INDONESIA
Woman jailed for pork video
A court has sentenced a woman to two years in prison and handed her a heavy fine after she recited an Islamic prayer before eating pork in a viral TikTok video widely criticized in the Muslim-majority country. Lina Mukherjee, 33, was on Tuesday found guilty of “spreading information aimed at inciting hatred against religious individuals and specific groups” at a court in the South Sumatra city of Palembang. A resident reported Mukherjee in March for the video, which had amassed millions of views. In it she uttered a Muslim prayer that translates to “in the name of God,” before consuming crispy pork skin. Pork is forbidden under Islam, Indonesia’s dominant religion. Mukherjee was also fined 250 million rupiah (US$16,262), and her jail term would be extended by three months if it is not paid.
SINGAPORE
Ex-PM’s son charged
Goh Jin Hian (吳仁軒), the son of former prime minister Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), was among four people yesterday charged with false trading offenses, Channel News Asia reported. The 54-year-old former CEO of investment holding company New Silkroutes Group Ltd, Goh stands accused of conspiring with three other men linked to the firm for creating a misleading appearance of the price of its securities on 31 trading days between February and August 2018, the report said. Goh is also accused of pushing up the price of the firm’s securities by placing orders and executing trades using his bank investment account. He was handed 39 charges under the Securities and Futures Act, while the three other men each received 31 similar charges.
RUSSIA
Top official woos China
A senior Kremlin official on Tuesday called for closer policy coordination between Moscow and Beijing to counter what he described as Western efforts to contain them, as he hosted China’s top diplomat for security talks. Moscow “seeks progressive development and strengthening of the Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation,” Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅). “Amid the campaign unleashed by the collective West that is aimed at the double containment of Russia and China, it’s particularly important to further deepen Russian-Chinese coordination and interaction on the international arena,” Patrushev said. Putin is set to hold “substantive” talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a trip next month to Beijing, he added. Patrushev reaffirmed Russia’s “invariable” support for Beijing’s policy on issues related to Taiwan, the Xinjiang region and Hong Kong, which he said “are being used by the West to discredit China.”
UNITED STATES
Neuralink to start human trial
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s brain-chip start-up Neuralink on Tuesday said it has received approval from an independent review board to begin recruitment for the first human trial of its brain implant for paralysis patients. Those with paralysis due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis can qualify for the study, it said, but did not reveal how many participants would be enrolled in the trial, which would take about six years to complete. The study would use a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move), Neuralink said, adding that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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