Category Archives: Asia Pacific

China’s targeting of Australian military planes ‘aggressive and irresponsible’, US says

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Defense department’s Ely Ratner says such incidents represent ‘one of the most significant threats to peace and stability in the region’

China’s targeting of Australian military planes was “aggressive and irresponsible”, the United States Department of Defense says, and it “represents one of the most significant threats to peace and stability in the region”.

In comments released on Thursday morning, the US defense department’s Ely Ratner said Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific was an attempt to challenge the rules-based order and assert greater control in the area.

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Monkey put down but hunt still on after attacks in Japanese city

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Male identified as one of a group of monkeys that have wounded 49 people and counting in Yamaguchi

Hunters on the trail of a group of monkeys that have attacked and wounded nearly 50 people in western Japan have caught and killed one of them.

Officials in Yamaguchi city have been trying for weeks to track down the group, who have made national headlines by assaulting residents, leaving mostly mild scratches and bites.

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Philippines struck by powerful 7 magnitude earthquake, killing at least two

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Dozens injured after tremor hit mountainous area of Abra province, causing extensive damage to some homes and buildings

A strong earthquake left at least two people dead and injured dozens in the northern Philippines, where the temblor set off small landslides and damaged buildings and churches and prompted terrified crowds and hospital patients in the capital to rush outdoors.

The 7-magnitude quake centred in the province of Abra in a mountainous area, said Renato Solidum, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

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Albanese government continues push to keep parts of Bernard Collaery case secret

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Human Rights Law Centre says new attorney general should abandon the appeal and let judgment ‘finally see the light’

Lawyers for the Albanese government will maintain a push by the former attorney general to impose secrecy over parts of a key decision in the Bernard Collaery case.

Earlier this month, the attorney general Mark Dreyfus made the momentous decision to end the prosecution of Collaery for the lawyer’s role in exposing Australia’s 2004 bugging of Timor-Leste’s government, along with his client, a former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer known only as Witness K.

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Papua New Guinea election violence: what has caused it and what can be done?

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The massacre of 18 people in the Highlands confirmed fears that an outdated electoral roll and lack of security could lead to trouble

Voting in Papua New Guinea’s elections has been overshadowed by outbreaks of violence including the massacre of 18 people in the Highlands and a group of men attacking people with machetes outside a counting centre in Port Moresby.

Voting began at the beginning of July and continues until the end of the month. But what has caused the violence and what can be done to stop it?

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‘Nancy, I’ll go with you’: Trump allies back Pelosi’s proposed Taiwan visit

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Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper support visit to ‘freedom-loving Taiwan’ but Biden concerned any trip would antagonise Beijing

Plans for Nancy Pelosi, the US House speaker, to visit Taiwan have prompted opposition from China and the American military but support from Republicans in Washington, including former members of the Trump administration.

Trump’s second secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN: “I think if the speaker wants to go, she should go.”

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Blackouts in China as heatwave pushes electricity usage to record levels

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High temperatures expected to continue for at least another week with more than 300 cities forecast to reach 35C

A long-running heatwave in China has pushed electricity usage to record levels in some areas and led to blackouts, with warnings that the high temperatures are expected to continue for at least another week.

More than 300 cities were forecast to reach temperatures above 35C on Tuesday. China Southern Power Grid Company said Monday’s usage had surpassed last year’s peak load by 3%. The Guangdong province power grid also hit a record high, reaching 142m kilowatts, an increase of 4.89% over last year’s peak load. Blackouts were reported in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, which has recorded a full week of maximum temperatures above 37C, including highs of 40C on Sunday and Monday.

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Scott Morrison ditches parliament’s return to speak at Japan event not starting until Thursday

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Former PM says he is ‘unable to attend’ first sitting week in Canberra as Labor calls for details about Tokyo engagement

Scott Morrison has skipped the first sitting week of parliament to speak at a conservative leaders’ summit in Tokyo that does not begin until Thursday afternoon.

The former Australian prime minister and member for Cook announced on Monday that “as a consequence” of having accepted the invitation he is “unable to attend the first three sitting days of the new parliament this week”, from Tuesday 26 July to Thursday 28 July.

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Sunak ruse aims to outmanoeuvre Truss over China

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Analysis: claims by ex-chancellor about Foreign Office weakness towards Beijing look like an attempt to head off a similar attack on him

Rishi Sunak’s pre-emptive strike attacking Liz Truss over alleged Foreign Office pusillanimity towards China looks to have been a daring attempt to fend off an imminent assault from his Tory leadership rival.

But it locks the contestants into a potentially uncontrollable dogfight as they seek to prove their credentials as the truer enemy of authoritarianism.

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Monkey attacks injure 42 people in Japanese city

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Authorities in Yamaguchi to use tranquilliser guns after macaques – or possibly one aggressive individual – uncharacteristically target adults and children

Local authorities in a Japanese city are to use tranquilliser guns to confront marauding monkeys that have injured 42 people in recent weeks.

Japanese macaques are common across large parts of the country and are a pest in some areas, eating crops and sometimes entering homes. But a spate of monkey attacks in Yamaguchi in the west of the country has been unusual, with adults and children suffering wounds including scratches and bites.

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Beijing urges British politicians not to ‘hype the China threat’

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Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson asks for restraint after Rishi Sunak labels country UK’s ‘biggest long-term threat’

Beijing has urged British politicians to exercise restraint in their comments on China, saying “hyping the China threat” would not help solve the UK’s own problems.

Asked about Rishi Sunak’s comments, where he labelled China as Britain’s biggest long-term threat and pledged to close all UK-based Confucius Institutes, Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, declined to offer specific comments, saying the election of the next Tory leader is the UK’s internal affair.

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Chinese military has become more aggressive and dangerous, says US chief of staff

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As Washington seeks to shore up alliances in the Pacific, Gen Mark Milley says Beijing’s attempts to expand its influence are ‘not benign’

The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the United States’ top military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop in Indonesia.

Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said on Sunday that the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with US and other partner forces had increased significantly over that time, and the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions.

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Drew Pavlou says he is victim of ‘orchestrated campaign’ after arrest over false ‘bomb threat’

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Human rights leaders report receiving emails from account purporting to be from Pavlou in recent days after campaigner’s arrest in London

Australian activist Drew Pavlou has said he was the victim of an “orchestrated campaign” before his arrest over a false “bomb threat” after it emerged that human rights leaders and politicians have been receiving emails from an account purporting to be him in recent days.

Pavlou was arrested after a “small peaceful human rights protest” outside the Chinese embassy in London, where he intended to glue his hand to the outside of the embassy building.

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Sunak to promise curbs on China as UK’s ‘biggest long-term threat’

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Leadership contender says he will close 30 Mandarin teaching programmes to restrain Beijing’s soft power

China is the biggest long-term threat to Britain, Rishi Sunak will say on Monday as he unveils plans to curb the country’s soft power by closing all of its 30 Confucius Institutes, which promote the teaching of Chinese language and culture, in the UK.

He will take on Liz Truss, his rival in the Conservative leadership race, by effectively accusing the foreign secretary and western leaders of having “turned a blind eye to China’s nefarious activity and ambitions” and call for a new Nato-alliance to be set up to counter it.

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Chinese court rules against single woman who wanted to freeze eggs

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Court said hospital did not violate unmarried woman Teresa Xu’s rights by refusing to freeze her eggs

A Chinese court has overruled a rare legal challenge brought by an unmarried Beijing woman seeking the right to freeze her eggs.

The Chaoyang intermediate people’s court in Beijing said in a judgment that the hospital did not violate the woman’s rights in denying her access to freeze her eggs.

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China says Xi Jinping given local Covid jab as it seeks to ease vaccine safety fears

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Rare disclosure comes as China struggles to increase elderly immunisation rates amid online rumours of side-effects

China’s Covid-19 vaccines are safe and have been given to leaders of the state and ruling Communist party, officials said, as Beijing steps up efforts to allay public concerns about safety that risk hampering its vaccination drive.

“China’s state and party leaders have all been vaccinated against Covid-19 with domestically made shots,” said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission, on Saturday.

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Chinese man executed for murder of former wife during live stream

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Tang Lu was found guilty of killing social media star Lhamo by setting fire to her online in September 2020

A Chinese man has been executed after a court found him guilty of setting his former wife on fire while she was livestreaming on social media.

The Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture intermediate people’s court said in a short online statement on Saturday morning that it had carried out the execution of Tang Lu.

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Australian activist Drew Pavlou arrested in London but denies sending Chinese embassy bomb threat

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Pavlou says the emailed threat was intended to frame him after he staged a peaceful protest carrying a Uyghur flag outside the embassy

Australian activist Drew Pavlou has been arrested in the UK over a false “bomb threat” delivered to the Chinese embassy in London that he claims came from a fake email address designed to frame him.

Pavlou said the “absurd” email claimed he would blow up the embassy over Beijing’s oppression of its Uyghur Muslim minority, but that it was confected by the embassy in order to have him arrested.

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China braces for ‘big heat’ day with temperatures set to soar

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Readings above 40C expected on Saturday with some cities at highest alert level and warnings of dam failures due to melting glaciers

China is set for the return of more heatwaves over the next 10 days, with temperatures set to start spiking in parts of the country on Saturday.

Some coastal cities are already on their highest alert level and inland regions warning of dam failure risks because of melting glaciers.

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Gaga for goo goo: Wellington named the global capital of baby talk

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Residents of the New Zealand city have the world’s most extreme vocal changes when speaking to babies, a study has found

From small tribes in the remote Pacific islands to the teeming cities of China, humans share the common language of baby talk – but new research has discovered that Wellington, New Zealand, is the global capital of cooing.

An international study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, collected 1615 recordings of 410 people from 21 societies speaking and singing to an adult and then a baby in more than a dozen languages.

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