Hong Kong: two booksellers arrested for selling anti-government books

Today’s headlines: The Philippines have blocked an online video game used by one of the perpetrators of the Tacloban massacre; Cambodia has upheld a 14-year sentence for two journalists who photographed a temple in an area disputed with Thailand; FIFA has suspended Nepal from international football competitions; South Korea has asked Ukraine for permission to grant asylum to defectors from Pyongyang.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong police have arrested former pro-democracy district councillor Leticia Wong and a 32-year-old man whose identity is currently unknown, charging them with sedition and money laundering. According to the authorities, their bookshop, Hunter Bookstore, sold books deemed “seditious” – capable of fuelling hostility towards the government, the judiciary and law enforcement – and is alleged to have received funds from foreign political organisations. Back in March, independent bookseller Pong Yat-ming and three employees of his bookshop, Book Punch, were arrested on charges of selling books considered seditious. Among the titles in question was a biography of Jimmy Lai, the publisher of the now-closed Apple Daily newspaper, who has been in prison for almost six years.

PHILIPPINES

The Philippines have temporarily blocked the video game app Gorebox after a preliminary investigation revealed that one of the teenage suspects involved in the school shooting on 22 June played it regularly. The attack, which took place in Tacloban on the island of Leyte, resulted in the deaths of three pupils and left a further twenty injured. The two alleged perpetrators are aged 15 and 14. Gorebox is a video game characterised by extreme violence. The Philippine cyber authorities have stated their intention to investigate any potential online influences linked to the tragedy.

CAMBODIA-THAILAND

The Supreme Court of Cambodia has upheld the 14-year prison sentence handed down to journalists Pheap Phara and Phorn Sopheap, who were found guilty of treason. The two had been arrested after publishing a photograph taken in the military zone of Ta Krabei Temple, on the disputed border with Thailand. Some Thai media outlets had republished the image, claiming that landmines not yet laid were visible in the background. The Cambodian authorities accuse them of providing a foreign state with information detrimental to national defence.

INDIA

A fire that broke out on 5 June at a data centre operated by Tata Communications and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres in New Delhi caused severe damage to critical infrastructure, making data recovery difficult. According to a report published by Reuters, some customers have lost more than 20 years’ worth of operational data. The causes are still under investigation, but lithium batteries are suspected to be involved. The incident also caused disruptions to some Google Cloud services in India.

NEPAL

Just as the world’s attention is focused on the World Cup currently taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the Nepal Football Federation (ANFA) has been suspended with immediate effect by FIFA (the international football federation) for alleged serious breaches of its statutes caused by interference from the National Sports Council in Kathmandu in the federation’s electoral process.

As a result, Nepal’s national teams and clubs will be barred from participating in international competitions, and ANFA will lose access to FIFA and AFC (the Asian Football Confederation) programmes. The suspension will only be lifted if the government revokes the contested measures and allows the elections to be completed in accordance with the federation’s statutes.

SOUTH KOREA–UKRAINE

South Korea is seeking the transfer of North Korean soldiers who fought alongside Russia in Ukraine and were captured by Ukraine, according to the Korea Herald, which quotes a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul, as some of them have stated in various interviews that they wish to seek asylum in South Korea. Seoul and Kyiv have already reached a ‘basic agreement’ on the matter, to be finalised during Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrej Sibiga’s visit to South Korea.

TURKMENISTAN-AZERBAIJAN

Turkmenistan’s President, Serdar Berdymuhamedov, paid a state visit to Azerbaijan, where, together with President Ilham Aliyev, he took part online in the handover ceremony for the oil tanker Dostlug, built at the Baku shipyard, which is 141 metres long, a width of 16.9 metres and a draught of 4.54 metres, as a token of gratitude for Turkmenistan’s construction of a mosque in the city of Fuzuli in Azerbaijan, which began in September 2025 and is nearing completion.

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