PHILIPPINES
Rappler allowed to continue
A news site cofounded by 2021 Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa can continue operating after the Court of Appeals yesterday overturned a shutdown order. Ressa and Rappler have been fighting multiple court cases filed during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Ressa was a vocal critic of Duterte and the deadly drug war he launched in 2016. That triggered what media advocates say was a grinding series of criminal charges, probes and online attacks against her and Rappler. The latest ruling, issued on July 23, but only released to the media yesterday, reversed a previous ruling by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that had ordered the shutdown of Rappler. The SEC order had been a “grave abuse of discretion” and contravened “established procedures, jurisprudential and legal instructions, and clear intent of the Constitution,” the court said.
SPAIN
Puigdemont leaves country
Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was on his way back to Belgium yesterday, having appeared at a rally in central Barcelona, despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest, his party’s general secretary said yesterday. Jordi Turull told RAC1 radio that he did not know whether Puigdemont had already reached his home in Waterloo, where he has lived for seven years in self-imposed exile since leading a failed bid for Catalonia’s secession in 2017. He is wanted on suspicion of embezzlement related to a 2017 independence referendum, ruled illegal by the Spanish courts. Puigdemont says the vote was legal and therefore the charges linked to it have no basis. “He did not come to be arrested in Spain, but to exercise his political rights,” Turull said.
UNITED KINGDOM
New Banksy artwork ‘stolen’
A new Banksy artwork depicting a wolf on a satellite dish in London was removed, possibly stolen, less than an hour after it was unveiled by the elusive street artist on Thursday. The piece was the fourth animal-themed artwork that Banksy had installed in various parts of the capital this week. The street artist confirmed on Instagram that the works were his. The wolf silhouette was located on the roof of an empty shop in Peckham. Photographs from the scene carried by local media show a person climbing up a ladder to retrieve the satellite dish while another holds the ladder for them. Further images show an individual in shorts walking off with the piece of art. “We were called to reports of a stolen satellite dish containing artwork at 1:52 pm on Thursday,” London’s Metropolitan Police force said in a statement. “There have been no arrests. Inquiries continue.”
UNITED STATES
Columbia deans resign
Three Columbia University deans, who engaged in what the school’s administration called troubling text message exchanges that touched on “ancient antisemitic tropes,” have resigned, a university spokesperson said late on Thursday. Cristen Kromm, former dean of undergraduate student life; Matthew Patashnick, former associate dean for student and family support; and Susan Chang-Kim, former vice dean and chief administrative officer, were earlier placed on leave as an investigation proceeded. The message exchanges took place during an event on campus titled “Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present, and Future” and followed weeks of protests at Columbia and other campuses across the nation over the war in Gaza. The three deans who resigned could not be contacted.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary