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Containers on a cargo ship are seen at an industrial port in Tokyo, Japan April 3, 2025.

REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Beijing tries to woo an uninterested Tokyo over joint tariff fight

Chinese Premiere Li Qiang sent Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba a letter asking that they “fight protectionism together,” according to local reports Tuesday, as both countries face potentially disastrous US tariffs.

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Burkina Faso’s junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore attends the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger, on July 6, 2024.

REUTERS/Mahamadou Hamidou

Hard Numbers: Burkina Faso foils coup effort, Trump dents democracy rating, Spain to hit defense-spending target, Musk to reduce his DOGE hours, Migrants arrested while fleeing US, Japan rids foreign debt, Tourists killed in Kashmir

40%: Burkina Faso’s ruling military recently foiled an attempted coup aimed at removing junta leader Cap. Ibrahim Traoré, the country’s security minister said on Monday. The Sahel nation has had to deal with widespread insurgency in recent years, with rebel jihadist groups reportedly controlling around 40% of the country’s land mass.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet (not pictured) at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, April 17, 2025.

Agence Kampuchea Press/Handout via REUTERS

China warns world against harmful US trade deals

China warned Monday that it would “take countermeasures” against countries that try to curry favor with the US by hurting Beijing. More than 70 countries have reached out to Washington in hopes of brokering deals to avoid eye-watering tariffs, and US President Donald Trump said last week that Latin American countries should “maybe” choose between trade with China and America.
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Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa heads to the United States for negotiations from Tokyo's Haneda airport on April 16, 2025.

Kyodo via Reuters Connect

Two “Guinea pigs” come to Washington

As much of the world scrambles to figure out how to avoid Donald Trump’s expansive “reciprocal tariffs,” two big players are in Washington this week to try their hands at negotiating with the self-styled Deal Artist™ himself.

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- YouTube

What if Japan & South Korea sided with China on US tariffs?

Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.

If China, Japan, and South Korea formed a united front, what kind of leverage would they have in negotiating against US tariffs?

Oh, if that were to happen, they'd have incredible leverage because China's the second-largest economy in the world, Japan's the third. This would be a really, really big deal. Except for the fact that it's not going to happen. Their trade ministers did just meet, and they've had some interesting coordinated statements. They do a lot of trade together, and they want to continue that. But the fact that the security of South Korea and Japan is overwhelmingly oriented towards the US, and they would not want to undermine that, means that they will certainly not see China as a confederate to coordinate with against the United States, not least on trade. The American response would be belligerent. So no, that's not going to happen.

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US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the Prime Minister's office in Tokyo on March 30, 2025.

POOL via ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters

Japan courts both the US and China on security and trade

In his first trip to Asia this weekend, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called for greater military cooperation between Tokyo and Washington. “Japan is our indispensable partner in deterring Communist Chinese military aggression,” hesaid prior to meeting with Japan’s Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in Tokyo Sunday. “The US is moving fast … to reestablish deterrence in this region and around the world.”
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Members of the Lawyers from Across Japan for the Victims of the Unification Church(LAJAVUC)attend a press conference as the Tokyo District Court issued a dissolution order to the Unification Church, the religious group formerly called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in Tokyo on March 25, 2025.

Japan bans Moonies

On Tuesday, a Tokyo court revoked the legal status of the Unification Church in Japan, ordering the sect known as the Moonies to disband following a government problem spurred by the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.

Founded in 1954 in Seoul, South Korea, by Sun Myung Moon, a preacher who cast himself as a messiah, the church raised an estimated 70% of its income in Japan, where its followers heavily pressured Japanese to give donations known as tithings to make up for the brutality of the country’s imperial era.

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Congolese civilians who fled from Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, following clashes between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, carry their belongings as they gather at the Rusizi border crossing point to return home, in Rusizi district, Rwanda, on Feb. 17, 2025.

REUTERS/Stringer

Hard Numbers: Rebels advance in DRC, Yuge trade corridor, Tragic flooding strikes US, UN seeks billions for Sudan, Taliban visits Japan, Plane crashes in Toronto

350,000: M23 rebels are meeting little resistance in their advance on Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, further challenging Kinshasa’s rule. This move comes after the Rwandan-backed rebels seized control of Goma late last month and just two days after the UN warned that unrest in the country has displaced 350,000 people.

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