- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ |
Controversial former Tokyo governor Ishihara dies
Controversial right-wing politician and former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, who made a decades-long career out of baiting China and offending Japan's liberals, has died aged 89, Japanese media reported Tuesday.
A former novelist and popular four-term governor of the capital, Ishihara frequently stoked outrage at home and abroad with his public comments on everything from homosexuality to history.
Born in the port city of Kobe in 1932 to a shipping executive, Ishihara achieved fame at only 23 by writing "Season of the Sun", a novel about youths from respectable families exploring the grubby pleasures of the underworld.
He was first elected as a lawmaker in 1968 as a member of the establishment Liberal Democratic Party, and spent more than 25 years in parliament in both the upper and the lower houses, as well as serving a stint as transport minister.
In 1995, he left national politics, becoming governor of Tokyo four years later.
In a country known for reticence, Ishihara repeatedly proved unafraid to ruffle feathers, and caused an uproar in 2010 when he said gay people were "missing something, probably something to do with the genes".
He also ridiculed Chinese and Korean residents of Japan, denied the Nanjing massacre, and once denounced the United States as a nation of "bigots", describing US military defence of Japan as an illusion.
But perhaps his most inflammatory moment came in 2012, when he provoked a major foreign policy crisis with a plan to buy the uninhabited, disputed islands China calls the Diaoyus and Japan refers to as the Senkakus.
Riots and product boycotts followed in China, which repeatedly sent government ships to disputed waters to press its claim for ownership.
"I think they are insane," an unrepentant Ishihara said of Beijing's response.
He retired from politics in 2014, aged 82, when his right-wing Party for the Future Generations was virtually wiped out in a general election.
C.Meier--BTB