Good morning. We are talking about uncertain election results in Kenya and a possible prisoner swap between Russia and the US
A new Kenyan president?
Kenya’s vice president William Ruto has won the country’s presidential election, the head of the electoral commission said yesterday. The result came days after a cliffhanger vote.
Ruto took 50.5 percent of the vote, narrowly defeating Raila Odinga, a former prime minister, a top official said. That percentage is enough to avoid a second round, but a majority of election commissioners refused to verify the results. Here are live updates.
An official, speaking on behalf of four of the seven voters, said the panel was unable to take ownership of the results due to the “opaque nature” of the election treatment. Under Kenyan law, an election result could be challenged within a week — a prospect many observers viewed as a near certainty.
Ukrainians share detention stories
Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians, mostly men, have been missing in the five months of the war in Ukraine.
They have been detained by Russian troops or their proxies and held with little food in cellars, police stations and filter camps in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. Many said they had been beaten and at times given electric shocks, although Russia denies having tortured or killed Ukrainian civilians. Hundreds have disappeared in Russian prisons, according to the UN.
A 37-year-old auto mechanic, Vasiliy, was grabbed by Russian soldiers while walking with his wife and a neighbor in his native village. That was the start of six weeks of “hell,” he said.
He was led from one detention site to another, beaten and repeatedly subjected to electric shocks during interrogation, without understanding where he was or why he was being held. “It was embarrassing, maddening, but I got out alive,” he said. “It could be worse. Some people were shot.”
prisoners: Brittney Griner, the American basketball star, has appealed her conviction. A senior Russian diplomat spoke of a possible prisoner exchange.
To fight: Russia has fired grenades from near a nuclear power plant in an attempt to thwart a Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kherson. The move has heightened fears of a nuclear accident and weakened Ukraine’s progress. Here are live updates.
Economy: Ukrainian factories are moving west, away from Russian bombs, sparking a land rush.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces 17 years
An army-appointed court in Myanmar yesterday convicted Aung San Suu Kyi on new charges of corruption.
The sentence adds six years to the ousted civilian leader’s jail term — she’s already serving 11 years on half a dozen counts — for a total of 17 years. Nine more lawsuits are pending with a possible maximum sentence of 122 years. At the age of 77, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and once a democracy icon has spent 17 of the past 33 years in detention, mostly under house arrest.
Yesterday’s charges centered on land and construction deals related to an organization she led to her arrest. Defenders say they were made up to silence her. A Japanese journalist and two well-known models have also been arrested in recent weeks.
Condition: Aung San Suu Kyi is being held alone in a cell of about 18 square meters. Daytime temperatures can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 Celsius), but there is no air conditioning.
context: An estimated 12,000 people are incarcerated for resisting military rule. Many have been tortured or convicted in brief trials without lawyers. Last month, the junta hanged four pro-democracy activists. It has promised more executions.
THE LAST NEWS
Asia
Employee productivity tools, once common in lower-paying jobs, are expanding into more white-collar positions.
Companies say the monitoring tools can deliver efficiency and accountability. But in interviews with The Times, employees describe being tracked as “demoralizing,” “degrading,” and “toxic.”
ART AND IDEAS
A look back at partition
India became independent from Britain 75 years ago yesterday. But there were already problems. Britain had haphazardly left the subcontinent after nearly three centuries of colonial rule, dividing the country into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The bloody separation caused one of the largest migrations in history, as once mixed communities raced in opposite directions for new homelands. As many as 20 million people have fled community violence. Up to two million people were killed.
Now, 75 years later, nationalist fervor and mutual mistrust have hardened into rigid divisions. Despite a vast shared heritage, India and Pakistan remain estranged, their weapons pointed at each other and diplomatic ties virtually non-existent.
Visual history: Here are historical photos of the schism.
Link: A YouTube channel in Pakistan has reunited family members separated by the partition.