New Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said his goals were aligned with the priorities of the Quad grouping of countries, telling the leaders of the United States, India and Japan that he wanted to also discuss climate change.
Albanese, the leader of Australia’s Labor Party who was sworn in as his country’s 31st prime minister a day earlier, also said the Quad stood together for a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.
The informal grouping of countries, led by Washington, was set up as a potential bulwark against China’s increasing political, commercial and military activity in the Indo-Pacific.
Separately, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in his opening remarks, said the Russian invasion of Ukraine represented a “frontal challenge” to the principles of the U.N. Charter and similar things should never be allowed to happen in the Indo-Pacific.
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Biden at Quad Summit: ‘Putin trying to ‘extinguish a culture’
Calling the invasion of Ukraine a “global issue”, US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is trying to “extinguish a culture”. During his opening remarks at the Quad Summit in Tokyo, Biden warned that the global food crisis could worsen if Russia continues blocking Ukraine from exporting its grains. Biden stressed that the US will be a strong, steady and enduring partner in the region.
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Pfizer says 3 Covid shots protect children under 5
Three doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine offer strong protection for children younger than 5, the company announced Monday, another step toward shots for the littlest kids possibly beginning in early summer. Pfizer plans to submit the findings to U.S. regulators later this week. The 18 million youngsters under 5 are the only group in the U.S. not yet eligible for Covid-19 vaccination. Pfizer has had a bumpy time figuring out its approach.
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Over 100 Opposition activists arrested in Pakistan
Over 100 activists belonging to ousted Pakistani premier Imran Khan’s party have been arrested in the country’s Punjab province for a planned mega-march to the federal capital, Islamabad, demanding early elections. The police, who later confirmed that the arrests were made at the behest of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N ruling coalition, launched the clampdown on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf activists late on Monday night. The agitators were scheduled to assemble in Islamabad on May 25.
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SpaceX president defends Elon Musk against sexual misconduct allegation: Report
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell defended Elon Musk against a sexual misconduct allegation that he has denied, CNBC news reported on Monday. Business Insider last week reported that Musk’s private rocket company SpaceX paid $250,000 in 2018 to settle a sexual harassment claim from an unnamed private jet flight attendant who accused Musk of exposing himself to her. The Business Insider article quoted an anonymous person who said she was a friend of the flight attendant.
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Meta CEO Zuckerberg sued over Cambridge Analytica privacy breach
The District of Columbia on Monday sued Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, seeking to hold him personally liable for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a privacy breach of millions of Facebook users’ personal data that became a major corporate and political scandal. D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine filed the civil lawsuit against Zuckerberg in D.C. Superior Court. Cambridge Analytica gathered details on as many as 87 million Facebook user s without their permission.