CHINA
Sichuan floods kill at least 8
Floods triggered on Saturday by heavy rain in Ya’an city the southwest have killed at least eight people, with about 30 others still missing, China Central Television (CCTV) reported. Rescue operations in the city in Sichuan Province are continuing, CCTV said, citing a news conference given by local authorities. Extreme weather is affecting large parts of the country, with 12 provinces issuing heat wave alerts, including Xinjiang, Shanxi, Hebei, Zhejiang and Guangxi, CCTV reported separately. Temperatures were expected to top 40°C in some areas yesterday, it added.
SOUTH KOREA
First lady questioned
First lady Kim Keon-hee has been questioned over allegations of stock manipulation and graft involving a US$2,200 luxury handbag, the prosecution said yesterday. The questioning comes as the opposition calls for a special probe into Kim, who has been under scrutiny for accepting a Dior bag in contravention of government ethics rules, and for her alleged role in a stock manipulation scheme. Prosecutors conducted “face-to-face questioning” of Kim on Saturday, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. Kim’s aide told investigators earlier this month that the first lady told her to return the bag on the same day she had received it, but she had forgotten to, Yonhap news agency reported.
VIETNAM
Leader’s funeral this week
A state funeral is to be held for former Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who died on Friday, the government said on Saturday. There would be two days of national mourning on Thursday and Friday, a government statement said, with the state funeral on the second day. During the mourning period there would be no public entertainment, it said. Trong’s duties have been temporarily assigned to President To Lam.
AUSTRALIA
Stroller rolls in front of train
A stroller carrying twin two-year-old girls yesterday rolled into the path of an oncoming train in Sydney, police said, in an accident that killed one of the children and the “heroic” father who dashed to their rescue. One of the girls survived only “through good luck” after she landed between the rails when the stroller fell off a platform at southern Sydney’s Carlton Railway Station, police said. She was “largely untouched” by the train, police said. As they exited the station platform the parents took “their hands off the pram for a very, very short period of time,” New South Wales police superintendent Paul Dunstan said. “Whether it’s a gust of wind or — we’re not quite sure — but it appears that the pram has instantly started to roll in the direction of the train lines,” he said. The father had “just gone into parent mode,” Dunstan said. “In doing so it’s cost him his life, but it’s an incredibly brave and heroic act.”
BANGLADESH
Court scraps job quotas
The Supreme Court yesterday scrapped most of the quotas on government jobs that have sparked student-led protests in which at least 114 people have been killed, local media reported. The court’s Appellate Division dismissed a lower court order that had reinstated the quotas, directing that 93 percent of government jobs would be open to candidates on merit, without quotas, the reports said. The government extended a curfew to 3pm, and it was to continue for an “uncertain time” following a two-hour break for people to gather supplies, local media reported.
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
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
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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