By AFP  June 15, 2023 | 02:35pm GMT+7 A worker uses a magnifier as he checks ballot papers printed for upcoming presidential election at a factory in Jakarta, Indonesia, January 20, 2019. Photo by Reuters/Willy Kurniawan Indonesia’s constitutional court on Thursday shot down a proposed change to the country’s electoral system that rights advocates had decried as an attack on democracy, ahead of a vote next year. The legal challenge stoked fears of a return to Indonesia’s autocratic past and a potential delay to February’s presidential and legislative polls, which could have allowed President Joko Widodo to extend his rule…
Author: Mike Harrison
By Linh On  June 15, 2023 | 02:29pm GMT+7 A video of a night market vendor selling pebbles stir-fried with herbs in the Chinese province of Hunan has acquired over 4 million views on Douyin. Pebbles stir-fried with herbs. Photo from Sharing Travel’s Twitter According to the vendor, the stones, which are stir-fried with chili, garlic, purple perilla, and rosemary before being served for 16 yuan (around $2.23), are not supposed to be eaten, reported South China Morning Post.Instead, buyers can simply suck on them and enjoy the taste, and then bring them home to cook up again with ingredients…
By Linh On  June 15, 2023 | 02:23pm GMT+7 A Malaysian grandmother of 22 and great-grandmother of one, has tied the knot with a man 34 years her junior, marking her third marriage. A TikTok video about Rokiah Samat, 62 and Mohammad Amin, 28, quickly made waves due to the unusual combination, garnering over 2.5 million views as of Thursday, four days after it was posted, reported The Strait Times. Samat and Amin. Photo from Samat’s TikTok The couple reportedly got to know each other after Amin, of the Malaysian state of Sabah, came across the TikTok account of Samat,…
Jocelyn Chia told the joke during a set at the Comedy Cellar in New York City, reportedly in April, as she riffed on the historically testy relationship between Malaysia and Singapore, where she was raised.MH370 went missing in March 2014, and is one of Malaysia’s deadliest aviation incidents, with all 239 people on board presumed dead.Such was the outrage over Chia’s joke that Malaysian police began an investigation under incitement and offensive online content laws.On Tuesday Malaysia’s police chief Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said they would ask Interpol to help locate her, according to Malaysian news agency Bernama.The head of…
By Reuters  June 15, 2023 | 09:35am GMT+7 A worker uses a magnifier as he checks ballot papers printed for upcoming presidential election at a factory in Jakarta, Indonesia, January 20, 2019. Photo by Reuters/Willy Kurniawan Indonesia’s Constitutional Court will on Thursday rule on a possible change to the country’s electoral system, a decision that has fueled concerns about political interference in the upcoming February 2024 general and presidential polls. The case, brought by several politicians including from the ruling Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), seeks a return to the ‘closed’ ballot system. Critics say the change would take the…
By Reuters  June 15, 2023 | 09:22am GMT+7 The logo of car manufacturer Tesla is seen at a dealership in London, Britain, May 14, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Matthew Childs Tesla’s record 13-day streak of gains finally came to an end on Wednesday, as the stock closed down just a smidgen after a stretch that saw the US automaker add more than $200 billion to its value. During the streak, Tesla shares rose by more than 40%, boosting its market value to roughly $814 billion. The gain in market capitalization during the run came to nearly $240 billion – or more…
Shares of UnitedHealth, the largest US healthcare provider by market value, closed down 6.4% at $459.86, wiping out roughly $29 billion from the industry bellwether’s market capitalization.Medicare-focused insurer Humana Inc closed about 11% down, and a broader index of managed care providers closed 6.9% lower.Insurers have been benefiting from a delay in non-urgent surgeries due to the Covid-19 pandemic and hospital staffing shortages, but UnitedHealth’s comments show that the gains may be waning.Meanwhile, stocks of medical device makers and hospital operators rose, as increased frequency of surgeries mean more revenue for them.Older adults aged 65 and above covered under Medicare,…
By Reuters  June 15, 2023 | 09:09 am GMT+7 Pedestrians walk past a sailing boat as it passes in front of the central business district (CBD) of Wellington in New Zealand, July 2, 2017. Photo by Reuters/David Gray New Zealand slipped into recession as the economy shrank in the first quarter, reducing the risk the central bank would need to hike interest rates further but creating a new headwind for the government’s re-election hopes. Gross domestic product (GDP) matched analysts’ expectations of a 0.1% contraction in the March quarter but was well below the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ)…
During our years together, we had a happy family that many admired and looked up to. Because of that, I was complacent and neglected her feelings. The turbulence in our marriage began when she turned 36. She started taking advanced training courses while I continued to take care of our family as usual.I sensed a change in my wife but I was complacent because I had complete trust in her. About six months ago, she became distant and though I started to suspect things, I didn’t take decisive action because I still loved and trusted her.Then, four months ago, she…
It normally takes electric generators in apartment complexes a couple of minutes to activate and run the elevators. But the generator in the complex was broken that day and wouldn’t work.Without backup power, the complex’s six elevators wouldn’t move and people couldn’t reach their apartments with their children inside. The lights in the hallways went out as well, leaving the whole building in a shroud of darkness.”Power cuts make things hard and even dangerous,” said Tat Dat, a 38-year-old resident of the building.Dat had rushed home when he heard about the power outage in his neighborhood, worried about his two…