Malaysia: Anwar resolves judicial crisis

Today's headlines: Syrian government announces return of army to al Suwayda, tensions rise in Druze areas; Already 180 dead in Pakistan's monsoon season; Domestic consumption now accounts for 60% of China's GDP; Two young men who fled North Korea make their debut in a new K-pop band.

MALAYSIA

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has appointed Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh as the new Chief Justice, ending weeks of uncertainty over the country's top judicial post. Abu Bakar Jais was also appointed President of the Court of Appeal in the same announcement. Both new appointments at the top were largely unexpected, as they were not among the candidates considered by the Judicial Appointments Commission, the body responsible for proposing suitable judges for senior positions to the prime minister. The appointment of Wan Farid, a judge at the Court of Appeal, is already causing controversy due to his past political ties, including those with former Prime Minister Najib Razak.

SYRIA

The Syrian army is preparing to deploy again in al-Suwayda to quell ongoing clashes between Druze and Bedouin tribes, according to a Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman. The Syrian military left Suwayda the other day in an attempt by the United States to ease tensions after Israel, claiming to defend the Druze, bombed Damascus. In the last few hours, the Israeli army has carried out an attack on the Palmyra-Homs motorway, targeting a convoy of Bedouin fighters who, according to the public broadcaster Kan News, were heading towards the region. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the death toll in the clashes in al-Suwayda has risen to 600.

PAKISTAN

Torrential rains in Pakistan's Punjab province have caused at least 63 deaths and 290 injuries in recent hours. Most of the victims were crushed by collapsing buildings, while others drowned or were electrocuted, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. With these latest victims, the national death toll rises to nearly 180 since the start of the monsoon season at the end of June. More than half of the victims were children.

CHINA

According to data released by Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, consumption has contributed on average about 60% to the country's annual economic growth over the past four years, and its role as the main driver of the economy has continued to strengthen. Retail sales of consumer goods grew by an average of 5.5% per year over the same period. Sales are expected to exceed 50 trillion yuan in 2025, compared to 48.3 trillion in 2024 and 39.1 trillion in 2020.

SOUTH KOREA-NORTH KOREA

A new K-pop boy band featuring two boys who fled North Korea has made its online debut in Seoul. The debut album by 1verse (pronounced “universe”) includes a song about the consequences of escaping from one of the world's most repressive states. Yu Hyuk, originally from the north-eastern county of Kyongsong in North Korea, fled as a child with his mother and has been living in South Korea since 2013. Kim Seok, the other North Korean member, also 25, lived in a border town near China. He fled with his father and grandmother when he was 20.

RUSSIA-SYRIA

Vladimir Putin's decision to remove 73-year-old Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov from office is not only linked to his retirement age, as he himself said, but to a clear change of course in relations with Syria, which Bogdanov had been handling for decades, given the impossibility of reopening military bases closed since the regime change in Damascus and the government's orientation towards America rather than Russia.

CENTRAL ASIA

According to the specialist portal Logistan.info, Central Asia is now close to “fuel starvation” with a growing gas supply deficit, faced with ever-increasing demand from the economy and the local population for a number of contingent and systemic reasons, from rapid population growth and industrialisation to the increasingly fragile state of infrastructure, which cannot cope with excessive loads.

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