RUSSIA
Allies worried about Navalny
Opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s location inside the prison system remains unknown and he again did not show up at a court hearing by video link, Kira Yarmysh, his spokesperson, said yesterday. His allies on Monday said that Navalny had been removed from the penal colony where he had been imprisoned since the middle of last year and that his current whereabouts were unknown. They had been preparing for his expected transfer to a “special regime” colony, the harshest grade in the nation’s prison system, after he was sentenced in August to an additional 19 years in prison on top of 11-and-a-half years he was already serving. The process of moving prisoners by rail across the nation’s vast territory can take weeks, with lawyers and family unable to obtain information about their location and well-being until they reach their destination. Yarmysh on Monday said that staff at the IK-6 facility in Melekhovo had told his lawyer waiting outside that Navalny was no longer among its inmates.
SOUTH AFRICA
Court rejects Zulu ruling
The Pretoria High Court has overturned President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to recognize Misuzulu kaZwelithini as the king of the 15 million-strong Zulu nation in what might spark a lengthy battle for the throne. It ordered Ramaphosa to launch an investigation into objections by some members of the Zulu royal house that the correct processes were not followed in selecting kaZwelithini as the rightful heir to the throne. KaZwelithini was chosen as the new king last year after the death of his father, King Goodwill Zwelithini. He was recognized by Ramaphosa as the new king and handed a recognition certificate, but some of his siblings said that he is not the rightful heir to the throne and that due processes were not followed in choosing him.
JAPAN
Oldest person dies at 116
The nation’s oldest person passed away yesterday at the age of 116, officials said, offering their condolences for Fusa Tatsumi who lived through two world wars and multiple pandemics. Born in 1907, Tatsumi raised three children with her husband, a farmer, in Osaka, broadcaster MBS reported. “Tatsumi died aged 116 at a care facility in Osaka on Tuesday,” an official in Osaka’s Kashiwara City said. Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura offered condolences on the social media site X, recalling a party he attended to celebrate Tatsumi’s longevity in September. “I still remember how healthy Ms Fusa Tatsumi was,” Yoshimura said. “I sincerely pray for her soul.” In footage aired by MBS and other local media outlets she was seen in a wheelchair, mostly sleeping, at her 116th birthday celebration in April.
JAPAN
Zoo probes squirrel deaths
The Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo has launched a probe after apparently massacring 31 of its 40 squirrels by mistake with treatments meant to kill parasites, officials said. Zookeepers on Monday last week injected the animals with anti-parasitic medicine as part of a sanitary precaution, while also spraying insecticide over their nest boxes. One of the squirrels died soon afterwards and more perished over subsequent days, with 31 fatalities recorded by Monday morning. “The possibility of drug-induced poisoning cannot be denied,” the zoo said in a statement on Monday. “We’re currently investigating the cause of their deaths and observing the conditions of surviving individuals,” it said, adding that a pathological examination of the corpses was under way. “We offer our deepest apologies,” it said.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
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