International

Floodwaters have forced thousands from their homes in southeast Myanmar, local police said yesterday, as authorities and volunteers scrambled to provide food and aid to the victims. Heavy monsoon rains have pounded Karen state, Mon state and Bago region in recent days and show no sign of abating, raising fears that the worst might be yet to come. Photos and videos showed residents of Karen’s state capital Hpa-an boating down streets that had turned into rivers while others were forced to escape on foot through waist-deep water. Vast swathes of the surrounding land lay submerged while 11 temporary camps have been set up around the city. “There are more than 6,000 people displaced in Hpa-an and about 4,000 in Myawaddy,” the head of Karen state police force Kyi Linn said, referring to a second town on the border with Thailand. A social welfare ministry official previously said 16,000 people had been displaced across eight townships in Karen state. The number affected in Mon state and Bago region has not yet been confirmed. “The children’s school has closed,” said Khin San Win, who fled her home which was thigh-deep in water for a shelter in Hpa-an along with her sick husband and their three children. “We’re being given food but we aren’t able to pay for anything else as we can’t work.” State-run media published pictures yesterday of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi visiting Karen state the day before, talking to victims, relief workers and volunteers. The Global New Light of Myanmar said her government had freed up 200mn kyat ($140,000) to help those displaced and that rebuilding destroyed bridges would be a priority. “We are now delivering food to flood victims who don’t want to leave their homes,” said volunteer Ni Ni Aung in Kyonedoe town, adding they would have no choice but to leave if the rains worsened. So far no casualties have been reported. Like its neighbours, Myanmar faces severe flooding every year and climate scientists in 2015 even ranked it top of a global list of nations hardest hit by extreme weather. That year more than 100 people died in floods that also displaced hundreds of thousands across the country. Some 138,000 people were killed in 2008 when Cyclone Nargis lashed vast stretches of Myanmar’s coast.

Cambodians began a last day of electoral campaigning yesterday ahead of a general election at the weekend that will likely hand victory to Prime Minister Hun Sen and extend his 33-year rule. Tomorrow’s general election will be Cambodia’s sixth since it emerged from decades of war in 1993, but many fear the vote will be a sham following a crackdown on critics by Hun Sen. Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in November over allegations it was involved in a plot to topple the government, banning many lawmakers from  politics for five years. The party denies the accusation. Most CNRP leaders have since fled abroad. Hun Sen and his allies have also launched a crackdown against civil society and  independent media. His Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) says it is confident it  will win. “Why will we win? Because there is already more than 50% support from the population for the CPP,” government spokesman and CPP senior member Phay Siphan said. Some voters told Reuters they were being coerced into voting for Hun Sen’s CPP, a claim the party denies. In Phnom Penh, campaigning has been dominated by the CPP and its large rallies. The party’s blue flags, often held by supporters who zip through the capital’s streets on motorbikes, and the CPP has left little room for the 19 smaller parties that are also competing. Experts say those parties are no challenge for the CPP. “I think there won’t be any change, it will be Samdech again,” said 19-year old Sum Davin, a student, referring to Hun Sen’s official title. “People have only heard of one party and nobody knows the other parties,” he said, adding that he will vote in tomorrow despite calls by exiled members of the opposition to boycott the election. Five former CNRP members were each fined $2,500 this week by Cambodia’s electoral body over the boycott appeal. Sebastian Strangio, author of the book Hun Sen’s Cambodia, said condemnation from some Western governments would have little impact on Hun Sen, who has support from countries in the region including China. The United States has imposed visa restrictions on some Cambodian government members over the crackdown and imposed sanctions in June on a high-ranking official close to Hun Sen. The European Union has threatened Cambodia with economic sanctions. “With Western countries promising further sanctions, and Hun Sen unlikely to back down from his current course, Cambodia is set for a new era of turbulent relations with the West,” Strangio said.

Troops yesterday searched for survivors in the remote southern tip of Laos, three days after the collapse of a hydropower dam sent a torrent of water charging across paddy fields and through villages, as rescuers rushed aid to thousands of homeless. The scale of the disaster was still unclear, in part because of the inaccessibility of the area but also because reports from the communist country’s state media have been scant and sketchy. The official Laos News Agency said that 27 people were confirmed dead and 131 were missing following the failure of the dam on Monday, a subsidiary structure under construction as part of a hydroelectric project in the province of Attapeu. Earlier reports had suggested the death toll would be much higher, and on Wednesday the Vientiane Times had said more than 3,000 people were waiting to be rescued from swirling floodwaters, many of them on trees and the rooftops of submerged houses. In the village of Khokong, a sea of mud oozed around the stilt houses that were still standing and dead animals floated in the water. “Seven villages were hit, two very badly. There were 200 houses and only about 10 are left standing,” said a medical official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media. “We retrieved one body today. I suspect there will be more as the water goes down and the road becomes easier to access.” He said villagers were warned about three to four hours before the dam burst, but few had expected the water to rise as high as it did. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said roads and bridges were damaged, and boat and helicopter were the only means of transport in the worst-affected areas. Schools in safe areas were being used as evacuation centres, and about 1,300 families needed tents for shelter, it said. On a road to the small town of Sanamxai, Reuters saw trucks carrying aid, including fresh water and blankets, for those made homeless. The government put their number at 3,060. Phra Ajan Thanakorn, a Buddhist monk returning from Sanamxai, said he had delivered food and medicine in four pick-up trucks that had come from Vientiane, the capital some 800km (500 miles) to the north, and he was heading back there to load up with more. “The situation is really bad,” he told Reuters. “All the relief efforts are at Sanamxai. There are volunteers distributing food and medicine for survivors every day there. They are still lacking food, medicine, and coffins.” Rescue and relief teams from around Asia have headed into Attapeu, a largely agricultural province that borders Vietnam to the east and Cambodia to the south. Laos, one of Asia’s poorest countries, has ambitions to become the “battery of Asia” through the construction of multiple dams. Its government depends almost entirely on outside developers to build the dams under commercial concessions that involve the export of electricity to more developed neighbours, including power-hungry Thailand. Laos has finished building 11 dams, says Thai non-government group TERRA, with 11 more under construction and dozens planned. Rights groups have repeatedly warned against the human and environmental cost of the dam drive, including damage to the already fragile ecosystem of the region’s rivers. The dam that collapsed was part of the $1.2bn Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy power project, which involves Laotian, Thai and South Korean firms. Known as “Saddle Dam D”, it was part of a network of two main dams and five subsidiary dams. The project’s main partner, South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction, said part of a small supply dam was washed away and the company was co-operating with the Laos government to help rescue villagers. The firm blamed the collapse on heavy rain. Laos and its neighbours are in the middle of the monsoon season that brings tropical storms and heavy downpours. In Cambodia’s northern Strung Treng province, nearly 1,300 families that were also affected by the flooding from the dam in Laos were moved to higher ground. “These people will be affected for about seven to 10 days and once all the water flows into the Mekong, we will be fine,” said Keo Vy, a spokesman for the National Centre for Disaster Management. An official at SK Engineering & Construction said fractures were discovered on the dam on Sunday and the company ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as the danger became clear. Laotian Minister of Energy and Mines Khammany Inthirath told a news conference in the capital that the company could not deny responsibility for the destruction of livelihoods and property. The Vientiane Times cited him as saying that all compensation would be “borne by the project developer 100%”.

Cambodian police were ordered yesterday to crack down on anyone causing “political chaos” during this weekend’s general election that is set to extend Premier Hun Sen’s 33-year rule. Cambodians will vote on Sunday without a credible opposition party for the first time, after a court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) late last year. The dissolution was accompanied by a crackdown on party members, many of whom fled the country or are in jail. The CNRP has called for a boycott of the poll. An estimated 80,000 security personnel, including police, military police and soldiers, will be deployed to keep the peace on election day. But Phnom Penh police chief Chuon Sovann told an inspection parade of thousands of police to be prepared to act swiftly in case of any “obstruction” of the polls.  Police must be ready “to prevent terrorism acts and political chaos”, he said, adding they must also act to “prevent the activities of the opposition and their allies inside and outside of the country who are trying to find a way to destroy election” or calling on people to protest. Authorities have already accused some opposition members of calling for a “clean-finger” boycott campaign, referring to a refusal to dip fingers in ink used as a marker after voting.

The Laotian prime minister said yesterday 131 people are still missing two days after a dam collapse swamped several villages in the country’s south, killing at least 26 people. In a rare televised press conference by the leader of the secretive communist country, Thongloun Sisoulith gave the most specific figure so far for the number unaccounted for. Earlier official reports spoke of hundreds missing in Attapeu province. “One hundred and thirty one people have been reported missing,” he said, adding all of them were Lao nationals. Survivors have questioned why they got little warning of the deluge, which inundated several villages across a vast area with several metres of flood water. Two South Korean contractors said they had reported damage a day before parts of the Xe-Namnoy dam gave way on Monday and unleashed a wall of water. Thai consular official Chana Miencharoen, at the scene of the relief effort, said that by late afternoon yesterday 26 bodies had been recovered. “Seventeen others are injured and in hospital,” he said, adding roof-level floodwater was hampering rescue efforts in a remote area of the poor and landlocked Southeast Asian country. Information trickled slowly out of Laos as the publicity-shy country tried to get to grips with the disaster.  The Vientiane Times reported that 3,000 were in need of rescue as yesterday afternoon, taking shelter in trees and on rooftops.  Footage on Laos television showed people huddled on roofs awaiting rescue as muddy water swirled menacingly just below them, with the army and local volunteers leading the rescue effort. Questions began to emerge over the collapse, with some of the displaced saying they were warned to leave their homes only hours before disaster struck. “It happened quickly, we had little time to prepare ourselves,” Joo Hinla, 68, from one of the worst-hit villages of Ban Hin Lath, said from a warehouse crammed with over 700 displaced people in a neighbouring province.  “All of the houses in my village are under water. Four of my family are missing, we don’t know about their fate yet.” Hundreds of other displaced people, including women, children and the elderly, sat on the floor nearby surrounded by plastic bags crammed with meagre belongings. Laos, poor but blessed with abundant natural resources, aims to become the “Battery of Asia” allowing dozens of foreign-funded dam projects across its network of rivers. But fears over the environmental impact of the projects, which export most of their electricity to neighbouring Thailand and China, go virtually unvoiced inside the tightly controlled country. Villagers across the country have been moved, some several times, to make way for dams whose benefits are mainly enjoyed outside of the country, campaigners say. Once complete, around 90% of the electricity generated by the Xe-Namnoy dam was destined for Thailand. The remote flooded area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged or completely washed away. South Korea was sending a relief team to the area, President Moon Jae-in’s spokesman said in Seoul. “Our government must actively take part in on-site relief efforts without delay as our companies were involved in the construction of the dam,” Moon was quoted as saying. Two South Korean companies involved in the $1.2bn project said damage was reported a day before the dam collapsed following heavy monsoon rain. SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered that the upper part of the structure had washed away at around 9pm on Sunday. “We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating villagers downstream,” it said in a statement.

Vietnam’s communications minister was suspended yesterday for overseeing a proposed deal to buy a loss-making private TV company which could have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. The rare and severe punishment is part of the communist government’s widening corruption crackdown targeting high-rolling executives and officials in a country unused to seeing the powerful publicly toppled.  Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan was suspended in a decision signed by the president for “violations”, the government said on its website without elaborating. The statement follows an earlier decision from the Communist Party to punish Tuan, 57, for showing a “lack of responsibility and poor leadership” over the deal.  Tuan is accused of overseeing the purchase by the state-run Mobifone telecommunications giant of the private AVG television company. Mobifone bought 95% of Audio Visual Global (AVG) in 2015 for around $385mn, even though the company had recorded losses of about $70mn.  The government said the purchase could have caused $303mn in losses for the state had not before officials stepped in to halt the final deal and order AVG to refund the purchase price. Tuan spent decades climbing the ranks of the communist party, serving 30 years in the propaganda department before being appointed deputy communications minister in 2014 and then minister in 2016.  Yesterday’s announcement did not say whether Tuan would face criminal charges or whether he would retain his other role as deputy head of the party’s propaganda department.  Mobifone’s former head Le Nam Tra and a senior communications ministry official were arrested earlier this month in connection with the case, but have not yet been charged.  Tuan is among the most senior officials to be punished under the government’s anti-graft sweep, which has captivated a country where politicians are seen as untouchable. The campaign - led by a hardline leadership in power since 2016 - has sent a chill through political circles and the business community in one of Asia’s most corrupt countries. Sitting politburo member Dinh La Thang was handed two corruption convictions this year in a case that shocked the nation and is now serving 30 years in jail.  Also convicted was Trinh Xuan Thanh, who was kidnapped from a Berlin park by Vietnam security agents and bundled into a van before returning to Vietnam to face graft charges.  Thanh is currently serving two life sentences. Hanoi insists he returned voluntarily but the case has badly bruised ties with Germany.

Thai villagers look at birds in cages taking part in a bird-singing contest in the southern province of Pattani yesterday.

Ten people were jailed in Vietnam yesterday for joining explosive protests that swept across the communist country last month after a draft investment law triggered widespread anger. The rare rallies in the one-party state - where even peaceful demonstrations are outlawed - drew thousands to the streets, including in southern Binh Thuan province where protests quickly spun out of control. In some areas of the province, demonstrators attacked riot police, torched patrol cars and stormed property in rallies over the proposed law that would grant investors lengthy leases in special economic zones. Ten people were convicted yesterday in Binh Thuan for their hand in the violence and sentenced to between two and three-and-a-half years in prison at the one day-trial where the suspects were accompanied by police in protective vests. They were found guilty of “massive attacks against police deployments... injuring some officers, damaging two government vehicles and causing widespread traffic blockages for 15 hours on a national highway,” the Voice of Vietnam said on its website. Several others have already been convicted for joining the nationwide rallies, including American student William Nguyen who was found guilty for “causing public disorder” last week and swiftly deported from the country after more than a month in jail. His case drew ire from several US lawmakers demanding his release and was raised by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a visit to Hanoi this month. The June 10 protests caught Vietnamese authorities off-guard, though resentment over the draft bill had been brewing online. Protesters feared the land would be handed over to China - a touchy topic in Vietnam, which has a tumultuous relationship with its powerful communist neighbour. China was not named in the draft law, which has been tabled for now, and the government said it would reduce the original plan to hand out 99-year leases in the proposed special economic zones, but it was not enough to quell anger. Six people are already behind bars for participating in the protests, while another was given a suspended sentence. Deadly anti-China protests gripped Vietnam in 2014 when Beijing moved an oil rig into a section of the disputed South China Sea claimed by Hanoi. The countries frequently spar over competing claims in the resource-rich waterway, the latest in a long history of disputes - including a brief but bloody border war in 1979.

Tropical storm Son Tinh has killed 20 people, left 16 missing and injured 14 in Vietnam, the country’s rescue committee said yesterday. Floods triggered by heavy rains hit northern Vietnam after tropical storm Son Tinh made landfall in northern coastal areas on Thursday, while the capital Hanoi was flooded and lashed by torrential rains. More than 5,000 houses were damaged, swept away, submerged or collapsed, around 82,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of crops were damaged and nearly 17,000 animals were killed nationwide, the Vietnam National Committee for Search and Rescue said in a report. Heavy rains are expected to continue over the next few days, Vietnam’s steering committee for disaster prevention said in a separate statement yesterday.  The Southeast Asian country is prone to monsoon storms and floods, which frequently claim hundreds of lives every year. Typhoon Son Tinh - the third tropical storm to hit Vietnam since the start of the year - damaged infrastructure and crops through Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces. State media ran images of floods in remote areas where villagers are using boats to move around. Several communities are still isolated, reports said. In Hanoi, flood water inundated several streets. “We had to move all our furniture upstairs because the ground floor was flooded,” Hanoi resident Tran Anh Huong said. “We were all trapped in the house.” Vietnam’s rainy season is between June and November, bringing about serious human and material damage. Last year, 389 lives were claimed by natural disasters, with material damages reportedly reaching $2.6bn, the government said.

Three of the groups approved to monitor Cambodia’s election have close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen, one headed by his son and the other two led by a man who was appointed by the Southeast Asian country’s strongman ruler as a “goodwill ambassador”. Cambodia heads to the polls on July 29 for an election criticised by the United Nations and Western countries as fundamentally flawed after the dissolution of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and imprisonment of its leader, Kem Sokha, last year. The United States and the European Union responded to the crackdown by withdrawing financial support and monitors from the election, a step followed by independent local and international NGOs that had overseen previous elections. The National Election Committee (NEC) says it has approved 69 individual foreign observers, but doesn’t provide the number of institutions. It has registered 107 domestic groups, which will be dominated by the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia (UYFC), an organisation led by Hun Many, the prime minister’s son and a lawmaker for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). A total of 36,000 members of the UYFC had been registered, said Huy Vannak, a member of the youth organisation’s central committee and undersecretary of state for the interior ministry. The group will contribute almost half of the 77,534 monitors. Dim Sovannarom, a spokesman for the NEC, confirmed that “tens of thousands” of the UYFC’s members had been ratified as election observers. UYFC provided election monitors in past polls but not on this scale. Vannak said UYFC was committed to democracy and was non-partisan. “We continue to leverage our ideals and provide our people throughout the country with better services. That is why people continue to support the Cambodian  People’s Party,” he said. Hun Many did not respond to a request for interview. Lee Morgenbesser, a lecturer at Australia’s Griffith University and author of a book on elections under authoritarianism in Southeast Asia, said the UYFC is not independent and firmly backs the government. He said the upcoming Cambodian election was imperfect, but the number of voters could indicate the level of support for the government. “Having dissolved the opposition, Hun Sen is now dependent on the turnout rate to establish some level of electoral credibility,” Morgenbesser said. The opposition CNRP, which came a close second to the ruling party in elections held in 2013 and 2017, is calling for a boycott of the poll and says the ruling party is pressuring  people to vote. Government members and officials have warned that calls to spurn voting are illegal despite the country’s voluntary voting system, although no one has been arrested. “The election is a complete sham lacking any credibility. It’s a one-horse race,” said Kem Monovithya, daughter of the detained CNRP leader. With 20 parties competing in the election, the government says its democracy is healthy. However, critics say the parties are too small to mount a serious challenge to the ruling party’s well-funded election machine. Hun Sen has been the country’s prime minister for 33 years. Government spokesman Phay Siphan said allegations the election and its monitors were biased were groundless. Among the foreign monitors registered by the election committee are members of the European Council on International Relations and the Bucharest-based European Council of Tourism and Trade, Dim said. The groups are headed by Anton Caragea, who – from his websites – appears to be based in Romania. He also runs what he says is an impartial outfit called World Election  Monitoring Organisation. In 2016, Caragea was appointed a “goodwill ambassador for tourism” by Cambodia. He reciprocated in 2017 by anointing Hun Sen as a “goodwill ambassador for tourism and sustainable development goals” in a ceremony attended by the Cambodian leader. Caragea hails Hun Sen on his group’s websites as a “paragon of development” who had guided Cambodia with “savvy leadership”. In a preliminary assessment released on Tuesday, his monitoring team said Cambodia had a “perfect electoral process” and complimented Hun Sen for strengthening democracy. Caragea did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

A Vietnamese court has ordered the deportation of an American man of Vietnamese descent detained during nationwide protests last month, state media reported yesterday. William Anh Nguyen, 32, was accused of “causing public disorder” during the mass protests, sparked by concerns the development of economic zones by offering land leases for up to 99 years would be dominated by  investors from China. Nguyen will be released and “deported immediately” after his one-day trial ends on Friday, the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper said. “The jury acknowledged that the defendant admitted his illegal activities. Considering his sincerity, the court did not hand him a prison sentence,” the state-run newspaper reported. “We are pleased that the case of US citizen William Nguyen has been resolved,” James Thrower, a spokesman at the US Embassy in Hanoi, said in an emailed statement. “We understand from the court’s decision that he will be deported after paying a fine.” Vietnam’s constitution allows freedom of assembly, but protests are often broken up by police. A public disorder charge carries a prison term of up to seven years, according to Vietnam’s criminal code. “We are pleased that William Nguyen will be reunited and returning home with his family,” said Francisco Bencosme, Asia Pacific Advocacy manager at Amnesty International USA. “However, we don’t believe he should have been detained and charged in the first place for freely expressing himself and exercising his (human) right to protest,” Bencosme said. Nguyen’s trial came two weeks after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised Nguyen’s detention during meetings with Vietnamese officials in Hanoi and asked for a “speedy resolution” to his case. State media reports said Nguyen was “gathering and causing trouble” during the protests and was filmed urging others to climb over barricades. Video footage of Nguyen shared on social media showed he had blood on his head during the June protest. The Vietnamese government had denied any use of force against Nguyen and had allowed US consular officials to visit him in detention. On Wednesday, 19 US lawmakers wrote to Pompeo asking him to secure Nguyen’s release. “As elected representatives of Nguyen’s family, and the greater Vietnamese-American community, we remain very concerned about the seriousness of the pending charges and the sentence he faces,” said  the letter, reviewed by Reuters. Despite sweeping economic reforms, communist-ruled Vietnam tolerates little dissent. Police in the country arrested dozens of people during June’s protests, which spanned several cities and turned violent in the central province of Binh Thuan. A court in the province has jailed six people for clashing with police during the protests.

An Indonesian volcano known as the “child” of the legendary Krakatoa erupted yesterday, spewing a plume of ash high into the sky as molten lava streamed down from its summit. Anak Krakatau – a small volcanic island that emerged from the ocean a half century after Krakatoa’s deadly 1883 eruption – has rumbled back to life in recent weeks, spitting flaming rocks and ash from its crater. No one lives on Krakatau, which forms a small island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, but the peak is a popular tourist spot. Indonesia’s geological agency has not raised the alert level for the mountain. However, there is a 1km no-go zone around its summit. When Krakatoa erupted in the 19th century, a jet of ash, stones and smoke shot more than 20km into the sky, plunging the region into darkness, and sparking a huge tsunami that was felt around the world. The disaster killed more than 36,000 people. Indonesia is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a vast zone of geological instability where the collision of tectonic plates causes frequent quakes and major volcanic activity.

The Philippines issued yesterday a fresh deportation order for an elderly Australian nun who angered President Rodrigo Duterte, as her lawyers pledged to block her expulsion. Sister Patricia Fox, 71, has been accused of illegally engaging in political activism as the government cracks down on foreign critics on its soil. “We find Fox Patricia Anne, Australian national, in violation of the limitations and conditions of (the Philippines immigration law) and order her deportation to Australia,” said the government order. Duterte has supported Fox’s removal. He ordered her arrest in April and previously said he wanted her investigated for “disorderly conduct”. Fox, who has been living in the Philippines since 1990, drew the president’s wrath after joining a fact-finding mission in April to investigate alleged abuses against farmers – including killings and evictions by soldiers fighting guerrillas. She is accused of taking part in news conferences, labour-related fact-finding missions and protests calling for political prisoners to be freed, for human rights and land rights to be respected and for martial law to be lifted on the southern island of Mindanao. Last month her deportation was halted when Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said immigration authorities used the wrong procedure to expel her. The decision gave Fox a reprieve but Guevarra also ordered the immigration authorities to hear a case on her visa’s cancellation along with pending deportation proceedings. The new order issued yesterday would also bar her from re-entering the Philippines. The immigration office spokeswoman did not return calls for comment. Fox’s lawyers said they plan to appeal within the next few days. “Under the (immigration service) rules, if we file the order is not executory. And we will file an appeal,” lawyer Jobert Pahilga said. “Very sad, but hopefully I can challenge it still,” the nun separately said in a text message. Duterte, 73, has also launched a deadly crackdown on drugs and has railed against human rights critics, especially foreigners whom he accuses of meddling in his nation’s affairs. “Don’t let her in because that nun has a shameless mouth,” Duterte said in April, accusing the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion missionary of “disorderly conduct”. Fox has denied engaging in politics, saying her actions were part of her work to advocate for justice and peace.

Happiness is a birthday cake, a meal of chicken rice, a warm bed and a trip to buy a new mobile telephone. Those were some of the treats enjoyed by Duangpetch Promthep, captain of the Thai boys’ soccer team rescued last week from a flooded cave, during his first hours at home. “My bed felt warm,” the 13-year-old, also known as Dom, said. The 12 boys, aged 11 to 16, and the 25-year-old coach of the “Wild Boars” soccer team returned home on Wednesday after being discharged from hospital and appearing on national television to describe their ordeal inside the Tham Luang cave. “When I first came back home, there were so many people waiting for me. I was very surprised,” said Dom, who was welcomed by relatives from as far as China. His first meal was stewed chicken over rice, a dish he had yearned to eat while stranded in the cave, where the boys had no food for days and survived only on water dripping from stalactites. Dom also blew out candles for a belated celebration of his 13th birthday on July 3, a day after the boys were found by two British divers about 4km inside the cave. Authorities have asked that the boys be allowed to recover at home, away from the public glare, so that they can return to their normal lives. Dom, who lives with his aunt, uncle and grandmother, wrote on Facebook that he had to create a new account because of a surge in requests to befriend him. He also bought a new mobile telephone to replace the one he lost in the cave. Getting back to normal means homework on weekends and soccer practice after school, said Thanaporn Promthep, Dom’s 41-year-old aunt whom he calls mother. “He’s a good, very responsible student,” she said, adding that meant no girlfriend for two more years. The boys embark on a course of study this month to become novice Buddhist monks, in honour of Samarn Kunan, a volunteer diver and former Thai navy SEAL who lost his life during the mission to rescue them. “It’s a very important thing to do,” Dom said. Thais view the team as national treasures, but three of the boys, and the coach, are technically stateless. Mongkol Boonpiam, 13, whose parents are from neighbouring Myanmar, could qualify for citizenship because there is evidence he was born in Thailand, an official handling his case said. “Even though his parents are not Thai they have been in Thailand more than 10 years,” Kittichai Charoenying, a municipal official in the northern province of Chiang Rai, said. The cave ordeal highlighted the plight of people from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar living in Thailand who are denied some rights and opportunities because they are not citizens. More than 486,000 people are registered as stateless with the Thai government, official data show. Of them 146,269 are – like three of the “Wild Boars” soccer team – younger than 18. Rights activists blame bureaucratic obstacles for the slow pace of Thailand’s verification process, but authorities have promised to shepherd through the newly-famous four. Earlier in the day the boys prayed for good luck at a Buddhist temple. Wearing threads of white string tied around their wrists and holding hands together in prayer, the boys sat together in the temple at Wat Pha That Doi Wao in Mae Sai near the Myanmar border while chants of Buddhist monks filled the room. Film production houses have said they are looking into a Hollywood-style treatment of the harrowing ordeal, which captivated people around the world as the risky operation to extract the team unfolded.

Cambodia’s election commission yesterday described calls to boycott a controversial election on July 29 as a “crime” and said authorities were already pursuing charges against those who criticised the vote. Strongman leader Hun Sen is set to extend his 33-year grip on power in the upcoming election after supporting the dissolution of the main opposition group last year and turning up the heat on civil society and the media. In recent weeks, however, opposition figures – mostly those who left the country in the wake of the sweeping crackdown – have pushed back and called on voters to skip the poll in protest. “In a democratic country, the election is very important, so the campaign against the election or to disrupt people from going to vote is a crime,” Tep Nytha, secretary general of the National Election Commission, told reporters. He said authorities would take legal action against anyone involved in the boycott and some people who called in to “curse” election officials and use “bad words” against them were being targeted, but did not elaborate. The government has previously warned of prosecuting boycott campaigners and Tep Nytha doubled down on the threat while unveiling tens of thousands of ink bottles  yesterday. Supporters of a boycott have posted photos on social media holding up a “clean finger” – a symbol of protest to urge Cambodians not to dip their fingers in the ink used in the process. The daughter of Kem Sokha, a leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party who was arrested in the crackdown and remains behind bars on charges of treason, showed support for the boycott on Tuesday on Twitter.  “No CNRP, no real election! No voting, no dirty finger!” she said. Sam Rainsy, a senior opposition figure who helped found the CNRP and lives in self-exile in France, said that the boycott was a form of political  disobedience. “The CNRP is explaining to the population that voting is not legally binding in Cambodia and that exercising one’s right not to vote on July 29 is a way of saying ‘no’ to Hun Sen and his  totalitarian drift,” he said. The upcoming vote will be the most one-sided in recent memory following the dissolution of the main opposition party, which made significant gains in national elections in 2013 and in local polls four years later. But a poor turnout on voting day could also send a message. Andrea Giorgetta, director of the Asia desk for the International Federation for Human Rights, said the proposed boycott was perfectly legal and that government’s reaction to it was “another sign of their fear”. Western democracies withdrew funding for the vote but Cambodia’s biggest backer China has maintained its support.

The trial of an Australian journalist and filmmaker jailed in Cambodia on espionage charges for more than a year has been postponed for a month so that his new attorney can prepare his defence, his son said yesterday. Australian James Ricketson, 69, was detained in June 2017 while flying a drone over an opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) rally and charged with collecting information that may undermine national defence. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The CNRP was dissolved by court order last year and has been banned from participating in the country’s upcoming elections on July 29. The political party’s president was detained in September on widely criticised treason charges. Ricketson’s newly hired attorney, Kong Sam Onn, needed additional time to study some 1,400 pages of case files and build a defence strategy, Ricketson’s son, Jesse Ricketson, said yesterday. His father remained in the medical ward of Prey Sar prison in the capital Phnom Penh with an undiagnosed chest complaint and other health conditions, Jesse Ricketson said. In a letter published by the Khmer Times last week, James Ricketson apologised to long-time Prime Minister Hun Sen for previous critical remarks, writing that he realised his past “disrespectful comments” about the government were “disruptive and ill-informed.” The trial is scheduled to resume on August 16, attorney Peung Yok Hiep said.

The 12 boys and their coach rescued from a Thai cave mourned the death of an ex-Navy SEAL who died while taking part in the mission, the health ministry said yesterday. The “Wild Boars” football team are recovering in hospital following 18 days spent inside the Tham Luang cave after entering on June 23 and getting trapped by monsoon  floodwaters. Doctors say they are in good health following a successful three-day operation which ended July 10 when teams of Thai Navy SEALs and international cave diving experts hauled the last five members of the team to safety. But the lead-up to the final phase of the mission was met with tragedy when volunteer and former Navy SEAL diver Saman Kunan died on July 6 while installing oxygen tanks along the twisting passageways of the cave. Saman was widely hailed as a hero but the boys, aged 11 to 16, were only told about his death on Saturday after a medical team said they were strong enough mentally to handle the news, though many wept after hearing it. “All cried and expressed their condolences by writing messages on a drawing of Lieutenant Commander Saman and observed one minute of silence for him,” Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk, permanent secretary at the health ministry, said in the statement. Photos released show the youngsters crowded around a sketch of Saman scrawling messages on it and bowing their heads in commemoration. “They also thanked him and promised to be good boys,” the statement said. Tributes from Thailand and around the world have poured in for Saman, a triathlete and diver who retired from the military in 2006 and worked at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport before volunteering to help with the rescue in northern Thailand. Specialists who took part in the risky mission to bring the Wild Boars home have expressed shock and surprise that they were able to pull it off, with some fearing that there could have been more casualties. The unprecedented and daring final push to bring the boys out saw them sedated and carried through waterlogged and partially dry corridors with the help of military stretchers and nearly 100 divers. Health officials have conveyed a largely positive picture of the boys’ recovery. All are expected to leave hospital on Thursday. The health ministry said the overall condition for the players and coach was normal, though many are still on a course of  antibiotics. Despite the positive assessments so far experts have said they would all need to be monitored closely for signs of psychological distress that could take months to manifest. They spent nine days in the dark, dank cave before being  located by two British divers. The boys – and their parents – have been advised to spend time with friends and family and not to give media interviews as that could trigger post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. But the interest in their story is unlikely to evaporate overnight, as Hollywood producers are already jockeying to make a film version of the saga.

Twelve Thai boys and their soccer coach rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand are recovering well from the ordeal and will be discharged from hospital next week, Health Minister Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn said yesterday. The last of the 12-member “Wild Boars” soccer team and their coach were brought out of the Tham Luang cave, near the border with Myanmar, on Tuesday night, safely ending a perilous rescue and evoking international relief and joy. The boys and their coach have been in hospital in the northern town of Chiang Rai since they were brought to safety. In a video played at a news conference yesterday, they appeared well, sitting up in bed and thanking their rescuers. Some said they were looking forward to eating their favourite food such as fried rice and sushi. “I want to have crispy rice,” Pipat Photi, 15, said in the video. “I want knuckle rice,” said Duangpetch Promtep, 13. “Thank you for all the moral support.” Some of the boys lost as much as 5kg (11 lb) but had started to regain weight in hospital, Piyasakol told reporters. Those who were suffering pneumonia after the rescue have also recovered and all 13 should leave hospital on Thursday, he said “I am in good health now,” said one of the boys, a 14-year-old nicknamed Note. “Thanks for saving me.” The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach had planned to explore the cavern complex for about an hour after soccer practice on June 23. But a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels, trapping them. Two British divers found them on July 2, squatting on a mound in a flooded chamber several kilometres inside the complex. Rescuers then had to work out how to get them out through the tunnels, some of which were full of fast-flowing floodwater. All 13 were brought to safety over the course of a three-day rescue, organised by Thai navy SEALs and an international team of cave-diving experts. Samarn Kunan, 38, a former member of the elite SEALs unit, was the only casualty in the operation. His wife has urged the boys not to blame themselves for his death. Samarn was cremated on Saturday in a special ceremony sponsored by the Thai royal family which was broadcast live on local television. He was also posthumously promoted and awarded a royal medal for his bravery and contribution to the rescue, according to a statement published on Saturday in the Thai Royal Gazette. At the scene of the rescue, 4,000 volunteers arrived yesterday to help clean up and “restore the landscape” in and around the cave complex, according to a statement from the Chiang Rai provincial office. While the boys and their coach are now in good health, there is concern about how they will deal with their fame, given the huge attention on the case within Thailand and beyond. Their story is already set for a retelling by Hollywood, with two production companies looking to put together movies about the boys and their rescue. “We need to prepare both the children and their families for the attention they will receive,” Piyasakol said. He warned relatives of the boys to resist giving interviews to media over fears they could have a negative impact on their mental health. “Everyone has worked well together to bring the children out. We worked well together then and we should work well together now so the children can recover physically and mentally as they grow up,” Piyasakol said.

An iceberg the size of a hill has drifted close to a tiny village on the western coast of Greenland, causing fear that it could swamp the settlement with a tsunami if it calves. The iceberg towers over houses on a promontory in the village of Innaarsuit but it is grounded and has not moved overnight, local media KNR reported. A danger zone close to the coast has been evacuated and people have been moved further up a steep slope where the settlement lies, a Greenland police spokesman told Reuters. Last summer, four people died after waves swamped a settlement in northwestern Greenland.

The first video of the Thai boys rescued from a flooded cave after 17 days was released yesterday, showing them smiling and waving from their hospital beds, looking thin but fine after an ordeal that has gripped the world. The last group of the 12-member “Wild Boars” soccer team and their coach was brought out of the Tham Luang cave, near the border with Myanmar, on Tuesday night, safely ending a dangerous rescue and evoking international relief and joy. Rescue mission chief Narongsak Osottanakorn told a news conference the boys were just being children when they got lost and no one was to blame. “We don’t see the children as at fault or as heroes. They are children being children, it was an accident,” Narongsak said. A video of the boys in hospital was shown at the news conference. Some of them, wearing surgical masks, lay on their beds. Some sat and made the “peace sign” gesture for the camera. None of the boys was heard speaking in the clips shown at the news conference. The 12 boys and their soccer coach lost an average of 2kg (4.4lb) during their ordeal but were generally in good condition and showed no signs of stress, a senior health official said earlier. After being brought out of the cave, one by one beginning on Sunday, they were taken by helicopter to hospital in the town of Chiang Rai, about 70km (45 miles) away, to stay in quarantine. The boys would have to stay in hospital for up to 10 days, hospital director Chaiwetch Thanapaisal told the news conference. They would then need to recuperate at home for 30 days, he said. Parents of the first eight boys freed have been able to visit them but had to wear protective suits and stand 2m (7ft) away as a precaution. Authorities are worried about the possibility of infections picked up in the cave. Thongchai Lertwilairattanapong, a health department inspector, earlier told reporters one from the last group rescued on Tuesday had a lung infection and they were all given vaccinations for rabies and tetanus. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha asked that the boys be given time to recover. “The important thing is... personal space,” Prayuth told reporters. “The best way is not to bother them and let them study.” The group ventured into the vast cave complex in the northern province of Chiang Rai after soccer practice on June 23 and were trapped when a rainy season downpour flooded tunnels. They were lost for nine days before British rescue divers discovered them on July 2, sitting on a ledge in a half-flooded chamber. Getting them out – which involved teaching boys as young as 11 who were not strong swimmers to dive through narrow, submerged passages – proved a monumental challenge. A former member of Thailand’s navy SEAL unit died during a mission in the cave on Friday. Narongsak, giving details of the rescue, said falling oxygen levels inside the cave complex had added a sense of urgency. The commander of the navy SEAL unit that oversaw the rescue, Rear Admiral Apakorn Yuukongkaew, hailed the international effort. “We are not heroes. This mission was successful because of co-operation from everyone,” he said. “For SEALs, this is what we were trained for. The navy has a motto: ‘We don’t abandon the people’. Official help came from Britain, the United States, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, China and Australia, a government document showed. There were volunteers from Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Ukraine and Finland. Narongsak said about half of the 13 foreign divers on the crack team of 18 who rescued the boys were British. The other five on the team were Thai navy SEAL divers. The rescue has dominated front-page headlines in Thailand and beyond for days. “Hooyah! Mission accomplished,” read one headline, echoing the rallying cry of the SEAL unit. The hashtag #Hooyah was hugely popular on social media with people showing their support for the hundreds of rescuers, including divers from around the world, who helped to get the boys out. The fate of the boys has even resonated as far as Russia, where soccer’s World Cup is reaching its final stages. Players from France and England welcomed news of the rescue and sent their best wishes to the “Wild Boars” on Twitter. “This victory goes to the heroes of the day, well done boys, you are so strong,” French midfielder Paul Pogba tweeted after his team beat Belgium 1-0 on Tuesday to reach the final. Manchester City and England defender Kyle Walker said he wanted to send shirts to the boys. “Amazing news that all of the Thai kids are out of the cave safely!” Walker tweeted. A Google search on Tuesday for the words “Thai cave rescue” revealed 359mn results.