Telstra has said it would keep its customers’ data security and integrity its foremost responsibility as the telecom comes to terms with the controversial new national security legislation in Hong Kong. The legislation, which came into effect at the end of last month, allows Hong Kong police to intercept communications, conduct covert surveillance and request information from service providers. It has forced a rethink for non-Chinese companies with operations in Hong Kong on whether to keep customer data onshore, where it might be subject to the new laws. Several tech companies, including Twitter, Facebook, Zoom and Microsoft, have said that they would suspend compliance with requests from Hong Kong police. Telecoms are subject to the laws of the country in which they operate. It was revealed in 2013 that Telstra’s joint-venture Hong Kong business, Reach, was subject to US national security law with respect to data it holds in the US as part of its massive sub-sea cable network. Telstra also operates cloud services in Hong Kong, offering co-location of data in the territory. A spokesman for Telstra said the security and integrity of clients’ data was the company’s “foremost priority and responsibility.” Telstra chief executive Andy Penn on Friday told ABC Radio National that the company would rely on legal advice and the advice of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on complying with requests from Hong Kong, but for now there were no plans to pull out. “There’s no change, but it is a dynamic situation,” he said. “We’re not reviewing our presence there at the moment...We’re really just following DFAT’s advice,” Penn said, referring to the department. At the same time, the Australian government is pushing for legislation to allow Australian companies, such as Telstra, to comply with orders from countries where agreements are in place to hand over data to law
As many as 33 rivers in China have risen to their highest levels in history during the current wave of floods, a senior government official said yesterday, as regions across the country brace for another “grim” week of torrential rain. Chinese Vice Minister of Water Resources Ye Jianchun (葉建春) told a briefing that 433 rivers — as well as major lakes such as the Dongting, the Poyang and the Tai — have all risen beyond their warning levels since the flood season began last month. “Going into the key flood-prevention period of late July to early August, the current trends remain grim on the Yangtze and the Lake Tai basins,” he said, adding that the belts of heavy rain that have lashed central China would eventually head north. Average rainfall has been at its highest since records began in 1961. The Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management on Friday said that 141 people were dead or missing, with economic losses at about 60 billion yuan (US$8.57 billion). Flood-control authorities throughout the Yangtze basin have already declared “red alerts” that cover major population centers such as Xianning, Jiujiang and Nanchang. A red alert has also been declared at Lake Poyang, where water levels are more than 3m higher than normal, another record high. In some flood-stricken regions, soldiers filled sandbags to shore up riverbanks and stave off more damage. Town streets were inundated and rescue workers waded through hip-deep water with inflatable boats to reach people trapped in homes turned into islands. Warning levels were breached at more than 70 flood-monitoring stations yesterday, flood ministry data showed. Water levels at the Three Gorges reservoir, which cut its discharge volumes for a fifth time on Saturday to ease downstream water levels, have now hit 153.2m, 6.7m higher than the warning level. China’s weather bureau said that although some regions in the
RESTRICTIONS: The ban on alcohol sales is intended to reduce trauma cases and ease pressure on hospitals, the government said. A curfew from 9pm to 4am also took effect
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa read the riot act to those flouting rules aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, as he reinstated a ban on liquor sales to reduce alcohol-related hospital admissions. Many South Africans are failing to wear masks in crowded spaces, attending large public gatherings and having “drinking sprees,” in violation of government regulations, Ramaphosa said on Sunday in a televised address. The behaviors are examples of “recklessness” at a time when the number of virus cases is nearing a peak, he said. “It is concerning that many are downplaying the seriousness of this virus,” he said. “We are in the midst of a deadly pandemic and we must act accordingly. We must all be responsible. The truth is we are not helpless in the face of this storm.” COVID-19 infections in South Africa have surged since lockdown restrictions were eased last month to allow millions of people to return to work, with 276,242 cases and 4,079 deaths confirmed by Sunday, a quarter of them in the past week. The government expects the disease to peak by the end of September and intensive-care units in all nine provinces to run out of beds. The blanket ban on alcohol sales is intended to reduce trauma cases and ease pressure on hospitals. Effective yesterday a curfew was reimposed from 9pm to 4am and the wearing of masks is to be strictly enforced. Hospitals in some provinces hardest hit by the pandemic are already under tremendous pressure, and the nation faces a shortage of more than 12,000 heathcare personnel, Ramaphosa said. “We have heard of instances where people who are infected have been turned away from health facilities due to a lack of beds or essential supplies,” he said. “This is deeply worrying. It means we have to move with even greater urgency to strengthen our strategy
Sydney residents were yesterday warned to put the brakes on partying as a new COVID-19 cluster emerged at a city pub on the heels of a major outbreak in Melbourne. Three pubs in Sydney and its environs were closed after being linked to outbreaks or failing to comply with social distancing requirements, while other events were under investigation with Australia on edge over a resurgence of the virus. The new cluster emerged after Melbourne entered a six-week lockdown on Thursday, and surrounding Victoria state was sealed off from the rest of the country in an effort to contain the virus. Authorities yesterday reported 177 new infections in and around Melbourne, marking a week of triple-digit increases. New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke slammed the “moronic behaviour of people at dance parties,” after local media published footage of large private get-togethers in Sydney’s wealthy eastern suburbs. City residents are allowed a maximum of 20 visitors in their homes under restrictions that have been gradually eased in recent weeks as the number of infections dwindled. At least 21 infections have now been linked to a growing cluster at Sydney’s Crossroads Hotel — a popular drinking spot on a major traffic route — raising concern the virus could be spreading in the state. A dozen military personnel who visited the pub while poised to deploy on an anti-virus mission were yesterday in isolation at an army base in rural New South Wales. New South Wales Police Minister David Elliott said that if the situation was not brought under control, pubs could be closed again. “If we have to close hotels and clubs again, the patrons will have to take some of the ownership of that,” he told a press conference. “I will, however, work to my dying breath to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” he added. Police have stepped up penalties
Florida on Sunday shattered the national record for the largest single-day increase in positive COVID-19 cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases as its daily average death toll continued to also rise. According to Florida Department of Health statistics, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded. California had the previous record of daily positive cases — 11,694, set on Wednesday. New York had 11,571 on April 15. The numbers come at the end of a grim, record-breaking week as Florida reported 514 fatalities — an average of 73 per day. Three weeks ago, the state was averaging 30 deaths per day. Since the pandemic began in March, 4,346 people have died in Florida of COVID-19, the state says. Testing has doubled over the last month, going from about 25,000 tests per day to almost 50,000, but the percentage of people testing positive has risen even more dramatically. A month ago, fewer than 5 percent of tests came up positive on a daily average. Over the past week, the daily average exceeded 19 percent. About 10.7 percent of Saturday’s 143,000 tests came up positive, with an average age of 38. “I still think we need to increase our testing a little bit more,” University of Florida epidemiologist Cindy Prins said, adding that the state and local health departments should ramp up their contact tracing. Prins said that she was still concerned about large crowds, gyms and some restaurants as being places of mass transmission. Reports of illegal clubs and raves in South Florida is also a worry, she said. “I really do think we could control this, and it’s the human element that is so critical. It should be an effort of our country. We should be pulling together when
CRITICISM: A petition opposed the city government organizing yesterday’s ceremony at city hall, given the sexual harassment complaint filed against Park Won-soon
The funeral service for Seoul mayor Park Won-soon, who took his own life after being accused of sexual harassment, was held yesterday despite a petition against the city-run ceremony signed by half a million people. Former human rights lawyer Park was a heavyweight figure in the ruling Democratic Party and ran South Korea’s sprawling capital for nearly a decade. He was found dead on a mountain on Friday, a day after his former secretary filed a police complaint against him that is widely reported to involve sexual harassment. Despite the controversy over his death, the Seoul City Government organized a five-day funeral for Park — two days longer than the normal Korean ritual — and set up a memorial altar outside City Hall. More than 20,000 people came to pay their respects during the mourning period, and at the service yesterday his daughter said: “I could feel my father’s joy as I met the citizens one by one.” However, an online petition on the presidential Web site opposing the ceremony garnered more than 560,000 signatures. “Does the public have to watch the fancy five-day funeral of a powerful politician who took his own life over sexual harassment allegations?” it asked. “What kind of message is this trying to send?” A longstanding advocate of women’s rights, Park is by far the most high-profile politician to be implicated in a harassment case in South Korea, a highly patriarchal society that has seen a widespread #MeToo movement in the last two years. Kim Jae-ryun, a lawyer for Park’s former secretary, told a news conference that the woman had suffered various forms of sexual harassment by the mayor — including receiving obscene late-night text messages and underwear selfies — during the four years she worked for him. He would call her to his bedroom next to his office and ask her to “hug
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday narrowly won a motion to boot the parliament speaker, scraping through the first test of his support nearly five months after taking power. The move came as parliament resumed after months of delay because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its success could thwart the opposition’s bid of a no-confidence vote against Muhyiddin, analysts said. Lawmakers engaged in heated debates over Muhyiddin’s unprecedented proposal to replace the house speaker with his own candidate. Voting later showed the government secured 111 votes, against 109 for the opposition, with one absent and another unaccounted for. “The vote suggests that Muhyiddin’s government has the numbers to stay in power. Replacing the speaker is crucial because it is the speaker who decides if a vote of no-confidence can go ahead,” said James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at University of Tasmania in Australia. “The vote also confirms what we know already, that is both sides are very close in terms of numbers and that Muhyiddin’s government is not stable,” Chin said. Muhyiddin’s legitimacy has been challenged by the opposition since he was sworn in March 1 after a week-long political crisis. He pulled his ethnic Malay party out of the ruling alliance, triggering its collapse, and formed a Malay-centric government with the opposition, including the party of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, who is on trial on multiple graft charges. Then-Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad resigned in protest of the plan, and filed a motion of no confidence against his former party ally. Chin said the speaker replacement suggested parliament cannot act as an effective check and balance against Muhyiddin. “Given that the new speaker is nominated by Muhyiddin’s government. I can bet that Mahathir will not to stand a chance in getting rid of Muhyiddin,” Chin said. “Muhyiddin is now in a much stronger political
The Philippines on Sunday renewed its call for compliance with a four-year-old arbitration ruling that invalidated China’s vast claims in the disputed South China Sea on historical grounds “without any possibility of compromise.” Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr issued the call on the anniversary of the July 12, 2016, ruling by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that “conclusively settled the issue of historic rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea” based on the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. “The award is non-negotiable,” Locsin said. “The tribunal authoritatively ruled that China’s claim of historic rights to resources within the sea ... had no basis in law.” It was the strongest statement the Philippines has issued so far in marking the milestone. China has dismissed the decision as a “sham” and refused to participate in the arbitration proceedings after the administration of then-Philippine president Benigno Aquino III in 2013 challenged China’s claims to virtually the entire disputed area. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has nurtured close ties with China since taking office in 2016, raised the issue last year in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jingping (習近平), who he said flatly told him: “We will not budge.” Duterte has long been criticized by nationalists and left-wing groups for not immediately and strongly demanding Chinese compliance with the ruling after he took office. The ruling also upheld the Philippines’ sovereign rights over its exclusive economic zone “Compliance in good faith with the award would be consistent with the obligations of the Philippines and China under international law,” Locsin said. “We commemorate the issuance of the award as a celebration of the rule of law, as a means to settle disputes amicably ... and clearly mark out who would be in the wrong to insist on claims contrary
Forces loyal to Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar said they would only allow the reopening of oil fields and terminals once a mechanism has been set up to fairly distribute revenue across the country, which is split between rival, warring factions. Powerful tribes in eastern Libya loyal to Haftar closed export terminals and choked off major pipelines at the start of the year in a bid to pressure their rivals in the UN-supported government in the capital, Tripoli. In a statement late on Saturday, Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for Haftar’s forces, called for oil revenues to flow into a bank account in a foreign country with a “clear mechanism” to distribute funds fairly among Libya’s regions. He also demanded international guarantees that oil revenues would not to be used to fund “terrorists and mercenaries.” He was apparently referring to the mercenaries, mostly Syrians, that Turkey brought in recent months to fight on the side of the Tripoli government, which is backed by an array of local militias as well as Qatar and Italy. Haftar’s forces are also backed by a patchwork of armed groups as well as foreign patrons, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Russia and France. Al-Mosmari also called for an audit to the Central Bank of Libya to review the spending in the past years. Last month, the tribes offered to end the closure as part of a political settlement. They mandated Haftar’s forces to negotiate the opening of the oil facilities.
COSTLIER, BUT LAST LONGER: The robots could provide an alternative to keeping cetaceans in captivity, and could be rolled out in Chinese aquariums, the creators say
They can respond to questions, swim happily in shopping mall display tanks, and withstand close contact that would usually be harmful to real animals — without any ethical problems. And they could soon be coming to aquariums in China. Entrepreneurs in New Zealand are working with US creators of some of Hollywood’s most famous creatures to develop animatronic dolphins that look almost identical to their living counterparts. A robotic dolphin that can nod an answer to a child — thanks to the human controlling it by remote — might sound unappealing or disconcerting. However, as marine parks around the world face increasing pressure to abandon exhibitions featuring real whales and dolphins, the creatures provide an appealing alternative, their creators say. “The marine park industry has had falling revenues for over a decade due to ethical concerns and the cost of live animals, yet the public hunger to learn about and experience these animals is still as strong as ever,” said Roger Holzberg, a California-based designer of the life-size robot bottlenose dolphins, and a former creative director at the Walt Disney Co. Holzberg is working alongside Walt Conti, responsible for some of movies’ best-known sea creatures — including Free Willy and Flipper — to build the animals. “We believe that it’s time to reimagine this industry and that this approach can be more humane, and more profitable at the same time,” Holzberg said. However, with a price tag of about NZ$40 million (US$22.23 million) per dolphin, the biggest obstacle for the creators of the animatronic creatures is proving to potential clients that the robotic sea creatures will work out to be cheaper in the long run than the real thing. Li Wang, a business developer for New Zealand-based Edge Innovation, which is making the case for the robots, said they do cost four times more than
POOR NATIONS: Save the Children said that the fallout from COVID-19 pandemic measures could impoverish up to 117 million children and harm school admissions
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an “unprecedented education emergency” with up to 9.7 million children affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class, Save the Children said yesterday. The British charity cited UNESCO data showing that in April, 1.6 billion young people were shut out of schools and universities due to measures to contain COVID-19 — about 90 percent of the world’s entire student population. “For the first time in human history, an entire generation of children globally have had their education disrupted,” it said in a report titled Save our Education. The economic fallout of the pandemic could force an extra 90 million to 117 million children into poverty, with a knock-on effect on school admissions, it said. With many young people required to work or girls forced into early marriage to support their families, this could see between 7 million and 9.7 million children dropping out of school permanently, it said. At the same time, the charity said that pandemic response measures could leave a shortfall of US$77 billion in education budgets in low and middle-income countries by the end of next year. “Around 10 million children may never return to school — this is an unprecedented education emergency and governments must urgently invest in learning,” Save the Children chief executive officer Inger Ashing said. “Instead we are at risk of unparallelled budget cuts which will see existing inequality explode between the rich and the poor, and between boys and girls.” The charity urged governments and donors to invest more into a new global education plan to help children back into school when it is safe and until then support distance learning programs. “We know the poorest, most marginalized children who were already the furthest behind have suffered the greatest loss, with no access to distance learning — or any kind of
Muscovites desperate for a summer holiday abroad this year have found a loophole that is letting them evade Russia’s ban on foreign travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A loophole that involves a 14-hour round trip via Belarus. Travelers are exploiting the soft border between the two former-Soviet neighbors. Russians can drive 715km from Moscow to Minsk with minimal checks, and once there they can make use of Belarus’ looser restrictions. “Since the quarantine, Minsk has become a Casablanca, the main crossroads for Russians who want to leave the country,” said Maxim Valetskiy, a Russian businessman with an Israeli passport and family in London, who has used the detour four times since the Kremlin halted foreign travel at the end of March. Russians have been advised to stay put this summer even as other restrictions are loosened, as the government deals with the fourth-highest infection rate in the world. Domestic travel within Russia’s territory is mostly allowed, but many are put off by the country’s underdeveloped and crowded tourist resorts. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova on Friday said on state television that the government aims to resume some international flights tomorrow, without naming any potential destinations. The government is considering opening travel with some countries in Europe and Asia, such as Italy and China, the RBC online news group reported earlier last week. “I want to go on holiday where I choose, and that’s certainly not on the Black Sea in Russia,” said Elena Venediktova, a 44-year-old real-estate broker in Moscow, who has booked a two-week holiday via Belarus in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurgada from Aug. 1. “Europe may be off limits, but there are lots of other seaside destinations. You just have to make a slight effort.” The loophole is proving to be a boon to Belarusian tour operators in a disastrous year for
TRZASKOWSKI EDGED: Political analysts said that the close result gave opposition leaders ‘a new beginning’ in a nation ‘split down the middle’ and facing difficulties
Polish President Andrzej Duda has squeezed past Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski to win re-election, official results showed yesterday. The incumbent won a new five-year term with 51 percent in Sunday’s vote against 49 percent for Trzaskowski, who had promised to improve ties with the EU. Experts said the result means the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party would face a more confident opposition. “Despite Trzaskowski’s defeat, his strong performance looks like a new beginning, a new dynamic for the opposition,” Andrzej Rychard, a political scientist at Warsaw University, told local media. “We’re on the cusp of some very significant changes on the Polish political scene,” Rychard said, adding that “Trzaskowski appears poised to lead the opposition.” The government faces the immediate challenge of dealing with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Poland facing its first recession since the fall of communism three decades ago. Duda has promised to defend social welfare payments introduced by the PiS government. “Poland is split down the middle,” said Witold Orlowski, a professor at Warsaw University of Technology Business School, predicting “a very difficult period” ahead. “On the one hand, even this slim victory is a PiS success and will allow it to continue to govern, at least technically,” Orlowski said. “On the other hand, the social and economic situation will deteriorate and a large part of the electorate will blame the PiS.” On the foreign policy front, experts said that Duda’s close ties with US President Donald Trump could also spell trouble ahead if the US president fails to win re-election in November. Duda’s support was particularly strong in rural areas and small towns and in the east of the country, while Trzaskowski has performed well in larger cities and western regions on the border with Germany. “The result of these elections is a Poland divided in two with a not-so-rosy future, as it
Agency for Global Media (AGM) chief executive Michael Pack, the new head of US global media, is moving ahead with changes to Voice of America (VOA) and other international broadcasters — heightening concerns about their future as independent news organizations. Although Pack has assured the US Congress that Voice of America and its sister networks would remain independent and pledged to consult lawmakers on significant developments, last week he initiated personnel changes and began a review of visas for foreign employees. Pack on Wednesday fired the executive editor of Radio Free Asia, Bay Fang, whom he had demoted from president shortly after assuming office last month. A day earlier, Pack installed former South Carolina secretary of state James Mills to run the Open Technology Fund, which works to provide secure Internet access to people around the world. In addition, Pack launched a case-by-case review of visas for foreign agency employees, many of whom bring critical language skills needed to communicate with the foreign populations that are the primary audiences for Agency for Global Media broadcasts. As those moves were happening, the agency on Thursday said it had removed the Iranian and North Korean flags from a display at its Washington headquarters. “As of today, the flags of regimes hostile to America no longer fly in the halls @USAGMgov, the taxpayer-funded home of U.S. international broadcasting,” the agency’s public relations bureau wrote on Twitter. The post included before and after photographs of the flag display and the hashtags: “America” “freedom” and “SpotTheDifference.” Pack has defended the moves as necessary to reforming the agency, which critics have long said is beset by bureaucratic and journalistic issues. US senators have demanded explanations for his dismissal of the heads of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund. On July 1, seven US senators sent a
France and Britain on Sunday signed an agreement to share intelligence in their joint fight against human traffickers who illegally smuggle migrants across the English Channel. French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin said that the deal to set up a French-British intelligence unit would allow for better exchanges of information about smuggling networks. British Secretary of State for the Home Department Priti Patel said the new unit “will crack down on gangs behind vile people smuggling.” Patel visited Calais in France to sign the deal with Darmanin. Patel described levels of illegal migration across the waterway as “unsustainable.” “Despite all of the action taken by law enforcement to date — intercepting the boats, making arrests, returning people to France and putting the criminals responsible behind bars — the numbers continue to increase,” Patel said. “This simply cannot be allowed to go on.” Calais over the years has unwillingly hosted rudimentary, overcrowded migrant camps. The new unit would be staffed by French and British officers and would use intelligence to help prevent crossings and dismantle smuggling gangs. Patel described it as “the start of a new operational approach.” Darmanin said he pressed Patel for additional British help, including officers and equipment, to root out smugglers “who profit from the human misery of the people who want to cross the Channel and who are not punished enough.” “It’s very important that our British friends realize that if the migrants come here in Calais, it’s not for the beauty of the city, but it’s to cross the Channel,” he said. “The British government did a lot to protect the French coast, but we need more.”
About 60 US universities on Sunday filed a brief supporting a lawsuit by two others, seeking to block rule barring foreign students from remaining in the country if educational institutions do not hold in-person classes this fall. The lawsuit was filed by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Wednesday in a federal court in Boston. The so-called amicus brief — a supporting document submitted by interested parties — was filed by 59 US universities, including seven other Ivy League institutions. The universities said they relied on federal guidance, which was to remain “in effect for the duration of the emergency,” allowing international students to attend all-online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the amicus brief. “The emergency persists, yet the government’s policy has suddenly and drastically changed, throwing amici’s preparations into disarray and causing significant harm and turmoil,” the brief said. About 1.1 million foreign students attended US institutions of higher education in the 2018-2019 academic year, according to a report by the US Department of State and the Institute of International Education, and they made up 5.5 percent of the entire US higher-education enrollment.
UNITED STATES Ship blast hurts 21 Twenty-one people sustained minor injuries in an explosion and fire on Sunday onboard a ship at Naval Base San Diego, military officials said. The blaze was reported shortly before 9am on the USS Bonhomme Richard, Naval Surface Force spokesman Mike Raney said. Seventeen sailors and four civilians were hospitalized with “non-life threatening injuries,” Raney said. The cause of the fire was under investigation, but Rear Admiral Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the navy thinks the fire began somewhere in a lower cargo hold. UNITED STATES Actress Kelly Preston dies Actress Kelly Preston died on Sunday, her husband, John Travolta, said. She was 57. Travolta said in an Instagram post that his wife of 28 years died after a two-year battle with breast cancer. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many,” he said. The couple had three children together. Travolta and Preston met while filming 1988’s The Experts. They last starred together in the 2018 film Gotti. CANADA Party to summon PM The Conservative Party on Sunday said that it would call Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to testify before a parliamentary committee over a government contract awarded to a charity that had paid his family large sums of money. Conservative lawmaker Pierre Poilievre told a news conference that his party would ask Trudeau to appear under oath before the House of Commons’ finance committee. “Either the PM can agree voluntarily to show up and attend — that’s what he will do if he has nothing to hide — or parliament can compel him to appear,” Poilievre said. GERMANY Armed man sought in forest Police in the Black Forest are hunting for a homeless man in combat gear and armed with a bow and arrow and other weapons. About
GREATER RISK: COVID-19-related lockdowns are curbing initiatives to contain the disease and allow mosquito populations to expand unchecked worldwide, experts say
To slow the spread of COVID-19, governments issued lockdowns to keep people at home. They curtailed activities that affected services like trash collection. They tried to shield hospitals from a surge of patients. However, the cascading effects of these restrictions are also hampering efforts to cope with seasonal outbreaks of dengue fever, an incurable, mosquito-borne disease that is also known as “breakbone fever” for its severely painful symptoms. Southeast Asian countries like Singapore and Indonesia have dealt with concurrent outbreaks of dengue fever and COVID-19. In Brazil, with more than 1.6 million COVID-19 cases, at least 1.1 million cases of dengue fever have been reported, with nearly 400 deaths, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Cases are likely to rise further with the start of seasonal rains in Latin America and Asia. Dengue fever is typically not fatal, but severe cases might require hospitalization. Prevention efforts targeted at destroying mosquito breeding sites, like removing trash or old tires and other objects containing standing water, are still the best ways to curb the spread of the disease. COVID-19-related lockdowns have meant that these efforts have been reduced or stopped altogether in many countries. In Pakistan, plans to disinfect shops and markets that had dengue fever outbreaks last year were shelved due to COVID-19, Pakistani Young Doctor’s Association president Rizwan Kundi said. Having to identify thousands of COVID-19 cases has meant that dengue fever surveillance has suffered in many Latin American countries, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Health Director for the Americas Maria Franca Tallarico said. Experts say that disrupting such prevention efforts is ominous for the global battle against dengue fever. Last year was the worst year on record for dengue fever cases, with every region affected, and some countries hit for the first time, according to the WHO. Experts say that while reduced travel
HUMANITARIAN VISAS: The government in Canberra is to introduce several measures to help visa holders with Hong Kong passports to stay in the country
The Australian government says it will offer around 10,000 Hong Kong passport holders currently living in Australia a chance to apply for permanent residence once their current visas expire. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government believes China’s imposition of new national security legislation on the semi-autonomous territory means pro-democracy supporters there might face political persecution. “That means that many Hong Kong passport holders may be looking for other destinations to go to and hence why we have put forward our additional visa options for them,” Australian Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said yesterday, adding that to obtain permanent residency, applicants would still have to pass “the character test, the national security test and the like.” “So it’s not automatic, but it’s certainly an easier pathway to permanent residency, and of course, once you’re a permanent resident, there’s then a pathway to citizenship there. If people are genuinely persecuted, and they can prove that case, then they can apply for one of our humanitarian visas in any case,” Tudge said. Morrison last week announced that Australia suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and extended visas for Hong Kong residents from two to five years. The move came after China bypassed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to impose the sweeping security legislation without public consultation. Critics view it as a further deterioration of freedoms promised to the former British colony, in response to last year’s massive protests calling for greater democracy and more police accountability. The national security legislation prohibits what Beijing views as secessionist, subversive or terrorist activities, or as foreign intervention in Hong Kong affairs. Under the new legislation, police have sweeping powers to conduct searches without warrants, and order internet service providers and platforms to remove messages deemed to be in violation of the legislation. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it
RSS