Venezuela's top Court called on the ruling Constituent Assembly Monday to strip opposition leader Juan Guaido of parliamentary immunity.
The decision by the Supreme Court of Justice could open the way for President Nicolas Maduro's rival Guaido, recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries, to be prosecuted.
The Court ruling cited Guaido's violation of a ban on his travel outside Venezuela when he visited Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay from late February to early March.
Earlier, Guaido was disqualified from holding public office for 15 years following an investigation that showed irregularities in his financial records, said the Comptroller General Elvis Amoroso said last Thursday.
TOP 8 | EU rejects Trump's move to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights
The European Union (EU) rejects U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights in Syria, EU's High Representative for Foreign affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said Sunday.
Speaking at the 30th Arab League (AL) summit held in the Tunisian capital Tunis, Mogherini said that the U.S. decision is completely opposed to UN Security Council resolutions that consider the Golan Heights an Israeli-occupied Syrian territory.
"The EU is working to achieve a political solution to the crisis in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions," she said, adding that a political solution would be the only peaceful way to end the conflict in Syria and ensure the interests of all parties.
On the situation in Yemen, Mogherini said all parties agreed on the need to support this country not only with humanitarian aid, but also help it implement the Stockholm Agreement to get this country out of its crisis.
TOP 9 | Japan unveils new era name "Reiwa"
Japan's new "gengo," or new era name, is "Reiwa,” Japan's Chief Cabinet SecretaNo joke: comedian Zelensky sets course for Ukraine presidencyry Yoshihide Suga announced on Monday.
The announcement came exactly a month before the new era begins on May 1, when Crown Prince Naruhito is expected to accede to the throne after his father Emperor Akihito formally abdicates on April 30.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will then make a separate statement on the decision at noon to convey the meaning of the new "gengo," according to Suga.
TOP 10 | No joke: comedian Zelensky sets course for Ukraine presidency
Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is favourite to become Ukraine's president after results Monday showed him dominating a first-round vote despite many initially dismissing his candidacy as a joke.
The 41-year-old's political experience had been limited to playing the president in a TV show but he leapfrogged establishment candidates amid public frustration over corruption and a stalling economy.
Partial results published on April Fools' Day -- an irony not lost on Ukrainians on social media -- showed Zelensky taking 30 percent in Sunday's first round, well ahead of incumbent Petro Poroshenko on roughly 17 percent.
The two will meet in a run-off vote on April 21 after ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and dozens of other candidates were knocked out of the race.
Related:
The UK has a long road ahead on post-Brexit trade policy
DPRK's surprising flexibility is instructive in dealing with Trump
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
