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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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