UNITED KINGDOM
Scots want independence
Scottish voters would vote for independence from the UK, according to a poll by Michael Ashcroft, the first major published survey to show a lead for independence since March 2017. Asked how they would vote in an independence referendum, 46 percent said they would vote for independence and 43 percent against. Excluding those who said they did not know or would not vote, this amounted to a lead of 52 percent to 48 percent for an independent Scotland. “In the wake of [Prime Minister] Boris Johnson’s visit to Edinburgh last week I polled Scots to measure support for a second independence referendum and to gauge opinion on independence itself,” said Ashcroft, a Conservative who opposed Johnson’s leadership. “I found a small majority in favor of a new vote — and the first lead for an independent Scotland for more than two years,” he said.
EGYPT
Fiery car crash kills 19
At least 19 people were killed when a speeding car driving against traffic crashed into three others, causing a huge explosion in Cairo, the Ministry of Health said yesterday. The crash happened just before midnight on Sunday outside the National Cancer Institute and injured 30 people, the ministry added. Between “three and four [of the injured] are in critical condition in the intensive care unit,” ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed told a news conference, adding that they have “several burns of varying degrees.”Body parts were also retrieved from the scene, he said. The prosecutor general has ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the crash.
INDONESIA
Activist walking backwards
A man is walking backwards from his home in East Java Province to the capital, Jakarta, to raise awareness of deforestation in a country with one of the highest rates in the world. The more than 700km trek would be arduous enough under any circumstances, but Medi Bastoni is drawing attention to his campaign by doing it walking backwards. Bastoni, 43, started on July 18 from his village on Mount Wilis, a 2,500m volcano in East Java that has been affected by deforestation. He hopes to meet President Joko Widodo when he arrives in Jakarta later this month. “I hope the government will start to care about the environment ... so the young generation will care about our environment,” the father of four told Reuters TV. As he passed through the town of Sragen in central Java, residents looked on with amazement. “I think this is crazy and it’s something impossible, to walk such a long distance backwards,” said Ambyar, who uses one name. “But, he has a noble mission ... and we support him. We just hope he will arrive in Jakarta.”
AUSTRIA
No perfume, please: poll
Vienna subway travelers have decided that they do not want their train rides to be scented. The capital’s transport authority tried out four scents, including hints of green tea, grapefruit, sandalwood and melon, in the ventilation systems of four trains on two of the network’s five lines last month. It asked subway users to deliver their verdict online. The authority yesterday said that 21,000 people decided they would prefer to live without scent as they commute, while 16,000 supported extending the project. It said that the air quality in subway cars has already been improved by a ban on eating on trains that was introduced on all lines in January.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
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