NEWS OF THE DAY
_1 Indonesia flood: The death toll from a flash flood in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province rose to 21 on Wednesday with two people still missing, an official said. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Raditya Jati said search and rescue operations were hampered by thick mud covering roads and houses, and rain was continuing to fall. As of Wednesday evening, 2,650 people had been evacuated. The flooding began Monday evening and was triggered by heavy rains that caused three rivers to overflow. Heavy rains cause frequent landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near flood plains.
_2 Bubonic plague: A 15yearold boy has died in western Mongolia of bubonic plague after eating an infected marmot, the country’s health ministry announced. Two other teenagers who also ate the marmot were being treated with antibiotics, a ministry spokesperson said. The government imposed a quarantine on a portion of GobiAltai province, where the cases occurred. Plague is found in marmots, large rodents that live in burrows in the sprawling North Asian grassland, and some other wild animals in parts of Mongolia, northwestern China and eastern Russia.
_3 Security law: The New York Times said this week it will transfer some of its staff out of Hong Kong because of uncertainties about practicing journalism in the Chinese territory under its newly imposed national security law. The Times reported that it will move its digital team of journalists, about a third of its Hong Kong staff, to Seoul over the next year. Correspondents will remain to cover the city, it said. Hong Kong, which was handed over to China by the British in 1997, has long been seen as China’s last bastion of press freedom and is a base for many foreign news outlets reporting on Asia and mainland China. But uncertainty about press freedom has followed Beijing’s imposition of a security law on June 30 aimed at curbing dissent in the city after months of antigovernment protests last year.
_4 Bulgaria protest: Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s centerright government faces a vote of noconfidence brought by the leftwing political opposition Wednesday, its fifth since taking power in 2017. The Socialist Party accuses the government of failing to uphold its promises to eliminate highlevel corruption and instead acting in favor of oligarchs. The opposition Socialists are riding high on weeklong antigraft protests that brought thousands of people into the streets of towns across Bulgaria. Thousands of mostly young Bulgarians took to the streets for the seventh day in a row to protest against the government, accusing it of corruption, authoritarian rule and dependence on criminal groups. Political analysts expect Borissov to easily survive the noconfidence vote and to likely remain in power until next year’s election. _5 Lese majeste: A man who posted a photo online showing himself wearing a shirt with a motto questioning the traditional reverence for Thailand’s monarchy has been admitted against his will to a psychiatric hospital, drawing concern from human rights activists. The legal basis for putting 45yearold Tiwakorn Vithiton into a psychiatric hospital in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen is not clear. Tiwakorn caused a stir by posting pictures on his Facebook page of him wearing a Tshirt with the motto “I have lost all faith in the institution of monarchy.” Publicly criticizing the monarchy in Thailand is both socially taboo and legally risky. Cases of defaming the monarchy have traditionally been prosecuted under a lese majeste law that carries a punishment of 3 to 15 years in prison.