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.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
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