PAKISTAN
Court denies Khan bail
The Islamabad High Court yesterday declined bail to detained former prime minister Imran Khan, who has been indicted on charges of leaking state secrets, his lawyer Naeem Panjutha said, adding that they would challenge it. The charge is related to a classified cable sent to Islamabad by the Pakistani ambassador in the US last year, which Khan is accused of making public. The former cricket star said the contents of the cable had appeared in the media from other sources. Khan has said the cable he has been accused of leaking was proof of a US conspiracy to push the military to oust him in last year’s parliamentary vote, because he had visited Moscow just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US and the Pakistani military denied that.
THAILAND
Pheu Thai elects leader
The ruling party yesterday elected the daughter of jailed ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as its leader. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s youngest daughter, was voted unopposed to become Pheu Thai’s new leader, two years after entering politics. “The new administrative body of Pheu Thai must improve itself to lead the party to becoming number one for the people again,” Paetongtarn, 37, told party members and reporters. Political analyst Yuttaporn Issrachai said the announcement follows the pattern of Pheu Thai’s “family-run style.” “It is an effort to modernize the party, but in the end, the core of the party is still the same. It belongs to the Shinawatra clan,” he said.
SAN SALVADOR
Bukele seeks re-election
President Nayib Bukele on Thursday filed paperwork to run for re-election in February, despite concerns over his constitutional eligibility to seek a consecutive term. Bukele, 42, enjoys strong public support and last year announced he would contest the election. While critics question his eligibility, citing a constitutional prohibition, the nation’s top court in 2021 ruled he could run. The judges on the court were appointed by Congress, which is controlled by the president’s New Ideas party. A recent poll conducted by the Center for Citizen Studies at Francisco Gavidia University gave New Ideas nearly 70 percent support, versus just over 4 percent for its closest competitor.
UNITED STATES
Arctic Norway mission opens
The nation was yesterday to open its northernmost diplomatic station in the world, a symbol of the arctic’s increased importance in Washington. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June said the opening of the station in Tromsoe, northern Norway, was a means for the nation to have a “diplomatic footprint above the arctic circle.” Called a “presence post,” it will not offer consular services. “It is a gesture that showcases just how much more important the US sees the arctic now than only five or 10 years ago,” said Andreas Oesthagen, a senior research fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute.
MALDIVES
Troop talks with India starts
The nation has started negotiations with India to remove its military presence, president-elect Mohamed Muizzu said in an interview published by Bloomberg yesterday, calling the talks “very successful already.” Removing Indian troops was a key campaign pledge by Muizzu, who ousted Ibrahim Solih as president last month. About 70 Indian military personnel maintain New Delhi-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircraft. Indian warships help patrol the Maldives’ exclusive economic zone.
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