Two men flogged in Indonesia after being found guilty of gay sex
A Shariah court in Indonesia’s Aceh province sentenced two men to public caning after neighbourhood vigilantes caught them having gay sex in a rented room.
The court found them guilty and sentenced them to 85 and 80 lashes, with the older man receiving a harsher punishment for allegedly facilitating the act.
Dozens of people watched as the men, aged 24 and 18, were publicly caned in Banda Aceh’s Bustanussalatin city park for engaging in gay sex. The punishment, carried out by five enforcers in robes and hoods, involved lashes across their backs with breaks for water and medical treatment after 20 strokes, media reports said.
This was the fourth time Aceh had flogged people for homosexuality since implementing Shariah law in 2006 under a peace deal to end a separatist rebellion.
The two college students were arrested last November after neighbours, suspected them of being gay, broke into their rented room and found them naked and hugging.
An Islamic Shariah court sentenced them to 85 and 80 lashes, but they received 82 and 77 strokes after a remission for time served. One of the men was so weak after the final lash he reportedly had to be carried.
Two other individuals were sentenced to 34 and 8 lashes, respectively, for gambling.
Rights groups condemned the punishments.
The “intimidation, discrimination and abuses” against LGBTQIA+ people in Aceh was “like a bottomless well”, Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch was quoted as saying by AFP.
“The Aceh government should learn from these mistakes and review their Islamic criminal code.”
Amnesty International called the punishment a “horrifying act of discrimination” against the men.
“Intimate sexual relations between consenting adults should never be criminalised, and no one should be punished because of their real or perceived sexual orientation,” Amnesty’s deputy regional director Montse Ferrer said.
Additional reporting by agencies.
China vows to retaliate after Trump threats of tariff over fentanyl
China said it opposed Donald Trump’s latest threat to impose a punitive extra 10 per cent duty on imports from the Asian country, vowing to take “all necessary countermeasures” to protect its interests.
The US president announced the additional 10 per cent duty on Chinese imports of deadly drugs, including fentanyl, stating that these are still coming into the US from China, Mexico, and Canada.
Accusing the US administration of “shifting the blame” on the fentanyl trade, China’s commerce ministry on Friday said: “China has repeatedly stated that unilateral tariffs violate World Trade Organization rules and undermine the multilateral trading system.”
“China has one of the strictest and most thoroughly enforced anti-drug policies in the world,” the ministry said in a statement, and highlighted the risks new tariffs would bring to global supply chains.
“This time, (the US) once again is threatening additional tariffs. Such behaviour is purely ‘shifting blame and shirking responsibility,’ which is not conducive to solving its own problems,” the statement said.
The reaction from Beijing comes a day after Mr Trump took to his social media platform TruthSocial and said: “Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels.”
“A large percentage” of the drugs were made in China, he went on.
On Thursday, Mr Trump said his proposed 25 per cent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods will take effect on Tuesday, along with the extra 10 per cent duty on Chinese imports. These fresh tariffs on China are over and above the existing 10 per cent levied on 4 February as Washington and Beijing face escalating tensions over trade wars.
China’s commerce ministry has warned of retaliation if the US did not return to the negotiation table. “If the US insists on proceeding with this course of action, China will take all necessary countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests”.
Beijing now has less than a week to publish its countermeasures against the US as the announcement from Mr Trump coincides with the start of China’s annual parliamentary meetings on Wednesday, a set-piece political event where Beijing is expected to unveil its main economic priorities for 2025.
The issue is causing tensions between China and the US as the ingredients in fentanyl are largely produced by companies in China and used by pharmaceutical companies to make legal painkillers. But a portion of those chemicals is purchased by the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels in Mexico.
Volcano owner has conviction quashed over eruption that killed 22
A New Zealand judge has overturned the criminal conviction of the owner of an island volcano where 22 people died in an eruption.
The ruling has absolved the company, Whakaari Management, from paying millions of pounds in restitutions to the families of those who died and the two dozen survivors who were seriously injured.
Forty-seven people were on Whakaari, also known as White Island, when it erupted in December 2019.
Most were passengers from US and Australian cruise ships on a walking tour, along with their local guides.
Two British women, Liz and Heather McGill, were seriously injured in the eruption.
Whakaari Management, run by three brothers who own the active volcano, was initially found guilty in a 2023 trial of breaching New Zealand’s workplace health and safety law by failing to keep visitors safe.
The brothers appealed their convictions in a hearing last October at the High Court in Auckland.
The case centred around whether the company, which granted access to the volcano to tourism operators and scientific groups for a fee, should have been in charge of safety practices on the island under health and safety laws.
The laws state that anyone in charge of a workplace must ensure the management of hazards and the safety of all there, including at entry and exit points.
During the 2023 trial, survivors testified that they had not been told the active volcano was dangerous when they paid to visit it. They also stated that they were not supplied with protective equipment, and many were wearing clothing that made their burns worse.
In Friday’s written ruling, Justice Simon Moore ruled the company did not have a duty under the relevant law to ensure that the walking tour workplace was without risks to health and safety.
He agreed with the company’s lawyers that the firm only granted access to the bare land through permits, and should not have been legally considered an entity that managed or controlled the workplace.
The judge ruled it wasn’t unreasonable for the company to rely on tourism operators, who were licensed under New Zealand law, and emergency management and scientific agencies to assess the risks of activities on the island and manage safety precautions.
The case had far-reaching implications and changed the laws governing New Zealand’s adventure tourism industry, which is often based around outdoor thrills on or around the country’s many natural hazards.
Operators must now take all reasonable steps to inform customers of any serious risks.
The lawyers for the company said during last October’s hearing that if the conviction was allowed to stand, it would make other landowners reluctant to allow such activities to take place on their property for fear of being held responsible for the day-to-day decisions of tourism businesses operating on it.
That suggestion was rejected by the New Zealand’s workplace safety regulator, which brought the charges.
Justice Moore said in Friday’s ruling that a too narrow or broad interpretation of the law governing who controls a workplace could have “profound” consequences.
White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano, was a popular tourist destination before the eruption and was reached by boat or helicopter from the North Island’s Bay of Plenty. When the superheated steam blew in December 2019, it killed some instantly and left others with agonising burns.
The workplace safety regulator brought charges against a number of parties — including the company run by Andrew, Peter and James Buttle.
Six entities pleaded guilty in 2022 and 2023 to the charges they faced, including five tour companies and New Zealand’s geoscience research institute, which monitors active volcanoes.
Charges were dismissed against the Buttle brothers individually, along with two tourism logistics firms and the government emergency management agency.
In March, those convicted were ordered to pay a combined total of just over NZ$10 million (£4.5 million) in restitutions to the bereaved families and survivors. Almost half of that was due to be paid by Whakaari Management Limited.
The company filed its appeal the same month.
In his ruling, Justice Moore said he had not overlooked or minimised the “unquantifiable tragedy” of the episode.
“The 47 people who were on Whakaari at the time it erupted should never have been there,” he wrote. The fact that they were revealed “multiple systemic failures”.
The case, however, was decided on the particular law and facts and boiled down to relatively narrow legal questions, he added.
Woman wanted by police over kissing BTS member without consent
A Japanese woman accused of kissing a member of the K-pop boy band BTS without consent is wanted for questioning by the South Korean police.
The incident took place in Seoul on 13 June last year when Jin held a free meet and greet event, where he hugged 1,000 fans who had won a raffle, after completing his mandatory 18-month military service.
The woman reportedly kissed Jin on the cheek when he leaned in to hug her.
The musician looked visibly startled and turned his face away. “My lips touched his neck. His skin was so soft,” the woman later wrote in a blog post according to the South Korean state news agency Yonhap.
The Songpa police station in Seoul said the Japanese woman, who is in her 50s, has been booked and summoned on charges of sexual harassment in a public space.
A BTS fan had filed a criminal complaint against her which led to an investigation.
Police have refused to disclose the woman’s identity, citing privacy, and have not provided many details about the matter since the investigation is underway.
Media reports said that South Korean police were able to confirm the identity of the woman with the help of Japanese police, adding that she was refusing to appear for questioning.
Police are also reportedly considering calling in Jin, whose real name is Kim Seok Jin, to provide a statement.
BTS, made up of members RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, announced in 2022 they would be taking a break from group activities to focus on solo music, while each member completed their military service. During this period, all the members released their solo albums, with Suga additionally going on tour under his alter ego Agust D.
Jin had previously released a single, “The Astronaut”, co-written with Coldplay, in October 2022, and released an extended version of his 2021 single “Super Tuna,” which he performed at the band’s 11th debut anniversary in June 2024. In November the same year, he released his mini album Happy, which peaked at number 4 on the Billboard 200.
Additionally, j-hope announced his first solo tour and teased new music set to release in March.
Titled Hope on the Stage, the tour will start in February and take in major cities across North America and Asia.
Jin was discharged from the military in June 2024 and j-hope in October.
The remaining members are expected to complete their military service by the end of 2025, with Jung Kook and Jimin scheduled to return in June that year. They are anticipated to resume activities as a septet in 2026.