Riverside restaurant owner Titiporn Jutimanon was convinced a bout of flooding in Thailand could be the end of a business already struggling from the pandemic. But with the rising tide of the Chao Phraya River this week came an unexpected opportunity. Instead of closing for the floods, Titiporn’s eatery is making waves in Thailand, staying open for customers who are revelling in shin-deep dining, and the thrill of avoiding the rush of water set off as boats go by
Continue reading...Category Archives: Asia Pacific
Manila’s newly homeless tell of survival in lockdown – photo essay
As Covid hit, thousands of Filipinos were left trapped in the capital without work. Many ended up on the street and are still waiting to rebuild their lives
Like so many others before her, Michelle Sicat, a 28-year-old single mother from the province of Nueva Ecija, had come to Metro Manila to get a job to support her family. She left her daughter with her parents so she could work as a shop assistant in one of the city’s busiest commercial districts. Sicat’s sacrifice was one that many Filipinos from rural areas have to make.
Despite missing home, Sicat was happy to have a job. But then the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The Philippine government placed the entire island of Luzon – where the Metro Manila region is located – under the strictest level of lockdown. The restrictions forced most businesses to close. Most people were ordered to stay at home.
For many living on the streets, there is no shelter from the elements
Continue reading...‘It was a nice break from everything’: two men rescued after 29 days lost at sea
Surviving on oranges they’d packed, coconuts from the sea and rainwater they collected, they floated about 400km in the Solomon Sea before being rescued
Two men from Solomon Islands who spent 29 days lost at sea after their GPS tracker stopped working have been rescued off the coast of Papua New Guinea – 400 kilometres away from where their journey began.
Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni set out from Mono Island, in Western province, Solomon Islands, on the morning of the 3 September in a small, single 60 horsepower motorboat.
Continue reading...China’s noisy ‘dancing grannies’ silenced by device that disables speakers
Many people are too scared to confront the groups of middle-aged and older women who take over public parks and sports grounds to exercise along to music
Across China’s public parks and squares, in the early hours of the morning or late in the afternoon, the grannies gather.
The gangs, made up mostly of middle-aged and older women who went through the Cultural Revolution, take to a corner of a local park or sporting ground and dance in unison to Chinese music. Loud music.
Continue reading...Thai restaurant rides wave of success as customers flock to dine in floodwaters
The rising Chao Phraya river has proved a unique drawcard as footage of diners dodging the wake of passing boats goes viral
Riverside restaurant owner Titiporn Jutimanon feared that the floods afflicting many parts of Thailand could be the end of a business already struggling from the pandemic.
But with the rising tide of the Chao Phraya river this week came an unexpected opportunity.
Continue reading...‘Crisis unfolding’ as Papua New Guinea hospitals hit by worst Covid wave yet
Health authorities have been forced to turn a stadium into a makeshift hospital while elsewhere essential services are closing
Hospitals in Papua New Guinea are being pushed to the brink and morgues are overflowing, as the country suffers what health authorities say is the worst surge in Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began.
The country’s health care system has long been plagued by shortages of drugs, funding, an ailing infrastructure and a severe lack of health workers.
Continue reading...Secret group of US military trainers has been in Taiwan for at least a year
Small contingent of US special forces and marines training local forces in latest sign of rising US-China tensions
The US has been secretly maintaining a small contingent of military trainers in Taiwan for at least a year, according to a new report, the latest sign of the rising stakes in US-China rivalry.
About two dozen US special forces soldiers and an unspecified number of marines are now training Taiwanese forces, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The trainers were first sent to Taiwan by the Trump administration but their presence had not been reported until now.
Continue reading...Hong Kong plans megacourt to deal with protest arrests backlog
City’s leader announces initiative as thousands still await trial, and also reveals project for new metropolis
Hong Kong will build a new megacourt to address a shortage of space as it works through a backlog of the thousands arrested during the 2019 mass protests, and the more than 150 arrested under the national security law.
The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, announced the initiative on Wednesday in a policy address, which also included plans for a new metropolis on the border with mainland China and further tightening of national security laws.
Continue reading...Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to hold virtual meeting this year – White House
Biden administration announces plan after meeting between US national security adviser and China’s top diplomat
The US president, Joe Biden, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are planning to meet by video link before the end of the year, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
There is an “agreement in principle” for the “virtual bilateral”, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Continue reading...The Maid review – a giddy, gory satire that sticks it to the super-wealthy
Shadowy figures lurk in Lee Thongkham’s stylised horror, which wrongfoots the audience with jump scares aplenty
Thai writer-director Lee Thongkham’s horror feature is a giddy, gory little treat. Unfortunately, it’s hard to explain exactly what’s so fab about it without spoilers, so just take our word for it as long as you have the stomach for lots of fake blood and jump scares. Suffice to say that Thongkham is nimble when it comes to wrongfooting the viewer, and there’s some pleasingly pointed satire here as well, sticking it to rich, snobby people who think domestic workers are as disposable as empty washing up bottles.
The maid of the title is Joy (bob-haired ingenue Ploy Sornarin), a country girl who gets hired to schlep tea trays up and down the stairs in service to super-wealthy Uma (actor-model-singer Savika Chaiyadej), a woman so ridiculously haughty she dresses like a gameshow hostess for breakfast and always uses a cigarette holder – presumably so the butts don’t touch her lips. Joy has worked out that she’s but the latest in a long line of maids who don’t last long in that household, but when she asks the other servants they get all squirrelly and tell her she’s not to ask any questions.
Continue reading...‘We’ll abide by the Taiwan agreement’ says Biden after Xi call – video
Joe Biden says he has spoken to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, about Taiwan and they have agreed to abide by the Taiwan agreement.
Beijing sent about 150 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence zone over four days beginning on Friday, the same day China marked a key patriotic holiday, in a record escalation of its grey-zone military activity directed towards the island
Continue reading...China could mount full scale invasion of Taiwan by 2025, island’s defence minister says
Comments come as Biden and Xi agree to stick to Taiwan agreements amid rising tension in the Indo-Pacific
China will be capable of mounting a full scale invasion of Taiwan by 2025, the island’s defence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng has said, describing current tensions as the worst in 40 years.
Speaking to the China Times on Wednesday, Chiu said China was capable now, but would be completely prepared to launch an invasion in three years.
Continue reading...How New Zealand snookered itself by calling time on its Covid elimination strategy | Lew Stoddart
By granting freedom as case numbers rise, Jacinda Ardern has diverged from the nation’s understood strategy of aligning policy with expert consensus
The New Zealand government called time on its world-leading Covid-19 elimination strategy on Monday, announcing a suite of measures that grant Aucklanders greater freedom after seven weeks of community transmission, despite experts urging tighter restrictions. In doing so, the government has snookered itself in three mutually-reinforcing ways: on social license, on enforcement, and on the economy.
New Zealand’s strategy depends on social license, and people feeling like they understand and are part of the system, and can contribute to its success, knowing others will be prevented from undermining their efforts.
Continue reading...Australia urged to support Asian Development Bank plan to end fossil fuel financing
Thirty-five organisations implore Australia, which is ADB’s fifth-largest shareholder, to help the region ‘make a just and equitable low-carbon transition’
The Australian government is being urged to support an end to the financing of fossil fuel projects as the Asian Development Bank prepares to signs off on a new energy policy later this month.
The ADB “will not support coalmining, processing, storage, and transportation, nor any new coal-fired power generation”, according to a draft version of the policy, which also endorses “the early retirement of coal-based power plants”.
Continue reading...Taiwan must be on alert against ‘over-the-top’ China, says premier – video
Taiwan needs to be on alert for China's 'over-the-top' military activities which are violating regional peace, Premier Su Tseng-chang has said after incursions by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan's air defence zone. China has sent nearly 150 planes into the zone in the first four days of October, in what mainland figures and media have labelled a demonstration of strength but which world governments have condemned as an act of intimidation
Continue reading...Tony Abbott arrives in Taiwan to address regional forum amid rising tensions with China
Former Australian prime minister, who has said China is ‘asserting itself aggressively’, will meet Taiwanese president and foreign minister
Australia’s former prime minister, Tony Abbott, has jetted into Taiwan to speak at a regional forum as tensions with China escalate following recent air incursions.
Abbott is in Taiwan to deliver a keynote speech at the Yushan forum – an Asian-regional dialogue conference organised by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation.
Continue reading...Taiwan and China: line that Biden must tread is finer than ever
Analysis: the fallout from a conflict triggered by miscalculation or accident could be catastrophic
A surge of Chinese aerial sorties over the sea separating mainland China and Taiwan has served as a reminder that the strait has the potential to be one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) made a total of 149 sorties in four days over the southern section of the Taiwan Strait, including flights by a dozen bombers and many jet fighters.
Continue reading...Taiwan president warns of ‘catastrophic consequences’ if island falls to China
Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan will ‘do whatever it takes to defend itself’ against an increasingly assertive Beijing
Taiwan is committed to defending its democracy against an increasingly aggressive China, the island’s president has vowed, warning of “catastrophic consequences” for the region should it fall.
The comments from Tsai Ing-wen, in an essay published on Tuesday, came amid record-breaking incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defence zone. On Tuesday Taiwan’s premier, Su Tseng-chang, said the “over the top” activity violated regional peace, and Taiwan needed to be on alert.
Continue reading...K-beauty, hallyu and mukbang: dozens of Korean words added to Oxford English Dictionary
New additions highlight Korean culture wave as interest in the country’s food, fashion and entertainment spreads
The Korean culture wave has swept through the editorial offices of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which has added more than 20 new words of Korean origin to its latest edition.
The “definitive record of the English language” included words alluding to the global popularity of the country’s music and cuisine, plus one or two whose roots in the Korean language may be less obvious.
Continue reading...By ending Covid elimination, Jacinda Ardern once again fails to turn compassion into policy | Morgan Godfery
Without a dramatic change in New Zealand’s vaccination rates, Covid-19 risks becoming a disease for brown people
And so with that, a confusing 20-minute monologue in the Beehive theatrette, New Zealand’s virus-beating elimination strategy is over. As the Delta variant’s “tentacles”, to borrow the prime minister’s description, creep past the Auckland border, potentially wrapping themselves around parts of the Waikato, the government will no longer aim to cut the monster off at its head with tough alert level four restrictions. Instead public health officials will move to a suppression strategy aiming “to contain and control the virus” while we vaccinate our way out of the pandemic. At its simplest, Jacinda Ardern’s message from the threatrette was vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.
For 18 months New Zealanders were living life as if there were no pandemic. We were gathering outdoors and indoors in the thousands, mask mandates were literally a foreign concept, and business and public services were operating more or less as normal. We were watching governments that let the virus rip with a good dose of horror and, if we’re honest, a modest dose of smugness. And so yesterday’s announcement – that the virus will remain resident in this country – feels like a form of whiplash. Only two weeks ago the prime minister stood in that familiar theatrette and told the country returning to zero cases was still the goal.
Continue reading...