HONG KONG
Police stabbing yields arrests
Police yesterday said that they have arrested seven people for “assisting” a suspect in the stabbing of a police officer during a protest against new national security legislation on Wednesday last week. Authorities arrested five males and two females aged 24 to 71 on suspicion of offenses, including helping to arrange the suspect purchase an air ticket and transportation to the airport, police said at a news briefing. Police on Thursday last week arrested a 24-year-old man at the airport on suspicion of stabbing and wounding an officer during the demonstration, just hours after the new legislation was imposed.
KAZAKHSTAN
Super pneumonia ‘fake news’
The government yesterday dismissed as incorrect a warning by China’s embassy for its citizens to guard against an outbreak of pneumonia in the nation that it described as being more lethal than COVID-19. In a statement late on Thursday on WeChat, the Chinese embassy flagged a “significant increase” in cases in the Kazakh cities of Atyrau, Aktobe and Shymkent since mid-June. However, the Ministry of Healthcare branded Chinese media reports based on the embassy statement as “fake news.”
THAILAND
US’ ‘strategic vision’ inked
US Army Chief of Staff General James McConville yesterday met with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Royal Thai Army Commander in Chief General Apirat Kongsompong, and signed a Strategic Vision Statement, a US embassy statement said, as Washington looks to reassure allies about its commitment to the region. The US has sought to counter China’s influence in Southeast Asia after having scaled back some military exchanges with Thailand after its 2014 military coup, when Bangkok began to forge closer ties with China.
INDIA
Australia welcomed to drills
The government plans to invite Australia to join the trilateral India-Japan-US Malabar naval exercises. The decision to include Australia in the drills — the first time that all members of the regional grouping known as the Quad would be engaged at a military level — comes as Beijing and New Delhi are caught up in their worst border tensions in four decades. The exercise would bring together the countries’ navies in the Bay of Bengal at the end of the year, said senior officials, on condition of anonymity. “The Quad has always been a security platform, but didn’t have a military context to it,” Observer Research Foundation distinguished fellow Rajeswari Pillai Rajagoplan said. “The Malabar exercises might give it just that thanks to China upping its ante and threatening the region’s security.”
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
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