UKRAINE
Two killed in shellings
An elderly woman and a police officer were killed early yesterday by Russian shelling on a settlement in Kharkiv region in the east and Zaporizhzhia in the south, officials said. “This morning, around 5:10am, the enemy fired on Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi village in Kupiansk district. A residential building was damaged. A 73-year-old woman died,” Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov said on the Telegram messaging app. In a separate attack on Orikhiv in Zaporizhzhia, one police officer was killed and 12 people, including four police officers, were injured, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.
BRAZIL
Police raid Bolsonaro allies
Police raided the homes of former president Jair Bolsonaro allies accused of reselling gifts including jewelry from foreign dignitaries for the “illicit enrichment of” the former president, a judicial judgement showed on Friday. Bolsonaro categorically denied any wrongdoing, with his lawyers saying he “never appropriated or misappropriated any public good,” in a statement posted on the G1 news site. The scandal broke earlier this year, when newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo reported that customs officials had seized a set of jewels from a government aide who tried to bring them into the country undeclared in his backpack in 2021. Public officials are barred from keeping expensive gifts. “The evidence collected showed [the existence] during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro of a network to divert goods of a high amount which were offered to him,” part of the judgement read. “Beyond allowing an inadmissible enrichment of the President of the Republic... it is possible that the Brazilian head of state was co-opted by foreign nations through these assets,” investigators said.
SOUTH KOREA
Fukushima plan protested
Hundreds of activists yesterday gathered in central Seoul to protest against Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant into the ocean. Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported earlier this week that the country plans to start releasing the water into the ocean as early as late this month, citing unidentified government sources. “If it is discarded, radioactive substances contained in the contaminated water will eventually destroy the marine ecosystem,” said Choi Kyoungsook of Korea Radiation Watch, an activist group that organized the protest. “We are opposed ... because we believe the sea is not just for the Japanese government, but for all of us and for mankind.”
MALAYSIA
Festival sues UK’s 1975
The organizer of a festival canceled after a kiss between two male members of The 1975 is seeking US$2.68 million in damages from the British indie-rock band, its lawyer said on Friday. The Good Vibes music festival in Kuala Lumpur was canceled after the band’s lead singer, Matt Healy, launched a profanity-laden speech and kissed bassist Ross MacDonald during their July 21 performance. “I can confirm that my firm issued a seven-day letter of claim to the UK band 1975 demanding for 12.3 million ringgit [US$2.68 million] in damages on behalf of Future Sound Asia,” David Dinesh Mathew, lawyer for the event organizer, said in a statement. David said the claim filed on Monday against the band was “essentially for breach of contract.” Healy’s representative signed a preshow written assurance that the band would “adhere to all local guidelines and regulations” in their set, he said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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