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.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
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