JAPAN
Politician will not ‘shut up’
A politician who campaigns against discrimination is refusing to “shut up” after her local assembly passed a motion requesting that she stop posting on social media with her official title. Megumi Fukushima, an independent lawmaker in the city assembly of Tsurugashima, has denounced prejudice against immigrants and women on X and other platforms. Her comments have prompted dozens of complaints from the public to the assembly, as well as a message on the city’s Web site threatening to kill Fukushima and bomb city hall. “The resolution does not limit her to share her opinions, but asks her not to use her assembly title,” an assembly official told reporters yesterday. However, Fukushima has kept her title in her posts on X. On Monday, she posted that she would “not shut up,” saying that the resolution “infringes on her freedom of speech.”
Photo: AFP
SRI LANKA
Former minister arrested
The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption yesterday arrested Shasheendra Rajapaksa, a former minister and nephew of two presidents, Mahinda and Gotabaya, into custody, accusing him of illegally claiming reparations for property loss. “Mr [Shasheendra] Rajapaksa is charged with corruption for coercing state officials into paying him compensation for damage to a property he claimed was his,” the commission said in a statement. “However, this asset is located on state-owned land. He misused state land, claimed compensation he was not entitled to and committed the offence of corruption.”
CUBA
Advocates decry arrests
Rights advocates, journalists and relatives of jailed dissidents say they were briefly detained or prevented from leaving their homes by state security agents on Tuesday on the anniversary of the “Maleconazo,” the largest protest former president Fidel Castro faced during his rule. On Aug. 5, 1994, hundreds of people took to the streets of Havana’s Malecon waterfront to protest, an event that triggered the rafter crisis, during which many Cubans fled by sea to the US. The government attributed the protests to incitement by Radio Marti, a Washington-funded station that broadcasts news into Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the “Maleconazo” anniversary was a reminder that “there will always be dark forces lurking against a genuine Revolution in difficult moments,” posting a photograph on X of Castro confronting protesters in 1994.
UNITED STATES
House subpoenas Clintons
The House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Tuesday subpoenaed the Department of Justice for files in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation and is seeking depositions with former president Bill Clinton and his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as former law enforcement officials. Representative James Comer, the chairman of the committee, said in a letter to Attorney-General Pam Bondi that “while the department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to Mr Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell [Epstein’s former girlfriend], it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr Epstein and Ms Maxwell.”
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
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