THAILAND
Court clears way for vote
The Constitutional Court yesterday rejected a request from the election-winning Move Forward Party to review a parliamentary decision that blocked its prime ministerial candidate from being renominated. The move all but kills off any hope of the party leading the next government and paves the way for the legislature to hold another vote on a prime minister as soon as this week. The court in its decision said it declined to accept the case because it was lodged by a group of more than 20 individuals that did not include Pita Limjaroenrat, the prime ministerial candidate. “Their rights were not violated and they did not have the rights to file the complaint,” it said of the petitioners, in what was a unanimous decision.
PAKISTAN
Japanese mountaineer dies
A Japanese mountaineer died and another was injured when rocks apparently hit them while they were trying to climb the never-scaled 5,800m Virgin Peak, a mountaineering official and the injured climber said on Tuesday. The climbers were on an expedition organized by a local tour operator in the Andaq Valley, Alpine Club of Pakistan secretary Karrar Haidri said. Shinji Tamura on Friday slipped and fell at an altitude of 5,380m, Haidri said. Semba Takayasu, the other climber, said their rappelling point was broken and they fell together, holding a double rope about 60m long. “Shinji was heavily hit” and had a big injury from what Takayasu said he thought was a rock. Takayasu managed to reach base camp to seek help, and Haidri said a search team was quickly sent to the area where Tamura slipped. A search for his body was called off on Monday and local authorities in the region confirmed Tamura’s death.
INDIA
Tomatoes on ‘vacation’
Burger King has scrapped tomatoes from its wraps and burgers in many Indian outlets after prices more than quadrupled, the latest symptom of surging food inflation that is hitting consumers hard across world’s most populous nation. “Even tomatoes need a vacation ... we are unable to add tomatoes to our food,” read notices posted at two Burger King India outlets. The chain has cited quality issues in explaining the shortfall. The burger chain, one of the nation’s biggest with nearly 400 outlets, joins many McDonald’s and Subway stores that have removed tomatoes from menus as food inflation this week hit its highest since January 2020. Rival Domino’s has tried bringing down prices to appeal to struggling consumers with a US$0.60 pizza — its cheapest in the world.
UNITED STATES
Musk’s X delays links
Social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, delayed access to links to content on the Reuters and New York Times Web sites, as well as rivals such as Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram, a Washington Post report said on Tuesday. Clicking a link on X to one of the affected Web sites resulted in a delay of about five seconds before the site loaded, the Post reported. By late Tuesday afternoon, X appeared to have eliminated the delay. When contacted for comment, X confirmed the delay was removed, but did not elaborate. Billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in October last year has previously lashed out at news organizations and journalists who have reported critically on his companies, which include Tesla and SpaceX.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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