SOUTH AFRICA
ANC loses majority
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party yesterday lost its its three-decade-old absolute majority and would have to find allies if it is to remain in power. With more than 98 percent of the votes from Wednesday’s election counted, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC had just more than 40 percent support, a catastrophic slump from the 57.5 it won in 2019. That marks a historic turning point as the party has enjoyed an absolute majority since 1994. Data released earlier in the day from the Independent Electoral Commission showed that the center-right Democratic Alliance held second place with 21.71 percent, while former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe had 12.6 percent, a surprise score for a party founded just months ago as a vehicle for the former ANC chief.
AFGHANISTAN
Twenty die in boat sinking
At least 20 people were yesterday killed when a boat sank while crossing a river, a Taliban official said. Quraishi Badlon, Nangarhar provincial director of the information and culture department, said the boat sank while crossing a river in the province’s Mohmand Dara district, killing 20 people including women and children. The boat was carrying 25 people, according to village residents, of whom five survived. So far five bodies have been retrieved including a man, a woman, two boys and a girl, the Nangarhar Department of Health said in a statement.
GERMANY
Six injured in stabbing
Six people were on Friday wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally, including a prominent critic of Islam, drawing immediate condemnation from the nation’s leaders. The attack, just days before EU-wide elections, comes amid a spike of politically motivated violence in the country. Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser raised the possibility that the assault could have been Islamist motivated. A man with a knife attacked and wounded several people on the market square in the city of Mannheim in the southwest at about 11:35am, police said in a statement. Five of the wounded were participating in a rally organized by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, police said. A police officer who intervened was also stabbed several times in the back of the head, it said. Another officer fired at the attacker and wounded him. “The extent and severity of the injuries are not yet known,” the police said, adding that the identity of the attacker had not yet been determined.
JAPAN
US$300m lost in ‘leak’
Crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin said it had lost about US$300 million in bitcoin in what it described as “an unauthorized leak” from its digital wallet. “We are still investigating details of the damages,” it said in a statement after detecting the “unauthorized leak” at about 1:26pm on Friday. “We have already taken measures to prevent the unauthorized leak, but we have also implemented restrictions on the use of some services to ensure additional safety,” the exchange said. DMM Bitcoin did not give details on the “leak,” but global cryptocurrency analysis firm Chainalysis said it was one of the biggest crypto hacks. “Today’s hack of Japanese exchange DMM Bitcoin for $305M worth of bitcoin is the biggest hack since Dec 2022 and the 7th largest crypto hack ever,” Chainalysis wrote on X, adding that it had labeled the funds as “stolen.”
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
RSS