CANADA
Trudeau, wife separate
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, on Wednesday announced that they are separating after 18 years of marriage. The two said in statements posted on Instagram that they made the decision after “many meaningful and difficult conversations.” A statement from the prime minister’s office said they both have signed a legal separation agreement. Trudeau, the 51-year-old scion of one of Canada’s most famous politicians, was sworn into office in 2015. Sophie Trudeau is a former model and TV host. The couple were married in 2005. They have three children: Xavier, 15, Ella-Grace, 14, and Hadrien, 9.
Bosnia
Genocide denial waning
The denial of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide by Serb officials and media in Bosnia and the Balkans has significantly waned over the past year, but is still present, a report said yesterday. Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern town on July 11, 1995. They then killed about 8,000 Muslim men and boys, an act labeled genocide by two international courts. The genocide is mostly denied by leaders of the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, which, along with the Muslim-Croat Federation, makes up post-war Bosnia, notably its leader, Milorad Dodik. “There was no genocide in Srebrenica ... I say that with a clear conscience,” Dodik said in April. The Srebrenica memorial center said in an annual report that from May last year to May this year, there were 90 cases of denial in Bosnia and the region compared with almost 700 cases the previous 12 months. Since 2021, the denial of the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes, as well as glorification of war criminals, is punishable by up to five years in jail. As a consequence the number of reported cases has dropped, the report said, although no one has yet been prosecuted.
AUSTRALIA
Cambodia to get artifacts
The National Gallery yesterday said it would return three sculptures to Cambodia after an investigation found they were likely to have been “illegally exported” from the country. The bronze sculptures from the 9th to 10th century were bought for US$1.5 million in 2011 by British art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was later “convincingly implicated in the illegal trade of antiquities,” the gallery said. Latchford died in 2020, a year after being charged with trafficking in stolen and looted Cambodian antiquities. Charges have also been laid posthumously related to works of art he sold, it said. The sculptures — Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Padmapani, Bodhisattva Vajrapani and Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Padmapani — are to remain on display at the museum while Cambodia prepares a new home for them.
THAILAND
PM vote postponed
House of Representatives Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha yesterday said that a parliamentary vote for the next prime minister that was scheduled for today would be postponed, prolonging a political deadlock since a May general election. Many voters in the May 14 vote rejected nearly a decade of rule by the military and a military-backed government, but the progressive party that won, Move Forward, has been blocked from taking power because of conservative opponents and a nominated upper house. Wan Noor told reporters that the vote could only be held after the Constitutional Court on Aug. 16 rules on a appeal by Move Forward against the thwarting of its bid to appoint a prime minister.
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
CONSPIRACIES: Kano suspended polio immunization in 2003 and 2004 following claims that polio vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile Zuwaira Muhammad sat beside her emaciated 10-month-old twins on a clinic bed in northern Nigeria, caring for them as they battled malnutrition and malaria. She would have her babies vaccinated if they regain their strength, but for many in Kano — a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment — the choice is not an obvious one. The infants have been admitted to the 75-bed clinic in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, one of only two in the city of 4.5 million run by French aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Kano has the highest malaria burden in Nigeria, but the city has long
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