Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Hong Kong police say mourning officer’s attacker is like backing terrorism

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Authorities called assailant a ‘lone wolf’ domestic terrorist who had been politically radicalised

Police in Hong Kong have told citizens that mourning the death of a man who stabbed a police officer last week is “no different to supporting terrorism”, as the case was taken over by the national security department.

The comments followed the stabbing of an officer in the back on Thursday night by a 50-year-old man at Causeway Bay. Police said the man then took his own life. The 28-year-old officer sustained a punctured lung in the attack and remains in hospital in a critical condition, according to local media.

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New Zealand experiences hottest June on record despite polar blast

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Average temperatures for the month were 2C higher than normal, with 24 separate locations hitting their own records

New Zealand has experienced its hottest June since records began more than 110 years ago, according to official climate data.

Despite a polar blast that swept up the country last week, figures from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research’s (NIWA) show the average temperature for June was 2C warmer than usual, with twenty-four locations around the country hitting their own record highs.

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Number of missing in Japan landslide climbs to more than 100

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Number rose after officials in Atami checked residential registers rather than relying on reports of missing people following mudslide

Officials in Japan have dramatically raised their estimate of the number of people still missing after a mudslide ripped through a seaside town at the weekend.

Reports said three people had died in the disaster, which occurred after days of torrential rain in Atami, a famous hot spring resort about 60 miles (90 km) south-west of Tokyo.

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At least 45 people die in military plane crash in Philippines

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At least 50 injured people pulled from burning wreckage of C-130 Hercules after it crashed when it missed runway

At least 45 people were killed and more than 50 injured when a Philippine military aircraft carrying troops crashed and burst into flames after missing the runway in the south of the country, officials said.

Three of those who died were on the ground.

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Astronauts at China’s new space station conduct first spacewalk

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Astronauts dock at the Tiangong station where they will remain for three months as Beijing presses on with extraterrestrial ambitions

Astronauts at China’s new space station conducted their first spacewalk Sunday, state media reported, as Beijing presses on with its extraterrestrial ambitions.

It was only the second time the country’s astronauts have stepped out of their craft while in space.

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‘A real slog’: How one New Zealand media company is trying to make trust pay

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Over the past year, one of New Zealand’s news giants ditched Facebook, pivoted to ‘trust’ and gave shares to employees. Can it survive?

The question of trust has dogged journalists for decades. “A kind of confidence man,” Janet Malcolm labels the journalist, in The Journalist and the Murderer, “preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them”. That view seems to resonate with the public. Asked to rank their trusted professions, people rank journalism in the murky depths – beaten to the bottom only by politicians.

For reporters who prefer to see themselves as truth-tellers, holding power to account, or at least providing a useful public service, that rankles. For others, trust becomes a point of fascination – the missing piece in the puzzle of how to make digital news pay for itself.

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‘I could help more’: could two new transfer companies change the game for Pacific expats?

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Two new payment transfer companies will be opening in the Pacific, where fees to send money are among the highest in the world

Kereni Vuai has carried a lot of people through the pandemic.

Vuai, 27, works full-time at a Sydney nursing home, which pays her AU$1500 a fortnight. She sends almost a third of that - $AU400 – back to family and friends in Fiji, many of whom have lost their jobs since coronavirus caused economic devastation in the tourism-dependent country.

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Landslide hits resort town in Japan – video

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A huge landslide has swept away homes and left 19 people missing at a popular resort town in central Japan after days of heavy rain, local officials say.

Television footage on Saturday showed a torrent of mud obliterating some buildings and burying others in Atami, south-west of Tokyo, with people running away as it crashed over a hillside road.



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Thailand reports record Covid-19 cases as concerns mount about vaccine shortages

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Health authorities reported more than 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight day

Health authorities in Thailand reported more than 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight day, as concerns mounted over shortages of treatment facilities and vaccine supplies.

Officials also reported 41 deaths, bringing the total to 2,181.

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‘Last one standing’: Delta variant poses threat to New Zealand’s Covid-free bubble

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Can New Zealand escape the resurgences that have hit other ‘elimination success story’ countries?

Last week was a sharp reminder for Dr Siouxsie Wiles, one of New Zealand’s most prominent pandemic communicators, of how close the country’s recent brush with Covid was. A Sydney tourist, infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19 had visited more than a dozen busy Wellington cafes, museums and eateries over the course of a weekend. As contact tracers went to work, Wiles’s own phone pinged: she was a potential contact, having stayed, like the tourist, at the Rydges Hotel.

In Wiles’s case, it emerged she had checked in hours after the man had checked out. The rest of the city has also emerged unscathed so far: despite 2,600 contacts identified, no infections have been reported. But the experience brought home once again, Wiles says, what a careful tightrope New Zealand is walking.

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Indonesia’s hospitals in Covid crisis as car parks turned into emergency rooms

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Spread of the Delta variant blamed for significant rise in cases that have threatened to overwhelm the medical system

Standing outside the glass wall at one of the emergency installations in a hospital in Tangerang, Benten, Uta Verina Maukar, 26, looked at her mother as she lay resting on a bed. She texted her mother, telling her that she was standing outside. Her mother looked at her from across the room, and with an oxygen mask on her face, tried to sit up so she could see her better. They both looked at each other like that for a while. That was the last time Uta saw her mother’s face.

She died from Covid the following day. She was 51.

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‘Wage theft’ in Primark, Nike and H&M supply chain – report

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No laws were broken but brands failed to ensure workers were paid properly during the pandemic, says Clean Clothes Campaign

Campaigners claim to have found evidence of “wage theft” in the supply chains of Primark, Nike and H&M in a report that outlines the devastating consequences of the pandemic on garment workers in Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Research by the Clean Clothes Campaign found that, while none of the brands had broken any laws, they had failed to ensure that their workers were properly paid throughout the pandemic.

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New Zealand lawyers sue climate change body over alleged failure to meet targets

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Lawyers say commission’s emissions budgets are inconsistent with aim of limiting global warming to 1.5C

Hundreds of top New Zealand lawyers are suing the Climate Change Commission for what they say are substantial errors in its advice to the government over reducing carbon emissions.

Lawyers for Climate Action is a group of more than 300 solicitors, barristers and academics seeking to ensure Aotearoa New Zealand meets its international climate obligations.

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Indonesia triples oxygen supplies as Covid-19 outbreak worsens

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Hospitals in Jakarta unable to cope with demand as Delta variant accounts for more than 60% of cases

Indonesia is tripling its oxygen supplies to hospitals as data suggests the Delta variant of coronavirus is now driving the country’s worsening outbreak, accounting for more than 60% of recent cases.

Indonesia’s health minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, told the Guardian that three-quarters of the national oxygen production used for industry would be redeployed to hospitals for the next two weeks.

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‘Poverty divides us’: gap between rich and poor poses threat to China

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Xi Jinping himself has warned China’s wealth gap is not only economic but political and could threaten party’s legitimacy

When Wang Zhenyu moved out of his small village in central Henan province to the coastal city of Dalian at 18, he was astonished. “It was like a culture shock for me, even though it was just a big city in my country, not a foreign land.” A few years later when he was enrolled in Peking University as a graduate student, he found much fewer students in the country’s top university coming from a similar background to his.

Growing up in a small village of 2,000 farmers, many of Wang’s childhood friends dropped out of school after finishing their nine years of compulsory education. Now with a decent academic job, Wang begins to experience “reverse culture shock” every time he goes back to his village for the annual lunar new year.

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China building more than 100 ‘nuclear’ missile silos in desert

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Satellite footage shows ‘alarming development’ that signals possible expansion of nuclear capabilities

China is building more than 100 missile silos in the desert, according to an analysis of satellite photos, which researchers say signals a possible expansion of the country’s nuclear capabilities.

Analysts warned the expansion signified an “alarming development” but also urged caution against “worst-case thinking”, noting tension between major nuclear powers over disarmament.

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Forget GDP, ‘vulnerability index best gauges aid’ to small islands

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Commonwealth research says UVI is better measure of small island states’ aid needs, especially on climate

Small island nations on the climate crisis frontlines have been overlooked in overseas aid, according to a new index.

Urging a move away from the current benchmark of using gross domestic product (GDP) to measure aid allocation, researchers from the Commonwealth secretariat and the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (Ferdi), a French thinktank, have developed the universal vulnerability index (UVI) as an alternative. GDP, they claim, fails to reflect the realities nations face, particularly on climate.

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Not a lone shark: bull sharks may form ‘friendships’ with each other, study finds

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The apex predators show preferences for certain individuals and avoid others, according to new research on sharks in Fiji

They reach 3.5 metres long, weigh more than 200kg and are an apex predator. But even apex predators need friends. And, according to new research, bull sharks may be capable of making them.

A recently published study from Fiji shows that bull sharks develop companionships – with some sharks showing preferences for certain individuals and avoiding others.

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Jacinda Ardern suggests opposition leader Judith Collins is a ‘Karen’

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Comments by New Zealand PM came during a parliamentary debate on the country’s new hate speech laws

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has suggested her opposition party counterpart could be called a “Karen” during a fierce debate in parliament over laws governing hate speech.

Judith Collins, the leader of the opposition, has argued strongly against changes to the country’s hate speech laws, saying the new rules could mean “people feeling insulted being able to criminalise people who make them feel insulted.” After the 15 March mosque attacks by a white supremacist, the New Zealand government has proposed introducing much harsher penalties for those who incite or “normalise” discrimination or hatred.

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