AUSTRALIA
Fires rage in Queensland
Residents in three areas in northern Queensland state were yesterday ordered to evacuate their homes immediately, as bushfires burned out of control. Firefighters, including those flown in from across the country and New Zealand, have been battling blazes that have already killed two and destroyed dozens of homes. People near Watsonville and two adjacent areas, near the town of Dalveen, were ordered to evacuate immediately.
INDONESIA
State to reclaim palm land
About 200,000 hectares of oil palm plantations found in areas designated as forests are expected to be returned to the state to be converted back into forests, a government official said late on Tuesday. Companies have until today to submit paperwork and pay fines to obtain cultivation rights on their plantations under rules issued in 2020. While 3.3 million hectares of the country’s nearly 17 million hectares of palm plantations have been found in forests, only owners of plantations with a combined size of 1.67 million hectares have been identified, Ministry of Environment and Forestry Secretary-General Bambang Hendroyono told reporters.
UNITED STATES
Biden to meet Xi in US
US President Joe Biden is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco this month for “constructive” talks, the White House said on Tuesday. The comments came days after Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) made a rare visit to Washington to pave the way for Xi to meet Biden. China has not yet confirmed that Xi will come.
CHINA
Costumes poke fun at ‘dabai’
Halloween revelers on Tuesday night thronged central Shanghai, with some dressed in costumes that poked fun at strict COVID-19 curbs in a rare showcase of free expression as police looked on. Some attracted attention on social media for costumes such as blue-and-white hazmat suits that gained infamy in China last year for being used by authorities enforcing COVID-19 curbs known as dabai (big whites, 大白). “The dabai, COVID-19 testing, A-share market ... that Shanghai people dressed up as are all elements that speak to the trauma of the times and traces of history. Once again, entertainment is not superficial, behind it are real life scars,” one user on Sina Weibo wrote yesterday.
AUSTRALIA
Surfer missing after attack
Authorities yesterday searched for the remains of a 55-year-old surfer after a witness reportedly saw an attack by a large shark that “had his body in his mouth.” There has been no trace of the victim since the marine predator struck on Tuesday morning near the popular surfing spot of Granites Beach in South Australia, police said. “The man’s body is yet to be found and the search resumed early this morning,” police said in a statement. A 70-year-old surfer Ian Brophy was at the scene when the attack happened. “As I turned around, I saw the shark go and just launch and bite,” he told the Advertiser. Brophy said he saw the predator go “over the top of the guy and bite and drag him down under the water and then nothing for a minute or two and blood everywhere and then up pops the board.” Within a few minutes, there was no sign of the surfer’s body. “It took every bit of him, I think.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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