CHINA
South prepares for flooding
A wide area in the south of the country yesterday braced for more seasonal rains and flooding, which state media said has already left more than 120 people dead or missing this year. The National Meteorological Center raised the weather alert to yellow yesterday morning, the third-highest of four warning levels, for more than half a dozen provinces and the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing. Heavy to torrential rain was forecast through this afternoon. Footage on state broadcaster CCTV showed flooded streets and farmland in Anhui Province. In Jiangxi Province more than 8,000 people have been evacuated and 54 houses have collapsed after rainstorms over the past few days, the network said.
MALAYSIA
Alliance wins by-election
The alliance that former prime minister Najib Razak once led secured a victory at the first by-election since the country was plunged into political turmoil in February. The Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate received 13,872 votes at the Chini polls to win a seat in the state assembly of Pahang. That is 10 times more than the other two combined, including one backed by Mahathir Mohamad, who ousted Najib two years ago, but stepped down as prime minister earlier this year. BN is again part of the ruling coalition after it backed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to succeed Mahathir. “I’m convinced that these by-elections clearly provide evidence that BN is not only still relevant but also has a bright future,” BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said yesterday.
SPAIN
Catalonia confines 200,000
The northeastern region of Catalonia on Saturday reimposed restrictions on more than 200,000 people following several new COVID-19 outbreaks. Residents in Segria would not be able to leave the area from 12pm on Saturday, but they would not have to stay at home. “We’ve decided to confine Segria due to data that confirm too significant a growth in the number of COVID-19 infections,” Catalan President Quim Torra told a news conference. Catalonia is one of the hardest-hit parts of the country, with a total of 72,860 novel coronavirus cases, regional health ministry data released on Friday showed. Spain has reported 250,545 cases and 28,385 deaths.
IRAQ
Rocket misses Green Zone
A rocket fired toward Baghdad’s Green Zone, which hosts the US and other embassies, fell just short, damaging a home and injuring a child early yesterday, the Iraqi military said. Security forces at the same time stopped another Katyusha rocket from being launched at Taji military air base north of Baghdad, which hosts US troops, a military statement added. The military gave no further details. US officials blame Iran-backed militia for regular rocket attacks on US facilities in the country. No known Iran-backed groups have claimed responsibility.
SYRIA
More than 50 die in clashes
Clashes between Russia-backed regime forces and the Islamic State group have killed more than 50 fighters on both sides in two days, a Britain-based war monitor said on Saturday. Fighting and Russian air strikes in the central desert province of Homs, which began late on Thursday, claimed the lives of 20 pro-government fighters and 31 militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “The fighting started in the night of Thursday to Friday with a jihadist assault on regime positions” near the town of al-Sukhna, observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
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