23/12/2025

TUESDAY | DEC 23, 2025

7 Swiss court to hear landmark suit against cement giant

Hanoi looks for new leaders HANOI: Senior officials of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party began a two-day meeting yesterday to select candidates for leadership positions. The gathering precedes the five yearly party congress next month, which will formally nominate leaders and set key policy and economic targets. Party chief To Lam opened the meeting saying the plenum of the party’s central committee is tasked with finalising the selection of state and party leaders, according to his speech published on the government portal. “I propose that you focus your intellect and responsibility to select personnel to be nominated for the 14th Party Congress in a straightforward, objective and impartial manner,”Lam told the roughly 200 party members at the meeting. The names of candidates shortlisted at previous party meetings have not been disclosed. The party said in its portal the meeting will conclude today but authorities did not say whether the plenum’s decisions will be made public after its conclusion. Lam, 68, is seeking a second term as party chief, the country’s most powerful job which he assumed in August last year after his predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong died. The sweeping administrative and economic reforms that Lam introduced during his roughly 18 months at the helm have earned him admirers but also stirred discontent. Alongside the party chief, delegates will also select candidates for the other four “pillars” of the state: president, prime minister, chairman of the parliament and the standing member of the party’s secretariat. – Reuters Chinese national hurt in shelling PHNOM PENH: A Chinese national was wounded by Thai military shelling into Cambodia yesterday, Phnom Penh’s Interior Ministry said. Thai forces fired “artillery shells into civilian areas” of Cambodia’s border province of Battambang, resulting in “one civilian house being destroyed and one Chinese national being injured”, the ministry said in a statement. In the Cambodian border city of Poipet, the ministry said Thailand’s military fired into “civilian areas inhabited by both Cambodian nationals and foreign residents on the Cambodian side of the border”, causing property damage. Fighting broke out again this month, including with tanks, drones and artillery, and has killed at least 23 people in Thailand and 20 in Cambodia. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he met Chinese envoy Deng Xijun yesterday to discuss the border conflict. “China, as a neutral country, does not want to see conflicts in this region,“ Anutin told reporters in Bangkok. “(Deng) does not come to ask us to agree on something. He expresses the country’s intention that they want to see peace, and Thailand has a firm stance on our requirements for peace.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing was hoping for a ceasefire as soon as possible. “As a friend and close neighbour of Cambodia and Thailand, China sincerely hopes that both sides will proceed from maintaining peace and stability along the border of the two countries,” Lin told a news briefing yesterday. – AFP

o Four plaintiffs seek 3,600 Swiss francs each

by 2050, but has argued that lawmakers should decide how those goals are met. “Holcim remains convinced that the courtroom is not the appropriate forum to address the global challenge of climate change,” it said. The NGOs said the Zug court had rejected that argument. Holcim has not owned any cement plants in Indonesia since 2019, but the islanders argue that the company shares the blame for rising temperatures and sea levels. Environmentalists say Holcim ranks among the world’s 100 biggest corporate CO2 emitters, and so bears significant responsibility for climate-related loss and damage. The four plaintiffs are seeking 3,600 Swiss francs (RM18,361) each from Holcim for damages and for protection measures such as planting mangroves and constructing breakwater barriers. HEKS has said the amount is equivalent to 0.42% of the actual costs in line with estimates that Holcim is responsible for 0.42% of global industrial CO2 emissions since 1750. In addition, the plaintiffs are demanding a 43% reduction in Holcim’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and a 69% reduction by 2040. – AFP

millions, especially in developing countries. Oil companies have been the main target, but activists are hoping the Swiss case will highlight the role of the cement industry. Four residents of Pari island filed the case in January 2023, demanding compensation from the world’s largest cement firm and help to fund protection measures. Two of the islanders travelled to Switzerland for a September hearing at the court in Zug, where Holcim is headquartered, to determine whether it would consider the complaint. “The court has now made its ruling: the complaint must be admitted in its entirety,” the NGOs said. Holcim said in a statement it had “anticipated this as a potential outcome and intend to appeal”. Environmentalists have said 11% of the 42ha island of Pari has disappeared in recent years, and it could be completely under water by 2050. One of the plaintiffs, Asmania, hailed yesterday’s decision. “We are very pleased. This decision gives us the strength to continue our fight,” she said in the NGO’s statement. Holcim has repeatedly stressed it is committed to reaching net zero

against cement giant Holcim, NGOs said yesterday. “For the first time ever in Switzerland, a court has admitted climate litigation brought against a large corporation,” said a statement from NGOs including Swiss Church Aid (HEKS). The case is part of an international movement seeking to hold major companies responsible for climate damage that imperils

GENEVA: A Swiss court has decided to hear a landmark case pitting residents of a tiny Indonesian island being swallowed by rising sea levels

Pari island residents Edi (left) and Asmania near a Holcim plant on June 11, 2023. – AFPFILEPIC

Japan to restart world’s biggest nuclear plant NIIGATA: Japan took the final step to allow the restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant yesterday as the region of Niigata voted to resume operations, a watershed moment in the country’s return to nuclear energy nearly 15 years after the Fukushima disaster. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located

about 220km northwest of Tokyo, was among 54 reactors shut down after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Since then, Japan has restarted 14 of the 33 that remain operable, as it tries to wean itself off imported fossil fuels. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa will be the first operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which ran the doomed Fukushima plant. Niigata prefecture’s assembly yesterday passed a vote of confidence on Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi, who backed the restart last month, effectively allowing for the plant to restart operations. Ahead of the vote, around 300 protesters, mostly older people, holding banners reading “No Nukes”, “We oppose the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa” and “Support Fukushima” gathered in front of the Niigata prefecture assembly. As the rally started, the crowd sang Furusato, a national song about connection to a birthplace, meaning “homeland” in Japanese. “Is Tepco qualified to run Kashiwazaki-Kariwa?”, a protester asked, with the crowd yelling: “No!”

A woman holds a banner that reads, ‘Against Restart’ near auditors as Niigata Prefectural Assembly lawmakers take part in a vote of confidence yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

160,000 other evacuees. Her old home was inside the 20km irradiated exclusion zone. The farmer and anti-nuclear activist has now joined protests against what she sees as a new threat. “We know firsthand the risk of a nuclear accident and cannot dismiss it,” said Oga, adding that she still struggles with post-traumatic stress like symptoms from what happened at Fukushima. – Reuters

years as it sought to win the support of Niigata residents. But many locals remain wary. A survey published by the prefecture in October found 60% of residents did not think conditions for the restart had been met. Nearly 70% were worried about Tepco operating the plant. Ayako Oga, 52, settled in Niigata after fleeing the area around the Fukushima plant in 2011 with

Tepco is considering reactivating the first of seven reactors at the plant on Jan 20. “We remain firmly committed to never repeating such an accident and ensuring Niigata residents never experience anything similar,” said Tepco spokesperson Masakatsu Takata. Tepco earlier this year pledged to inject ¥100 billion (RM2.6 billion) into the prefecture over the next 10