CAMBODIA
Ex-PM returns to spotlight
Officials yesterday voted in a Senate election, setting the stage for former prime minister Hun Sen to officially return to politics after he stepped down last year. Following nearly four decades of rule, Hun Sen handed power to his eldest son, Hun Manet. The 71-year-old lawmaker and chief of the ruling party cast his ballot near his home in Takhmao yesterday morning for a seat in the Senate. He has said that he intends to become president of the Senate, allowing him to act as head of state when the king is overseas.
ARGENTINA
Provinces to withhold oil
The country’s main oil-producing provinces have threatened to cut supplies to the rest of the country over funding reductions ordered by President Javier Milei. “Not a drop of oil will come out on Wednesday if they don’t respect the provinces once and for all and take their foot off our back,” Chubut Governor Ignacio Torres told television channel C5N on Saturday. He and counterparts from five other Patagonian provinces on Friday announced that “if the Economy Ministry does not deliver its [financial] resources to Chubut, then Chubut will not deliver its oil and gas.”
FRANCE
Macron heckled at farm fair
President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday spent the entire day at the annual agricultural fair, as angry farmers heckled him and scuffled with police. Riot police kept the protesters at a safe distance as Macron toured the fair, but as he entered the livestock area in the morning, hundreds of protesters crashed the gates and clashed with police. In the ensuing confusion, the fair was repeatedly closed and then reopened to the public. In a separate incident, farmers poured manure on the stand of dairy giant Lactalis, which they accuse of not paying enough for its milk. Macron finally left at about 9pm — 13 hours after he arrived.
CARIBBEAN
US couple missing
Police are investigating the possible murder of two people believed to be US citizens who owned a catamaran that was hijacked by three fugitives in waters off Grenada. The yacht’s alleged owners, Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry, were last seen on Feb. 18, when three men escaped from the custody of Grenadian authorities. Police in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines captured the men on Wednesday. The Royal Grenada Police Force said in a statement on Friday that preliminary information suggests the escaped prisoners had traveled from Grenada to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on a yacht. Investigators are working on leads “that suggest that the two occupants of the yacht may have been killed in the process,” it said.
UNITED KINGDOM
WWII-era bomb detonated
A World War II-era bomb, the discovery of which prompted one of the largest peacetime evacuations in British history, has been detonated at sea, the Ministry of Defence said on Saturday. The 500kg explosive was discovered on Tuesday in the backyard of a home in Plymouth, England. More than 10,000 residents were evacuated to ensure their safety as a military convoy transported the unexploded bomb through a densely populated residential area to a ferry slipway, from which it was taken out to sea. “I think it is fair to say that the last few days will go down in history for Plymouth,” Plymouth City Council leader Tudor Evans said. The city, home to major naval bases for centuries, was one of the most heavily bombed in the UK during WWII.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
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