MALAYSIA
Activist announces PM bid
A prominent rights activist yesterday announced her candidacy in upcoming polls in what analysts see as a boost for the opposition’s attempt to unseat Prime Minister Najib Razak. Speculation has been rife that Najib would call elections within weeks as his ruling Barisan Nasional coalition inches closer to the end of its five-year term. Maria Chin Abdullah, 62, head of the election reform group Bersih (“Clean”) that has led major street rallies against Najib, said she would stand as an independent, but under the banner of the opposition coalition. She is the latest high-profile civil society figure to join the electoral bandwagon after former think tank head Wan Saiful Wan Jan. “They’re joining because there’s a real chance now for Barisan Nasional to be defeated,” University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute director James Chin said.
NEW ZEALAND
Hottest summer on record
The nation has sweltered through its hottest summer on record and can expect more of the same if climate change continues unabated, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said yesterday. Daily temperatures averaged 18.8°C, 2.1°C more than normal, the institute said. With the mercury reaching as high as 38.7°C on South Island, the institute said it was the hottest summer since records began in 1909. The high temperatures prompted the government to declare a mid-level drought in some areas and provide assistance to struggling farmers.
SOUTH KOREA
Ex-president Lee questioned
Prosecutors yesterday summoned former president Lee Myung-bak for questioning as a criminal suspect in a bribery scandal, a report said. Allegations of corruption involving the 76-year-old’s relatives and aides during his 2008 to 2013 presidential term have mounted in recent weeks. Seoul prosecutors have been investigating multiple cases of bribery amounting to millions of US dollars, with the net closing in around the former leader.
JAPAN
James Bond volcano erupts
A volcano that featured in a 1960s James Bond movie shot smoke and ash thousands of meters into the sky yesterday, prompting the cancelation of flights to and from a nearby airport, with the eruption likely to continue. Television footage showed smoke and ash billowing high into the sky from Shinmoedake, with lava visible deep inside a crater at the mountain, which featured in the 1967 movie You Only Live Twice. NHK said the smoke and ash had risen as far as 3,650m in the peak’s strongest eruption in seven years.
INDONESIA
Lawyer vows land ban fight
A lawyer said he is to appeal a verdict by a regional court that upheld a decades-old ban on ethnic Chinese owning land in Yogyakarta Province, which he called racist and discriminatory. Handoko Wibowo had filed a petition in a district court in Yogyakarta, calling for a repeal of the 1975 edict that gives only indigenous Indonesians the right to own land in the central province. Minorities only get usage rights. The court last week dismissed the lawsuit, reasoning that the edict was imposed to protect the interests of indigenous Indonesians who are less wealthy than ethnic Chinese, said Handoko, who rejected that conclusion. “The edict goes against the agrarian law that gives all citizens the right to own land. It is time we repealed it,” he said over the telephone.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests. Analysis by London-based think tank Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island (Jhongjian Island, 中建島) on the southwest corner of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), building what might be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery and sophisticated radar system. “By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send
HAVANA: Repeated blackouts have left residents of the Cuban capital concerned about food, water supply and the nation’s future, but so far, there have been few protests Maria Elena Cardenas, 76, lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana’s colonial old town. The building has an elegant past, but for the last few days Maria has been cooking with sticks she had found on the street. “You know, we Cubans manage the best we can,” she said. She lives in the shelter because her home collapsed, a regular occurrence in the poorest, oldest parts of the beautiful city. Cuba’s government has spent the last days attempting to get the island’s national grid functioning after repeated island-wide blackouts. Without power, sleep becomes difficult in the heat, food
Botswana is this week holding a presidential election energized by a campaign by one previous head-of-state to unseat his handpicked successor whose first term has seen rising discontent amid a downturn in the diamond-dependent economy. The charismatic Ian Khama dramatically returned from self-exile six weeks ago determined to undo what he has called a “mistake” in handing over in 2018 to Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who seeks re-election tomorrow. While he cannot run as president again having served two terms, Khama has worked his influence and standing to support the opposition in the southern African country of 2.6 million people. “The return of
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rejected a plan for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to visit Kyiv due to Guterres’ attendance at this week’s BRICS summit in Russia, a Ukrainian official said on Friday. Kyiv was enraged by Guterres’ appearance at the event in the city of Kazan on Thursday and his handshake with its host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Guterres, who called for a “just peace” in Ukraine at the BRICS event and has repeatedly condemned the invasion, discussed a visit to Ukraine with Zelenskiy when they met in New York