Foreign News
Singapore executes man for supplying cannabis
BBC reported that Singapore has executed a man for conspiring to traffic cannabis despite pleas for clemency from his family, activists and the United Nations.
Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, was hanged at Changi Prison at dawn on Wednesday, his family said.
Activists said he had been convicted on weak evidence and had had limited legal access during his prosecution. The authorities said he had received due process and criticised activists for questioning the courts.
Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws, which it argues are a necessary deterrent to preventing drug crime.
Last year the country executed 11 people on drugs charges, including an intellectually impaired man for trafficking heroin.
On Wednesday, Tangaraju Suppiah’s family had gathered at the prison in the city’s east. “The family said they weren’t going to give up on him right until to the end. It has been such a harrowing experience for them,” anti-death penalty activist Kirsten Han told the BBC on Wednesday. “They still have a lot of unresolved questions about his case, and the evidence against him.”
Singapore’s stringent drug laws and use of capital punishment put it increasingly at odds with other countries in the region, activists say. Its neighbour Malaysia abolished mandatory death sentences earlier this month, saying they were not an effective deterrent to crime. Cannabis has been decriminalised in many parts of the world including in neighbouring Thailand where its trade is encouraged.
On Tuesday, Singapore’s courts had rejected a last-minute appeal from Tangaraju Suppiah’s family against his 2018 conviction.
In recent days they and activists had delivered letters to Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob in a last-minute plea for clemency, while British billionaire Sir Richard Branson had called for a halt of the execution and a review of the case.
“I know that my brother has not done anything wrong. I urge the court to look at his case from the beginning,” the condemned man’s sister, Leela Suppiah, had told reporters on Sunday.
Tangaraju Suppiah was convicted of “abetting by engaging in a conspiracy to traffic” about 1kg (35oz) of cannabis from Malaysia to Singapore in 2013. He was not found with the drugs or during the delivery. But prosecutors said he had been responsible for co-ordinating it, and they traced two phone numbers used by a deliveryman back to him. He claimed he was not the person communicating with others connected to the case. He said he had lost one of the phones and denied owning the second one.
Singapore law mandates the death penalty for drug trafficking and has lesser penalties for couriers.
In Tangaraju Suppiah’s last appeal, the judge agreed with the prosecution that he had been responsible for co-ordinating the delivery, which made him ineligible for a more lenient sentence.
Activists had raised concerns that he had not been given adequate access to a Tamil interpreter and had had to argue his last appeal on his own since his family was unable to secure a lawyer. Singapore authorities say he requested an interpreter only during the trial, and not earlier. They add that he had access to legal counsel throughout the process.
Sir Richard, who had previously criticised the 2022 execution of intellectually impaired Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, said the latest case was “shocking on multiple levels”.
Rebutting his allegations, Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry accused him of “disrespect for Singapore’s judges and our criminal justice system”. It said that the death penalty was “an essential component” in a multi-pronged approach that had been “effective in keeping Singapore safe and secure”.
Three people have died in Reunion after Cyclone Garance swept through the French Indian Ocean territory with gusts of up to 234km/h (145mph).
The tropical cyclone left more than 180,000 homes without power and 170,000 without running water after making landfall on Friday morning.
The remote island’s entire population – including emergency services and police – were ordered to stay indoors as the maximum alert level was imposed.
Heavy storm rains were expected to continue on Friday evening, with Prime Minister Francois Bayrou warning on X that the cyclone remained a threat.
The “brutal and violent” conditions were worse than Cyclone Belal, which killed four people on the island in January 2024, Prefect Patrice Latron said.
Garance made landfall in the north of Reunion at 10:00 local time (06:00 GMT), before sweeping south and exiting the island by late afternoon, according to weather agency Meteo France.
Local authorities reduced the alert level by midday to allow emergency services and police to leave their shelters.
The top wind speed of 234km/h had not been recorded on the island since Cyclone Hollanda in February 1994.
Vincent Clain, 45, a resident of the island’s northern coast, told news agency AFP: “This is the first time I’ve seen a cyclone this powerful, and also the first time I’ve been afraid.”
Some 100 troops and firefighters were on standby to be dispatched from the French territory of Mayotte nearly 1,500km (930 miles) away when conditions eased, as well as 100 from mainland France.
Meanwhile, a 55-year-old man went missing in nearby Mauritius on Wednesday after going swimming in rough seas.
France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Friday that Garance was of a “rare intensity”, while Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said armed forces stood ready to provide assistance.
Donald Trump has clashed with Volodymyr Zelensky in a furious exchange at the White House, with the US president telling his Ukrainian counterpart to make a deal with Russia “or we are out”.
The pair interrupted each other repeatedly in front of the media during what was supposed to be a prelude to the two leaders signing a minerals deal.
After relations first became strained over Trump’s handling of Ukraine peace talks with Russia, the minerals agreement was supposed to be a stepping stone towards further security ties between the countries.
But Zelensky was told by the Americans to leave before the deal could be signed.
At one point, Trump told Zelensky he was not thankful enough for US military and political support, and that he was “gambling with World War Three”.
Zelensky had earlier argued there should be “no compromises” with Russian President Vladimir Putin – but Trump said Kyiv would have to make concessions to reach a peace deal with Russia.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently controls around 20% of Ukrainian territory.
The meeting to discuss the US-Ukraine deal, which involved access to Ukrainian oil, gas and rare minerals, came after the new US president appeared to blame Zelensky for the war and chided him for not starting peace talks with Russia earlier.
His tone had softened in recent days, with Trump saying he had a lot of respect for the Ukrainian leader.
But Friday’s conversation soured after the US Vice-President JD Vance – who was sat alongside other politicians in the room – told Zelensky that the war had to be ended through diplomacy.
Zelensky responded by asking “what kind of diplomacy?”, referencing a previous ceasefire deal in 2019, agreed three years before Russia’s full-scale invasion when Moscow was supporting and arming separatist fighters in Ukraine’s east.
The vice-president then accused Zelensky of being disrespectful and “litigating” the situation in front of the media.
From there, the discussion escalated quickly, as Trump and Vance accused Ukraine’s president of being ungrateful for three years of US support during the war with Russia, with Trump saying Zelensky was in no position to tell the US how it should feel.
Not long after the meeting – and well ahead of the pre-planned schedule – Zelensky was seen leaving the White House in his official vehicle.
Trump took to Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, to say ‘Zelensky disrespected the US in its cherished Oval Office’.
“I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations,” the Republican president continued. “I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE.”
Zelensky also posted on social media, thanking the president and the US four times.
In a later interview with Fox News, Zelensky said the public spat “was not good” – but the relationship between him and Trump could be salvaged.
“Because the relations are more than just two presidents,” he said, adding that it was also about “strong relations between our two people.”
Reaction to the White House meeting among US politicians appeared to fall along partisan lines, with Republicans praising Trump and Democrats criticising him.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham – once a staunch supporter of Ukraine – told reporters: “What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again.”
He said Zelensky “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change”.
Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries described Zelensky’s treatment as “appalling”, adding that it “will only serve to further embolden Vladimir Putin”.
In Ukraine, there was broadly appreciation for Zelensky holding his ground over what is, for them, an existential war.
“Trump’s administration was so arrogant,” one man in Kyiv told the BBC. “When you look at Zelensky’s face, you understand that the discussion behind the closed doors was not so polite.
“They are so rude, they don’t respect the people of Ukraine. They even don’t hide it.”
The Oval Office spat also prompted words of support for Zelensky from key European allies, including France.
A spokeswoman for UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – who has cast himself as a mediator between the US and Europe as the Trump administration adopts a more isolationist approach to the continent – said he had spoken to both leaders.
She said Sir Keir “retains unwavering support for Ukraine, and is doing all he can to find a path forward to a lasting peace”.
Friedrich Merz, who is expected to become Germany’s next chancellor, wrote that he stood with Ukraine “in good and testing times”, adding: “We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that “today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge”.
Russia, meanwhile, said Trump and Vance had acted with restraint. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said it was a miracle the pair hadn’t hit Zelensky.
[BBC]
Donald Trump will sign an executive order on today [28] making English the official language of the United States, according to White House officials, and scrapping requirements that federal agencies provide language services to non-English speakers.
The US has never had an official language in the nearly 250 years since the country was founded.
The order is intended to improve government efficiency and promote national unity, according to White House officials.
Nearly 68 million of the country’s 340 million residents speak a language other than English, according to the US Census Bureau, which includes more than 160 Native American tongues.
Friday’s executive order will roll back a policy from 2000 signed by former President Bill Clinton requiring that government agencies and federal funding recipients “ensure that their programs and activities normally provided in English are accessible to LEP (low-English proficiency) persons”.
Agencies will be allowed to still provide that language access to non-English speakers, according to White House officials.
Republicans have led efforts in the past to label English as the country’s official language, with members of the House as recently as 2021 introducing legislation on it that failed.
Those who have opposed those efforts say that the country does not need an official language, pointing to the high numbers of people who speak it and to the country never having one, while also saying establishing one could promote discrimination against non-English speakers.
During his presidential campaign last year, Trump included non-English languages in his statements calling for stricter immigration policies.
“We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language,” he told a crowd of supporters in February 2024.
“It’s the craziest thing – they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing,” he said.
And during the 2016 campaign he said, “This is a country where we speak English. It’s English. You have to speak English!”
When the US was founded, most residents spoke English and those writing the country’s constitution did not feel it was necessary to enshrine it as the official language and also did not want to alienate fellow new citizens who spoke German or other languages, according to most scholars.
The languages currently spoken the most in the US after English are Spanish, various Chinese languages, Tagolog, Vietnamese and Arabic, according to the Census Bureau. Another approximately one million people use American Sign Language, according to experts.
Approximately 180 countries around the world designate official national languages, and most countries recognise multiple official languages. However, several countries besides the United States do not have an official language, including the United Kingdom.
There are more than 30 US states which have designated English as the official language, while Alaska and Hawaii have also bestowed official status on several native languages.
[BBC]
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