Tunisia, North Korea, Zambia

Today's three stories you should know

Tunisia

A Tunisian MP has been jailed for eight months over social media posts that were deemed to have mocked President Kais Saied’s response to deadly flooding earlier this month. Ahmed Saidani, posting about Saied’s visits to flood-hit areas, called the president the "supreme commander of sanitation and rainwater drainage." Rights groups criticised the case as the latest example of Saied’s crackdown on dissent and lurch to dictatorship since he suspended parliament in 2021, consolidated almost all executive power in his hands and began to rule by decree. Several opposition figures and rights activists have been jailed. The 67-year-old denies that he is a dictator and says he is working to "cleanse" Tunisia.

More from BBC here.

NB: Proximities has published a deep dive on Saied’s authoritarianism for paid subscribers. Consider going paid for weekly Q&As that put our world in context.

North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has opened the Ninth Party Congress, the country’s biggest political event, with a speech lauding an improved economy and stronger diplomatic standing. The Congress, held every five years, often also marks changes in party leadership roles and there is speculation Kim may use the conclave to anoint his daughter, reported to be named Kim Ju Ae and about 13, as his successor, publicly formalizing a fourth-generation succession. Kim appeared emboldened by an economy that has recovered from a battering in 2020 and by closer relations with Moscow. He did not mention the U.S. or South Korea, which his government continues to view as Pyongyang’s main foes.

More from The Korea Times here.

Zambia

A macabre stand-off has developed in Zambia over the remains of former President Edgar Lungu, who died eight months ago. Current President Hakainde Hichilema wants Lungu to be buried in a state funeral but the former president’s family say that in his final days he asked that Hichilema not be allowed anywhere near his body, even as a mourner. The extraordinary row has now gone to the courts, which have sided with the government, while Lungu’s body remains in a funeral home in South Africa, where he died. With Hichilema up for re-election in August, analysts now say that former bitter rival Lungu is fighting back from the dead. AP today published a fascinating report on the impasse.

More from AP here.