INDONESIA
Yesterday, Indonesian police arrested 72 people suspected of starting a number of forest and peatland fires, whilst huge blazes in the central and western regions of the country have caused suffocating smog. The suspects could face charges carrying penalties ranging from hefty fines to prison sentences of up to 15 years. Those suspected of arson were under investigation in connection with 89 cases of forest and land fires across five provinces on the island of Borneo and four on Sumatra.
THAILAND
In the south of Thailand, a hotbed of insurgency, more than 50 coordinated attacks involving arson and incendiary devices were carried out in over 70 locations spread across four of the southernmost provinces, “aimed at causing unrest”, according to the army. At least three people were injured; targets set alight included a local government office building, a convenience shop and a stolen vehicle. No group has claimed responsibility for the arson attacks. Since 2004, the year in which the latest wave of a long-running insurgency – led primarily by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) – flared up, more than 7,800 people have been killed in the provinces bordering Malaysia.
INDIA
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested two people as part of a nationwide operation against cyber fraud. The ED established that the stolen funds were paid into accounts held by frontmen, withdrawn via cash machines or cash deposit terminals, and subsequently converted into foreign currency through authorised exchange bureaux. The two suspects, identified as Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed, were arrested in Mumbai. The investigation stemmed from a complaint lodged by a woman.
ISRAEL – PALESTINE
Netanyahu and Defence Minister Katz have both stated that they ordered the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to take decisive action following the launching of kites from the Gaza Strip over the weekend, towards the Nahal Oz kibbutz. Subsequent Israeli attacks on Gaza yesterday reportedly caused the deaths of three people, including a child. Netanyahu said he had ordered that “everything possible” be done to counter what he described as the “lethal” threat posed by drones to Israel.
CHINA
The 53-year-old Chinese comedian Guo Degang is reportedly under investigation after improvising part of a 1956 song dedicated to Chinese fighters against the Japanese during the Second World War during a show in Wuhan in July. Local authorities have confirmed to AFP that the investigation is still ongoing.
Guo is famous for reviving ‘xiangsheng’, a traditional comic dialogue form, and has also appeared on major television programmes and at official ceremonies.
CAUCASUS
In the North Caucasus regions, various initiatives are emerging that aim to protect traditional values and dictate how women should dress, what they can post on social media and who they can socialise with. Women are being harassed online, their events and seminars are being disrupted, and male ‘patrols’ are conducting their own ‘investigations’, such as the ‘Caucasian Community’ movement, which originated on Telegram and has declared its intention to defend ‘the traditional values of North Ossetia’.
RUSSIA
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev) prayed before the unsealed sarcophagus of Prince Dmitry Donskoy in the Cathedral of the Archangel in the Moscow Kremlin, the burial place of the monarchs of the pre-Petrine era. Kirill linked the event to the “protection of the Russian land from every enemy and adversary” and blessed the reliquaries containing small fragments of the relics of the prince who defeated the Tatars in 1380; these will be taken to the front line at Svo in Ukraine to inspire the actions of the Russian military.
