Residents ordered to leave homes as ash and steam sent hundreds of metres into sky
Thousands of people fled their homes near a Philippine volcano after an eruption sent ash and steam hundreds of metres into the sky.
Taal volcano, which sits in a picturesque lake south of Manila, exploded with a “short-lived” burst at 7:22 am on Saturday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said in a statement.
Continue reading...Ukraine crisis is uniting democracies in Europe and Pacific but complicating relationships with China, India and Gulf states
“Decide who you are with” Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the European council, pointing to a choice that is becoming increasingly hard to avoid, as the sheer violence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine crystallises the division of the world into two camps.
The camp that stands with Russians is becoming easier to define with every passing day of the war. The colour-coded scoreboard at the UN general assembly in recent weeks, recording the votes on resolutions deploring the attack and calling for a ceasefire, could not have been clearer.
Continue reading...State TV broadcasts Hollywood-style video starring leader in aviator shades and flanked by military officers
Sporting a shiny leather jacket and aviator shades, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un has starred in a Hollywood-style video for Pyongyang’s latest missile launch.
Under Kim, North Korea has sought to give its state media a makeover with digital effects, seeking more modern ways to tell its stories.
Continue reading...Lei, who was detained in 2020, was arrested and charged with illegally supplying state secrets overseas – but her family have denied wrongdoing
An Australian journalist will face court in Beijing next Thursday on state secrets charges, after being detained for more than 19 months, sources close to the case say.
Cheng Lei, who worked as a television anchor for Chinese state media for a decade before being detained in 2020, was formally arrested a year ago on allegations of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.
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Continue reading...Analysts say unratified document which would allow China to base ships in the Pacific is a ‘wish list’ which reveals nation’s intent in ‘black and white’
Scott Morrison says Australia was not blindsided by a draft security deal between China and Solomon Islands, which experts warn has demonstrated a “black and white” intent at expanding influence in the Pacific.
The draft would allow China to base navy warships in the Pacific less than 2,000km off the Australian coast, but some experts, including the Lowy Institute’s Jonathan Pryke, caution it reads more like a “wishlist” from China than a finalised agreement.
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Continue reading...Police had been criticised after reports that a ‘shipment of arms’ arrived in the country on a logging vessel from an unknown source
A shipment of replica firearms by China to Solomon Islands police has caused concern as the Pacific nation grapples with security concerns sparked by its increasingly close relationship with Beijing.
The police force had been criticised over the secrecy surrounding delivery of what a local media report called a “large shipment of arms” that arrived in the country on a logging vessel earlier this month from an unknown source.
Continue reading...State media says Kim Jong-un directly guided the launch of the powerful new Hwasong-17 missile
North Korea has confirmed that it tested a new, powerful type of intercontinental ballistic missile, marking an end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing in place since 2017 and drawing international condemnation.
State media said on Friday that leader Kim Jong-un had directly guided the test of the Hwasong-17 – a “new type” of intercontinental ballistic missile that is North Korea’s biggest to date. He said the North would continue to develop a “nuclear war deterrent” while preparing for a “long-standing confrontation” with the US.
Continue reading...Kenichi Horie became the first person to make a non-stop solo crossing of the Pacific in 1962 and has made multiple crossings
An 83-year old man is set to sail from San Francisco on Saturday and voyage alone across the Pacific Ocean to his home country, Japan.
Kenichi Horie, also known as “Japan’s most famous yachtsman”, became the first person to make a non-stop solo crossing of the Pacific in 1962. On that trip, he was still a 23-year old amateur seaman. Horie set off from Osaka and sailed across the ocean for 94 days, surviving on canned food and rice before arriving in San Francisco.
Continue reading...Japan calls testing ‘unforgivable’ as regime fires one of biggest missiles for first time since 2017
North Korea has launched what is thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile to date, in a dramatic return to long-range testing that marks the regime’s most serious provocation for years.
South Korea’s military fired a missile barrage into the Sea of Japan in response to the ICBM launch – the first full-range test of Kim Jong-un’s most powerful missiles since 2017. The launch will lead to fears that the North has made significant progress in developing weapons capable of sending nuclear warheads anywhere in the US.
Continue reading...Ho Hoang Hung set off with no navigation system after spending two years apart because of Covid restrictions
A Vietnamese man who tried to row 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) from Thailand to India to see his wife has been taken into custody after being rescued off the Thai coast.
Ho Hoang Hung set off from the holiday island of Phuket in an inflatable rubber dinghy, equipped with water and instant noodles but no navigation system, planning to cross the Bay of Bengal not long before the start of cyclone season.
Continue reading...Russian attack reignites debate about Taiwan’s readiness for potential Chinese invasion
Taiwan is considering extending compulsory military service for young citizens to a year, its defence minister has said, in an apparent reverse of the island’s years-long transition from conscription towards a fully voluntary military.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reignited debates in Taiwan over the readiness of its defence force for a potential invasion by China, which claims the island as a province it must at some point “retake”. Taiwan’s government has been increasing defence spending and its weapons procurement from the US, but at the same time has been trying to change its defence force to an entirely voluntary organisation and address long-running problems with training and resources.
Continue reading...Draft agreement circulating on social media suggests China could establish military base less than 2,000km from Australia
Australian officials are alarmed at Solomon Islands’ planned security deal with China with the defence minister, Peter Dutton, stating “we would be concerned clearly about any military base being established” less than 2,000km off the coast.
Solomon Islands has signed a policing deal with China and will send a proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military to its cabinet for consideration.
Continue reading...Report from Shoal on 2021’s newly described species shows ‘there are still hundreds and hundreds more freshwater fish scientists don’t know about yet’
Scientists are celebrating 212 “new” freshwater fish species, including a blind eel found in the grounds of a school for blind children and a fish named Wolverine that is armed with a hidden weapons system.
The New Species 2021 report, released by the conservation organisation Shoal, shows just how diverse and remarkable the world’s often undervalued freshwater species are, and suggests there is plenty more life still to be discovered in the world’s lakes, rivers and wetlands.
Continue reading...Under the deal 150 refugees a year held on Nauru, or who have come to Australia temporarily, will be eligible for resettlement
Up to 450 refugees from Australia’s regional processing centres will be resettled in New Zealand over the next three years, after the Coalition belatedly took up a long-standing agreement struck more than nine years ago.
Up to 150 refugees a year will be able to go to New Zealand, under the deal announced by Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, and the New Zealand immigration minister, Kris Faafoi, on Thursday.
Continue reading...Plaintiffs say they endured decades of abuse after resettlement campaign in which Tokyo colluded
A Tokyo court has rejected a lawsuit filed by five people seeking compensation from North Korea for what they said was decades of abuse after they were lured there by Pyongyang’s false promise of living in the “paradise on Earth”.
The five plaintiffs, including ethnic Koreans and Japanese who moved to North Korea under a 1959-1984 repatriation programme and later fled, filed the lawsuit in 2018 seeking 100m yen (about £625,000 today) each in compensation over what they said was illegal “solicitation and detainment”.
Continue reading...The Ukrainian president thanked Japan for ‘leading the way’ in virtual address to MPs
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on Japan to increase pressure on Russia by imposing a trade embargo on Russian goods, in a virtual address to MPs in Tokyo.
Zelenskiy, who has delivered carefully tailored speeches to lawmakers in the US, UK and other countries, thanked Japan for “leading the way” among Asian countries in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposing sanctions.
Continue reading...Pact ends months of tensions but talks on full free-trade agreement remain far off
The UK has struck a deal with the US to remove tariffs on British steel exports, although trade experts warned a broader trade deal between the two countries remains far off.
The agreement was struck after UK’s international trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, met her counterpart, the US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, on Tuesday evening in Washington.
Continue reading...PM Jacinda Ardern, who oversaw some of the toughest restrictions in the world, says rules will relax after Omicron peak in early April
New Zealand will do away with vaccine passes and vaccine mandates for some of the workforce in early April, in a major loosening of the country’s tough Covid-19 restrictions.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced the changes on Wednesday morning, citing high vaccination rates, better data to identify which environments are high risk, and modelling that suggests the country’s Omicron outbreak would peak in early April.
Continue reading...Officials hope retrieval of one of two onboard flight recorders will shed light on crash in mountainous area of Guangxi
Chinese recovery crews have found one of the two black box flight recorders from the China Eastern Airlines jet that crashed on Monday with 132 people on board, regulators have said.
The domestic passenger plane plunged from more than 20,000ft into a mountainous area of Guangxi, sparking an intense bamboo fire and almost disintegrating on impact. Response officials said the circumstances of the crash meant investigators faced “a very high level of difficulty” in establishing a cause.
Continue reading...Both governments are claiming responsibility for rescue of nine Papua New Guinean nationals last month
Tensions between China and Taiwan have found an unlikely battleground – a fight over who rescued nine Papua New Guinean sailors who were lost at sea for nearly a month.
The dispute came after the rescue of the Papua New Guinean nationals in Solomon Island waters after 29 days lost at sea, late in February.
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