AUSTRALIA
Indonesia deal inked
Canberra and Jakarta have agreed to sign a new security treaty, which includes closer military cooperation, the two countries’ leaders said after talks in Sydney yesterday. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking alongside Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at a Royal Australian Navy Base in Sydney, said that they had “just substantively concluded negotiations on a new bilateral treaty on our common security. This treaty is a recognition from both our nations that the best way to secure... peace and stability is by acting together,” Albanese said. He said he hoped to visit Indonesia next year to sign the new treaty. Prabowo said that the deal committed the two countries to “close cooperation in the defense and security field.”
Photo: EPA
AUSTRALIA
Court blocks Russia
The High Court yesterday blocked Russia from building a new embassy in Canberra, unanimously upholding a law that canceled its lease on national security grounds. Russia owned a lease to a plot of land that is about 300m from Parliament House and intended to build a new embassy building there to replace an older building elsewhere in the capital, but in 2023, the government introduced a law to cancel the lease after receiving “very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to Parliament House,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the time. Russia challenged the law at the court, arguing that parliament was not authorized under the constitution to pass such a law. Yesterday, the court ruled unanimously that the Home Affairs Act validly invoked parliament’s constitutional power to seize land on “just terms,” although it said that Moscow was entitled to compensation.
SOUTH KOREA
Ex-spy chief arrested
A former South Korean spy chief who led the intelligence agency during last year’s martial law declaration was arrested yesterday for alleged dereliction of duty, a court told reporters. The arrest follows a request by special prosecutors for a warrant against Cho Tae-yong, former head of the National Intelligence Service, on charges including that he ignored his duties as spy agency chief and posed a risk of destroying evidence. The Seoul Central District Court reviewed the validity of the warrant on Tuesday and granted it. “The outcome of the review is ... the issuance of the warrant on the risk of evidence destruction,” the court said in a statement. “The primary charge is dereliction of duty.” Prosecutors said that Cho, a career diplomat who led the spy agency at the time of former president Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law declaration in December last year, failed to report the move to parliament despite “understanding its illegality.” He is also accused of making false statements.
THAILAND
Extradition approved
An appeals court on Monday approved the extradition to China of She Zhijiang (佘智江), an alleged transnational crime kingpin accused by Beijing of having run more than 200 illegal online gambling operations. He was arrested in Bangkok in August 2022 on a 2014 arrest warrant from China’s police and is in the Klong Prem Central Prison in Bangkok. She’s legal team had challenged the constitutionality of Thailand extradition law, but that was rejected last month. Monday’s ruling calls for him to be sent to China within 90 days.
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
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