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Syria's transitional parliament began its first session on Sunday, state television reported, tasked with drafting the country's new constitution and laying the groundwork for democracy after decades of authoritarian rule.Syria's new authorities dissolved the country's rubber-stamp legislature after toppling longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, and adopted a temporary constitutional declaration to cover a five-year transition period.In October last year, in a process criticised as undemocratic, local committees appointed by the electoral commission — which in turn was appointed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa — began selecting two-thirds of the 210 members of the new parliament.Al-Sharaa appointed the remaining 70 members last week.The session began on Sunday with 206 members, excluding those from Druze-majority Sweida province in the south and one member who died between being named and the parliament convening.Sweida still has not designated its members following sectarian bloodshed there last year, though al-Sharaa appointed two representatives from the province.The selection process was held in formerly Kurdish-run areas of the north and northeast earlier this year, after the Damascus authorities assumed control there and signed a deal on integrating Kurdish institutions into the state.Representatives were sworn in and elected Abdelhalim al-Awwak, a legal expert from Hasakeh province and one of the drafters of last year's constitutional declaration, as speaker of parliament with 99 votes.In his opening remarks, al-Sharaa called on lawmakers to be "models of responsibility and competence, and to contribute to establishing a culture of dialogue, the rule of law, and respect for institutions", adding that the country was writing "a new chapter in its history".Claudio Cordone, deputy UN special envoy for Syria, called the parliament's first session "a key milestone in the country's political transition", adding that they "will follow its work closely and stand ready to support" it.During its renewable 30-months mandate, the parliament is expected to undertake several tasks — most notably forming a committee to draft the constitution, approving the budget, and proposing and amending laws.But major challenges related to the legislature's independence and the separation of powers remain, according to analysts.Syrians have criticised the mechanism for forming parliament, citing the absence of direct elections and the underrepresentation of women.Civil society organisations have also decried the concentration of all executive power in the hands of al-Sharaa, in the absence of a prime minister.The underrepresentation of Syria's various religious and ethnic groups was also criticised.Political scientist Ibrahim al-Asil told AFP that the parliament could not be judged without first seeing how it performs."Parliament can fulfill its role by enacting legislation and overseeing the government's work," particularly by developing and amending laws, he said.The parliament has "an opportunity to build its independence, which requires the president to step back and allow it to manage its own affairs", he added."The independence of the parliament from the executive branch is fundamental to its success." 

The Shura Council convened Monday at Tamim bin Hamad Hall, chaired by His Excellency the Speaker Hassan bin Abdullah al-Ghanem.His Excellency the Shura Council Secretary-General Nayef bin Mohammed al-Mahmoud read out the agenda, with the legislature approving the minutes of its previous session.The council discussed a draft law submitted by a number of council members concerning the digital protection of children.HE al-Ghanem referred the proposal to the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee, with the latter to submit its report to the council accordingly.Following deliberation, the legislature unanimously approved to submit the proposal as well to the Health, General Services and the Environment Committee in order to weigh in on it in terms of various aspects and then submit it to the council.The proposal is laid out amid the rapid expansion the world is witnessing in the utilisation of digital means and platforms by children, coupled with potential challenges and risks related to protection of data and privacy, triggering the exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, and digital exploitation.This digital manifestation obviously precipitates the development of legislative frameworks that boost child protection in the digital environment and keep up with the accelerated technological transformations.In addition, the council endorsed two bills on the Owners’ Association and Measurement, in their amended forms, and referred them to the government after the council members pored over the details of the supplementary report of the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee, alongside the report of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee.The council also weighed in on a report by Her Excellency the Deputy Speaker of the Shura Council Dr Hamda bint Hassan al-Sulaiti on Doha hosting, through the Council, the 298th session of the Executive Committee meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, convened in January 2026.Similarly, the council debated the participation of council member Dr Sultan bin Hassan al-Dosari in the temporary diplomatic committee of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU), held in Cairo in August last year.This is alongside the report of the participation of council member Abdullah bin Nasser bin Turki al-Subaie in the 57th Meeting of the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), which convened in Abu Dhabi in January. 

North Korea will never give up nuclear weapons, leader Kim Jong-un said, indicating that it will soon designate South Korea the "most hostile state", according to a state media report Tuesday.Kim also told the country's rubber-stamp legislature in a policy address on Monday that the US was committing "state terrorism", in an apparent reference to its military attacks on Iran."We will continue to firmly consolidate our status as a nuclear-armed state as an irreversible course, while aggressively stepping up our struggle against hostile forces," Kim told the Supreme People's Assembly."We will, in line with the mission entrusted by the Constitution of the Republic... further expand and advance our self-defensive nuclear deterrent," Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.While the US and Israel have said that their attacks on Iran are to stop the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons — an aim Tehran denies — Pyongyang is thought to be light years ahead by comparison.Despite years of sanctions and diplomatic isolation, the Chinese ally is estimated to have dozens of nuclear warheads and the fissile material for many more.It has also unveiled increasingly sophisticated delivery systems, including new solid?fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles that can launch with little warning.Kim, a day after his reappointment as head of the authoritarian nation's highest policymaking body, the State Affairs Commission, also did not mince words about his southern neighbour."We will designate South Korea as the most hostile state and deal with it by thoroughly rejecting and disregarding it," Kim said.The announcement came despite repeated overtures by President Lee Jae Myung, a doveish leader who took office in June, for dialogue without preconditions. Pyongyang has ignored these gestures.Pyongyang will "make it pay mercilessly — without the slightest consideration or hesitation — for any act that infringes upon our Republic," Kim added.Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said that Kim's comments on consolidating its nuclear status showed Pyongyang sees US actions in Iran and Venezuela with "deep concern and seriousness"."It indicates that Kim and the leadership... interpret these developments as reinforcing their decision to pursue the further advancement of North Korea's nuclear capabilities," Hong told AFP.Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, said that: "Iran's experience once again confirmed what the North Koreans have always known, (that) in the modern world, the only security guarantee is, well, nuclear weapons."Donald Trump met Kim in his first term and there has been speculation of a re-run when the US president makes his delayed visit to China next month.Kim, who was greeted with cheering crowds and received a standing ovation in the assembly, said Monday that the US is "carrying out acts of state terrorism and aggression across the world."Washington and its allies "are constantly bringing nuclear strategic assets into the areas surrounding our country, shaking the foundations of regional security," Kim said.This refers to systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons, even if the US does not actually deploy them with nuclear payloads, explained Lim Eul-chul, an expert on North Korea at Kyungnam University.Pyongyang also thinks it is possible that nuclear-powered submarines that South Korea wants to make could be armed with nuclear weapons — "a potential that is not entirely unfounded," Lim told AFP.On the economy, Kim outlined a goal of increasing industrial output by 1.5 times.Progress made "shattered... false claims of hostile forces that there can be no prosperity without nuclear abandonment", he said.Kim said 15.8 % of the total spending for 2026 will be on defence, compared to 15.7 % in 2025.He also proposed creating a formal "police system," signalling a shift from the traditional reliance on broader public security forces.He said this would strengthen legal frameworks and elevate public order, calling it "essential" for national security and social stability, and "advantageous" to "realise cooperation with police organisations in other countries." 

North Korea's rubber-stamp legislature has re-elected Kim Jong-un as president of state affairs, state media reported Monday.Kim's reappointment as head of the authoritarian nation's highest policymaking and governing body, the State Affairs Commission, was announced by the state news agency KCNA.Critics argue that elections in North Korea are pre-determined and designed to give the country's leadership a veneer of democratic legitimacy."The Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK re-elected Comrade Kim Jong-un as President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the First Session, the first state affairs activity of its 15th term, on March 22," KCNA reported.The report said the decision to re-elect Kim to the "top post" reflected "the unanimous will and desire of all the Korean people".Kim is the third-generation ruler of the nuclear-armed state founded by his grandfather Kim Il-sung in 1948. He has ruled the country since his father's death in 2011.The election is a "highly choreographed event with a pre-determined outcome", said Lee Ho-ryung of the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses."Throughout the third-generation rule, the North has staged such events to showcase a procedure in an attempt to achieve political legitimacy," she said."But no one thinks any different outcome would emerge from it."Photos released by KCNA show Kim dressed in a formal western suit and seated at the centre of a stage, flanked by top officials in front of two giant statues of his father Kim Jong-il and grandfather.Prior to the event, 687 deputies were elected to the SPA, with North Koreans over 17 given the choice of approving or rejecting the sole candidate put forward by the ruling party.The new deputies were duly approved with 99.93% of votes in favour and 0.07% against, KCNA reported earlier, with turnout at 99.99%.The Pyongyang assembly hall was "full of the extraordinary political awareness and revolutionary enthusiasm" by the newly elected members, it said.Analysts say the current assembly session may also take up possible constitutional amendments that could include formally codifying inter-Korean relations as those between "two hostile states".The language Kim uses to describe his stance towards South Korea in his assembly speech will be a "barometer" of his inter-Korea plans, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP."The extent to which terms such as 'national unification' or 'Korean unity' are removed and replaced by aggressive expressions including 'territorial control' could serve as a barometer of his ideological framework," he said.The key point lies in how far he will "flesh out issues of territory, territorial waters and airspace" in dealing with Seoul, he added.The gathering follows a five-yearly meeting of the ruling party last month. 

Chileans are voting in a presidential election Sunday that's pitting the governing leftist coalition against an array of right-wing candidates and will also redefine the country's legislature. There are eight candidates in the race and none are expected to get the 50% plus one vote needed to win the election outright, likely triggering a run-off between the top two candidates on December 14.Chilean law bans opinion polls 15 days before elections but the last numbers showed Jeannette Jara, the governing coalition candidate from the Communist Party, in the lead, with far-right Jose Antonio Kast, from the Republican Party, in second.Experienced moderate-right politician Evelyn Matthei, a former mayor and senator, led early polls but dipped in recent months and has been trading third place with libertarian firebrand Johannes Kaiser from the National Libertarian Party.Polling stations around Santiago, mostly at schools, filled with orderly lines of voters in the morning hours.First-time voter Samanta Paredes, 30, in Santiago's historic downtown, said she hoped voting would proceed calmly and create a middle-road path for Chile."I hope a more centered person wins, that the extremes don't win, because they're never good for anyone," she said.Law graduate German Rojas, 33, also said he hoped the election could create a spirit of unity, rather than polarisation."I'm not clear if one option or another has a better chance. But I hope that whoever wins has the capacity that Chile needs."Polls are expected to close at 6pm, but will remain open if there are still voting lines. Initial results are expected quickly with a full count within hours.Crime and immigration have dominated the electoral agenda, a far cry from the wave of left-wing optimism and hopes of drafting a new constitution that brought current President Gabriel Boric, who isn't allowed to run for reelection, to power.Even as they left their local polling stations on Sunday, candidates nodded to pledges to fight crime."People who would like to go out to see friends or go to the movies don't dare to because of crime. We have too much to do," Matthei told reporters.Another shift from the previous election is a mandatory vote for the 15.7mn registered voters. The previous election saw an abstention rate of 53% in the first-round vote and the large amount of apathetic or undecided residents set to cast ballots adds a wild card to the race."It's an unprecedented scenario we haven't lived through and it's playing out in a presidential election," said Guillermo Holzmann, a political analyst from the University of Valparaiso, who added the vote would be very difficult to predict, adding that polls in Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador failed to predict recent results."(New voters) don't think in terms of left, right or center, they think in terms of what changes are needed and what will benefit them," he said.Most of Congress is also up for grabs, with the entirety of the 155-member lower house and 23 of the country's 50 Senate seats in contention.The governing leftist coalition currently has a minority in both chambers and right-wing majorities in both could set the stage for Congress and the presidency to be controlled by the right for the first time since the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in 1990.

Legal PerspectiveTo regulate and streamline the companies process, the intention of the legislature generally speaking, was that the company’s objects should be set out very precise and succinctly. This issue raised many legal and operational debates due to its importance for companies.Mainly, the idea is that the promoters should simply specify in general terms the business they intend to carry on during the tenure of the company. In this respect, the powers of the company which may be required as incidental to that businesspower are not intended to be specified as these would be implied by law.In fact, for long time, the courts have interpreted the legal provisions in a liberal spirit and agreed that everything reasonably incidental to the specified objects or powers of the company will be intra vires and not ultra vires. As a result, there is considerable body of case law deciding what powers will be implied in case of particular types of enterprise and the activities that can be regarded as reasonably incidental to others.However, many business owners show some reluctance in leaving matters to implication, they preferred to set out in the memorandum the ancillary powers which specify only the business which they thought they would need. Moreover, they were not content to specify only the business which the company was initially intended to follow, but preferred also to name and specify all other businesses which they might conceivably want to turn to in the future of the company.Generally, they put this in a very general term as, “and other powers that are ancillary to the main objects of the company”. Due to this, memorandums became far from simplicity as they contain statements of too many objects and also other ancillary powers covering every conceivable and all incidental powers which might be needed to accomplish them. This at least makes it less hazardous to enter into transactions with a company for the likelihood of their being ultra vires is remote.On the other hand, it offers little assurance of the preservation of the company’s assets and less control over the activities of directors, surprisingly at it may seem. As ironically stated by some parties in the business, “The modern gold mining co”, may quite have powers under the memorandum to operate fried-fish shops or grocery outlets. Or, a licensed bank to undertake aviation services or transportation commuting facilities. However, I believe, this is too far and out of context and for sure this kind of activities would be ultra vires with all relevant harsh legal consequences.To conclude, companies and directors shall endeavour to work intra vires and within the specific direct objects of the company and not to detour out of the route as this could easily end up as ultra vires, which could be very costly for both the company and likewise the Directors of the company. Hence, we urge all types of companies, small or big, to be very aware of their direct clear intra vires objectives. Moreover, the regulatory authorities shall keep an open vigilant eye all through, to make sure that “business is in order”. Dr AbdelGadir Warsama Ghalib is a corporate legal counsel. Email: [email protected]