NEW ZEALAND
China must de-escalate: PM
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday urged China to help curb tensions in a “more contested, less predictable” Pacific, and to preserve access to critical trade routes. Nearly half of New Zealand’s trade passes through the South China Sea, Hipkins said. The way China exerts its clout in the world is a “major driver” in escalating strategic competition, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, Hipkins told the China Business Summit in Auckland. Unimpeded access to shipping and air routes is “vital” to New Zealand, he added. “New Zealand is concerned about a worsening strategic environment and rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region in particular in places like the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait,” the prime minister said. “We have direct interests in these areas and are therefore focused on the need for tensions to be carefully managed and de-escalated in the wider interests of the Pacific, and we look to China to play its part in this regard,” he said.
MALAYSIA
Swatch Pride watches seized
Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group has filed a suit against the government and Ministry of Home Affairs officials challenging the seizure of Pride-themed rainbow watches, local media reported. Swatch Group (Malaysia) Sdn sought an order from the High Court to cancel the ministry’s seizure notices in May for the 172 watches worth 64,795 ringgit (US$14,272), and for the return of the confiscated pieces within five days of the order, MalayMail reported, citing the judicial review application filed by the company on June 24. Swatch said the ministry issued seizure notices stating the watches as promoting or having LGBT “elements,” and that the timepieces contravened the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) of 1984. Swatch said the seizures were illegal as the watches are not a publication that can be prohibited under the PPPA, the report said.
SOUTH KOREA
Deaths lead to Yoon pledge
President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday vowed to “completely overhaul” the country’s approach to extreme weather from climate change, after at least 40 people were killed by flooding and landslides during monsoon rains. Rescue workers waded through thick mud as they drained a flooded underpass in central Cheongju, searching for more victims after vehicles were trapped in the tunnel by flash floods, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said, with nine people still missing nationwide. “This kind of extreme weather event will become commonplace — we must accept climate change is happening and deal with it,” Yoon said at an emergency response meeting. The country would “mobilize all available resources,” including the military and police, to help with rescue efforts, he said. “The rainy season is not over yet, and the forecast is now that there will be torrential rain again tomorrow,” he added.
UNITED STATES
Death Valley hits 53.33°C
Long the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley put a sizzling exclamation point on a record warm summer that is baking nearly the entire globe by flirting with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, meteorologists said. Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada, reached 53.33°C on Sunday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said. The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 56.67°C in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS