LEBANON
Voters aim to ‘slap’ leaders
Lebanese yesterday voted in their first parliamentary election since the country’s economic collapse, with many saying they hoped to deal a blow to the ruling politicians they blame for the crisis. The election, the first since 2018, is seen as a test of whether the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies can preserve their parliamentary majority amid soaring poverty and anger at parties in power. However, while analysts believe public anger could help reform-minded candidates win some seats, expectations are low for a big shift in power, with Lebanon’s sectarian political system skewed in favor of established parties. Fadi Ramadan, a 35-year-old voting for the first time, said he wanted to give a “slap to the political system” by picking an independent. “If the political system wins, but only just, I consider that I would have won,” he said.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
New president announced
The UAE’s long-time de facto ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan was on Saturday named president, confirming his rise to power a day after the death of former president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The 61-year-old, who has run the oil-rich Gulf state from behind the scenes since his half-brother was sidelined by ill health in 2014, was “unanimously elected” by rulers of the country’s seven emirates, the WAM news agency said. His ascension was widely expected.
UNITED STATES
Malaysia, Myanmar meet
Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin Abdullah met his counterpart from Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration outlawed by the ruling military junta, in the group’s first open engagement with a Southeast Asian country. Saifuddin wrote of the meeting on Twitter late on Saturday. It was held on the sidelines of a two-day summit in Washington between the US and ASEAN member nations, which excluded Myanmar’s leader because of last year’s military coup. Myanmar has repeatedly called on countries not to engage with the NUG, a group of members from the ousted administration. Malaysia “stands ready to work towards restoring peace and democracy in Myanmar,” Saifuddin wrote. “We took the opportunity to exchange views on latest developments in Myanmar, where [NUG Minister of Foreign Affairs Zin Mar Aung] shared insights, as well as challenges faced by NUG, including humanitarian assistance, technical training and education for the Myanmar refugees.”
UNITED STATES
Abortion advocates rally
Thousands of activists chanting, banging drums and wielding placards on Saturday flooded streets across the US in a national day of action calling for safe and legal access to abortion. The mass demonstrations were a response to a leaked draft opinion showing the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 ruling guaranteeing abortion access nationwide. The protestors, who included US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other influential Democrats, were of all genders and ages and many wore green, a symbolic color of abortion rights activism. “We’re gonna keep fighting until we win,” Schumer said. “America is on our side.” The turnout was “encouraging,” 58-year-old Allison Easter said. “There’s so many young people, so many mothers wheeling their babies, so many people with their husbands or boyfriends, so many men — so many different kinds of people support this cause.”
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious