Day: September 12, 2023

BEIJING — Rainstorms battering southern China have killed at least seven people and allowed dozens of crocodiles to escape from a farm.

Nearby residents were advised to stay at home after more than 70 crocodiles escaped in Maoming, a city near the coast in western Guangdong province, according to Chinese media reports.

An emergency official was quoted as saying that 69 adult crocodiles and six juveniles had escaped. Some have been captured, but the operation was difficult because of the depth of a lake they are in, the media reports said.

No injuries have been reported.

Read More: Populations are Booming in Flood-Prone Areas—Especially in Developing Countries

Further west, seven people died and three are missing after multiple landslides in the city of Yulin in the Guangxi region, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Monday. Heavy rain on Sunday and Monday triggered the landslides.

The rain caused flash floods in Hong Kong last week, killing two people. Parts of the city were flooded again following a heavy downpour Monday. Puddles of water and debris could still be seen.

Hong Kong leader John Lee said the government would set up an emergency assistance fund to help those affected by the floods.

A Philippine court on Tuesday acquitted Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and her media company Rappler of tax evasion charges filed during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, a move that may help but won’t entirely calm concerns over media freedom in one of Asia’s oldest democracies.

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It was the fifth and final tax evasion charge appealed successfully by Ressa and the online news site stemming from their alleged failure to file accurate tax return in 2015 in connection with Rappler’s issuance of depositary receipts to North Base Media and Omidyar Network. In January, a tax court cleared Ressa and Rappler of four charges that they didn’t pay taxes when the company raised capital through a partnership with the two companies.

In acquitting Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her work to safeguard freedom of expression, and Rappler, the local court judge Ana Teresa Cornejo-Tomacruz said “they did not commit the offense charged.”

Read More: ‘It Is a Battle for Facts.’ What Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Understands About Why She Was Chosen

The online news company said the victory was “for everyone who has kept the faith that a free and responsible press empowers communities and strengthens democracy.”

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last year vowed to protect press freedom shortly after the killing of a veteran broadcaster in October. His father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos shut down and took over major media outlets including ABS-CBN Corp. when he imposed Martial Law in 1972, only allowing several print media owned by his close associates to operate.

It’s “too early” to say whether Ressa’s acquittal, would bode well for media freedom in the Southeast Asian nation, said Vergel Santos, trustee at the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility in Manila. 

“The nature of governmental power today is not anything so much different from the days of the last regime,” Santos said, referring to Duterte’s administration. “So I wouldn’t be very happy about this. I am only happy for Maria,” he said.

Despite surviving the string of tax charges, Ressa is still facing two other legal cases. Rappler is fighting an order from the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission to close for allegedly violating rules against foreign ownership in mass media. The journalist is also appealing against a cyber libel conviction that could lead to nearly seven years in jail.

Rappler has denied the allegations in the past, accusing Duterte’s government of harassment, intimidation and attempting to silence journalists.

Apart from Ressa, another staunch critic of Duterte, former Senator Leila de Lima who has been in detention for six years had her bail petition denied in June.

Miller said that Putin was travelling “hat in hand” to the talks in the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok after missing the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi due to his own “pariah” status.

Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing arguments against a bid by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to curb the court’s powers, in a historic session that has already inflamed a crisis roiling the country.

In a first for the court, all of its 15 justices convened to hear appeals by watchdog groups against a judicial amendment passed by Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition in July.

That legislation removed one, but not all, of the tools the court had for voiding government and ministers’ decisions if it deemed them “unreasonable”.

It could take weeks or even months for the court to rule. But the sense of an unprecedented showdown – pitting judiciary against executive and legislature – gripped Israelis. TV and radio stations aired wall-to-wall coverage of the court session.

The appellants say the amendment removes vital democratic checks and balances, opens the door to corruption and invites abuses of power. They also argue that the swift legislation process was flawed.

The government has said the Supreme Court has no authority to even review amendments to a quasi-constitutional Basic Law.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin, architect of the judicial overhaul, issued a statement deeming the Supreme Court session “a mortal blow to democracy and the standing of the Knesset” by justices he described as both unrepresentative and unelected.

Yair Lapid, centrist head of the parliamentary opposition, said the bill was “warped and thuggish”. “It’s not worth getting into a national quarrel over such legislation,” he said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies, says the judicial changes are meant to balance a Supreme Court that has become too interventionist. He has been hazy when asked whether he would abide by a ruling that would quash the new law.

His coalition started its judicial campaign in January, triggering unprecedented protests, spooking investors and sending the shekel down as Western allies voiced concern for the health of Israel’s democracy.

Eyeing potential flare-ups with the Palestinians, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Israelis have also been rattled by the furore’s impact on their military, where some reservists are not reporting for duty as part of the protest.

Netanyahu has said some of the original proposals have been scrapped. But his efforts to reach compromise agreements with opponents on the overhaul have so far been fruitless, adding to fears that Israel’s worst domestic crisis in years will deepen.

However, with two more appeals scheduled this month, a court ruling could come as late as January, leaving time for the sides to agree on reforms. Such an outcome would grant a reprieve after months of protests and signal stability to the markets.

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