Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Are artificial islands the answer to Hong Kong’s housing crisis?

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Will a $60bn development to house 1.1 million people help to ease the world’s most unaffordable property market or is it simply ‘pouring money into the sea’?

“Reclamation is unavoidable,” Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, told journalists in a Q&A session on land supply last year. “In the long term, many developing cities have to adopt this choice.”

Hong Kong suffers from chronic overcrowding and housing shortages – a situation made worse by the 150 residence permits a day that have been issued to mainland Chinese citizens since 1997. Additionally, 62% of land is “locked up” or “semi-locked up” by law or regulatory constraints due to environmental reasons in terms of land development, according to the thinktank Our Hong Kong Foundation.

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‘A sort of eco-dictatorship’: Shanghai grapples with strict new recycling laws

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Steep fines and social credit penalties face people violating complex waste sorting rules – but some say the answer is all about pigs

For the last two weeks, Shanghai residents have grappled with a singular question: “What kind of trash are you?”

The question is aimed at the city’s daily 22,000 tonnes of household waste that, according to new rules implemented on 1 July, must be sorted into one of four colour-coded bins: dry, wet, recyclable and hazardous.

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Thai cave divers to star in film depicting real-life rescue

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Movie about Tham Luang cave operation to save schoolboys and coach one of several announced

Four divers who took part in the rescue of 12 Thai schoolboys and their football coach after they were trapped in a cave will play themselves in one of several films positioning themselves as the definitive account of the event that attracted worldwide attention last summer.

Dive instructors Erik Brown from Canada, and Mikko Paasi from Finland, Belgian rescue diver Jim Warny and Chinese cave diving instructor Tan Xiaolong will all appear in The Cave, one of half a dozen film and documentary projects dedicated to the 2018 rescue operation from the Tham Luang cave.

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Australia urged to invest in recycling manufacturing after Indonesia sends rubbish back

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Kickstart the domestic market so Asian countries rejecting Australian waste is no longer a problem, industry suggests

Australia could quickly solve the problem of Indonesia and other countries rejecting its waste if governments invested in recycling manufacturing as promised and required the use of recycled material in public projects, industry and environmental groups say.

Jakarta announced on Tuesday it would return 210 tonnes of Australian household rubbish – the latest demonstration of opposition in south-east Asia to receiving exported waste. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have each turned back shipments and warned they would not become dumping grounds for developed countries after China banned imports of foreign plastic rubbish.

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Jacinda Ardern’s neighbour reportedly admits to killing Paddles, first cat of New Zealand

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Man going by the name of Chris says he wrote condolence card for Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford

The man who killed New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s cat has reportedly broken his silence, a year after he ran over the first cat of New Zealand.

Shortly after Ardern became the prime minister-elect in October 2017, her polydactyl cat named Paddles shot to fame, and even had her own Twitter account.

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Should we build cities from scratch?

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With another 2.5 billion urban dwellers predicted within the next 30 years, should we expand existing cities? Or is there a case for starting afresh?

People have been building new cities from scratch for millennia. From the foundation myths surrounding Athens and Rome, to the clearance of virgin forests in western New York state to create the “garden city” of Buffalo, to scores of purpose-built capitals – Brasília, Canberra, Astana, Washington DC – building new cities is just something that humans do.

When countries rise up, when markets emerge, people build new cities. Today, though, we are taking it to unheard-of levels. We have never before built so many new cities in so many places at such great expense as we are right now.

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Japan’s famous Nara deer dying from eating plastic bags

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Tourists warned not to feed the animals after plastic waste found in stomachs of several dead deer

Authorities in Japan’s ancient capital Nara are warning visitors not to feed the city’s wild deer – a major tourist attraction – after several of the animals died after swallowing plastic bags.

Large amounts of plastic waste were found in the stomachs of nine of 14 deer to have died since March, according to a local wildlife conservation group.

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‘It reminds me of miracles’: fascination endures one year after Thai cave rescue

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Twelve months after the dramatic mission to rescue 12 boys and their coach gripped the world, the once-sleepy part of northern Thailand is transforming

It had been 18 days of nail-biting suspense, rain, mud, prayers, water pumps, dashed hopes and disgraced tech billionaires. But on 10 July 2018, the watching world got its happy ending: the final member of the young Wild Boars football team trapped in Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand was rescued from the narrow, flooded passages and carried to safety.

A year may have passed since the dramatic rescue mission to save the boys and their coach came to an end but for those living in the surrounding areas to Tham Luang, the afterglow of an event that made headlines around the world still lingers.

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At least 15 women and children killed in tribal massacre in Papua New Guinea

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Pregnant women among victims of killings in small village of Karida, in an area beset by internecine violence

At least 15 women and children have been killed in a massacre in Papua New Guinea’s Hela province, in one of the worst outbreaks of tribal violence in the country for years.

The killings happened on early Monday morning during a raid on Karida, a village of about 800 people in the interior of the country.

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Alek Sigley denies he was a spy and laments he may never see North Korea again

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Australian student who was detained by the regime breaks his silence

Alek Sigley, the Australian student who was detained by North Korea for a little over a week before being released, has rejected the regime’s accusation that he was a spy.

Sigley, 29, returned to social media late on Wednesday, where he released a brief statement after assuring everyone he was well, mentally and physically.

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‘War on drugs’ makes Philippines fourth most dangerous country – report

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Duterte’s violent anti-drugs operations are responsible for 75% of civilian deaths this year

President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of a “war on drugs” has made the Philippines the fourth most dangerous place in the world for civilian-targeted violence, according to a report that places the country behind conflict-ridden Yemen.

The report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled) identifies India as the most dangerous country, with 1,385 violent events that targeted civilians. Second place is Syria with 1,160, followed by Yemen with 500, and the Philippines with 345. It supports comments made recently by Michelle Bachelet, UN high commissioner for human rights, who voiced concerns over ongoing human rights abuses in the Philippines and the “extraordinarily high number of deaths – and persistent reports of extrajudicial killings – in the context of campaigns against drug use”.

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‘The bill is dead’ but Hong Kong protesters are not appeased by Carrie Lam’s declaration

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Experts say level of distrust in the city’s leader is so deep that protests will continue

On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, attempted to end what has been the territory’s worst political crisis in decades by declaring a controversial extradition bill that set off weeks of protests “dead”.

Yet the operative word protesters were looking for was “withdraw”, or chit wui, a key demand of the demonstrators to formally withdraw the bill from parliament. Lam has said the bill, already suspended last month in response to protests, would expire at the end of the legislative session that finishes next July. Instead she used a Cantonese idiom to describe “reaching the end of one’s life”.

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The Mulan trailer is a dismal sign Disney is bowing to China’s anti-democratic agenda | Jingan Young

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Mulan has been transformed from life-affirming epic to patriotic saga, showing Hollywood is prioritising box office success

Disney have just released their hotly anticipated teaser trailer for their live-action remake of Mulan. The 1998 animated musical action film, following the triumphant story of an awkward young woman who takes her father’s place in a war by disguising herself as a boy, resonated globally. I was seven years old when it was released, and as a half-Chinese girl born and raised in pre-handover Hong Kong, the film had special importance to me, with its combination of east-west values, musical numbers (Honour to Us All, I’ll Make a Man Out of You and Reflection have aged extremely well), and female protagonist who kicks some serious butt while retaining her moral integrity and reinforcing family values. To this day, my Mulan sword, Mushu soft toy and Mulan dolls are somewhere safe in storage at home in Hong Kong.

To say I was excited by the prospect of a live action remake of Mulan is an understatement. The film joins the plethora of live-action remakes of Disney’s 90s renaissance hits, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. All of these retain their musical numbers. Why then has Disney decided to make Mulan a gritty realist film? Particularly considering there are already Chinese versions of the legend: General Hua Mu-lan (1964) and Mulan: Rise of a Warrior (2009).

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All Blacks coach criticised for saying domestic violence ‘not a gender thing’

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Steve Hansen made the comments after naming Sevu Reece, who admitted to assaulting his partner, to the side

The All Blacks head coach has been called out for saying that domestic violence is not a gendered issue after he named a player who pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner in his side.

Steve Hansen, a former police constable, made the comments after putting Canterbury Crusaders winger Sevu Reece in the latest All Blacks’ squad.

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‘The next era of human progress’: what lies behind the global new cities epidemic?

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The urge to build cities from scratch is not new – but this time they are being conceived by private multinational corporations as gilt-edged tax-exempt gated communities

At 8.30 every morning, an announcement is piped though a speaker in the ceiling of Kim Jong-won’s apartment, barking the daily bulletin in a high-pitched voice. The disembodied broadcaster details new parking measures, issues with the pneumatic waste disposal chute and various building maintenance jobs to be carried out that day.

“There’s no way of turning it off,” sighs Kim’s wife, Jung-sim, as she prepares breakfast. “I hate technology but my husband is an early adopter. He has to have everything first.”

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‘The odour of burning wakes us’: inside the Philippines’ Plastic City

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In Valenzuela City, residents blame recycling plants for pungent smells and respiratory illnesses

As noon approaches in Valenzuela City and residents prepare to have their lunch, a pungent smell of melted plastic swirls through the air, killing everyone’s appetite.

“It gets suffocating in the evening. We have to close our windows despite the heat and bury our noses under our blankets when we sleep,” says Rosalie Esplana, 40.

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Tensions high as Hong Kong protesters face off with riot police – video

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Crowds of protesters, some holding umbrellas, continued to face off with police in Hong Kong late on Sunday as their month-old protest movement showed no signs of abating. Police lined the streets holding batons and riot shields as thousands of people took part in the latest demonstrations to demand the withdrawal of a bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland

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Chinese ambassador accuses Jeremy Hunt of ‘cold war mentality’

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Foreign secretary refused to clarify Britain’s stance in row over Hong Kong protests

China’s ambassador to the UK has accused the UK’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, of having a “cold war mentality” in his approach to the diplomatic row over Hong Kong.

Liu Xiaoming criticised the Conservative leadership candidate for his stance of “strategic ambiguity” on the possibility of sanctions against China over the crackdown on the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.

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Hong Kong demonstrators march to railway station as protests continue – video

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Tens of thousands of protesters march to keep up the pressure on the Hong Kong government to withdraw a controversial extradition bill, in the latest of a series of mass rallies that have drawn millions of demonstrators over the past month. The march is planned to finish at the West Kowloon railway terminus, where high-speed trains link Hong Kong with mainland Chinese cities

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