Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Twitter faces lawsuit over alleged non-payment for office services in four countries

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Australia-based company Facilitate seeks more than A$1m for work done at offices in London, Dublin, Sydney and Singapore

Twitter is facing another lawsuit after the company was accused of failing to pay for services for offices in London, Dublin, Sydney and Singapore.

Sydney-based infrastructure company Facilitate is seeking a collective payment over A$1m ($666,000) across the three businesses in alleged owed payments dating back to October last year, when Elon Musk bought Twitter.

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US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen to visit China to build ‘healthy’ ties with Beijing

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Yellen heads to Beijing this week in move one expert calls an attempt to ‘put some floor’ under strained economic ties

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen will visit Beijing this week, marking the second trip by a cabinet official to China since ties between the world’s top two economies deteriorated earlier this year.

Yellen is expected to discuss with her counterparts the importance for both countries “to responsibly manage our relationship, communicate directly about areas of concern, and work together to address global challenges”, said the Treasury Department in a statement on Sunday.

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Agency behind ‘Love the Philippines’ tourism video sorry for using shots of other countries

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Agency DDB Philippines apologises for using ‘highly inappropriate’ images that stock footage providers offer from Brazil and Indonesia

A tourism campaign for the Philippines backfired after the creators of a video promoting the archipelago nation as a holiday destination said it had used stock shots from other countries.

Advertising agency DDB Philippines apologised on Sunday for the “highly inappropriate” images, which included rice terraces in Indonesia and sand dunes in Brazil.

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EU softens China strategy by adopting ‘de-risking’ approach

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Decision agreed quickly at Brussels summit of leaders as bloc highlights vulnerability of supply chains

EU leaders have launched a policy towards China of “de-risking”, a softening of its unofficial “decoupling” approach that reflects concerns over the economic damage of cutting off the world’s second-biggest economy or entering a trade war with it.

The decision was agreed quickly at a summit of leaders in Brussels after the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, went into the summit with consensus among the 27 member states.

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Hong Kong pro-democracy radio station closes citing ‘dangerous’ political situation

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Citizens’ Radio to close on third anniversary of national security law that has led to demise of several other liberal media outlets

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy online Citizens’ Radio station will cease operations on Friday owing to what its founder described as a “dangerous” political situation and the freezing of its bank account.

Launched in 2005 by veteran activist Tsang Kin-shing, the Cantonese-language broadcaster gained a steady following for its hard-hitting talkshows that were critical of authorities, as well as its years-long campaign for press freedom.

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Woman’s leg amputated at Bangkok airport after getting stuck in moving walkway

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Airport expresses ‘deepest condolences’ after 57-year-old gets caught and has left leg removed from above the knee

A woman’s leg has been amputated in a Thai airport after it became trapped by a movable walkway on Thursday, officials said.

The 57-year-old Thai passenger was due to board a morning flight from Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport to Nakhon Si Thammarat province when she was caught by the walkway in Terminal 2. A medical team there eventually had to remove her left leg from above the knee, according to the airport’s officials.

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Hiroshima bomb survivors say peace park agreement with Pearl Harbor is an ‘insult’

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Several groups wrote to the Hiroshima city government asking it not to sign the agreement with US counterparts

Survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima have reacted angrily to an agreement that links the city’s peace park with a memorial in Pearl Harbor.

The sister-park agreement, signed this week by the US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, and the mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, is designed to promote peace and friendship between the former Pacific war enemies.

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Low emission zones are improving health, studies show

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Review of research finds particularly clear evidence that LEZs in cities reduce heart and circulatory problems

An increasing number of research studies are showing that low emission zones (LEZs) improve health.

More than 320 zones are operating across the UK, Europe and notably in Tokyo, Japan. These reduce air pollution across an area by curbing the number of highly polluting vehicles, normally older diesels. Schemes, including London’s ultra-low emission zone, can improve air quality. This should lead to improved health, but does this actually happen?

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UK foreign secretary calls for expansion of UN security council

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James Cleverly says global south deserves more powerful voice at top table and review needed into five permanent members’ veto

The global south deserves a more powerful voice at the world’s top table by expanding the UN security council, the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said.

Cleverly also called for a review of the use of the veto by the council’s five permanent members, adding that the world’s poorest countries feel their voice is not heard even on issues of direct concern to them.

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New Zealand broadcaster reprimanded over ‘graphic’ dolphin mating scene

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Nature series Our Big Blue Backyard drew one complaint to media watchdog that it should not have given the program a G, or general, classification

New Zealand’s media watchdog has reprimanded public broadcaster TVNZ for not giving a higher classification to a documentary with “dramatised” scenes of dolphin mating.

The nature series Our Big Blue Backyard drew the ire of one viewer who successfully complained to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA). In the offending scene, a female dolphin is targeted by a pack of male dolphins that mate with her.

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China on course to hit wind and solar power target five years ahead of time

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Beijing bolstering position as global renewables leader with solar capacity more than rest of world combined

China is shoring up its position as the world leader in renewable power and potentially outpacing its own ambitious energy targets, a report has found.

China is set to double its capacity and produce 1,200 gigawatts of energy through wind and solar power by 2025, reaching its 2030 goal five years ahead of time, according to the report by Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based NGO that tracks operating utility-scale wind and solar farms as well as future projects in the country.

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Climate crisis linked to rising domestic violence in south Asia, study finds

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Increase of 1C in average annual temperature connected to more than 6% rise in physical and sexual domestic violence

As deadly heatwaves sweep through cities in India, China, the US and Europe amid the climate crisis, new research has found that rising temperatures are associated with a substantial rise in domestic violence against women.

A study published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday found a 1C increase in average annual temperature was connected to a rise of more than 6.3% in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence across three south Asian countries.

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Xi Jinping praises ‘great importance’ of China-New Zealand relations

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Amid rising global tensions, Chinese leader tells PM, Chris Hipkins, his visit to Beijing is meaningful

Xi Jinping has praised the “great importance” of China’s relationship with its “friend and partner” New Zealand, as Chris Hipkins visits Beijing to promote trade amid growing geopolitical tensions.

Speaking after the two leaders met in the Chinese capital on Tuesday evening, Xi told reporters through an interpreter: “I myself [am] attaching great importance to our relations with New Zealand,” and “China always views New Zealand as a friend and a partner”.

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Japanese kabuki actor arrested for allegedly assisting in his mother’s suicide

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Ennosuke Ichikawa detained after both parents found unconscious at his Tokyo home last month

One of Japan’s best-known kabuki actors has been arrested on suspicion of assisting in his mother’s suicide after both parents were found unconscious at his home last month.

Police said Ennosuke Ichikawa, a 47-year-old star of the classical theatre form, “allegedly made a 75-year-old woman take sleep-inducing pills at his home and die of psychoactive drug addiction, thereby assisting in her suicide”.

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‘We could lose our status as a state’: what happens to a people when their land disappears

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Small island countries press for guarantees as rising sea levels risk leaving their citizens stateless

Small island nations would rather fight than flee, but rising sea levels have prompted apocalyptic legal discussions about whether a state is still a state if its land disappears below the waves.

The Pacific Islands Forum, which represents many of the most vulnerable countries, has invited international legal experts to consider this question and begun a diplomatic campaign to ensure that political statehood continues even after a nation’s physical fabric is submerged.

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Japan approves trial sales of over-the-counter emergency contraceptives

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The move is a major policy shift in country’s male-dominated parliament and brings Japan into line with more than 90 other countries

Japan is to permit the sale of emergency contraceptives without prescription on a trial basis, weeks after it approved the abortion pill.

The move, reported by media on Tuesday, will bring Japan into line with dozens of other countries where the morning-after pill is already available over the counter.

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Philippine job agencies cheating women with illegal fees and crippling loans

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Migrants NGO finds recruiters making applicants pay for medical fees and training by taking out credit at exorbitant rates of interest

Employment agencies and money-lending companies in the Philippines are cheating women applying for jobs abroad out of thousands of pounds by charging illegal fees paid with high-interest loans, interviews and documents show.

Interviews with hundreds of women and thousands of pages of complaints compiled by a migrant rights organisation showed job agencies charged applicants training and medical fees that are above the legally allowed limit.

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‘Mind-boggling’ palm that flowers and fruits underground thrills scientists

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New species named Pinanga subterranea as Kew botanists admit they have no idea how its flowers are pollinated

A new-to-science palm species has been discovered in Borneo with the remarkable ability to flower and fruit underground. How the rare palm – named Pinanga subterranea – has survived is a mystery, as most plants have evolved to develop their flowers and fruit above ground to facilitate pollination and the dispersal of seeds.

“Pinanga subterranea is the only known species of palm to flower and fruit below ground,” said Dr Benedikt Kuhnhäuser, a future leader fellow at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who was part of the research team that collected specimens and ascertained that it was a new species. “Flowering and fruiting below ground is mind-boggling and seemingly paradoxical because they appear to prevent pollination and dispersal. We now know bearded pigs eat and disperse Pinanga subterranea’s fruits, but we’ve yet to find out how and by whom the flowers are pollinated.”

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New Zealand PM sparks row after flying to China with backup plane

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Reserve aircraft flew to Manila amid reliability concerns after ex-leaders Ardern and Key suffered breakdowns

The New Zealand defence force plane ferrying the country’s prime minister to China this week has been judged so unreliable that a backup plane flew in reserve, prompting criticism of Chris Hipkins by the opposition.

The use of a backup plane follows previous mishaps involving aircraft carrying New Zealand leaders.

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Weather tracker: China issues heatstroke alert amid historic heatwave

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Tianjin reports all-time record of 41.4C, while Texas and Mexico break numerous temperature records

Parts of north-east China are in the grip of a historic heatwave, with hundreds of weather stations reporting record highs for the month of June. On 22 June the capital Beijing observed a temperature of 41.1C (106F), a record high for the month, and the first time a temperature higher than 40C had been observed since 2014. On the same date, the city of Tianjin reported 41.4C, a new all-time record for any month. Additionally, Dagang had its hottest day on record, with a temperature of 41.8C.

The national weather bureau in China issued an alert for heatstroke last week, almost two weeks earlier than is typical from previous years. Authorities have advised people to suspend outdoor work during the middle part of the day, when the temperatures are at their highest. The high temperatures have also led to increased pressure on the power grid, with a more than 20% increase in demand reported in Tianjin on 15 June compared with last year. Temperatures in north-east China will remain on the extreme side over the coming week, with highs of 40-42C forecast each day in places. The all-time Beijing temperature of 41.9C could be seriously under threat.

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