CANADA
Trudeau, wife separate
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, on Wednesday announced that they are separating after 18 years of marriage. The two said in statements posted on Instagram that they made the decision after “many meaningful and difficult conversations.” A statement from the prime minister’s office said they both have signed a legal separation agreement. Trudeau, the 51-year-old scion of one of Canada’s most famous politicians, was sworn into office in 2015. Sophie Trudeau is a former model and TV host. The couple were married in 2005. They have three children: Xavier, 15, Ella-Grace, 14, and Hadrien, 9.
Bosnia
Genocide denial waning
The denial of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide by Serb officials and media in Bosnia and the Balkans has significantly waned over the past year, but is still present, a report said yesterday. Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern town on July 11, 1995. They then killed about 8,000 Muslim men and boys, an act labeled genocide by two international courts. The genocide is mostly denied by leaders of the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, which, along with the Muslim-Croat Federation, makes up post-war Bosnia, notably its leader, Milorad Dodik. “There was no genocide in Srebrenica ... I say that with a clear conscience,” Dodik said in April. The Srebrenica memorial center said in an annual report that from May last year to May this year, there were 90 cases of denial in Bosnia and the region compared with almost 700 cases the previous 12 months. Since 2021, the denial of the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes, as well as glorification of war criminals, is punishable by up to five years in jail. As a consequence the number of reported cases has dropped, the report said, although no one has yet been prosecuted.
AUSTRALIA
Cambodia to get artifacts
The National Gallery yesterday said it would return three sculptures to Cambodia after an investigation found they were likely to have been “illegally exported” from the country. The bronze sculptures from the 9th to 10th century were bought for US$1.5 million in 2011 by British art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was later “convincingly implicated in the illegal trade of antiquities,” the gallery said. Latchford died in 2020, a year after being charged with trafficking in stolen and looted Cambodian antiquities. Charges have also been laid posthumously related to works of art he sold, it said. The sculptures — Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Padmapani, Bodhisattva Vajrapani and Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Padmapani — are to remain on display at the museum while Cambodia prepares a new home for them.
THAILAND
PM vote postponed
House of Representatives Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha yesterday said that a parliamentary vote for the next prime minister that was scheduled for today would be postponed, prolonging a political deadlock since a May general election. Many voters in the May 14 vote rejected nearly a decade of rule by the military and a military-backed government, but the progressive party that won, Move Forward, has been blocked from taking power because of conservative opponents and a nominated upper house. Wan Noor told reporters that the vote could only be held after the Constitutional Court on Aug. 16 rules on a appeal by Move Forward against the thwarting of its bid to appoint a prime minister.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
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