ASIA TODAY Malaysia, 12 years in prison for former Prime Minister Najib Razak

Today’s news: drought seriously threatens the fall harvest in China. In Abu Dhabi, a protest by Afghans who have been stranded in the UAE for a year after fleeing from Kabul. US air raids in eastern Syria against Iranian-backed militias. In India, a Syro-Malabar bishop leaves his diocese to live as a hermit.

MALAYSIA

The Supreme Court of Malaysia ordered that former Prime Minister Najib Razak He is serving a 12-year prison sentence after confirming his sentence on charges linked to a multimillion-dollar fraud scandal at the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund. Najib – who has always denied the accusations – was prime minister from 2009 to 2018 and his father and his uncle led the government before him.

CHINA

China’s autumn harvest looks “seriously threatened” by high temperatures and drought. Four government departments are sounding the alarm and calling for the protection of crops, calling for “every unit of water to be used with care” through methods including staggered irrigation and so-called cloud seeding to induce rain. Southern China, in particular, is experiencing the longest and longest period of high temperatures and low rainfall since records began more than 60 years ago.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES-AFGHANISTAN

Afghan refugees, who continue to live in legal limbo in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), they protested at the Emirates Humanitarian City, in Abu Dhabi. After being evacuated from Kabul, they consider that their resettlement process has been slow and not very transparent. Hundreds of Afghans demonstrated with banners and shouted for freedom, denouncing that thousands of them are waiting to be relocated to the United States or other countries.

SYRIA

US Central Command announced that US forces launched airstrikes in eastern Syria against facilities used by Iranian-backed militias. According to local reports, the attack took place at dawn today in the village of Ayash, west of Deir ez-Zor.

INDIA

A Syro-Malabar bishop stepped down to embrace the hermit life, a long-awaited vocation. The auxiliary bishop of Palai (Kerala), Monsignor Jacob Muricken, 59, moved on August 15 to a hermitage he built in Nallathanni, in the diocese of Kanjirappally.

KAZAKHSTAN-RUSSIA

Kazakhstan is experiencing a sudden shortage of zero kilometer cars as a result of market turmoil caused by the war and sanctions against Russia. As a result of the heavy taxes against the importation of vehicles, a black market flourished for years, whose growth has exploded to supply Moscow, which previously exported cars to Kazakhstan in black.

KYRGYZSTAN

Pretrial detention was ordered against the Kyrgyz businessman Zhurnal Abdullaev, arrested after a raid on his company. In the operation they found weapons, marijuana and undeclared money in his office in the town of Ken-Bulan, near Bishkek. Employees and many supporters took to the streets to demonstrate in his support, since in their eyes he is a benefactor persecuted by the state.