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.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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