Tiny isopod is dubbed Pentaceration forkandbrewer in push to engage community with climate-threatened life in local waters
New Zealand scientists have named a tiny snowflake-like crustacean after a Wellington brewery, in an attempt to boost the public’s interest in local marine life.
The roughly 1.5mm marine isopod was found in the silty depths off New Zealand’s southern east coast. It helps decompose organic material that drifts to the seabed.
Continue reading...Surangel Whipps Jr retains power in Palau, which is important to the US military amid tensions with China and is among a dozen diplomatic allies of Taiwan
Palau’s incumbent president Surangel Whipps Jr has been returned for a second term after a national election held last week, according to a final tally by the Palau Election Commission.
The results showed Whipps Jr won 5,626 votes, defeating his brother-in-law Tommy Remengesau who received 4,103 votes.
The headline of this story was amended on 14 November, 2024
Continue reading...President-elect’s team has China hawks, an alleged Assad defender and a Fox News host – all have been vocally loyal
As Donald Trump rushes to fill out his cabinet and enact his America First agenda in the United States and abroad, a clear throughline for his foreign policy and national security team has been a vocal loyalty to the president-elect – at least in this election cycle.
The rapidly expanding roster includes established – and some Maga supporters would say establishment – foreign policy hawks, and a neophyte defense secretary who until this week was still a conservative commentator on Fox News.
Continue reading...Collection of 1,700 pieces dating from third to 20th century is highest-value gift of objects in UK museum history
The British Museum has been given a private collection of Chinese ceramics worth about £1bn, the highest-value object donation in UK museum history.
The 1,700 pieces dating from the third to the 20th century have been given permanently by the trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation. They had been on loan to the London museum since 2009.
Continue reading...Alleged criminal ring is the biggest cryptocurrency investment scam in country’s history, according to police
South Korean police have arrested 215 people on suspicion of stealing 320 billion won ($228.4m) in the biggest cryptocurrency investment scam in the country.
Gyeonggi Nambu provincial police said on Wednesday that the arrests included the alleged mastermind of the organised crime group accused of selling 28 types of virtual tokens to about 15,000 people by promising high returns. Referred to as Mr A, he had fled to Australia but was arrested and extradited. Police have confiscated 22 Bitcoin from his accounts and have applied to seize some $34m more. Just 12 people of the 215 remain in custody, according to Yonhap.
Continue reading...Biggest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, Four Paws animal charity says
The largest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, facilitating the illegal smuggling of tiger body parts, according to a report by an animal welfare charity.
Research by Four Paws, which is campaigning to shut down South Africa’s big cat industry, found 103 places in the country where tigers were kept in captivity in 2023 or 2024 or had been kept during the previous three years.
Continue reading...Star of Korean dramas Moon Embracing the Sun and Queen Woo was found dead at his home in Seoul
Song Jae-lim, a South Korean actor known for his roles in dramas Moon Embracing the Sun and Queen Woo, was found dead at his home in Seoul. He was 39.
Officials at Seoul’s Seongdong district police station didn’t immediately comment on the cause of death.
Continue reading...It took authorities more than a day to release details of the incident, in which a man drove his car into a crowd, killing 35 people
In the hours since a 63-year-old man rammed his car into a sports centre in Zhuhai, killing 35 people and severely injuring 43 others, questions have swirled on Chinese social media about why it took authorities so long to reveal the details.
The driver, identified by his family name of Fan, was discovered in the car with self-inflicted knife wounds to his neck. Police said their preliminary investigation suggested he was dissatisfied with the split of assets in his divorce.
Continue reading...Man detained after incident on Monday night in Zhuhai, in which 35 people were killed and 43 injured
A driver killed 35 people and severely injured another 43 when he rammed his car into people exercising at a sports centre in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, police said on Tuesday.
Police had detained a 62-year-old man at the sports centre in Zhuhai after the ramming late on Monday, on the eve of an airshow by the People’s Liberation Army that is hosted annually in the city.
Continue reading...It is estimated that Trump played hundreds of rounds of golf during his first term as president of the United States
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is practising golf – for the first time in eight years – in preparation for future meetings with US president-elect Donald Trump, Yoon’s office has confirmed.
South Korean media said Yoon had visited a golf course on Saturday for a sport his office said he had last played in 2016.
Continue reading...Tropical Storm Usagi is days away from making landfall, after Typhoon Toraji, Severe Tropical Storm Trami, Typhoon Yinxing and Super Typhoon Kong-rey
The Philippines issued new weather warnings on Tuesday as the fifth major storm in three weeks bore down on the archipelago, days after thousands were evacuated ahead of Typhoon Toraji.
Now a weakened tropical storm, Toraji blew out to sea overnight after causing relatively limited damage and no reported deaths.
Continue reading...Historic apology by PM Christopher Luxon comes after landmark report that exposed decades of abuse in state and faith-based care institutions
New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxon has formally apologised to the more than 200,000 children and adults who suffered “horrific” and “heartbreaking” abuse and neglect while in state and faith-based institutions.
The historic apology follows a harrowing landmark report, released in July, which laid bare the scale of abuse that occurred across care institutions from the 1950s onwards. It was the most complex royal commission inquiry the country has held. The judge who chaired the inquiry, Coral Shaw, described the abuse as a “national disgrace and shame”.
Continue reading...Ishiba’s governing coalition lost majority and needs to find new partner or get consent from opposition to enact policy
Japan’s parliament re-elected the prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, on Monday after his governing coalition suffered the worst election loss in more than a decade.
Ishiba’s ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and its junior partner, Komeito, together lost their majority in the 465-seat lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-house parliament, in the 27 October election amid voter outrage over financial misconduct by his party and its lukewarm response.
Continue reading...Seoul’s military says several vessels and dozens of civilian planes disrupted, a week after Pyongyang fired what it called its most powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile
North Korea staged GPS jamming attacks on Friday and Saturday, Seoul’s military said – an operation that was affecting several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in South Korea.
The jamming allegations come about a week after the North test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile, its first such launch since being accused of sending soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.
Continue reading...Cash stops short of hoped-for ‘bazooka option’, with critics calling it ‘an accounting exercise’ that will not bolster growth
China has announced 10tn yuan in debt support for local governments and other economic measures, but stopped short of the “bazooka” stimulus package that many analysts had expected.
The fiscal package included raising debt ceilings for local governments by 6tn yuan (£646bn) over three years, so they could replace hidden debt, which authorities said stood at 14.3tn yuan by the end of 2023.
Continue reading...Former ambassador to US says president-elect’s vow to slap up to 60% tariffs on imports from China would have knock-on effects on Australian economy
Donald Trump’s threats of hefty tariffs on imports – especially from China – pose a “clear and present danger” to Australia that must be taken seriously, according to a former Australian ambassador to Washington, Arthur Sinodinos.
Speaking to Guardian Australia’s Australian Politics podcast, the former Liberal senator and adviser to prime minister John Howard, who was ambassador through Trump’s final year in the White House, warned that the US president-elect’s talk of slapping tariffs of 10-20% on foreign goods and as much as 60% on goods from China cannot be dismissed as bluff.
Continue reading...Country’s foreign minister says UN climate summits have produced ‘no results’ as Pacific nation takes the rare step of withdrawing from upcoming Cop29
Papua New Guinea’s decision to pull out of an upcoming UN global climate summit due to frustration over “empty promises and inaction” has prompted concern from climate advocates, who fear the move will isolate the Pacific nation and put vital funding at risk.
Prime minister James Marape announced in August the country would not attend Cop29 in “protest at the big nations” for a lack of “quick support to victims of climate change”. Then last week, foreign affairs minister Justin Tckatchenko, confirmed Papua New Guinea would withdraw from high-level talks at the summit, which begins on 11 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, describing it as “a total waste of time”.
Continue reading...The historical series, Time in the Northwest, chronicles the life of Xi Zhongxun from peasant roots to Communist revolutionary in China
Xi Jinping’s father is the subject of a rousing new historical drama that premiered on Chinese state television on Tuesday.
Funded by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), Time in the Northwest chronicles the life of Xi Zhongxun, the father of the Chinese president, who was himself a CCP elder and key figure in the party under Chairman Mao Zedong.
Continue reading...Taipei says it is paying close attention to reported request by Elon Musk’s firm
Taiwan’s government says it is paying close attention to reports that Elon Musk’s SpaceX asked Taiwanese suppliers to move manufacturing to other countries because of “geopolitical” concerns.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that SpaceX’s request to suppliers in Taiwan’s multibillion-dollar industry appeared to have prompted some to shift locations to Vietnam, Thailand and other places. In response, Taiwan’s economic affairs minister, JW Kuo, said the industry was strong and “should be able to cope”, but that the government was monitoring the situation.
Continue reading...The entry of North Korean troops risks a dangerous escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It also puts Beijing in a tight spot
In October 1950, barely a year after the Chinese civil war ended, Mao Zedong sent the first Chinese soldiers to fight in the Korean war. Between 180,000 and 400,000 of Chairman Mao’s troops would die in that conflict, including his own son. But it was important to defend North Korea in that battle, Mao reportedly said, because “without the lips, the teeth are cold”.
That Chinese idiom has been used to described China and North Korea’s close relationship for more than seven decades. China sees North Korea as a strategic security buffer in the region, while North Korea relies on its superpower neighbour for economic, political and military support. But that relationship is now under strain thanks to another war which is drawing Communist-rooted countries into a common battle.
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