23/05/2025

FRIDAY | MAY 23, 2025

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Philippine leader Marcos tells Cabinet to resign

N. Korean leader condemns failed launch of warship

SEOUL: A serious accident occurred on Wednesday during the launch of a new North Korean warship while Kim Jong Un was attending the event, with the isolated state’s leader calling it a “criminal act” that could not be tolerated, state media KCNA reported. Kim, who witnessed the failed launch of the 5,000-tonne destroyer, described the incident as caused by “carelessness” that tarnished the country’s dignity and ordered the ship to be restored before a key ruling party meeting in June, KCNA said yesterday. The report did not mention whether there were casualties. KCNA said the incident at the northeastern port of Chongjin was caused by a loss of balance while the vessel was being launched and sections of the bottom of the warship were crushed. “Kim made a stern assessment, saying it was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism, which is out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated.“ Kim said the incident “brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse”, adding that an immediate restoration of the destroyer was “not merely a practical issue but a political issue directly related to the authority of the state”. South Korea’s military said the warship was lying sideways in the water after the failed launch. It also said the North fired multiple cruise missiles around the time its state media reported the failure of the warship launch from an area south of the port. The rare public disclosure of an incident follows a report on the launch of another destroyer of a similar size in April, also attended by Kim, at the west coast shipyard of Nampho. North Korea has previously experienced incidents, such as space launch vehicle failures and civilian disasters, that have then been used to promote the role of the leadership and the ruling Workers’ Party in correcting the problems. The destroyers launched by North Korea this year are the country’s largest warships yet, part of Kim’s push to upgrade its naval power by adding to its fleet vessels capable of carrying and launching dozens of missiles. In a report last week, US-based 38 North said it appeared that the ship would be side-launched from the quay. – Reuters Prescription needed to buy cannabis in Thailand BANGKOK: Thailand is planning to introduce a requirement for medical certificates to be shown when buying cannabis, a senior official said yesterday, in a move to tighten control, three years after it was decriminalised. The new regulation, which is expected to be announced within 40 days, will ensure cannabis is used for medical purposes and not recreationally, said Health Ministry Traditional and Alternative Medicine Department head Somruek Chungsaman. “We do not want people saying they came to Thailand just to smoke marjuana. That gives a negative impression.” Authorities have so far issued piecemeal regulations banning cannabis from schools and requiring retailers to provide clear information on usage in food and drinks to try to bring the industry under control. The Health Ministry is drafting a comprehensive cannabis law, which would need Cabinet approval before it is sent to parliament for debate. Cannabis advocates say the requirement of a physician’s note is unnecessary as its use is already in decline after an initial surge. “Cannabis is not popular among youth. In fact, the number of smokers has not increased at all, which has caused many shops to shut down,“ said Thailand’s Cannabis Future Network secretary-general Prasitchai Nunual. – Reuters

made no immediate difference in their lives.” Mass Cabinet resignations in the Philippines have followed political crises in the last decades. In 2005, former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called on her entire Cabinet to resign instead of her after she was pressured to step down in the wake of an election fraud scandal. In 1987, Corazon Aquino’s Cabinet members submitted their resignation after a coup attempt. The presidential palace said government services would not be interrupted during the transition, and stability and meritocracy would guide the selection of Marcos’s new executive team. Since Marcos’s call, 21 secretaries have announced their resignations. “The rejection of Marcos and his Alyansa was brutal, so he needs to really produce results, he needs to improve the lives of Filipinos. Otherwise, his chosen successor will not fare well in the 2028 elections,” said Yusingco. – AFP

and we will act,” said Marcos, calling his plan for Cabinet renewal a “bold reset”. Ateneo School of Government senior research fellow Michael Henry Yusingco said the move was Marcos’s attempt at regaining his popularity after a “rejection of him in the mid-term elections”. “This is more an emotional reaction to the election debacle of him and his Alyansa (Alliance for a New Philippines) than it is about the problems that he sees with some of his department secretaries,” Yusingco told AFP, referring to the name of the senatorial slate that he endorsed. “He could have done this before the election. Why only now?” Marcos, in a podcast interview after the elections, openly reflected on his administration’s performance. “I realised that we failed to give ample attention to smaller issues that would give the people more immediate relief. People are disappointed with government service because of the slow progress of projects that

MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday called on his entire Cabinet to resign after disappointing results for his party at mid-term elections, a move that analysts say is aimed at reviving his waning popularity. The mid-term polls held last week were seen as a referendum on the current administration. The slate of elected senators will also determine whether Marcos’s rival Vice-President Sara Duterte will be impeached and permanently barred from office. After Marcos’s camp secured fewer than expected seats in the Senate, Duterte’s chances at surviving the impeachment trial have risen considerably. “The people have spoken and they expect results, not politics, not excuses. We hear them o Move aims to revive waning popularity: Analysts

Protesters holding portraits of children killed in the bombing during a rally organised by the Human Rights Commission of

Pakistan in Karachi on Wednesday. – AFPPIC

Suicide bomber kills five on school bus in Pakistan QUETTA: Three children were among at least five people killed when a suicide bomber struck an army school bus in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, the military said on Wednesday. High Commission in New Delhi persona non grata , the second such expulsion in a week, for “indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status”. Both have traded accusations of supporting militancy on each other’s soil, charges that both deny.

The latest escalation, in which the two countries traded missiles, was sparked when India accused Pakistan of supporting a militant assault on tourists in the Indian portion of the contested region of Kashmir. Islamabad denies any involvement. In Wednesday’s attack, three children and two adults were killed, the army said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, reminiscent of an attack on a military school in the northern city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 130 children. That attack was claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an ultra-radical Islamist militant group. Attacks by separatist groups in Balochistan have risen in recent years. In March, the Baloch Liberation Army blew up a railway track and took passengers from a train hostage, killing 31 civilians, soldiers and staff. – Reuters

The Pakistani charge d’affaires was summoned and given a warning to ensure Pakistani officials do not misuse their privileges and status, the ministry added. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry made a similar move yesterday as an official of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was declared persona non grata , it said in a statement posted on social media. The Indian charge d’affaires was summoned to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry to stress that Indian officials in Pakistan should not “misuse their privileges and status in any manner“, the statement added. Tensions remain high after India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on May 10. Diplomats have warned that the truce is fragile, following the most dramatic escalation of hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours in decades.

About 40 students were on the bus, which was headed to an army-run school, and several sustained injuries, said Khuzdar district administrator Yasir Iqbal. Pakistan’s military and its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the violence and accused “Indian terror proxies” of involvement, although they did not share any evidence linking the attack to New Delhi. “Planners, abettors and executors of this cowardly Indian-sponsored attack will be hunted down and brought to justice,“ the military’s media wing said. India rejected Pakistan’s accusations. “In order to divert attention from its reputation as the global epicentre of terrorism and to hide its own gross failings, it has become second nature for Pakistan to blame India for all its internal issues,“ its Foreign Ministry said. India also declared an official of the Pakistan