Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, admitted killing nine people he befriended online after they expressed suicidal thoughts
A court in Japan has sentenced to death a man dubbed the “Twitter killer” for the murders in 2017 of nine people whom he befriended online after they had expressed suicidal thoughts.
Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, admitted strangling and dismembering his victims, eight of whom were women, over the course of three months. The youngest was 15 and the oldest 26.
Continue reading...Many migrant women have been cooped up in employers’ homes for months, unable to take time off or travel to families
On Sundays Hong Kong’s migrant domestic workers traditionally gather in their thousands in the city’s public spaces to enjoy their day off.
Congregating in shopping malls and parks or at bus stations, they take mats to sit on and crowd around rice cookers, sharing meals. “Mini villages pop up everywhere,” says Karen Grépin, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong.
Continue reading...Nanaia Mahuta says Canberra and Beijing ‘will have to be willing to come together and concede in some areas’
New Zealand’s new foreign minister has said the country could help negotiate a truce between Australia and regional heavyweight China with the two nations caught in an escalating trade and diplomatic spat.
Nanaia Mahuta said on Tuesday that hosting the high-profile Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next year presented an opportunity for New Zealand to bring both parties to the table.
Continue reading...Forced labour much more widespread than initially thought in China region that supplies a fifth of the world’s cotton
More than half a million people from ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang have been coerced into picking cotton, on a scale far greater than previously thought, new research has suggested.
The Xinjiang region produces more than 20% of the world’s cotton and 84% of China’s, but according to a new report released on Tuesday by the Center for Global Policy there is significant evidence that it is “tainted” by human rights abuses, including suspected forced labour of Uighur and other Turkic Muslim minority people.
Continue reading...Nepali man is first known fatality at biggest global producer Top Glove, accused of failing to protect workers
A worker at the biggest global producer of medical rubber gloves has died after contracting Covid-19, in the first known Covid-related death of an employee at the Malaysian company since the virus began to spread through its factories and dormitories.
Top Glove’s profits have surged during the pandemic, but the company has faced repeated criticism over its treatment of migrant workers, including claims that it has failed to protect them from the coronavirus.
Continue reading...Our foreign correspondents reflect on the practical and cultural importance of fluency in a country’s native tongue
During the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in China, people described to us deeply personal and traumatic experiences – losing their parents, suffering the death of a child, being harassed and intimidated for trying to speak out. Having these conversations in Mandarin was important not just for capturing nuance and detail but for a sense of empathy.
Continue reading...Trans-Tasman bubble will allow Australians and New Zealanders to cross the ditch without quarantining
New Zealand’s cabinet has agreed to establish a quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia in the first quarter of 2021, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has said.
The Australian health minister Greg Hunt enthusiastically greeted the in-principle announcement, saying it was the “first step” in normalising international travel and anticipated the Australian government was “absolutely” likely to grant the necessary approvals.
Continue reading...Boosted iron ore prices due to anxious markets are likely to help federal budget’s bottom line, Deloitte says
Australia’s losses from trade tensions with China are being offset by rising iron ore prices, according to new analysis, which also predicts the Morrison government will announce a smaller budget deficit than originally forecast.
Deloitte Access Economics said Chinese government moves against wine, beef, barley, lobsters and thermal coal have cost Australia money “but we’ve more than made that up in overall terms thanks to iron ore – and the taxman will be a considerable beneficiary of that”.
Continue reading...Germany introduces new restrictions to combat spread of virus; Turkey changes counting method, almost doubling cases
Here are some striking images of Dr. Luigi Cavanna visiting his patients in their homes in small towns and rural areas in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.
He checks his patients’ oxygen levels, uses ultrasound to scan their lungs and tests them and their relatives for coronavirus.
Residents in Jersey care homes are receiving Covid vaccinations a day earlier than expected, the island’s government has announced.
Officials said the government made the call to start on Sunday rather than Monday “in view of the positive Covid cases in care homes”, which have seen a recent 400% surge, from four on Thursday to 19 by Saturday.
Continue reading...Suspected bomb maker Zulkarnaen arrested in a raid at a house on Sumatra island
Indonesian police have arrested a man believed to be the military leader of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network who has eluded capture since 2003, and is suspected of being involved in the 2002 Bali bombings, authorities said Saturday.
Aris Sumarsono, known as Zulkarnaen, was arrested late Thursday by counterterrorism police without resistance in a raid at a house in East Lampung district on Sumatra island, said national police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan.
Continue reading...The 72-year-old media tycoon was charged under China’s draconian new security law on Friday
The Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai has been denied bail, after being charged with colluding with foreign entities under the city’s new national security law.
Lai, who marked his 72nd birthday in jail this week, appeared in court on Saturday handcuffed to a chain around his waist, and led by a police officer.
Continue reading...When Chinese scientists alerted colleagues to a new virus last December, suspicion fell on a Wuhan market. What have health officials learned since then?
Maria van Kerkhove was staying with her sister in the US for the Christmas holidays, but checking her emails. As always. Every day there are signals of potential trouble, said the World Health Organization virologist who was to become a household name and face within weeks.
“There’s always something that happens at Christmas time. There’s always some alert, or a signal of a suspected case. The last several years it’s been Mers [Middle East respiratory syndrome] – a suspect case travelling to Malaysia or Indonesia or Korea or somewhere in Asia from the Middle East. So there’s always some kind of signal. There’s always something that happens,” she said.
Continue reading...Residents will be able to travel between the two countries without isolating from early next year
New Zealand and the Cook Islands have agreed to a travel arrangement, the leaders of the two countries have announced, while Australians must wait a while longer to fly across the ditch.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and her Cook Islands counterpart, Mark Brown, instructed officials to put in place measures to safely recommence two-way quarantine-free travel in the first quarter of 2021.
Continue reading...Survey finds more than 600,000 may want to move to Britain, many within two years of January start date
Hong Kong residents are likely to move to the UK faster than the British government has anticipated, and more should be done to prepare for their arrival, a new advocacy group has said.
HongKongers in Britain (HKB) surveyed city residents hoping to emigrate under a new British government scheme that opens in January, allowing those with colonial-era British National Overseas (BNO) status to obtain visas and pursue a “path to citizenship”.
Continue reading...The South Korean director, who has died of Covid, was at the forefront of a new wave of uncompromising cinema
Of all the film-makers of what might loosely be called the new Asian wave of the 21st century, perhaps the most challenging and mysterious – and probably the most garlanded on the European festival circuit – was South Korean director Kim Ki-duk. He made movies which were shocking, scabrous and violent - yet also often hauntingly sad and plangently beautiful and sometimes just plain weird. But they were strangely hypnotic. In 2011, I was on the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury which gave the top prize to his opaque docufictional piece Arirang, and though I struggle a bit now to recapture the mood of certainty that led us to that decision, there is no doubt about that Kim’s work had a commanding effect.
In fact, Kim himself might be a more prominent figure himself were it not that he was involved in the #MeToo controversy – three actors accused him of sexual assault which resulted in a fine for the director and inconclusive recrimination in the civil courts.
Continue reading...The director, who faced accusations of sexual misconduct, died while being treated in Latvia
Controversial South Korean film-maker Kim Ki-duk has died aged 59 in a Latvian hospital, where he was being treated for Covid-19. The news was initially reported by Vitaly Mansky, director of Latvia’s Artdocfest film festival, though and later confirmed by Kim’s family in the Korean media. Kim was understood to be developing a film project set in the Baltic region when he became ill.
Born in 1960, Kim made his name with a series of violent yet aesthetically challenging features, including The Isle (2000) and Bad Guy (2001) – the former of which was sanctioned by the British Board of Film Classification for animal cruelty. Subsequently he became a fixture on the international festival circuit with films such as Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and Spring (2003) and 3-Iron (2004), and he would go on to win the Golden Lion at Venice with his 2012 film Pieta, which the Guardian described as “bristl[ing] with Kim’s trademark anger and agony”.
Continue reading...Court expected to rule there is still insufficient evidence against China, but file to be kept open
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked for more evidence before it will be willing to open an investigation into claims of genocide against Uighur people by China, but has said it will keep the file open for such further evidence to be submitted.
With Beijing not a signatory to the ICC, those bringing the claim of genocide have pointed to the alleged forcing of Uighur people from Tajikistan and Cambodia into China as evidence. Both countries are signatories to the Rome statute setting up the ICC.
Continue reading...The report into the mosque attacks basically told those affected to fend for themselves – the government must support us
In New Zealand, strong women leaders are regularly referred to as wāhine toa. This is not a term used lightly, but rather a title given to women who show exceptional leadership and continue to support those around them even in the face of enormous difficulties. Some might refer to New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, as a wāhine toa, but it can be also used for women within general society who display consistent courage and strength.
In the 15 March 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack, 51 people (47 men and four women) died in two mosques. As fate would have it, the majority of those who were lost were male … and the majority of those left to shoulder the impact, to pick up the pieces and to take charge were female – wives, mothers, daughters, sisters. Leading a family is a challenge on a regular day, but under such circumstances, after such a violent, destructive act, it has unsurprisingly been daunting.
Continue reading...Italy reports 887 coronavirus-related deaths, up from 499 on previous day; Israel abandons Covid-19 curfew plan ahead of Hanukkah
Bolivia’s cholita wrestlers are making a comeback to the ring after the iconic female fighters were forced to hang up their billowing skirts and bowler hats due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters reports.
I’ve been wrestling for about 10 years. I am a single mother of two children, and I have a trade. Because of the trade I am in, I am able to dedicate enough time to my children, to take them to school and to study.
Before the pandemic, we were a part of the cultural heritage that wasn’t recognised, tourists came from all over the world to see just us, the fighting cholita luchadores of wrestling.
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Automation is revolutionising China’s pork farms but leaving independent farmers behind
A slender snout. Shapely, upright ears. Like humans, pigs have idiosyncratic faces, and new players in the Chinese pork market are taking notice, experimenting with increasingly sophisticated versions of facial recognition software for pigs.
China is the world’s largest exporter of pork, and is set to increase production next year by 9%. As the nation’s pork farms grow in scale, more farmers are turning to AI systems like facial recognition technology – known as FRT – to continuously monitor, identify, and even feed their herds.
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