THAILAND
Defamation case dropped
A court yesterday dismissed a royal defamation case against a former opposition leader over comments he made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, former leader of the now-defunct Future Forward Party, was charged over a Facebook live broadcast in 2021 criticizing the government’s procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, linked to a company owned by the king. The Bangkok Criminal Court ruled the comments were aimed at then-prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s vaccine administration and did not amount to royal defamation, lawyers said.
Photo: AFP
CHINA
Dutch vessel accused
The military on Wednesday said that it drove away a Dutch navy vessel it accused of “illegally intruding” into the area around the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan also claims, in the South China Sea. The Dutch Navy frigate De Ruyter “repeatedly launched its shipborne helicopter” to “violate China’s airspace,” the Southern Theater Command said in a statement.
CHINA
Minister supports Cuba
Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) vowed to support Cuba, and confront “power politics and bullying” during talks with his Cuban counterpart in New York, state media reported on Wednesday. “China will continue to uphold justice and speak out on Cuba’s behalf, support the just cause of the Cuban people, and contribute to the development of Cuba’s economy and the improvement of its people’s livelihoods,” Wang told Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla.
KENYA
Fire kills 16 at school
Several girls were feared dead in a school fire, local media reported yesterday. The fire broke out at about 1am at the Utumishi Girls’ Academy in Nakuru County, local media reported. At least 10 girls had died, with Citizen TV saying 16 children had been killed and 74 hospitalized.
UNITED STATES
Ex-CIA official arrested
A former senior CIA official has been arrested after a search found US$40 million of gold bars at his home. FBI officers also seized US$2 million in cash and about 35 luxury watches this month from the home of David Rush in Virginia, court documents showed. The New York Times on Wednesday reported that Rush was a former senior CIA official, quoting people familiar with the investigation. An FBI probe found that Rush had provided false information about his education and military background in his job application, including lying about obtaining university degrees and serving as a pilot in the navy.
UNITED STATES
Jill Biden feared stroke
Former first lady Jill Biden said she feared that her husband was having a stroke as she watched then-president Joe Biden stumble through a disastrous debate performance that led to the end of his 2024 re-election campaign. “I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Jill Biden told CBS News in an interview scheduled to air on Sunday. Joe Biden’s debate against President Donald Trump in June 2024 gave fuel to questions voters already had about his fitness for a second term. “I don’t know what happened,” Jill Biden said in the interview. “As I watched it, I thought: ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
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