15/01/2026

THURSDAY | JAN 15, 2026

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Iran vows fast trials

Single living app downloads surge HONG KONG: An app called “Are you dead” targeted at people living alone has gone viral in China, with surging downloads and widespread commentary on social media, prompting the company to introduce a subscription fee and change its name for a global audience. The app called Sileme in Chinese, which translates to “Are you dead?” in English, is “a lightweight safety tool created for solo dwellers” from students to solo officer workers or “anyone choosing a solitary lifestyle”, says its development team. The app requires setting up one emergency contact and sends automatic notifications if the user has not checked in via the app for consecutive days. China may have up to 200 million one person households, with a solo living rate exceeding 30%, Global Times reported. Sileme said on its official Weibo on Tuesday that the company will launch the global brand name Demumu in its new version to be released soon. It is already called Demumu on Apple’s paid app chart where it is sitting at number two, after surging to the top earlier in the week. “Thanks to all netizens for their enthusiastic support. We were originally just an unknown small team, co-founded and operated independently by three born after 1995,” Sileme said. It said on Sunday that it would launch a US$1.15 (RM4.65) payment scheme to help cover increasing costs. Demumu on Apple’s App store already was charging HK$8 (RM4.15) to download the app. Netizens on social media platforms, including Weibo, called on Sileme not to change its name, while others suggested options like “Are you alive”, “Are you online” or “Are you there”. “Maybe some conservative people can’t accept it,” said one user, but it is helpful for safety purposes. “It will make us unmarried people feel more at ease to spend our lives.” – Reuters TAIPEI: Taiwan prosecutors on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for the chief executive officer of smartphone maker OnePlus, alleging he was involved in illegal business and recruitment activities in Taiwan. Shilin District Prosecutors Office said it had indicted two Taiwanese citizens for helping OnePlus CEO Pete Lau illegally operate a business and recruit more than 70 employees in Taiwan. The allegations fall under Taiwanese law governing relations with China. Over 70 employees were hired in Taiwan to do smartphone software application research and development, verification and testing for the smartphone maker, prosecutors said. – Reuters ACTOR SUTHERLAND HELD OVER ASSAULT LOS ANGELES: Actor Kiefer Sutherland, who starred in the television series 24 and vampire flick The Lost Boys , was arrested on Monday on suspicion of assaulting a ride-share driver. The Canadian-British actor was taken into custody after police officers responded to a call in Hollywood. “Investigation determined that the suspect, later identified as Kiefer Sutherland, entered a ride-share vehicle, assaulted the driver and made criminal threats,” police said. The 59-year-old actor was released a few hours later after posting US$50,000 (RM202,743) bail. Police said the driver did not sustain injuries requiring medical attention. – AFP ONEPLUS CEO PETE LAU WANTED IN TAIWAN

o Trump threatens ‘very strong action’

“pretext for military intervention”. Iran’s UN mission posted a statement on X, vowing that Washington’s “playbook” would “fail again”. “US fantasies and policy towards Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention,” the post said. Tehran prosecutors have said Iranian authorities would press capital charges of “waging war against God” on some detainees. The US State Department on its Farsi language X account said 26-year-old protester Erfan Soltani had been sentenced to be executed today. The government has sought to regain control of the streets with rallies that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a “warning” to the United States. – AFP

Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on a visit to a prison holding protest detainees that “if a person burned someone, beheaded someone and set them on fire then we must do our work quickly”, in comments broadcast by state television. Iranian news agencies also quoted him as saying the trials should be held in public and said he had spent five hours in a prison in Tehran to examine the cases. Trump on Tuesday said in a CBS News interview that the United States would act if Iran began hanging protesters. “We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” said the American leader, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention. “When they start killing thousands of people and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them.” Tehran called the American warnings a

PARIS: Iran yesterday vowed fast-track trials for people arrested over a wave of protests, after US President Donald Trump threatened “very strong action” if the Islamic republic goes ahead with hangings. International outrage has built over a crackdown on the demonstrations, which a rights group said has likely killed thousands in one of the biggest challenges yet to Iran’s clerical leadership. Iranian authorities have insisted they have regained control of the country after successive nights of mass protests, repeatedly accusing the demonstrators of carrying out “acts of terror” of the kind committed by Islamic State.

BR I E F S

Lee and Takaichi jamming in Nara yesterday. – YONHAP/REUTERSPIC

East Asia leaders drum up viral moment TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi played two K-pop songs during a post-summit drumming session with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who joked he felt “a little awkward” in front of the former heavy metal band member. “When we met at Apec last year, he said it was his dream to play the drums, so we prepared a surprise,”she said, adding the leaders played two K-pop songs: Dynamite by megastar boy band BTS and Golden from the US Golden Globe winning animated film KPop Demon Hunters . A clip of the pair showed Takaichi drumming energetically, with a huge smile on her face.

triggered by Takaichi’s suggestion in November that Japan could intervene militarily if China attacks Taiwan. Lee said that cooperation between the two US allies “is more important than ever”. “In this increasingly complex situation and within this rapidly changing international order, we must continue to make progress towards a better future,” he said. On the bilateral front, bitter memories of Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 have cast a long shadow over Tokyo-Seoul ties. Lee’s conservative predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared martial law in December 2024 and was removed from office, had sought to improve relations with Japan. Lee, relatively more dovish towards North Korea than was Yoon, has said that South Korea and Japan are like “neighbours sharing a front yard”. – AFP

The two leaders, dressed in matching blue sports tops personalised with their names, posted images of themselves on X jamming after they met in Takaichi’s home region of Nara on Tuesday. During talks they agreed to strengthen cooperation on economic security and regional and global issues, according to South Korea’s presidential office, while Takaichi stressed the Asian neighbours “should cooperate to ensure regional stability”. “Following the summit I played drums with President Lee Jae Myung,” Takaichi, who used to drum in a student heavy metal band, said in her X post.

Lee admitted on X that “it was a little awkward at first, but the more I tapped, the more the sound came together”. “We shared the same intention to keep the rhythm even when the beats were slightly different,” he said. “We will work together with one heart to build a future-oriented relationship between South Korea and Japan.” The leaders visited one of Japan’s oldest temples in Nara yesterday. Looming in the background of the meeting was Japan’s heated diplomatic spat with China,