Category World News

With the ruling on Friday, Thai judges have removed Paetongtarn as their fifth prime minister since 2008.

The 39-year-old politician’s complaint to the nine-judge court stemmed from her conversation with Hun Sen in June regarding efforts to stop a deadly border conflict from escalating. She also failed to uphold the ethical standards or demonstrate the integrity required of a prime minister.

The court alleged that Paetongtarn had prioritized the country over her own, and that her actions had harmed Thailand’s reputation.

In the conversation that was leaked, Paetongtarn was allegedly pandering to Hun Sen and calling him an “uncle” while also criticizing a senior Thai army officer and labeling him an “oppositor.”

In a matter of days, the trial’s outcome had halted Paetongtarn’s suspension until July 1.

The second high-stakes court case against Paetongtarn and her father, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, came on Friday.

The 76-year-old billionaire served a reduced sentence for corruption charges after being cleared of a charge of insulting the country’s powerful monarchy last week. He now faces another court case related to his stay in a hospital wing in 2023.

Following the tragic death of a motorcycle taxi driver hit by a police car during a demonstration over a range of cost-of-living issues, protests have resumed in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta.

As riot police dispersed crowds of people calling for higher wages, lower taxes, and the elimination of political allowances, Affan Kurniawan was killed on Thursday when an armoured police vehicle struck him outside Indonesia’s House of Representatives.

Students urged protesters to rally after the death of Kurniawan on Friday outside the capital city’s police headquarters, and motorcycle taxi drivers gathered outside Jakarta Mobile Brigade Corps headquarters.

President Prabowo Subianto demanded calm, expressed condolences for Kurniawan’s passing, and set up a thorough investigation of the incident.

In a video message, Prabowo stated, “I am shocked and depressed by the officers’ excessive behavior, and I must hold the officers responsible.”

Police use tear gas

Local media reported that riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse demonstrators as the protest continued into the night.

Asep Edi Suheri, the police chief in the capital, claimed Kurniawan, who worked for Gojek and Grab, was hit and killed by an armored police vehicle during the clashes.

Kurniawan was not involved in the protests, according to the driver’s family and a motorcycle drivers’ association.

In a late on Thursday news conference, he said, “As police chief and on behalf of the entire unit, I would like to express my deepest apologies and condolences.”

This week, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Jakarta and other cities to protest a new monthly housing allowance for politicians that is 20 times the national minimum wage.

The demonstrators are also protesting the textile industry’s low wages, cuts to government funding, and other issues.

The protests are a “culmination of months of not only economic but also political frustration all over the country,” according to co-founder Abigail Limura of What Is Up, Indonesia?

“We are in the midst of a deteriorating economy, a collapsed job market, and thousands of layoffs. And instead of being compassionate, these people are constantly met with insults, tone-deaf, and indifference, she said.

Protesters were also upset about the ongoing issue of police brutality and the police’s overt response to demonstrations this week, according to Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia.

The motorbike taxi driver’s case is just one of many instances of excessive police force. He told Al Jazeera that there are too many cases in Indonesia, including West Papua. “We are constantly getting credible reports about arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, and extrajudicial killing,” the statement continues.

Naomi Osaka claimed that in the midst of the heated argument between Taylor Townsend and Jelena Ostapenko at the US Open, using the words “no education” and “no class” to criticize a Black tennis player was one of the worst things to say.

In a difficult second-round battle on Wednesday, Townsend, a Black man, defeated 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko 7-5, 6-1.

However, the moment was immediately after the match when the pair verbally threw their fist at the American.

Townsend made a part of the conversation public during an on-court interview, and she later claimed Ostapenko would have to respond if the incident had “racial undertones.”

Ostapenko later claimed on Instagram that Townsend’s refusal to apologize after winning a point, when she claimed the American was “disrespectful” and that the incident occurred at a crucial moment, when the ball clipped the net and stayed in play, was the source of her outrage.

Most players practice apologizing for winning a point without being required to do so.

Osaka claimed Ostapenko’s words during the altercation were offensive despite the Latvian’s repeated claim that she had never been racist in her life.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka remarked, “One of the worst things you can say to a Black tennis player in a sport with a majority of white players.”

She’s the furthest thing from uneducated or anything like that because I know Taylor and I know how hard she’s worked and how smart she is.

Osaka, who was born into a Japanese mother and Haitian father, has long been a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement both in Japan and the United States. During her campaign campaign for the 2020 Flushing Meadows title, she was a strong supporter.

Before each of her seven matches, the 27-year-old had used her platform to make a different face mask with the name of an African American who had been killed in recent years to draw attention to racial injustice in the United States.

“I don’t think that’s the craziest thing she’s said if you’re like asking me about Ostapenko’s history on the spot.” With a smile, Osaka continued, “I’m going to be honest.”

“I believe it was a bad choice and the worst person you could have ever spoken to,” he said. And I’m not sure if she is familiar with its American history.

She’s never going to say that in her life again, I assure her. But it was absolutely awful, right? That is simply unacceptable.

American Coco Gauff argued that Ostapenko should not have said what she said, but that the discussion was a “heat of the moment”occurrence.

Gauff, a vocal supporter of social issues, including racial justice, said, “I know what was said after the match.”

It was “a heat of the moment situation.” After losing, Elena was probably feeling emotions. Regardless of how you’re feeling, I do believe that shouldn’t have been said. “Because I know Taylor personally, she’s the opposite,” she says.

Gauff praised Townsend as one of the kindest people she knew, and hoped people would now make an effort to learn more about her.

Because of how much more than that, I don’t want Taylor to be the main focus of who she is. Maybe this is when people are hearing who she is.

According to the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office, 33 Colombian soldiers have been freed after three days of confinement in a remote Amazonian village dominated by armed rebel groups and drug crops.

As troops were led out of the rural community in Guaviare province on Thursday, Iris Marin, the head of the Ombudsman’s Office, said, “At this moment, soldiers are withdrawing from the village Nueva York.”

At least ten people were killed in clashes with an armed group on Monday, which led to the soldiers’ arrest.

In what the government of President Gustavo Petro called a kidnapping, villagers then blocked roads, preventing the soldiers from leaving. Marin continued, “We urge people to refrain from stigmatizing the community.”

Negotiations led by government, Ombudsman’s Office, and UN officials resulted in the soldiers’ release. Initial reports indicated 34 troops were detained, but later that number was increased to 33.

In Colombia’s southern regions, where the state has a limited presence and armed groups frequently have control over communities, mass detentions of security forces have become a common practice.

The attorney general’s office has received a formal complaint about the incident from the army. Recontractors were deployed “to prevent any attacks in this hostile environment,” according to military commander Admiral Francisco Cubides, who claimed locals were “being manipulated” by rebel factions.

Ivaan Mordisco, a former leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who spearheaded the dissident group, rejected a 2016 peace agreement that sought to end the nation’s six-decade armed conflict, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 450, 000 people.

In the southwest of Cali, Mordisco-linked fighters detonated a truck bomb last week, injuring more than 60 people and killing six people.

Authorities accuse his organization of recruiting children and using intimidation to thwart state security forces.

The soldiers’ detention area in the Amazonian corridor is a major hub for drug trafficking, with extensive coca plantations being the main ingredient in cocaine production.