BEIJING: China&#39;s President Xi Jinping met Taiwan&#39;s opposition party leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, telling the visiting delegation he had &quot;full confidence&quot; that Taiwanese and Chinese people would be united. Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng is the party&#39;s first leader to visit China in a decade, but her trip has sparked debate in Taiwan with critics accusing her of being too pro-Beijing. China severed high-level contact with Taiwan in 2016 after Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency and rejected Beijing&#39;s claims that the self-ruled island is part of its territory. Xi told Cheng as the two met on Friday that &quot;the general trend of compatriots on both sides of the Strait getting closer, edging nearer and becoming united will not change&quot;. &quot;This is an inevitable part of history. We have full confidence in this,&quot; Xi said during the talks carried by Taiwanese media. He also said China was willing to strengthen dialogue with groups in Taiwan, including the KMT, on the &quot;common political foundation of... opposing Taiwan independence&quot;. The KMT supports closer relations with China, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it. Cheng echoed Xi&#39;s stance, telling a press conference after their meeting that by &quot;opposing Taiwan independence, we can avoid war&quot;. She also told Xi earlier that the Taiwan Strait would &quot;no longer be a focal point of potential conflict&quot; and &quot;both sides should transcend political confrontation&quot;. Beijing has sworn to take Taiwan and has not ruled out using force, ramping up military pressure around the self-ruled island in recent years. China conducts near-daily deployments of fighter jets and warships near the island and regular large-scale military drills. Taiwanese lawmakers have been at loggerheads over the government&#39;s plan to spend NT$1.25 trillion ($39 billion) on defence, which has been stalled for months in parliament, controlled by Cheng&#39;s KMT party. - Defence spending - Cheng&#39;s trip comes a month before US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing for a summit with Xi. The United States has been piling pressure on Taiwanese opposition lawmakers to back a proposal for defence purchases, including US weapons, to deter a potential Chinese attack. Cheng has railed against the government&#39;s proposal, insisting &quot;Taiwan isn&#39;t an ATM&quot; and instead backed a KMT plan to allocate NT$380 billion ($12 billion) for US weapons with the option for more acquisitions. While KMT party members regularly fly to China for exchanges with officials, its last leader to visit was Hung Hsiu-chu in 2016. Cross-strait relations have worsened in particular since the election of Tsai&#39;s successor, Lai Ching-te, who Beijing considers a separatist. Lai said in a Facebook post on Friday that &quot;China&#39;s... military threats in and around the Taiwan Strait and the island chain have severely undermined regional peace and stability&quot;. Cheng landed in Shanghai on Tuesday evening, saying shortly after her arrival that &quot;the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not doomed to war, as the international community has feared&quot;. The KMT leader also travelled to the eastern city of Nanjing, where she visited the mausoleum of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, one of the few Chinese historical figures revered in both Beijing and Taipei.

China

Xi Jinping met Taiwanese Opposition Leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing, voicing confidence in eventual cross-strait unity, while the visit stirred controversy in Taiwan amid rising military tensions and disputes over defence spending.

Chinese, Taiwanese will unite, Xi tells Taiwan opposition leader

TEHRAN: Yemen&#39;s Houthi rebels joined the month-old Middle East war, claiming two missile attacks on Israel that raised concern on Sunday about the war spreading to the Red Sea. Fears of a widening conflict came as the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon was preparing plans for weeks of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pentagon-preparing-for-ground-operations-in-iran-report" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">US ground operations</a>&nbsp;in Iran -- though it said President Donald Trump has yet to approve any deployment. The involvement of Houthi rebels has added a new complexity to a conflict that has already impacted a wide swathe of the Middle East. During Israel&#39;s recent war on Gaza, the Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, forcing companies to take costly detours. Until Saturday, they had sat out the latest conflict, even as the Red Sea grew more vital. A Houthi spokesman on Saturday said the group fired &quot;a barrage of cruise missiles and drones targeting several vital and military sites&quot; in Israel. Since the launch of hostilities, Saudi Arabia has rerouted much of its oil exports via the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says it has closed to shipping from hostile powers. Iran threatens retaliationThe attacks on Iran continued Saturday as Israel&#39;s military said it struck the headquarters of Iran&#39;s Marine Industries Organisation in Tehran, saying the facility developed &quot;a wide range of naval weaponry.&quot; On Saturday evening, a wave of blasts rang out in the capital for several minutes, with no immediate word on what was targeted. An Israeli military spokesman said attacks on Iranian military industry had intensified and &quot;within a few days, we will complete attacks on all critical components.&quot; &quot;I miss a peaceful night&#39;s sleep,&quot; an artist in Tehran told AFP, saying the previous night&#39;s strikes were &quot;so intense it felt like all of Tehran was shaking.&quot; Iran&#39;s Revolutionary Guard meanwhile threatened Sunday to strike US university campuses in the Middle East unless Washington officially condemned US-Israeli&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/us-israel-war-on-iran-day-29" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">attacks on two Iranian universities</a>. Several American institutions operate campuses across the Gulf region, including Texas A&amp;M in Qatar and New York University in the UAE. Pakistan mediationThe conflict began when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes across Iran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, engulfing the region in conflict, sending energy prices soaring and prompting diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting. Pakistan, acting as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pakistan-iran-leaders-discuss-regional-tensions-peace-efforts" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">go-between for Washington and Tehran,</a>&nbsp;will host foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt in Islamabad on Monday for talks on the crisis. Iran&#39;s President Masoud Pezeshkian thanked Islamabad &quot;for its mediation efforts to stop the aggression,&quot; while Germany&#39;s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Friday he expected a direct US-Iran meeting in Pakistan &quot;very soon.&quot; Trump&#39;s special envoy Steve Witkoff said such a meeting could take place this week, and promoted a 15-point plan that Washington says &quot;could solve it all.&quot; Still, the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship carrying around 3,500 Marines and sailors, arrived in the Middle East on Friday amid speculation over a possible US ground deployment in Iran. The Washington Post reported late Saturday that the Pentagon is preparing plans for weeks of ground operations in Iran -- potentially including raids on Kharg Island and sites near the Strait of Hormuz -- though President Trump has yet to approve any deployment. Red Sea shipping&nbsp;The economic fallout of the war remained critical with Hormuz still all but impassable and attacks on infrastructure still frequent in the region. Many Gulf shipments have been rerouted through Oman&#39;s Salalah port on the Arabian Sea, but Danish shipping giant Maersk said operations there were temporarily suspended after a drone attack. Fire broke out after Iranian missiles and drones struck the Khalifa Economic Zone in Abu Dhabi, injuring six people. Emirates Global Aluminium reported significant damage. Air travel has also been disrupted, with authorities in Kuwait and Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan reporting airport facilities hit in strikes by Iran. The United States condemned a drone attack on the residence of Kurdish regional leader Nechirvan Barzani, blaming Iranian militia proxies in Iraq and calling it &quot;a direct assault on Iraq&#39;s sovereignty.&quot; Elsewhere in Iraq, a former paramilitary coalition, integrated into the armed forces but containing pro-Iran factions, said three fighters were killed in a strike near Kirkuk, while the interior ministry said two police officers died in another in Mosul. Both were blamed on the United States and Israel. Ukraine&#39;s President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his military&#39;s expertise to help defend against Iranian strikes as left his war-torn country for the region to sign anti-drone cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Three journalists killed<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/lebanon-says-46-rescuers-5-medical-staff-killed-in-israelhezbollah-war" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Attacks continued in Lebanon</a>, which was drawn into the conflict when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2. On Saturday, the Israeli military killed three journalists in the south, including Al Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib, one of the network&#39;s most prominent war correspondents, who had covered Israeli attacks on Lebanon for decades. The Israeli military accused him of operating within Hezbollah &quot;under the guise of a journalist.&quot; Lebanese authorities, including President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, condemned the killings as war crimes. Israel also carried out raids in southern Lebanon that killed nine paramedics, according to the health ministry.

A security personnel stands guard as Houthi supporters gather during a rally in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon, amid the US-Israeli war with Iran, in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on March 27, 2026. (File photo: AFP)

Middle East

The involvement of Houthi rebels adds a new complexity to a conflict that has already impacted a wide swathe of the Middle East.

Houthis missile attacks on Israel widen Middle East war

KATHMANDU: Nepal&#39;s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and ex-home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested Saturday morning over their alleged involvement in a deadly crackdown on protestors in September, police said. &quot;They were arrested this morning and the process will move forward according to the law,&quot; Kathmandu Valley police spokesman Om Adhikari told AFP. The detentions come a day after Prime Minister Balendra Shah and his cabinet were sworn in after the first elections since the 2025 uprising that toppled Oli&#39;s government. At least 77 people were killed in the anti-corruption youth uprising on September 8 and 9, which began over a brief social media ban, but tapped into longstanding fury over economic hardship. At least 19 young people were killed in a crackdown on the first day of protests. The unrest spread nationwide the following day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, resulting in the government&#39;s collapse. A Nepal government-backed report into the deadly uprising has recommended the prosecution of 74-year-old Oli and other officials. The report said that it was &quot;not established that there was an order to shoot&quot;, but said that &quot;no effort was made to stop or control the firing and, due to their negligent conduct, even minors lost their lives&quot;. &quot;No one is above the law... This is not revenge against anyone, just the beginning of justice. I believe, now the country will take a new direction,&quot; newly appointed Home Minister Sudan Gurung, who was a key figure in the protests, posted on Instagram.

Former Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, along with other officials, attends the inaugural session marking the launch of the high-definition versions of four Nepal Television (NTV) channels on its 34th anniversary, January 30, 2019. (File photo: The Hi

Nepal

Nepal's former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and ex-home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested Saturday morning over their alleged involvement in a deadly crackdown on protestors in September, police said.

Nepal's ex-PM arrested over alleged role in protest crackdown

KATHMANDU:&nbsp;<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" id="isPasted">Nepal&#39;s rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah held an unassailable lead against ousted prime minister KP Sharma Oli in the highly contested face-off in Nepal&#39;s southeastern district of Jhapa, according to data by the Election Commission. The high-stakes parliamentary election on Thursday came six months after deadly anti-corruption protests toppled the government, with at least 77 people killed. The September 2025 youth-led demonstrations, under a loose Gen Z banner, began over a brief social media ban but quickly tapped into broader grievances over corruption and a struggling economy. According to early trends issued by the Election Commission Saturday, 35-year-old Shah&#39;s Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was on track to win a majority in the 275-member House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament. &quot;Looking at the trend, the Rastriya Swatantra Party has taken the lead in many places and has won several seats,&quot; commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai told AFP. If the trends are confirmed by the vote count, 35-year-od Shah&#39;s victory over a veteran Marxist leader -- and his rise from city mayor to potential prime minister -- would mark one of the most dramatic results in recent Nepali politics. &quot;This is heading to a landslide victory -- this reflects the frustration that has been building up,&quot; said Chandra Dev Bhatta, a political analyst. &quot;It is actually the people&#39;s revolt against the established political parties,&quot; he added. &quot;The people understand that the new do not really have strong agendas, but it is a punishment to the parties for their decades-long poor governance.&quot; &nbsp;&#39;A day will come&#39; By Saturday morning, on the second day of counting, there were only 34 declared results -- RSP took 27, Nepali Congress won four, and the Marxist party of ousted prime minister KP Sharma Oli was trailing with one. Former Maoist guerrilla commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal has one seat for his party. But trends showed that Shah&#39;s RSP was also leading in 90 of the 165 constituencies in the direct elections. It had secured comfortably more than half of votes so far counted in the proportional representation vote, which determines a further 110 seats via party lists. Bhattarai said results from direct elections would be ready by Monday, but longer for full results to be ready. &quot;According to our plan, it will take at least a week to count the proportional votes, after which the election will go through the official process,&quot; he added. He said that vote counting was &quot;going smoothly&quot; across the Himalayan nation, from snowbound high-altitude mountain regions to the hot plains bordering India. On Friday, Shah&#39;s party loyalists danced on the streets of Kathmandu in celebration -- even though votes counted remain low, and final results could take days. DP Aryal, RSP deputy chairman, issued a message urging supporters to hold back on celebrations. &quot;Once we work, a day will come for us to celebrate,&quot; he said in a post on social media late Friday. Shah has also taken a commanding lead in the seat he is contesting -- a head-to-head contest against the 74-year-old ousted prime minister Oli, symbolising the clash between the old guard and a youth-driven call for change. Better known as Balen, Shah first leveraged his music fame and strong social media following to become Kathmandu&#39;s first independent mayor in 2022. Nepali Congress, the largest party in the past coalition government, saw its new leader Gagan Thapa trailing in his own constituency. &quot;This is even a bigger upset than we expected -- it underscores the level of public disenchantment with the old parties for under-performance, as well as anger over the events of September,&quot; said Kunda Dixit, publisher of the weekly Nepali Times. In Jhapa, soldiers with armoured trucks manned barbed wire barricades around the counting centre. Yagya Prasad Adhikari, a 49-year-old businessman who travelled from Kathmandu for the vote, said he supported the calls for calm before full results were ready. &quot;We want someone who works, not someone who talks,&quot; he said. &quot;We support Balen not celebrating.&quot; Meanwhile, the burnt-out ruins of Oli&#39;s home in Jhapa -- torched during the unrest, like hundreds of other buildings, including parliament -- serve as a reminder of the deadly violence that occurred last year. Dharmakala Gautam, 74, who watched the house burn, said she was tired of promises by politicians that never materialised. &quot;When the Maoists came to rule, we hoped for change -- but not much happened,&quot; she said. &quot;I will keep some hope this time too.&quot;

Election trends show rapper-turned-politician Balendra “Balen” Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party heading for a landslide and possible majority in Nepal’s 275-seat parliament, six months after deadly anti-corruption protests. 

Nepal's Balendra Shah holds unassailable poll lead for seat: Commission figures

PARIS: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been Iran&#39;s hardline spiritual guide and top political authority since 1989, when he succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader. Here is a look at his life in key dates: - July 17, 1939: Khamenei is born in the shrine city of Mashhad to parents from Iran&#39;s Azeri minority. - 1957: Meets Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who will emerge as a key influence. - 1977: After several stays in prison due to his opposition to the shah, he is exiled to Iranshahr, a remote desert city close to the Pakistan border. He returns to Mashhad in 1979 for the Islamic Revolution. - 1979: His rapid ascent to power begins when he is named deputy defence minister and subsequently head of the elite Revolutionary Guards by Khomeini. - 1981: Becomes the first cleric to be elected president of the Islamic republic. Re-elected in 1985. - June 27, 1981: Survives a bomb attack by the outlawed People&#39;s Mujahedeen group in a Tehran mosque, but his right hand is never the same. Learns to write with his left. - June 4, 1989: Upon the death of Khomeini, he is elected supreme leader just a year after the end of the war with Iraq (1980-1988). - January 2005: Confirms the &quot;death sentence&quot; fatwa handed down on writer Salman Rushdie by Khomeini. - September 8, 2014: Undergoes prostate surgery after two decades of speculation about his health. - July 14, 2015: Supports the Vienna accord with world powers on Iran&#39;s nuclear programme. - January 17, 2020: Leads Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012. Uses the occasion to condemn anti-government protests. - October 3, 2022: Blames the United States and Israel for fomenting the widespread nationwide unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini. - June 13-24, 2025: Going into hiding during the 12-day war with Israel, which the United States briefly joins, but emerges from the conflict unscathed. - January 17, 2026: Says &quot;Iran must break the back of the seditionists&quot; as the clerical authorities brutally repress the biggest protests against the Islamic republic in more than three years. - February 28, 2026: Killed in the wave of strikes launched by the United States and Israel.

Important dates in the life of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

Iran's supreme leader Khamenei in dates

BEIJING: China urged the United States on Monday to cancel unilateral tariffs announced by President Donald Trump after the US Supreme Court struck down many of his measures. The court ruled six to three on Friday that Trump does not have the authority to impose tariffs under a 1977 law he has relied on to impose sudden levies on individual countries, upending global trade. Trump reacted furiously, announcing first a new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/trump-vows-10-global-tariff-after-stinging-court-rebuke" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">10% global duty</a> on imports under a different legal authority, before&nbsp;raising it to 15%&nbsp;on Saturday. China&#39;s commerce ministry said on Monday it was conducting a &quot;comprehensive assessment&quot; of the ruling&#39;s impact, and called on Washington to lift the tariffs. &quot;China urges the United States to cancel its unilateral tariff measures on its trading partners,&quot; the ministry said in a statement. &quot;There are no winners in a trade war, and that protectionism leads nowhere.&quot; The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/trump-announces-hike-in-us-global-tariff-rate-from-10-to-15" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">new 15% global duties</a> are due to kick in on Tuesday and are expected to last 150 days, with exemptions for some products. The Chinese foreign ministry also noted that it was paying &quot;close attention&quot; to potential moves by the United States to maintain increased tariffs. &quot;The United States is currently planning alternative measures, such as trade investigations, to maintain increased tariffs on trading partners. China will continue to pay close attention to this and resolutely safeguard China&#39;s interests,&quot; it said. The Supreme Court ruling was a stunning rebuke to Trump from a judicial body that has largely sided with him since his return to office. It marked a major political setback in striking down his signature economic policy that has roiled the global trade order. Several countries have said they are studying the Supreme Court ruling and Trump&#39;s subsequent tariff announcements. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told US media on Sunday that the country&#39;s trade deals with China, the European Union and other partners will remain in force despite the ruling.

BUSAN: US President Donald Trump (L) and China's President Xi Jinping greet each other as they arrive for talks at the Gimhae Air Base, located next to the Gimhae International Airport in Busan on October 30, 2025. -- Photo by AFP/File

Asia

Commerce ministry says it is conducting a 'comprehensive assessment' of the ruling's impact, and calls on Washington to lift the tariffs.

China urges US to cancel unilateral tariffs after Supreme Court ruling

WASHINGTON: The estate of convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has agreed to pay up to $35 million to settle the outstanding legal claims of potentially dozens of victims, according to a court filing Thursday. The agreement must be approved by a federal judge in New York before it can become final. The settlement is related to victims who said they were &quot;sexually assaulted or abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein between January 1, 1995, and through August 10, 2019,&quot; the date of the disgraced financier&#39;s death in prison, the proposed plan said. Epstein&#39;s estate would pay $35 million if there are 40 or more people eligible in the class and $25 million if there are fewer than 40. The co-executors of the settlement are Darren Indyke, Epstein&#39;s former lawyer, and Richard Kahn, the financier&#39;s former accountant. Both have denied any wrongdoing through their association with the convicted sex offender and have not been accused of any sexual abuse crimes or witnessing of sexual abuse. But the settlement, if confirmed, will bring to a close the initial lawsuit filed in 2024 in which the pair of advisors were accused of enabling Epstein&#39;s illicit activities through their legal and business services. The judgment filed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday said the agreement does not mean the co-executors admit fault or are liable to further legal action from victims. The law firm representing the class of victims, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how many people were part of the lawsuit. Bloomberg News reported late Thursday that the firm was confident they had at least 40 victims who had not yet settled with Epstein&#39;s estate. Daniel H. Weiner, the lawyer representing the co-executors, did not immediately reply to a comment request. The settlement comes after the release by the US Justice Department of millions of documents, photographs and videos related to the investigation into Epstein. Epstein cultivated a global network of powerful politicians, business executives, academics and celebrities -- many of whom have been tainted by their association with him.

Americas

Epstein's estate has agreed to pay up to $35 million to settle the outstanding legal claims of victims

Epstein estate agrees to settle victim claims for up to $35 mn

Europe

Rubio, on a brief visit to Slovakia, said Navalny's death was "very serious" and the US decision not to join the report "doesn't mean we disagree with the outcome".

US 'not disputing' European report on Navalny poisoning: Rubio

LONDON: The UK government on Wednesday said it was focused on resuming talks promptly after the United States suspended implementation of a tech cooperation deal with Britain. The deal was signed during US President Donald Trump&#39;s pomp-filled state visit to the UK in September. But on Tuesday Michael Kratsios, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said on X that the UK must make &quot;substantial progress&quot; on trade talks for the deal to resume. The US and UK have been trying to implement the &quot;Economic Prosperity Deal,&quot; agreed in May and one of the first international agreements signed after Trump threatened the world with punishing tariffs on goods entering the United States. The US-UK Technology Prosperity Deal agreed in September 2025 was a non-binding agreement to sit alongside the broader Economic Prosperity Deal. It was designed to align the two countries on tech innovation while spurring mostly private-sector investment. Following the White House announcement, a UK government spokesperson said: &quot;We look forward to resuming work on this partnership as quickly as possible... and working together to help shape the emerging technologies of the future.&quot; Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle held trade talks with US counterparts in Washington DC last week to progress the Economic Prosperity Deal, the spokesperson said. &quot;They celebrated the success of the recent pharma deal and both sides agreed to continue further negotiations next year.&quot; According to the Financial Times, US officials have become increasingly frustrated with Britain&#39;s lack of willingness to address non-tariff barriers, including rules and regulations governing food and industrial goods.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and US President Donald Trump (L) show off their signed technology prosperity deal at a Business event at Chequers, in Aylesbury, central England, on September 18, 2025 (AFP/File)

United Kingdom

UK seeks to revive tech cooperation after the United States suspended a non-binding deal, tying its return to trade progress, as talks continue amid US frustration over UK non-tariff barriers.

UK seeks to revive tech cooperation after the United States suspended a non-binding deal, tying its return to trade progress, as talks continue amid US frustration over UK non-tariff barriers.


UK looks to restart cooperation after US suspends tech deal

TOKYO: Japan&#39;s top opposition parties were set to hold high-stakes discussions Tuesday, aiming to find a unified candidate for prime minister and oust the ruling party from power. The talks come after the ruling coalition collapsed last week, putting in peril Sanae Takaichi&#39;s bid to become the country&#39;s first woman premier. Japan was in political limbo over whether the opposition bloc would unite after junior partner Komeito quit its 26-year alliance with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). A union would give the opposition group enough votes to name a prime minister and block Takaichi, who was elected as LDP president just over a week ago but needs lawmakers&#39; approval to become premier. Yuichiro Tamaki, president of the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) -- the third largest opposition group in the lower house -- said the secretaries general of three main opposition parties will meet Tuesday evening to explore a possible union. However, he cautioned that their policies diverge significantly in crucial areas, including national defence and the use of nuclear energy. &quot;If we were to join together in a coalition government, alignment on fundamental policies would be essential,&quot; he told a press conference. &quot;If there&#39;s no alignment, the administration will be volatile,&quot; said Tamaki, who said last week he would be willing to stand as prime minister. DPP&#39;s secretary general was also expected to meet with his counterpart from the LDP and its former partner Komeito. The LDP named Takaichi as its new leader earlier this month, seemingly putting her on track to rise to the premiership. Although she could still win if opposition parties disagree on an alternative candidate, Komeito&#39;s exit from the coalition due to a slush fund scandal within the LDP has plunged Japan into a new political crisis. The LDP still occupies over 40 percent of the powerful 465-seat lower house but lacks the majority it needs to name a prime minister on its own. The largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) has said it was willing to name Tamaki or the leader of another opposition party as the premier in order to kick the LDP out of power. Yoshihiko Noda, head of the CDP, has said that &quot;this is a once-in-a-decade chance for a change of government&quot;.

Japan faces political turmoil as opposition parties meet to unite and block Sanae Takaichi’s premiership after the ruling coalition collapsed, threatening the Liberal Democratic Party’s hold on power amid deep policy divisions.

Articles tagged with "Politics"