Latest world news brief today, August 12

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3 posts

13 mins ago

More UK companies announce drought restrictions on water use

By Sarah Diab, Jorge Engels and Xiaofei Xu

Yorkshire Water has become the latest UK water company to announce a hosepipe ban amid drought warnings in Britain.

A hose ban, also known as a Temporary Use Ban (TUB), means that people cannot use hoses in activities such as watering their gardens, washing their cars, or cleaning their windows and walls.

Filling or maintaining a private swimming pool or ornamental fountain is also prohibited, according to the UK Water Industry Act 1991.

Yorkshire Water supplies services to over 5 million customers across the Yorkshire region of England and this is its first hose ban since 1996.

"In Yorkshire we had dry March, April, May, June and July, with 34% less rain than the long-term average. The forecast looks similar for August," the company said in a statement on Friday.

The water company is part of a growing list of others in the UK that have announced temporary hose bans.

Thames Water, the UK's largest water company, which supplies water to 15 million customers in London and the Thames Valley, said on Tuesday it would announce a ban on hoses in the coming weeks.

The Isle of Man announced the ban from July 29, followed by the Southern Water company which announced a ban in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from August 5.

Similarly, South East Water also announced hose bans for Kent and Sussex from August 12 and Welsh Water in South West Wales from August 19.

This comes after England experienced the driest July since 1935, the UK's national weather service said last week.

An update on Wednesday from the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology suggested warmer-than-average temperatures and below-average rainfall are likely to affect the south-east of the country, mainly England, through October.

2 hours ago

Death toll from heavy rains in South Korea rises to 13

By Gawon Bae

The death toll from heavy rains and floods that hit South Korea last week has risen to 13, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Security.

Six people are still missing, according to the ministry.

As of Friday, a total of 1,285 people who had been evacuated from their homes have still not returned, according to the ministry.

Most of them from Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi province.

The rain had stopped in Seoul on Wednesday, but some showers continued in the central and southern parts of the country into early Friday morning.

5 hours ago

Samsung de facto leader Lee Jae-yong receives special pardon from South Korean president

By Yoonjung Seo and Gawon Bae

Vice President and de facto leader of Samsung Electronics Lee Jae-yong was given a special pardon on Friday by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ahead of the country's Liberation Day, which marks South Korea's liberation. Japanese imperial rule in 1945, according to the country's Ministry of Justice.

The South Korean government often grants pardons around Liberation Day.

Lee, also known as Jay Y. Lee, had been sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement and bribery in August 2017, but walked free after less than a year in 2018 when an appeals court threw out some of the charges. and suspended the sentence.

However, Lee was sent back to prison in January 2021 after being sentenced to two and a half years without suspension after the Seoul High Court found him guilty.

He was paroled in August 2021 on the same occasion, Liberation Day.

Along with Lee, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and two other business leaders were included in the pardoned or reinstated group by Chairman Yoon Suk Yeol.

South Korea's Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon said on Friday: "In order to overcome the economic crisis by revitalizing the economy, Samsung Vice President Lee Jae-yong, whose term recently ended, will be reinstated."

According to the law, if a person is convicted of embezzlement or breach of trust worth more than 500 million Korean won (about US$385,500), that person cannot work for a company related to the crime for five years. , even after completion of the prison sentence.

The reinstatement will lift the five-year employment restrictions for Lee.

Vice President Lee Jae-yong has been undergoing a separate trial since last April over the merger between Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T in 2015. Lee has been attending weekly court sessions since the start of the trial.

It is widely believed that the merger helped Lee's succession from his late father, Lee Kun-hee.

The merger was carried out in a way that reportedly benefited the younger Lee and allowed him to gain tighter control of Samsung Electronics, Samsung's flagship company.

The allegations include illegal trading, stock price manipulation and violation of laws on external audits for the 2015 merger and accounting fraud of Samsung Biologics, at the time a subsidiary of Cheil Industries.