Japan’s ruling party will elect its new leader Friday, and the winner will become the country’s next prime minister.

Out of a record nine candidates, three frontrunners are fighting a very close race that will likely end in a runoff vote.

The winner will take the helm of the world’s fourth-largest economy at a time of rising living costs, exacerbated by the weak yen and high inflation, as Japan faces growing security challenges in the region and friction with neighbors including China.

Among the favorites vying to lead the long-ruling, scandal-plagued Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is Sanae Takaichi, the conservative economic security minister who could become the nation’s first woman prime minister; Shinjiro Koizumi, a charismatic young surfer who hails from a popular political dynasty; and former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is on his fifth and final bid for the top job.

The conservative LDP has ruled Japan almost continuously since the party’s founding in 1955. Owing to its majority in the lower house, the LDP’s chosen candidate will be approved by Japan’s parliament, the Diet, when it convenes in October.

General elections are scheduled for next year, but the winning candidate could choose to call a snap election before then. Some reports suggest this could happen even before the US presidential election in November.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is not in the running after his surprise announcement last month that he would step down following a series of political scandals that fueled calls for him to resign.

The winner will be tasked with improving the LDP’s image ahead of those general elections.

The ruling party has in recent months been embroiled in one of Japan’s biggest political scandals in decades.

Two of the most influential factions in the LDP have been accused of failing to properly declare their income and expenditure and, in some instances, allegedly rerouting political funds to lawmakers as kickbacks.

Scandals surrounding several high-ranking officials haven’t helped, with some accused of involvement with election law violations or of offensive past comments against minorities.

Kishida had tried to contain the damage, replacing several cabinet ministers last year and abolishing his own party faction.

With the upcoming US presidential election, the new prime minister will navigate Japan’s relations with a new American leader at a time of growing security challenges in Asia, including an increasingly assertive China and a belligerent North Korea.

Partnership with Japan has long been central to US strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, and Kishida this year expanded Tokyo’s defense cooperation with its key ally.

“It’s safe to assume that Ishiba, Takaichi, and Koizumi will do quite well, but I really cannot say who out of those three will win the race,” Yu Uchiyama, a professor of politics at Tokyo University, told Reuters. “I don’t think we’ll know until the very last moment.”

The candidates

If Takaichi, 63, wins it would be a significant moment for Japan, where men continue to dominate politics and boardrooms.

But such a victory would not necessarily herald a new progressive era. The political veteran is a staunch conservative from the party’s right wing and has promised to prioritize economic growth. She has also opposed legislation that could allow married women to keep their maiden names, and has described Margaret Thatcher, the conservative late former British leader, as a role model.

She is a protégé of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a supporter of his eponymous economic policies, and is similarly hawkish on security issues, favoring a revision of the country’s pacifist constitution.

Takaichi’s visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine – which honors 2.4 million of Japan’s war dead, including convicted war criminals – have triggered protests from South Korea and China, victims of the country’s expansionist aggression during the first half of the 20th century.

Her plans to boost Japan’s economy include lowering interest rates, after the Bank of Japan hiked rates this year, and she has called for “strategic” fiscal spending to increase jobs and household incomes, according to Reuters.

Koizumi, 43, is the US-educated, charismatic son of popular former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, and could be Japan’s youngest prime minister of the post-war period.

Koizumi has presented himself as a reformer – much like his father – and has promised to call a snap general election. He said he would continue the economic policies of outgoing leader Kishida.

Critics have pointed to his lack of experience in domestic politics and international relations, and an economic plan considered thin on details.

But Koizumi’s star power has made him popular with the public, especially among young voters and women.

He has supported legislation that could allow married women to keep their maiden names, and is in favor of women acceding to the imperial throne, something currently not permitted in Japan. Koizumi made headlines when he became the first cabinet member in the country to take paternity leave – only two weeks, but a significant move as Japan’s work culture means many new fathers don’t take any.

Ishiba, 67, is a veteran politician and serious about security issues. He has said Japan should reduce its dependence on nuclear energy in favor of renewables, and has called for an Asian version of the NATO security bloc to counter threats from China and North Korea.

In a political culture that prizes conformity, Ishiba has long been something of an outlier, willing to criticize and go against his own party. That willingness to speak out made him powerful enemies within the LDP but endeared him to more grassroots members and the public.

He sits on the more progressive wing of the conservative party.

Multan, Pakistan — Pakistan’s government said Thursday that police had orchestrated the killing of a doctor who was in custody after he was accused of blasphemy. Officers then lied about the circumstances of his death, claiming he was killed in a shootout between police and armed men, a provincial minister said.

The statement marks the first time the government has accused security forces of what the doctor’s family and rights groups have said amounted to an extrajudicial killing carried out by police.

The doctor, Shah Nawaz, from the southern Sindh province, had given himself up to police last week in the district of Mirpur Khas, following assurances that he would be given a chance to prove his innocence.

Days earlier in the city of Umerkot, a mob claimed he insulted Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and shared blasphemous content on social media, and demanded his arrest. The mob also burned Nawaz’s clinic.

According to the provincial Interior Minister, Ziaul Hassan, a government probe concluded that Nawaz was killed shortly after he gave himself up to authorities in what was a staged “fake encounter” engineered by the security forces.

There was no shootout with armed men as police had claimed, Hassan told reporters at a news conference in the southern port city of Karachi, and added that Nawaz’s family will be able to file murder charges against police officers who killed him.

Hours after Nawaz was fatally shot and his body handed over to his family, a mob snatched it from Nawaz’s father and burned it.

Hassan’s statement backed up Nawaz’s family allegations earlier this week.

Accusations of blasphemy, sometimes even just rumors, can spark riots and mob rampages in Pakistan. Although killings of blasphemy suspects by mobs are common, extrajudicial killings by police are rare.

‘Eye for an eye’

Under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death, though authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy.

Nawaz’s father thanked the government for backing the family and demanded that his son’s killers face justice under the eye-for-an-eye concept under Sharia, or Islamic law.

“We have only one demand: Those police officers who staged the killing of my son … must also be killed in the same manner,” said Nawaz’s father, Mohammad Saleh.

Saleh told The Associated Press over the phone that he was grateful for all the support the family was given and to all those who condemned extremist clerics who had enraged the mob with calls for his son to be killed.

“Those who killed my son should be punished quickly so that others learn a lesson and not indulge in extrajudicial killings in the future,” said Nawaz’s mother, Rehmat Kunbar.

She added her son can no longer come back to her but that she wants to save the children of other parents from the hands of extremists.

Nawaz’s killing was the second case of an extrajudicial killing by police this month in Pakistan.

A week before, an officer opened fire inside a police station in the southwestern city of Quetta, fatally wounding Syed Khan, a suspect held on accusations of blasphemy.

Khan was arrested after officers rescued him from an enraged mob that claimed he had insulted Islam’s prophet. But he was killed by a police officer, Mohammad Khurram, who was quickly arrested. However, the tribe and the family of the slain man later said they had pardoned the officer.

Israel carried out part of its device attack targeting Hezbollah by concealing explosives inside the batteries of pagers brought into Lebanon, according to two high-ranking Lebanese security officials, who said the technology was so advanced that it was virtually undetectable.

Lebanese security officials watched a series of controlled explosions of some of the weaponized pagers, as investigations into who manufactured the wireless communication devices and how they made their way into Hezbollah’s pockets continued.

The pagers used in the controlled explosions were switched off at the time of the attack on September 17, which meant they did not receive the message that caused the compromised devices to detonate. The officials had a front-row seat to see just how catastrophic the blasts would have been to those carrying the devices and others around them.

Thousands of explosions struck Hezbollah members last week, targeting their pagers on Tuesday, and then walkie-talkies a day later. In all, the blasts killed at least 37 people, including some children, and injured nearly 3,000, according to Lebanese health authorities, many of them civilian bystanders. The attack blindsided the group, which had opted for analogue technologies after forgoing cell phones to avoid Israeli infiltration.

An improvised explosive device has five key components: A power source, an initiator, a detonator, an explosive charge and a case to put it all in. Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert, said that only a detonator and explosive charge would have been needed to weaponize the pagers, which already have the other three components.

“It had to be done in such a way to make it invisible,” Moorhouse said, adding that one way to do that could have been modifying the battery itself – implanting an electronic detonator and small explosive charge inside of its metal casing, which would have made it impossible to detect with imaging, for example X-rays.

Other experts who reviewed footage of the blasts also said that explosive devices appeared to have been hidden in the pagers, suggesting a sophisticated supply chain attack involving a state actor.

That tallied with initial assessments by Lebanese authorities. Lebanon’s mission to the United Nations said in a letter sent to the UN Security Council last Friday that a preliminary investigation found that the communications devices were implanted with explosives before arriving in the country, tampered with “in a professional way” by “foreign entities.”

Mysterious supply chain stretches from Taiwan to Hungary

Multiple photos from the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Lebanon show remnants of the exploded pagers – also known as beepers – that were consistent with a model made by a Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, and fragments of walkie-talkies identified as the make of a Japanese firm, ICOM.

Lebanese authorities have said that the devices used in the attacks were Gold Apollo Rugged Pager AR-924 pagers and ICOM IC-V82 walkie-talkies. Both Gold Apollo and ICOM have distanced themselves from the compromised devices.

ICOM said that the IC-V82 model was discontinued a decade ago, and it could not determine whether the devices targeted in Lebanon were counterfeit or shipped from its company. Counterfeit versions are widely available for purchase on e-commerce websites, like Alibaba. Lebanon’s communications ministry said the IC-V82 radios used in the attacks were not supplied by a recognized agent, were not officially licensed and had not been vetted by the security services.

International investigative efforts have largely zeroed in on the Gold Apollo AR-924 pagers – tracing the model’s licensing and manufacturing from Taiwan to apparent shell companies to try to establish how the Israeli operation may have been carried out. The New York Times reported, citing three intelligence officers briefed on the operation, that Israel had set up at least three shell companies to disguise the identities of those making the pagers – Israeli intelligence officers.

The chairman and founder of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, Hsu Ching-kuang, was questioned by Taiwanese prosecutors last Thursday before being released.

Wu set up a company called Apollo Systems Ltd in April of this year, listed under a Taipei address that appears to be a co-working space, according to corporate records. It is not clear if Wu was operating for BAC Consulting in Taipei under her new company name, Apollo Systems Ltd.

In December 2022 and February 2023, a YouTube channel for Apollo Systems HK uploaded two videos of the Gold Apollo AR-924 pager touting its “high-capacity lithium rechargeable battery” and other features. On its YouTube channel and website, Apollo Systems HK said that it had acquired the “sole distribution rights” to Gold Apollo pager systems. It also listed the AR-924 model as a product available for purchase.

Customs records in Taiwan, cited by the officials, showed that Gold Apollo shipped more than 20,000 pagers from Taiwan to the United States in the first eight months of 2024. More than 5,000 pagers were shipped to Hong Kong, while more than 3,000 pagers were shipped to Australia.

The Taiwanese officials said they had also checked the order history and the source of raw components for Gold Apollo pagers, adding that pager manufacturing was tightly controlled in Taiwan and that devices undergo regular inspections.

The Taiwanese prosecutors’ office is reviewing documents it obtained from Gold Apollo’s office. In a statement last Thursday, the prosecutors’ office said that there had “been no evidence found so far to suggest any involvements (sic) of Taiwanese nationals in the explosive terror attack.”

Investigations into the supply chain are also ongoing in Europe, where authorities are probing the Hungarian company, BAC Consulting, and another firm linked to Bulgaria and Norway, for any connections to the pager attack targeting Hezbollah.

There is no record of Gold Apollo exporting any pagers to Hungary in 2023 or 2024, the two Taiwanese officials said, citing custom records in Taiwan. In 2022, the company exported about 200 pagers to Hungary, they added.

Hungarian intelligence services have interviewed Bársony-Arcidiacono several times as part of their investigation into BAC Consulting but have not found any evidence that the pagers used in the attack were manufactured in the country, the government’s press office said in a statement. “The results have clearly established that the so-called ‘beepers’ were never present on Hungarian soil, and no Hungarian company or expert was involved in their production or modification,” it said.

Bulgarian authorities said they were investigating Norta Global Ltd after Hungarian media reported last week that the Sofia-based company was involved in the sale of the pagers to Hezbollah. Bulgaria’s national security agency DANS said that no pagers used in the attack were “imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria,” and that Norta Global Ltd had not carried out terrorist financing, or traded with anyone subject to sanctions. Bulgaria’s caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev told reporters last Friday that the company under investigation was “a cash flow, mailbox-type of firm,” and that its director “acted by proxy.”

Hezbollah digs into devices’ supply chain

Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, in an address last Thursday, said that the militant group had formed multiple internal investigative committees to get to the bottom of what happened, vowing a “reckoning” for those responsible.

“Regarding the explosions, we have reached an almost certain conclusion, but we still need some time to confirm it,” Nasrallah said. “This entire matter is under thorough investigation and review, from the company that sold the devices, to manufacturing, transportation, arrival in Lebanon, and distribution, all the way to the moment of the explosion.”

He added that while the apparent goal of the attack was to kill as many senior Hezbollah officials as possible, much of the leadership had been unaffected because they were carrying older pager models, suggesting that the form of communication has been used by the group for some time.

“These attacks represent a new development in warfare, where communication tools become weapons, simultaneously exploding across marketplaces, on street corners, and in homes as daily life unfolds,” UN human rights chief Volker Türk told the Security Council last Friday. “Authorities have reportedly dismantled unexploded devices in universities, banks, and hospitals.”

He added that simultaneously targeting thousands of people – whether civilians or armed forces – without the knowledge of who is in possession of the targeted devices and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law.

Iran’s delegate to the UN said that Israel had intended to kill at least 5,000 civilians, but some devices were deactivated or not distributed. The delegate said that Israel had again “crossed a red line,” noting that Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was among those injured.

Senior UN officials warned that the devices attack marked a turning point, calling for de-escalation and a ceasefire in Gaza before a war consumes the whole of the Middle East. Others said that the technology apparently used marked “dangerous new territory” in the world of warfare.

South Korean lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that criminalizes possessing or watching sexually explicit deepfake images and videos, with penalties set to include prison terms and fines.

There has been an outcry in South Korea over Telegram group chats where sexually explicit and illegal deepfakes were created and widely shared, prompting calls for tougher punishment.

Anyone purchasing, saving or watching such material could face up to three years in jail or be fined up to 30 million won ($22,600), according to the bill.

Currently, making sexually explicit deepfakes with the intention of distributing them is punishable by five years in prison or a fine of 50 million won ($37,900) under the Sexual Violence Prevention and Victims Protection Act.

When the new law takes effect, the maximum sentence for such crimes will also increase to seven years regardless of the intention.

The bill will now need the approval of President Yoon Suk Yeol in order to be enacted.

South Korean police have so far handled more than 800 deepfake sex crime cases this year, the Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday.

That compares with 156 for all of 2021, when data was first collated. Most victims and perpetrators are teenagers, police say.

Earlier this month, police launched an investigation into Telegram that will look at whether the encrypted messaging app has been complicit in the distribution of sexually explicit deepfake content.

Countries around the world are grappling with how to respond to the proliferation of deepfake material.

The US congress is debating several pieces of legislation including one that would allow victims of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes to sue, and one that would criminalize the publication of such imagery and make tech companies remove it.

Earlier this year, social media platform X blocked users from searching for Taylor Swift after fake sexually explicit images of the pop singer proliferated on social media.