SINGAPORE
Woman to be hanged
The city-state is to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said yesterday, while urging that the executions be halted. A 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50g of heroin is to be hanged today at Changi Prison and a 45-year-old female convict, Saridewi Djamani, is to be sent to the gallows on Friday for trafficking about 30g of heroin, local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said. If carried out, Djamani would be the first woman to be executed since 2004. The two prisoners are Singaporeans and their families have received notices setting the dates of their executions, the group said. “It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty International death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement. “There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.
BURKINA FASO
Over 40,000 near death
About 42,000 people are on the verge of starving to death in the northeast as Islamist militants lay siege to towns and villages, an International Rescue Committee (IRC) official said. About 800,000 people are trapped in the settlements, most notably in Djibo, which has largely been cut off from the outside world for more than a year, said Modou Diaw, regional vice president for the IRC in West Africa. In that town, which Diaw traveled to by helicopter this month, 360,000 people are sheltering, with 75 percent of those being refugees from elsewhere in the country. “People are already dying of hunger,” Diaw said in an interview. “If nothing is done, it can be much worse.” Djibo is one of the most stark examples of how rising insecurity, coupled with climate change, has left millions of people displaced and hungry across swathes of West Africa’s Sahel region. The 42,000 are classified as IPC 5, a technical term that refers to people suffering from famine.
SWEDEN
Thunberg fined, but defiant
Hours after being fined for disobeying police during an environmental protest at an oil facility last month, Greta Thunberg conce again attempted to block access to the facility and was removed by police. Earlier on Monday, Thunberg, 20, admitted to the facts, but denied guilt, saying the fight against the fossil fuel industry was a form of self-defense due to the existential and global threat of the climate crisis. “We cannot save the world by playing by the rules,” she told reportes after hearing the verdict, vowing she would “definitely not” back down. The court rejected her argument and fined her 2,500 kronor (about US$240). Thunberg and several Reclaim the Future youth activists were indicted for refusing a police order to disperse after blocking road access to an oil terminal in the city of Malmo on June 19.
THAILAND
PM vote postponed
The parliament yesterday canceled a vote to select a new prime minister tomorrow as a coalition of pro-democracy parties struggled to drum up enough parliamentary support to form a new government. It will set a new date later, House of Representatives Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said. The vote at a joint sitting of the two chambers was canceled after the Office of the Ombudsman challenged the legality of last week’s rejection of Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat’s renomination as a candidate.
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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