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.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
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