18/06/2026

THURSDAY | JUNE 18, 2026

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Australian leader slams media

Seoul turns to Trump for Korea peace deal SEOUL: South Korea’s president has urged US President Donald Trump to help him make peace with North Korea, “just as he has resolved the conflict in the Middle East”, Lee Jae Myung’s office said yesterday. Trump fuelled that interest shortly after announcing the Iran deal, posting on social media an uncaptioned photograph of himself with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their 2018 Singapore summit. Trump asked Lee about developments in inter-Korean relations during an exchange at the G7 summit in France, Seoul’s presidential office said in a statement yesterday. During the conversation, “President Lee requested that he (Trump) take the lead in achieving a peaceful resolution to the North Korean issue, just as he has resolved the conflict in the Middle East”, it said. “President Trump expressed his commitment to working toward a resolution of the North Korean issue.” Lee has taken a dovish approach towards North Korea, in contrast to his more hardline predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol. But Pyongyang has rejected his overtures, formally labelling Seoul its “most hostile” enemy and repeatedly declaring itself an“irreversible”nuclear state. North Korea experts say the chances of a meeting between Kim and Trump is low. “From North Korea’s perspective, there is virtually no reason to meet the United States,” said Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. – AFP “I don’t answer to the media. I answer to the Australian people.” She also pledged sweeping cuts to government spending, akin to Elon Musk’s DOGE in the United States, but misstated the name of the indigenous affairs department she would scrap. In another nod to the Trump administration, Hanson said Australia would need to re-evaluate its ties with international organisations. “We need to look at where we are with the United Nations,” she said. “We’ve been dictated to on too SYDNEY: The leader of Australia’s ascendant far-right party assailed the media yesterday and vowed to pull the country out of international organisations in an address briefly interrupted by the unfurling of a protest banner. For years a political outsider, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has surged this year to become the country’s most popular party, according to opinion polls. The senator – long compared to US President Donald Trump or France’s Marine Le Pen – is also Australians’ favourite choice in recent polls to be prime minister at the next election, due to be held in 2028. Addressing the country’s top political journalists at Canberra’s National Press Club, Hanson condemned them for dismissing her rise as a blip. “Australians aren’t buying this crap from the political establishment and its media supporters anymore,” she said.

o Hanson pledges cuts to govt spending many occasions, and people want their sovereignty back.” Hanson also pledged she would scrap aid to Australia’s Pacific Island neighbours – nearly US$1.6 billion (RM6.5 billion) in 2023, according to the Lowy Institute – if they continued to accept development help from China. “China is a real big concern to me,” Hanson said. The senator dismissed the Australian government’s efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions. And she vowed to draw down the Australian state’s support for public broadcasting; telling a journalist from the taxpayer funded SBS that “you’re going to be without a job”. Hanson called for Australia to “dig baby dig” for energy rather than relying on its Asian partners. Her speech was briefly interrupted by protesters unfurling a banner accusing her of opposing a pay rise for workers Opinion polling does not suggest that One Nation would win a parliamentary majority in the next election but instead could serve a kingmaker role in a coalition of right-wing parties.

A banner put up by prostesters during Hanson’s address in Canberra yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Albanese earlier yesterday said he would skip Hanson’s address but would instead be tuning in to the National Rugby League’s State of Origin game later in the day. – AFP

But it has dismissed One Nation’s policies – including seizing property owned by foreign residents – as divisive. Prime Minister Anthony

Australia’s government has acknowledged there are “legitimate concerns” about the economy and housing driving the rise in support for the far-right.

Spanish ex-PM Zapatero faces graft probe

MADRID: Former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero yesterday began two days of unprecedented court hearings on suspected influence peddling, the latest corruption affair threatening the leftist government. The investigation into the Socialist titan comes as a string of graft probes into Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s family and former top political allies have threatened to topple his minority coalition. Clashes with US President Donald Trump and virulent criticism of Israel have made Sanchez a global progressive star, but the scandals have eroded the domestic standing of one of Europe’s few remaining Socialist leaders. Zapatero, who governed Spain from 2004 to 2011, was placed under formal investigation last month for alleged influence peddling in connection with the bailout of small airline Plus Ultra in 2021. Plus Ultra received €53 million

(RM250 million) of public money after 2020 lockdowns paralysed global travel. Investigating judge Jose Luis Calama has said Zapatero allegedly headed a “stable and hierarchical” structure that used “opaque financial channels”to conceal the movement of money and obtain bribes for his illicit manoeuvring. Zapatero has denied the allegations, while Sanchez has expressed “full support” for his mentor. A police search of Zapatero’s office found jewellery and luxury watches valued at €1.3 million, leading Calama to probe additional alleged offences of tax fraud and smuggling. Zapatero’s entourage attributes the hoard to a family inheritance. Zapatero began his hearing at the Audiencia Nacional court in Madrid – becoming the first former or serving Spanish prime minister to be declared as a suspect in a corruption probe. – AFP causing water to seep in. The report also cited poor maintenance and oversight of the worn-out hatch, adding that the operator’s lack of personnel with “sufficient expertise and experience in safe cruising” contributed to the disaster. Authorities said the absence of any survivors made for an “extremely difficult, painstaking” investigation that took more than two years to complete. – AFP

Zapatero arrives to be questioned by a judge. – AFPPIC

Japanese boat operator jailed five years over fatal disaster TOKYO: The head of a Japanese sightseeing boat company was sentenced to five years in jail yesterday over the 2022 sinking of a vessel that killed at least 20 people. verdict, Jiji Press reported. Katsurada was arrested in 2024 on charges including professional negligence resulting in death, a coastguard official said.

and six people are still listed listed as missing after the April 23, 2022 incident off the Shiretoko Peninsula famous for its wildlife and scenery. The Kushiro District Court yesterday “handed down five years in jail” to Seiichi Katsurada, president of the Kazu I ’s operating company, a court spokesman said. During the trial, Katsurada reportedly denied criminal responsibility. His lawyer has appealed the

He was released on bail in October 2024 and will remain out of custody pending the outcome of his appeal. A report by a government transport committee concluded in 2023 that the Kazu I set sail without a deck hatch properly fastened,

An investigation faulted a deck hatch and improper maintenance aboard the Kazu I , which was carrying 24 tourists and two crew when it sank off the northern island of Hokkaido. Twenty bodies were recovered