Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Remote, beautiful, lacking in plumbing: New Zealand’s beloved loos with views

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Aotearoa’s wild landscapes are world-famous but spectacular views are not confined to the walking trails – long-drop toilets also boast incredible panoramas

Be it the crest of an icy mountain peak, the depths of the dense native bush, or the slopes of sleeping volcanoes, New Zealand’s wild and remote landscapes are coveted by outdoor enthusiasts the world over. But what really sets the country’s nature apart from the rest is what is at one’s disposal when nature calls – spectacular loos with views.

These scenic spots – small, remote, and lacking in plumbing – are a curious quirk in New Zealand’s landscape, and offer up some of the best panoramas in the country.

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Typhoon Rai: rescue efforts continue after strongest storm to hit Philippines this year

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Dozens die after super typhoon pummels southern and central regions of the country

At least 33 people have been killed in the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, official tallies showed on Saturday, with a charity reporting “alarming” destruction on islands that bore the brunt of the storm.

More than 300,000 people fled their homes and beachfront resorts as Typhoon Rai ravaged the southern and central regions of the archipelago, knocking out communications and electricity in many areas, ripping off roofs and toppling concrete power poles.

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Hong Kong ‘patriots’ election casts doubt over democracy as city enters new era

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Critics describe Sunday’s vote as ‘illegitimate’ as Beijing tightens its crackdown on dissent and pro-democracy movement is wiped out

Days before Hong Kong’s legislative council election, 15 months after it was supposed to be held, former legislator Ted Hui is on the phone from Adelaide railing against the government. In the southern Australian city he is far from the Hong Kong warrants for his arrest and instead in a place where, unlike many of his former colleagues, he can speak freely.

“For the Hong Kong people there are not many choices now but to accept illegitimate elections. The parliament is going to be a rubber stamp for Beijing and this election carries no democratic element at all.”

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‘A wave of joy’: babies born from world’s first HIV positive sperm bank

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Sperm Positive launched in New Zealand in 2019 in an effort to reduce the stigma faced by HIV-positive people

Olivia and Amy are sitting outside in the shade, trying to escape from New Zealand’s early-summer humidity. Amy, 10 months old, burbles happily in the background as her mother talks. She is healthy, happy, and oblivious to her status as a world first: one of a handful of babies born from the first sperm bank for HIV-positive donors.

The bank, Sperm Positive, launched in New Zealand in 2019, in an effort to reduce the stigma faced by HIV-positive people – and raise awareness that with treatment, the virus was undetectable and untransmissible. It grabbed international headlines when it was launched, but has been more than a publicity gimmick. Two years on, the bank is bearing fruit.

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Japanese firefighters battle deadly blaze at Osaka clinic – video

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Twenty-seven people are feared dead after a fire swept through a mental health clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka, the local fire department said.

The blaze is being treated as suspected arson, the Kyodo news agency said, quoting police sources saying that a man who appeared to be in his 60s had been seen carrying a paper bag leaking an unidentified liquid

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Osaka building fire: fears 27 people have died in Japan blaze

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Footage shows dozens of firefighters working on the eight-storey building that housed mental health services and medical care

Twenty-seven people were feared dead after a blaze at a building in a commercial district of the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, the local fire department said.

Television footage showed dozens of firefighters working inside and outside the eight-storey building after the blaze was extinguished.

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US hits China with new trade curbs and sanctions over forced Uyghur labour

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US lawmakers have ramped up pressure on China in a bid to censure the country’s treatment of the Muslim minority

The United States has unleashed a volley of actions to censure China’s treatment of the Uyghur minority, with lawmakers voting to curb trade and issuing new sanctions on Beijing.

The United States has been ramping up pressure on China amid a crop of disputes, with president Joe Biden’s administration a day earlier targeting producers of painkillers that have contributed to America’s addiction crisis.

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How has North Korea’s Kim Jong-un held on to power so long? – video

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Kim Jong-un emerged onto the world stage as a virtual unknown in 2011, a young man thrust into power at the head of North Korea – a nuclear-armed state – after his father's unexpected death. 

In the decade since, he has ruthlessly purged alleged political opponents, extended his country's nuclear capabilities, and tightened his grip on power as North Korea's supreme leader.

From diplomatic summits with Donald Trump to executing members of his own family and failing to stave off famine in his own country, Guardian correspondent Justin McCurry charts the highs and lows of Kim's first 10 years in office. 

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From ‘tempestuous’ child to little rocket man: 10 years of Kim Jong-un

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Some observers said he would survive a few months as the head of a nuclear-armed state but, a decade later, the North Korean leader has proved them wrong

It was not, perhaps, the image Kim Jong-un would have wanted to project in his first public appearance as the latest authoritarian leader of North Korea in 2011. As wailing citizens exhibited their grief along the snowbound streets of Pyongyang, Kim, then only in his late 20s, cut a forlorn figure.

Dressed in a long black coat, Kim walked with grim purpose alongside the hearse carrying his father, Kim Jong-il, one hand resting on the bonnet of the 1970s Lincoln Continental, the other executing an awkward salute. He was later seen crying and drying his eyes at the burial service, in footage broadcast on state television.

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Missile tests, horse rides and executions: Kim Jong-un’s leadership in pictures

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Kim Jong-un has defied the expectations of many, to mark 10 years in power following the death in 2011 of his father, Kim Jong-il. In that time, he has presided over famines, executions and nuclear tensions, while finding the time to inspect a fish pickling station and go horse riding

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Outspoken editor of Chinese state tabloid Global Times retires

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Hu Xijin became leading voice of strident nationalism with millions of social media followers

A controversial Chinese state tabloid editor who became a leading critic of the west’s China policy, emerging in the past decade as a prominent voice of strident nationalism, has announced his retirement.

Hu Xijin, a self-described former pro-democracy protester turned outspoken newspaper editor, has helped usher in a new era of brash, assertive nationalism since taking the helm of the tabloid Global Times in 2005.

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Putin assures Xi he will go to Winter Olympics in show of unity

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Russian leader defies western boycott and forms ‘new model of cooperation’ with Chinese leader

Vladimir Putin has confirmed he will attend the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, an event that Boris Johnson and other western leaders have boycotted in protest at human rights abuses in China.

Putin made the pledge during a video call with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, as he said that a “new model of cooperation has been formed between our countries, based on other matters of principles such as non-interference in [each other’s] internal affairs”.

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Books that explain the world: Guardian writers share their best nonfiction reads of the year

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From a Jacobean traveller’s travails in Sindh to the tangled roots of Nigeria, our pick of new nonfiction books that shine a light on Asia, Africa and South America

• Share your top recommendations for books on the developing world in the comments below

You Have Not Yet Been Defeated: Selected Works 2011-2021
By Alaa Abd El-Fattah

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‘Colossal waste’: Nobel laureates call for 2% cut to military spending worldwide

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Governments urged to use ‘peace dividend’ to help UN tackle pandemics, climate crisis and extreme poverty

More than 50 Nobel laureates have signed an open letter calling for all countries to cut their military spending by 2% a year for the next five years, and put half the saved money in a UN fund to combat pandemics, the climate crisis, and extreme poverty.

Coordinated by the Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli, the letter is supported by a large group of scientists and mathematicians including Sir Roger Penrose, and is published at a time when rising global tensions have led to a steady increase in arms budgets.

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Antony Blinken warns China to stop ‘aggressive actions’ in Asia-Pacific

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US secretary of state opens his tour of south-east Asia with a speech pledging to defend US partners and ‘rules-based order’

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has used a visit to Indo-Pacific to urge China to cease “aggressive actions” in the region, as Washington seeks to bolster alliances against Beijing.

President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to reset relations and reassert its influence in Asia after the turbulence and unpredictability of the Donald Trump era.

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‘Null and void’: boycott clouds New Caledonia’s final poll on independence

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Overwhelming vote to remain with France, but low turnout ‘weighs heavily’ on self-determination process, say observers

Low voter turnout at New Caledonia’s independence referendum “weighs heavily” on the French territory’s self-determination process, election observers from the Pacific Islands Forum have said.

In Sunday’s referendum, more than 96% of voters were opposed to independence from France, compared with 57% in 2018 and 53% in 2020.

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‘A strange time’: letters document Covid lockdown for New Zealand’s elderly

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Older people described how they coped with enforced isolation, with some finding the experience positive

A trove of nearly 800 letters recording the lockdown experiences of older New Zealanders has been collected in a University of Auckland research project called Have Our Say. Researchers appealed for written accounts of lockdown to understand how older people coped with enforced isolation, and to amplify elders’ voices. The letter writers were all over 70. Many described the importance of daily routines, their experiences during historical crises and how they stayed involved in their community. The letters will be held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Here are some excerpts from the collection:

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Mature trees are key to liveable cities – housing intensification plans must ensure they survive | Margaret Stanley

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The benefits of a single large tree can’t be replaced by a mown lawn or a seedling. With thoughtful planning we can keep them

The New Zealand parliament is about to have its third reading of an amendment bill informally known as the “housing intensification bill”. Its purpose is to relax the Resource Management Act (RMA), which currently restricts building height and intensity in cities, to meet the urgent demand for housing and address affordability.

While it is clear that housing affordability needs to be addressed to meet the needs of young and low-income New Zealanders, there are pitfalls to the speed at which the legislation is rushing through the system. Yes, we do need more houses, and we do need to intensify within our cities so that we don’t further impact the rural landscape as the tentacles of our cities spread into key food production and natural ecosystem areas.

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Mainland China reports first case of Omicron coronavirus variant

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Appearance of highly transmissible variant poses serious threat to zero-Covid strategy

Mainland China has reported its first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant in the northern city of Tianjin, posing what could be the biggest threat to date to the country’s zero-Covid strategy.

The Chinese authorities reported on Monday that the Omicron case was detected on 9 December from an overseas returnee, who showed no symptoms on arrival. The patient is being quarantined and treated in a designated hospital.

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