Category Archives: Asia Pacific

The Wolf of Wall Street’s Jordan Belfort sues film’s producers for $300m

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Former stockbroker sues scandal-hit production company Red Granite for fraud and breach of contract

Jordan Belfort, the former stockbroker whose story inspired the Martin Scorsese-directed hit The Wolf of Wall Street, is suing the film’s financiers for fraud and breach of contract, and claiming $300m in compensation.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Belfort’s legal action arises directly from the financial scandal surrounding Red Granite, the production company that put up the film’s $100m budget but was subsequently linked to a multimillion-dollar embezzlement in which huge sums were siphoned from 1MDB, a Malaysian state fund. Riza Aziz, Red Granite’s co-founder and stepson of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, is currently under arrest in Malaysia on money laundering charges.

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China steps up coronavirus clampdown as chaos hits hospitals – video

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After preventing travel from Wuhan, China has locked down several more cities as it attempts to contain the deadly coronavirus. Footage online reveals the quarantine measures the country is taking to prevent the spread

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China coronavirus: UK Cobra committee meets as death toll rises to 26 – live news

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UK emergency committee to discuss outbreak as more than 33 million people affected by lockdown measures in China

Calls for stricter outlawing of the trafficking and consumption of wild game - which has been linked to the emergence of Coronavirus in Chinese cities - have been reverberating on Chinese social media.

An interesting piece from Jessica Colwell on What’s on Weibo, which reports on social media trends in China, reports that the Wuhan Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market which has been linked to the outbreak has been closed down but criticism of such markets has been fierce.

The hashtag “Support the banning of wild game markets” (#支持禁绝野味市场#) was topping the list of trending topics for much of Thursday and was viewed 270 million times.

Another hashtag, “The source of the new coronavirus is wild animals” (#新型冠状病毒来源是野生动物#), topped the list on Wednesday and has been viewed 990 million times. Online commenters are lambasting the practice of eating illegal wild game such as civet cats, the cause of the 2003 SARS virus, and bats, the suspected cause of the Wuhan coronavirus (snakes have also been suggested as a possible source of the coronavirus outbreak).

Britain’s public health authorities have put out these slides as part of an information campaign about the coronavirus outbreak

No confirmed cases of Wuhan coronavirus have been detected in the UK and the risk to the UK population is low. If you have travelled to the affected area, make sure you know what to do if you experience symptoms: https://t.co/vvIWp72flo pic.twitter.com/hzV5A3dy4f

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New Zealand needs to show it’s serious about addressing Chinese interference | Anne-Marie Brady

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Wellington has restricted foreign political donations but its lax approach to Beijing suggests economic interests still trump national security concerns

Transparency International announced yesterday that New Zealand is the least corrupt country in the world. This is excellent news, but New Zealand cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index assesses whether countries have a corrupt judiciary and public sector. Some other aspects where corruption can also occur, such as political funding, are not included in the index.

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Wuhan in lockdown as residents barred from leaving Chinese city stricken by coronavirus – video

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Authorities have shut down public transport and airports to prevent Wuhan's 11 million residents from leaving the city as they look to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Police have been seen patrolling railway stations and setting up roadblocks

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White Island eruption: last two missing victims declared dead

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Police said Hayden Marshall-Inman of New Zealand and Winona Langford of Australia perished in the disaster

The death toll has risen to 20 from the volcanic eruption on New Zealand’s White Island last month, as two people still missing were officially confirmed dead.

The two people were Hayden Marshall-Inman of New Zealand and Winona Langford of Australia, police said on Thursday.

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The haka isn’t yours – stop performing it | Morgan Godfery

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Ever more non-Māori are doing the haka – but shouldn’t be unless its integrity is preserved

I wonder if any of the French lawyers protesting their government’s pension reform with a haka, the Māori dance form, have ever set foot in New Zealand?

For a good number of white people, including white New Zealanders, haka is apparently irresistible. “Ka Mate”, the Ngāti Toa haka the All Blacks perform pre-match, delights global audiences every year. Contemporary teams take it dead seriously, but in the late-19th and early-20th century the mostly white team would turn to the British crowds, slapping their thighs and hanging their tongues out for “entertainment”.

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From loo roll to dumplings: Hong Kong protesters weaponise purchasing power

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The ‘yellow economic circle’ movement aims to promote locally owned businesses – and shun Chinese ones

Emily Mak works in finance but every lunchtime in the run-up to lunar new year on Saturday she heads to a bustling Hong Kong market street to distribute lai see packets to customers who have ordered them online.

Her packets – red envelopes used to hold a traditional new year gift of money for children – are emblazoned with pro-democracy messages. The profits of the more than 20,000 packets she has sold will be donated to young protesters experiencing hardship.

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Protesters who demanded Huawei CFO’s release revealed to be paid actors

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More than a dozen people outside Vancouver courtroom with ‘Free Meng’ signs were promised C$100 for two hours’ work on a movie

Protesters calling for the release of a senior Chinese telecommunications executive arrested in Canada have admitted they were paid actors, in the latest twist in a closely watched extradition case that has chilled relations between Ottawa and Beijing.

More than a dozen people joined a demonstration on Monday outside a Vancouver courtroom where the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou is fighting extradition to the US for alleged fraud related to sanctions against Iran.

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New Zealand has been a life-raft for unique species – now they must adapt or die | Erica Wilkinson

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Our nation has been in a biodiversity crisis for more than 100 years, but the climate crisis could push our at-risk animals to the brink

As world leaders debate how to curb emissions to shape a better tomorrow, for New Zealand’s iconic wildlife the reality is clear – the environment they once thrived in has rapidly changed and species must adapt to survive.

New Zealand is home to species found nowhere else in the world – a flightless parrot, a reptile as old as the dinosaurs, a bat that uses folded wings as “limbs” to scramble around on the forest floor. The unique wildlife thrived on a landmass that was essentially a life-raft separated from predators such as rats and stoats for 80m years.

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Coronavirus: China bars 11m residents from leaving city at centre of outbreak

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Government unveils new countermeasures as country prepares for lunar new year and death toll doubles to 17

Chinese authorities have suspended all outbound transport from Wuhan, the city at the centre of an outbreak of the mysterious Sars-like coronavirus, which has so far killed 17 people.

Bus, subway, ferry and long-distance passenger transportation networks from the city were suspended from 10am local time on Thursday, state media reported. The city’s airport and train stations were also closed to outgoing passengers.

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The Guardian view on the new coronavirus: be alert, not afraid | Editorial

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An outbreak of a pneumonia-causing virus in China is creating alarm. It is sensible to be concerned, but an overreaction would be a mistake

Every so often, our vague awareness of our vulnerability as a species crystallises around a specific threat. At first, we note with unconcern a handful of cases of a new illness, somewhere far away. Soon it begins to spread. The deaths mount. We start to wonder whether we are being complacent rather than sensible, and whether we are living through the early montage in a disaster movie, in which families bicker over breakfast as news reports on the killer virus play unnoticed in the background. Could this be a new pandemic which will sweep the globe killing tens of millions, as Spanish flu once did?

The story of the new coronavirus, first reported in Wuhan, China, last month, now seems to be reaching the point where public indifference tips into worry and even fear. It causes pneumonia; Beijing says six people have died and 300 have been infected as it has spread. On Monday, officials confirmed that there was human-to-human transmission. Sales of face masks have soared. Cases have been reported in Thailand, Japan, the Philippines and elsewhere, though all confirmed incidents involve patients who had been in China. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting.

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Coronavirus: Chinese hospitals not testing patients, say relatives

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Number of cases, and deaths, could be much higher than those cited in official reports if claims are true

On 12 January Huang got news his healthy 65-year-old mother had been checked into a hospital in the central Chinese city of Wuhan with a fever and a cough.

There had been reports of a strange new virus with similar symptoms, and the hospital staff were dressed in full hazmat suits. Still, Huang’s mother was not tested for the mystery illness, nor quarantined from other patients.

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Coronavirus: Australia to screen passengers on flights from China for potentially fatal illness

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Sars-like virus can be transmitted by human contact and has infected more than 200 and killed three

Australia will begin screening passengers on high-risk flights from China for signs of a new Sars-like coronavirus following confirmation from the Chinese health authorities that the virus has begun spreading from human to human.

The outbreak was first reported in Wuhan City in China on New Year’s Eve and tied to a seafood market, but officials have since confirmed that it has spread to other humans who had not frequented the market, as well as to health workers.

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‘Earth sandwich’: two men, two slices of bread and 12,724km of filling

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Men in New Zealand and Spain calculated longitude and latitude to perfectly align both slices

An Auckland university student has created an “earth sandwich” with a stranger in Spain, after a long search for an accomplice.

Etienne Naude, 19, placed a slice of white bread on the ground at Bucklands Beach in Auckland, using longitude and latitude to ensure he was precisely opposite a volunteer he had found in the south of Spain after posting for help on Reddit.

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Should the world be worried about the coronavirus in China?

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Experts fear latest strain of virus may spread across planet from person to person

It is a novel coronavirus – that is to say, a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals, or possibly seafood. Many of those infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city. New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are examples.

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China confirms human-to-human transmission of coronavirus

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Authorities on alert ahead of lunar new year holiday as 139 new cases of strain detected

China’s National Health Commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission of a mysterious Sars-like virus that has spread across the country and fuelled anxiety about the prospect of a major outbreak as millions begin travelling for lunar new year celebrations.

Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert and head of the health commission team investigating the outbreak, confirmed that two cases of infection in China’s Guangdong province had been caused by human-to-human transmission and medical staff had been infected, China’s official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

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Climate refugees can’t be returned home, says landmark UN human rights ruling

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Experts say judgment is ‘tipping point’ that opens the door to climate crisis claims for protection

It is unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis, a landmark ruling by the United Nations human rights committee has found.

The judgment – which is the first of its kind – represents a legal “tipping point” and a moment that “opens the doorway” to future protection claims for people whose lives and wellbeing have been threatened due to global heating, experts say.

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Laptops stolen in burglary at New Zealand’s National party headquarters

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Thieves broke in to the office in Auckland on Sunday night or Monday morning

The National party’s headquarters have been burgled, its deputy leader, Paula Bennett, has revealed, with three laptops stolen in the “serious” incident overnight.

The break-in occurred on Sunday night or Monday morning at the party’s Auckland office, Bennett told local media, and the burglar had triggered the office’s alarm system.

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Silver Ferns face first big test of 2020 – without Langman, Rore, Folau or Korpua

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Netball team will look quite different from World Cup-winning outfit, as they take on understrength England

The new-look Silver Ferns will take on England in their first international of 2020 without some of their biggest hitters on the court.

Captain Laura Langman is on sabbatical, as is key defender Katrina Rore, and neither will play in the inaugural Netball Nations Cup in the UK that starts on Sunday night, UK time. The Ferns will take on England, Jamaica and South Africa in the tournament; Australia’s Diamonds are not playing.

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