THAILAND
King approves Cabinet
King Maha Vajiralongkorn yesterday endorsed a new Cabinet, taking the country closer to a fully functional administration after months of political deadlock. Vajiralongkorn acknowledged the new Cabinet led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and the appointment of 34 ministers, the Royal Gazette said in a statement, including some from the previous deeply unpopular army-backed administration. “Srettha Thavisin, the prime minister, has selected a qualified Cabinet to administer the country further, so the King has commanded a new Cabinet,” the statement read. The new Cabinet sees Srettha as Minister of Finance and Anutin Charnvirakul — the former health minister from the previous military-led government — as the deputy prime minister.
NORTH KOREA
Cruise missiles fired
Pyongyang fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea in the early hours yesterday, the South Korean military said. An unspecified number of missiles were launched at about 4am, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday in the statement, adding the specifications of the missiles were being evaluated by South Korean and US intelligence authorities. “We have stepped up surveillance and monitoring and are maintaining utmost readiness in close coordination with the United States,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Mohamed Al Fayed dies
Mohamed Al Fayed, the self-made Egyptian billionaire who bought the Harrods department store and promoted the discredited conspiracy theory that the British royal family was behind the death of his son and Princess Diana, has died, his family said. Born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, Al Fayed began his career selling fizzy drinks and then worked as a sewing-machine salesman. Al Fayed owned establishment symbols such as Harrods, Fulham and the Ritz hotel in Paris. “Mrs Mohamed Al Fayed, her children and grandchildren wish to confirm that her beloved husband, their father and their grandfather, Mohamed, has passed away peacefully of old age,” his family wrote in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Riot leader gets 18 years
A one-time leader in the Proud Boys far-right extremist group, Ethan Nordean, was on Friday sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, tying the record for the longest sentence in the attack. “He is the undisputed leader on the ground on Jan, 6,” prosecutor Jason McCullough said. The Seattle-area chapter president was one of two Proud Boys sentenced on Friday. Dominic Pezzola was convicted of smashing a window at the US Capitol in the building’s first breach and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
UNITED STATES
Jimmy Buffett dies aged 76
Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock with the escapist Caribbean-flavored song Margaritaville and turned that celebration of loafing into an empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions, has died. He was 76. “Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” a statement on Buffett’s official Web site and social media pages said late on Friday. The statement did not say where Buffett died or give a cause of death. Buffett landed at No. 13 on Forbes’ America’s Richest Celebrities list in 2016 with a net worth of US$550 million.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home