ASIA TODAY Sri Lanka votes in Parliament

News of the day: Indian Supreme Court criticizes “bulldozer justice.” In New Zealand, Māori MPs oppose a bill to review a treaty on indigenous government. An Iranian activist commits suicide in protest against the regime. In Georgia, the opposition considers the new Parliament “illegitimate” and tensions extend to Abkhazia.

SRI LANKA

This morning the polls opened for the eearly parliamentary lessons in Sri Lanka, considered a test for President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, elected just seven weeks ago. The main concern of the population continues to be the economy: the number of people living below the poverty line has increased to 25.9% in the last four years, while the World Bank forecasts growth limited to 2.2 % this year.

INDIA

In a new ruling, the Indian Supreme Court attempted limit “bulldozer justice”stating that the house of an accused or convicted person cannot be demolished. The court ordered authorities to give the affected person enough time to challenge the order or leave the property. The BJP government has long used the justification of illegal construction to arbitrarily demolish houses (mainly those of Muslims).

NEW ZEALAND

A parliamentary session in New Zealand was suspended this morning because of some Maori MPs who They staged a haka to interrupt the vote of a bill that seeks to reinterpret a historic treaty between the government and the indigenous people. In recent days hundreds of people have undertaken a march (hikoi) in protest.

PHILIPPINES

The president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., stated that His government will not block the investigation of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed during the infamous “war on drugs.” Marcos’ statements come after a hearing in which Duterte called for the investigation (after having long opposed it) stating that he had nothing to hide.

IRAN

Kianoosh Sanjari, well-known Iranian human rights activist, committed suicide in protest against the Iranian regime for not releasing four political activists, who were in turn detained for supporting the protests after the death of Mahsa Amini. In a post published before his death, he had written that he wished that “one day the Iranians” would “wake up and defeat slavery.”

RUSSIA

According to Nezavisimaja Gazeta, Russia has invested more than 10 billion rubles (100 million euros) in the last two years in the modernization of the canal that links the Caspian Sea and the Volga, the so-called “North-South corridor”, of important essential strategic after Western sanctions, connecting Russia with India and Iran.

GEORGIA

Members of the Georgian opposition parties of the National Movement and the Coalition for Change, which had won almost 200 seats in the parliamentary elections, addressed the Electoral Commission with statements in which they asked not to be registered as deputies, considering “illegitimate” the new Parliament, awaiting new elections. In the Georgian separatist region of Abkhazia, opponents were arrested for violently attacking the deputy Almas Akaba, in charge of an investment project with the Russians, while supporters of those detained blocked the main republican highway to the capital, Sukhumi.