While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 5, 2026

Snap polls will be held in Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan after the state’s ruler gave his consent for the legislative assembly to be dissolved on June 5.

Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun told reporters at a hastily arranged press conference at his official residence at 11.30pm on June 4 that Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir had given his consent to dissolve the assembly during an audience at Istana Hinggap at 8.30pm.

Talk of snap polls began making its rounds at the end of April after the 14 Barisan assemblymen from Umno withdrew support for Aminuddin’s government.

The last state polls were held on Aug 12, 2023.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky published an open letter to President Vladimir Putin on June 4 in which he proposed the two leaders meet to agree an end to more than four years of war, warning that Kyiv stood ready to fight on otherwise.

In his letter, which the president’s office said had been sent to other countries, including the United States, Zelensky said the majority of Russians had grown tired of Ukrainian missile and drone attacks, inflation and fuel shortages, and were ready for peace.

Zelensky said that with the United States focused on the conflict in Iran “it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the centre of its attention”.

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Outrage has erupted in France after it emerged the main suspect in the case of an 11-year-old girl missing since last week had been repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children with no action taken.

A body was discovered on June 4 and formal identification was under way, an informed source told AFP.

In a case that has made headlines, dozens of police and volunteers have for days been combing countryside in southwestern France to find 11-year-old Lyhanna.

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Dutch police said on June 4 they had arrested four men during an investigation involving several women being drugged and sexually assaulted, with echoes of the Gisele Pelicot case that shocked France.

“Information indicates that multiple women in the Netherlands may have been drugged by someone in their immediate circle,” police said in a statement.

“Subsequently, sexual acts were performed on the victims while they were being filmed,” authorities added.

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Former Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola will take over as Liverpool’s manager on a two-year deal, the Premier League club said on June 4.

The 43-year-old replaces Dutchman Arne Slot, who led Liverpool to the Premier League title in his debut campaign but was sacked after failing to live up to expectations in his second season.

“You don’t need a lot of things to get attracted by Liverpool. Liverpool is Liverpool,” Iraola said in a statement.

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