Today’s newsletter covers Indonesia’s new capital city, north-south divide in England, the Philippine presidential election, Lisbon data breaches and more.

Nusantara will replace Jarkarta as the new capital of Indonesia
Indonesia’s parliament has approved a bill to relocate the capital from Jakarta to the island of Borneo. It will be called Nusantara, an old Javanese name for Indonesia.
British think tank highlights England’s regional social-economic gaps
Between 2014 and 2019, the government spent 34% less for someone who lived in the north of England than in London. A British think tank denounces centralized power and unfulfilled promises.
Petition to bar the son of former Philippine dictator from presidential run dismissed
The Philippines Commission on Elections dismissed a petition trying to bar Marcos Jr from running for the next presidential elections. The son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos leads opinion polls and appears as a favorite to Rodrigo Duterte’s succession in 2022.
Lisbon fined €1.25m for sharing personal data with foreign embassies
Between 2012 and 2021, the Lisbon mayor’s office transferred personal data of protest organizers to foreign embassies targeted by the protests. Lisbon is fined because of infringements to European Union’s data protection regulation passed in 2018. The fine amounts to 0.1% of the city’s annual budget.
Kosovo refused to open polling centers for Serbia’s referendum
Kosovo’s Prime Minister argued ethnic Serbs should vote by mail or in Serbia’s representative office. “Kosovo is an independent and sovereign state and should be treated as such”, he said in parliament. The European Union and the United States urged Kosovo to allow Serbs to exercise their right to vote. Votes of the referendum approved the constitutional changes providing a more independent justice system in Serbia.