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FILE PHOTO: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan August 15, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato Japan and the United States could not stand by if China attacked Taiwan, and Beijing needs to understand this, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday. Tensions over Chinese-claimed Taiwan have risen as President Xi Jinping seeks to assert his country’s sovereignty claims against the democratically ruled island. Taiwan’s government says it wants peace, but will defend itself if needed. Speaking virtually to a forum organised by Taiwanese think tank the Institute for National Policy Research, Abe noted the Senkaku islands – which China calls the Diaoyu Islands – Sakishima islands and Yonaguni island are a mere 100 km (62 miles) or so away from Taiwan. An armed invasion of Taiwan would be a grave danger to Japan, he added. “A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-U.S. alliance. People in Beijing, ...

FILE PHOTO: Passengers wait in line inside the terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo Air travellers to the United States will face tougher COVID-19 testing rules, as several countries moved to seal-off their borders amid heightened uncertainty around the virulence of the Omicron variant and its ability to dodge existing vaccines. In Asia-Pacific, Japan and Hong Kong said they would expand travel curbs, while Australia https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/sydney-braces-more-omicron-cases-no-lockdowns-now-2021-12-01 braced for more cases of the coronavirus variant after at least two people visited several locations in its biggest city while likely infectious. In an attempt to stave off hasty border curbs, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to apply “an evidence-informed and risk-based approach” to travel measures, saying “blanket travel bans will not prevent the internationa...

FILE- South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Family Leadership Summit, Friday, July 16, 2021, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Anticipation is high as the Supreme Court is set to hear the most important abortion case in decades. Meanwhile, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is looking to set the record straight about the pro-life movement. During a press conference Monday, the Republican expressed she’s hopeful the conservative-majority court will overturn  Roe v. Wade . “ I’m so excited that I’ll be around to finally watch that be torn out of our history books and that now we will now be a nation proud of our mothers, proud of our babies and proud of our future,” she expressed. The case  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization  centers around a 2018 Mississippi law, which aims to ban most abortions after 15-weeks. The bill was blocked by two federal courts that claimed it violated Roe v. Wade. However, Mississippi’s top prosecutor challenge...

Patrons Naomi and Troy DeMontmorency, from Kern County, Calif., show their digital vaccination certificates to waiter Juan Rodrigues, left, before being allowed to enter the Fred 62 restaurant in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. Enforcement began Monday in Los Angeles for one of the strictest vaccine mandates in the country, a sweeping measure that requires proof of COVID-19 shots for everyone entering a wide variety of businesses from restaurants to theaters and gyms to nail and hair salons. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Los Angeles, a city known for its beaches, film industry and draconian COVID vaccine measures. The City of Angels began enforcing its SafePass L.A. ordinance on Monday. The measure is one of the strictest in the nation, forbidding patrons from entering indoor facilities without providing proof of vaccination. The law affects a multitude of businesses, including bars, restaurants, salons and gyms. Los Angeles waiter Juan Rodrigues explai...

FILE – James Robson, a biomedical engineering graduate student, holds a swab and specimen vial in the new COVID-19, on-campus testing lab, Thursday, July 23, 2020, at Boston University in Boston. The United States has improved its surveillance system for tracking new coronavirus variants such as Omicron, boosting its capacity by tens of thousands of samples since early 2021. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File) Former Texas congressman Ron Paul and current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had some strong thoughts regarding the latest COVID-19 variant frenzy. Paul, for instance, asserted the Omicron variant is yet another deception by Democrats and health bureaucrats. “The fawning over this by the media really is pretty nauseating, how the propagandists promote all this stuff,” he stated. In a new episode of his  Liberty Report on Monday , Paul pointed out speculation of the Omicron variant is used by Democrat officials to justify new restrictions and government mandates. He said Africa has ...

Darrell Brooks, center, makes his initial appearance, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021 in Waukesha County Court in Waukesha, Wis. Prosecutors in Wisconsin have charged Brooks with intentional homicide in the deaths of at least five people who were killed when an SUV was driven into a Christmas parade. (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool) The lawyer representing the man accused of plowing his SUV into a Waukesha Christmas Parade withdrew from the case while citing conflicts of interest. During a virtual court hearing Tuesday, attorney Joseph Domask asked the judge to be removed as legal representation for 39-year-old Darrell Brooks. He told the judge he had too many relationships with the victims of the November 29 attack. The lawyer was also representing Brooks in another case in which he allegedly ran over his ex-girlfriend. The judge also removed him from that case. Meanwhile, it’s unclear who will replace the attorney. Following his first court appearance, the judge ordered ...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., flanked by Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., left, and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, talks to reporters following a GOP strategy meeting, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) effectively set up a blockade on what Republicans decried as a lackluster defense bill proposed by Democrats. On Monday, the Senate voted 51-to-45 in favor of Republicans to reject a motion to close debate and vote on the 2022  Defense Authorization Act . This missed the 60 vote threshold to move on to a vote, which is something McConnell threatened would happen if Democrats failed to hear concerns made by Republicans. McConnell warned that despite being downplayed by the Biden administration, the threats to U.S. national security have gotten immensely worse, especially in the Middle East. “In 10-months in office, despite naïve happy talk from the administration, the threats ...

Uneasy calm on Tuesday evening pervaded the Senate wing of the National Assembly as members of the Senate Committee on Army clashed over alleged lopsidedness in recent recruitments carried out by the Nigerian Army, NA. The development happened during an interactive session between members of the committee and the Commander, Training and Doctrine Command of the Nigerian Army, Major General S.O Olabanji. Trouble started when a member of the committee who doubles as the Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate, Senator Abdullahi Ibrahim Danbaba (PDP Sokoto South) took up General Olabanji on alleged lopsided nature of recruitment carried out by the Army recently. But the acting chairman of the committee, Senator Abba Moro (PDP Benue South) who presided over the session, ruled Danbaba out of order, saying “this meeting is not for such enquiry.” Apparently irked by the development, another member of the committee, Senator Barinada Mpigi (PDP Rivers South East), raised the issue again, saying “lops...

ariantost definitely here already' in the U.S. Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Nov. 28 while much is not known about the omicron variant, vaccination remains key. (Reuters) The Biden administration is focusing on booster shots as a key weapon in efforts to protect the nation against a potentially dangerous  coronavirus  variant even as the extent of the threat remains unclear, the White House said Sunday. A group of senior health officials had a call with South African scientists Sunday to review the latest on the new variant and to help inform next steps, according to two senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. In an update Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it is still too early to know whether the new variant, dubbed omicron, is more transmissible than the delta variant. There remains little understanding about the severity of illness caused by the variant...