- In his first year as prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, a former political prisoner, largely failed to uphold his pledges to address repression and corruption. The government’s abolition of the mandatory death penalty was a significant step, although capital punishment remains a sentencing option for some criminal offenses. Authorities continued to use broad and vaguely worded laws to criminalize free speech. Officials have targeted refugees and migrants as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people with hateful rhetoric and crackdowns.
- Shaula (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
SHAULA (Lambda Scorpii). In temperate northern summers, Scorpius glides above the southern horizon, its lower curved tail almost out of sight, while in the temperate southern winter, the constellation passes high overhead. At the end of the tail lies a pair of stars that represent the scorpion’s “stinger,” once called Shaula, from Arabic meaning exactly that.