Myanmar: 5.3-magnitude earthquake on the border with Thailand

Today’s headlines: the impeachment case against Sara Duterte enters the trial phase today. The Indonesian rupiah hits a new all-time low. In Hong Kong, a verdict is awaited in the trials of the organisers of the Tiananmen Square vigil. Samsung’s requests against workers’ strikes have been partially upheld. Kazakhstan wants to control rainfall.

MYANMAR

An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale struck the southern coast of Myanmar this morning, with tremors felt in Bangkok and several other parts of Thailand. The earthquake was recorded at a depth of 10 km and the epicentre was located approximately 247 km south-west of the Thai district of Mae Sot, in Tak province.

PHILIPPINES

The impeachment proceedings against Vice-President Sara Duterte enter the trial phase today, but once again a conviction is not expected, as this would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate. The political drama, however, is shaking the leadership of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whilst fears of stagflation are growing due to the crisis in the Middle East.

INDONESIA

The Indonesian rupiah hit a new all-time low today due to rising oil prices. Even before the outbreak of the war against Iran, the Indonesian currency and share prices were under pressure due to investor concerns over the spending plans of the government led by President Prabowo Subianto, who in recent days has argued that villagers will not be affected by the economic shock because they do not conduct transactions in US dollars.

HONG KONG

The trial in Hong Kong of two organisers of the vigils commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre is drawing to a close. Following this morning’s closing arguments, the hearing will continue this afternoon. Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan, accused of seeking to subvert the Chinese Communist Party government, have pleaded not guilty and, if convicted, face up to 10 years in prison.

SOUTH KOREA

Today, the Suwon District Court partially granted Samsung’s request for an injunction to block the employees’ strike. Just three days into the 18-day strike called by the union, which is expected to involve around 50,000 workers, the court ruled that part of the workforce must be maintained at normal levels. The workers are demanding performance bonuses from the company following record profits recorded by the firm for the production of semiconductors for artificial intelligence.

RUSSIA

Humanitarian and dissident Nina Litvinova, granddaughter of Soviet leader Maksim Litvinov, has taken her own life in Moscow at the age of 80, leaving a note about her ‘helplessness’ in the face of the war in Ukraine and the impossibility of helping political prisoners in Russia, and even the official media in Russia have published the news, without disclosing the contents of the note, which was published by the journalist Maria Slonim, the deceased’s cousin, who now lives in Britain, stating that “it was Putin who killed her”.

KAZAKHSTAN

Kazakhstan is to launch a project for rainfall management, as announced by Akorda following a meeting between Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Abdullah Al-Mandous, President of the UN World Meteorological Organisation, where they discussed a project with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates to artificially stimulate rainfall in the Turkestan region, with the aim of raising reservoir levels and supporting agriculture.