International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
Quito, Ecuador – The running mate of slain Ecuadoran candidate Fernando Villavicencio will run for president in his place in August 20 elections, their party said Saturday. “The movement will replace the presidential ticket by putting Andrea Gonzalez as president,” the centrist Construye party said in a statement. Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist and prominent anti-corruption
Lahaina, United States – Hawaii’s chief legal officer said Friday she was opening a probe into the handling of devastating wildfires that killed at least 80 people in the state this week, as criticism grows of the official response. The announcement and increased death toll came as residents of Lahaina were allowed back into the
The death toll from a terrifying wildfire that razed a historic Hawaiian town hit 53 Thursday, making it one of the deadliest disasters to strike the islands since they became a US state. Brushfires on the west coast of Hawaii’s Maui island — fueled by high winds from a nearby hurricane — broke out Tuesday
Kuwait has barred hit film “Barbie” from cinemas over concerns about “public ethics”, officials have said, also confirming a separate ban on a horror movie featuring a transgender actor. “Barbie” and “Talk to Me” both “promulgate ideas and beliefs that are alien to the Kuwaiti society and public order”, Lafy Al-Subei’e, head of Kuwait’s cinema
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Singapore Thursday at the start of a three-nation regional tour, Beijing’s embassy in the city-state said, as tensions flare with the Philippines in the South China Sea. His three-day trip, after returning to the post last month following the unexplained disappearance of predecessor Qin Gang, also includes Malaysia and
Thirty-three people have been confirmed dead and 18 are still missing after Beijing’s heaviest rains on record, officials said Wednesday. China’s capital has been hit by record downpours in recent weeks, damaging infrastructure and deluging swaths of the city’s suburbs and surrounding areas. Floods in China’s southwestern Sichuan province also killed seven people on Wednesday,
China again asked the Philippines to tow away a grounded warship – a World War Two-era vessel now used as a military outpost – from a disputed shoal on Tuesday, after Manila rejected Beijing’s earlier demand. Tensions have soared between the two neighbours over the South China Sea under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, with Manila pivoting back to
South Korea was evacuating tens of thousands of scouts on Tuesday from a problem-plagued jamboree campsite ahead of a typhoon, days after a heatwave caused mass illnesses. Korean media have called it a “national disgrace” and parents have complained of poor conditions at the site, with American and British scouts leaving early. AFP takes a
Lawyers for Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan were Tuesday set to file a bail application for him, as he languished in a small cell of a century-old prison at the start of a three-year jail term for graft. The former international cricket star was arrested Saturday and whisked to prison after being found guilty
At least 28 people were killed Sunday when an express train derailed in southern Pakistan, the railway minister said, with an emergency declared at local hospitals struggling to deal with with dozens of injured. Accidents and derailments occur frequently on the country’s antiquated railway system, which has nearly 7,500 kilometres (4,600 miles) of track and carries
Japan plans to start releasing treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean as early as late August, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily reported on Monday, citing unnamed government sources. The release will likely come shortly after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets with U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President
Southeast Asia has become one of the most important strategic regions in global geopolitical gamesmanship. For the US to win the hearts and minds of countries in the region, Washington must listen more, be humble and realise that it is one of several actors. In addition, the US must be consistent when it comes to
