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.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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