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.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
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
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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