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.
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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