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Tag: southeast asia

  • A radioactive cylinder has gone missing in Thailand. Authorities are now scrambling to find it | CNN

    A radioactive cylinder has gone missing in Thailand. Authorities are now scrambling to find it | CNN

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    Bangkok, Thailand
    CNN
     — 

    Authorities in Thailand are scrambling to locate a metal cylinder with dangerous radioactive contents that went missing from a power plant this week, warning the public of serious health risks should they come across it.

    The revelation comes just two months after Australia was forced to launch a similar hunt to find a tiny radioactive capsule that was eventually located by the side of a highway.

    But while that Australian capsule was lost in the country’s remote outback hundreds of miles from the nearest major city – the Thai canister has disappeared in a much more populated area.

    The cylinder, measuring 30 centimeters (4 inches) long and 13 centimeters (5 inches) wide, was reported missing during routine checks by staff on March 10, at the coal power plant in Prachin Buri, a province in central Thailand, east of the capital Bangkok.

    The province has a population of nearly half a million people and houses some of Thailand’s best national parks, including the famed Khao Yai National Park which is popular with both local and international tourists.

    The parks are a common day trip from nearby Bangkok, a sprawling megacity of some 14 million people.

    Used for measuring ash, the cylinder was part of a silo and contains Caesium-137, a highly radioactive substance that scientists say is potentially lethal.

    Search teams and drones have been deployed to recover the missing cylinder, according to a statement from the Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP), a government regulator for radioactive and nuclear research in Thailand.

    Deputy Secretary General Pennapa Kanchana told CNN on Wednesday they were using radioactive detection equipment to locate the cylinder.

    “We are searching in waste recycling shops in the area,” she said. “We are (using) survey equipment to detect for signals. For areas we cannot reach, we have dispatched drones and robots.”

    Also involved in the search are Thai police, who believe the cylinder has been missing since February but was only officially reported lost by the National Power Plant 5 company on Friday.

    Police have examined CCTV footage from the plant, Si Maha Phot district police chief Mongkol Thopao told CNN – but were hindered by “limited views” of the machine.

    “It is unclear if the item was stolen and sold to a recycling shop or misplaced elsewhere,” Mongkol said. “We have dispatched our teams to recycle shops around the area… we still couldn’t find it.”

    Experts warn that Caesium-137 can create serious health problems for people who come into contact with it: skin burns from close exposure, radiation sickness and potentially deadly cancer risks, especially for those exposed unknowingly for long periods of time.

    Caesium-137 has a half-life of about 30 years, which means it could pose a risk to the population for decades to come, if not found.

    Pennapa, from the Office of Atoms for Peace, urged the public not to panic.

    “If general people (come into) contact unknowingly, the health effects will depend on the level of the (radiation) intensity. If it’s high, the first thing we will see is skin irritation.”

    It is not the first time something like this has happened in Thailand.

    In 2000, according to the Congressional Research Service report, canisters containing another radioactive isotope, cobalt-60, were bought by two scrap collectors, who took it to a junkyard where it was cut open.

    Some workers suffered burn-like injuries, and eventually three people died and seven others suffered radiation injuries, the report said. Nearly 2,000 others who lived nearby were exposed to radiation.

    But Pennapa said the canister that is currently missing is far less radioactive than the incident in 2000.

    The most recent case in Thailand follows a similar incident in Western Australia in January when a tiny capsule, also containing Caesium-137, went missing along a remote outback highway while being transported from an iron ore mine to a depot in Perth.

    After a challenging six-day search, the capsule was eventually found and officials are still investigating how it apparently fell off the back of a vehicle during transit.

    Nuclear radiation experts in Australia who previously spoke to CNN said that the loss of that capsule was “very unusual” and spoke about challenges of recovering such a tiny device.

    But a good thing, they said, was that the search area was extremely isolated.

    “So it would be very unlikely to have much impact (on people),” said Ivan Kempson, an associate professor in Biophysics from the University of Southern Australia.

    But there had been some past examples, Kempson noted, of people finding similar things and suffering radiation poisoning.

    “The concern… is the potential impact on health of the person who would find the capsule,” he said.

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  • Indonesian court jails soccer officials for role in deadly stadium crush | CNN

    Indonesian court jails soccer officials for role in deadly stadium crush | CNN

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    Jakarta, Indonesia
    CNN
     — 

    Two Indonesian soccer officials were sentenced up to 18 months in prison by a court on Thursday over a deadly stadium crush last year that killed more than 130 people and injured hundreds more in what was one of the sport’s worst disasters.

    The sentences were the first jailings handed down by Indonesia’s courts over a tragedy that shocked the nation and sparked widespread anger toward local police who fired tear gas into a dangerously over-crowded stadium in the East Java province last October.

    Abdul Haris, Chairman of the Organizing Committee for soccer club Arema FC, was found guilty of negligence and responsible for selling too many tickets, exceeding the maximum capacity of the stadium. His sentence was significantly below the more than six years jail time that prosecutors had asked the court for.

    Arema FC’s security officer Suko Sutrisno was sentenced to one year in prison. The maximum imprisonment for negligence in the southeast Asian country is five years.

    Sutrisno told the court in January that he had been a security officer for only about three months when the tragedy occurred, according to CNN affiliate CNN Indonesia. A freelancer paid $16.19 per match, he said he had not been trained to ensure safety during soccer matches, CNN Indonesia reported.

    Three police officials who are also charged with negligence will have their cases heard at a later date.

    A number of the 42,000 Arema FC supporters ran onto the pitch following their loss to rival Persebaya Surabaya, clashing with police and prompting security forces to fire tear gas into enclosed areas of the stadium – a crowd control measure banned by world soccer governing body FIFA.

    Most of the deaths were found to have occurred as panicked fans attempted to flee the choking smoke, triggering a crush at the exits.

    Several gates were still locked minutes after the referee blew the final whistle on the night of the disaster, the Football Association of Indonesia said in a statement last year.

    The game’s organizers and police authorities faced mounting criticism and allegations of mismanagement, with survivors and victims’ loved ones demanding answers.

    “It was a big mistake,” Andi Hariyanto, 32, who lost several family members in the crush, told CNN at the time.

    “Don’t they know that there were many women and children who were also watching the match? I still don’t understand. What did we do to make them want to shoot us?”

    Last year, Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo vowed to “thoroughly transform” the sport in the soccer-crazy nation, adding the football stadium where the crush took place would be demolished and rebuilt “according to FIFA standards.”

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  • Exclusive: China’s ‘attacks’ unite region against Beijing, US ambassador to Japan says | CNN

    Exclusive: China’s ‘attacks’ unite region against Beijing, US ambassador to Japan says | CNN

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    Tokyo
    CNN
     — 

    China should not be surprised Washington and its allies in Asia are deepening military ties given Beijing’s aggressive behavior toward many of its neighbors, the US ambassador to Japan said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with CNN.

    “You look at India, you look at the Philippines, you look at Australia, you look at the United States, Canada or Japan. They (China) have had in just the last three months a military or some type of confrontation with every country. And then they’re shocked that countries are taking their own steps for deterrence to protect themselves. What did they think they were going to do?” Ambassador Rahm Emanuel said in the interview at his residence in Tokyo.

    The US envoy listed a string of what he said were aggressive military actions by China, including “attacks” against India along their shared Himalayan border, Chinese coast guard ships aiming lasers at Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, the firing of missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone and the harassment of US, Canadian and Australian aircraft by People’s Liberation Army ships and planes.

    Beijing has denied being an aggressor in all those instances and accused Washington of being the primary instigator of heightened tensions in the region.

    On Tuesday, China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned that “conflict and confrontation” with the US is inevitable if Washington does not change course.

    “The US claims it seeks to compete with China but does not seek conflict. But in reality, the so-called ‘competition’ by the US is all-round containment and suppression, a zero-sum game of life and death,” he said during his first news conference in the new post.

    “Containment and suppression will not make America great, and the US will not stop the rejuvenation of China,” Qin said.

    Emanuel countered on Wednesday that military buildups and exercises by the US and its partners in the Indo-Pacific are not acts of containment, as Beijing charges, but acts of deterrence against further – and possibly more dangerous – Chinese aggression.

    “They’ve come together to realize that (Chinese aggression) can’t continue as is, so every country is taking steps, both within an alliance (and) also within their own self-interest of creating a comprehensive coalition of deterrence. That’s what’s going on,” Emanuel said.

    He praised Japan for doubling its defense budget and taking on a leadership role in the region, citing plans for it to operate joint South China Sea patrols with the Philippines and its agreement with South Korea just this week to settle grievances dating back to before World War II concerning Japan’s colonial rule in Korea.

    And he praised both Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for putting the future before history and taking a stance that has prompted domestic backlash in both Tokyo and Seoul.

    “I do think that both leaders showed a braveness and a boldness to look to the 21st century and make the most of that rather than being tied by 20th century,” Emanuel said.

    “To me the test of leadership is to be idealistic enough to know why you’re doing what you’re doing. And then tough enough to get it done,” he said, adding that both Kishida and Yoon had passed that test.

    The US ambassador also contrasted the countries Japan has been partnering with, including South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, India and even the United Kingdom, with countries with whom China works, including Russia, North Korea and Iran.

    “There’s a phrase in America, you’re known by the company you keep,” Emanuel said.

    Over the past 18 months, the Biden administration has been keeping good company, too, he said, noting its record in uniting allies and partners.

    Emanuel cited multilateral agreements like the Quad – the informal alliance of the US, Japan, Australia and India – and the AUKUS deal for nuclear-powered submarines between the US, Australia and the UK as well as other economic, diplomatic and military initiatives.

    “I think that has given our allies confidence, like Japan, to increase the defense budget, to be more active on the diplomatic arena and stage,” he said, giving credit to Tokyo for getting eight of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to vote to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a March 3 United Nations General Assembly vote.

    Countries around the world will respond to Japan, or South Korea, or the US for a simple reason that China doesn’t understand, “the gravitational pull of freedom,” Emanuel said.

    “A rules-based system that upholds respect both for the individual and in trying to uphold freedom has its own, I don’t know how else to say it, but seductive gravitational pull.”

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  • Thailand jails five poachers for killing tiger and her cub | CNN

    Thailand jails five poachers for killing tiger and her cub | CNN

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    Bangkok, Thailand
    CNN
     — 

    A court in western Thailand on Monday sentenced five poachers to prison terms of five years each for killing a female tiger and her cub in a national park last year.

    The provincial court ruled the five men broke conservation laws by killing the protected animals in Thong Pha Phum National Park, Kanchanaburi province, before skinning their carcasses and smoking their bones to prepare them for sale on the illicit market.

    Park rangers made the discovery in January last year and seized the tiger parts. Images distributed by officials and taken in the jungle showed the skins of two flayed tigers. Bones and carcass parts were also seen in pictures taken nearby.

    The court rejected the men’s argument that they had killed the tigers in revenge for attacks on livestock, ruling they “should have felt protective of nature” given that they lived in a community near the forest.

    Tigers are an endangered species with only about 4,500 remaining in the wild, according to the the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Though their numbers have increased in recent years, WWF says fewer than 200 of the big cats remain in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across Thailand.

    Poaching, one of the biggest threats to tigers’ survival, is driven largely by demand in China and Vietnam for their bones, skins and other body parts used in traditional medicine.

    The safety and effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine is still heavily debated in China, where it has both adherents and skeptics.

    Though many of the remedies in TCM have been in use for hundreds of years, critics argue that there is often little verifiable scientific evidence or peer reviewed studies to support their supposed benefits.

    Thong Pha Phum National Park Chief Charoen Jaichon welcomed the court ruling.

    “I’m happy that justice has been delivered,” he told CNN on Tuesday. “This is a strong warning to any illegal hunters in Thailand’s national parks.”

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  • 4 dead, 40,000 flee homes as floods hit Malaysia | CNN

    4 dead, 40,000 flee homes as floods hit Malaysia | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Rescue efforts are underway in parts of Malaysia after seasonal floods killed at least four people and displaced more than 40,000.

    Among the deaths confirmed Saturday by state authorities in Johor was a man who became trapped in a car that was swept away by rising floodwaters.

    Footage taken by rescue workers and volunteers in towns across the southern state showed groups of people stranded on rooftops as their houses disappeared underwater.

    Images shared by the National Flood Disaster Agency showed rescuers wading chest-deep in some areas to save people trapped in their homes. One rescue worker was seen carrying a baby in a bucket to safety.

    Other images showed flooded roads and forests and vehicles submerged in muddy water.

    Malaysia, like many of its Southeast Asian neighbors, is vulnerable to seasonal floods. Neighboring Singapore has seen heavy torrential rains since February.

    Malaysia’s worst floods in decades occurred in 2021, when there were 54 deaths and the army was mobilized. The widespread floods that year hit eight states and strained emergency services across the country, sparking criticism of the government’s response to the disaster.

    The country’s annual monsoon season started in November and people have been evacuating their homes since at least December.

    Johor, population 4 million, is Malaysia’s second most populous state and is the worst hit by this season’s floods. Tens of thousands of its residents have now moved to relief centers in schools and community halls, officials said.

    Experts from the Malaysian Meteorological Department have warned that the wet weather could continue until April.

    The town of Kota Tinggi inundated by floodwaters.

    Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim shared an update from Johor on Sunday after visiting survivors and evacuees, saying that floods were a pressing issue for the country and that the government would expedite mitigation projects.

    “This matter (of floods) cannot be delayed and should be dealt with more seriously so that it does not happen again,” he said in a tweet.

    Members of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA), a youth-led political party with a large presence in Johor, advised residents to accept help from rescue bodies and warned against “waiting too long” to evacuate their homes.

    “River water levels are still high and it’s predicted to rain heavily again,” said Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz, the group’s deputy president. “Don’t wait too long if water levels start to rise. Move to safer areas as soon as possible.”

    “Remember: Your lives are more valuable than your belongings,” she added.

    Amira said the country needed urgently to address its flooding problems, saying it could not afford to go through so many disasters “in such a short period of time.”

    Pot Phoon Hua, a 61-year-old worker at a local biscuit and coffee factory in the town of Batu Pahat, told CNN that rain was still falling. He expressed concerns about several friends and relatives who were missing and said that the aftermath of the flood would be devastating. “We are helpless,” Pot said.

    “Everyone is pitching in but the force of the weather is too great. There is only so much we can do. The government can deploy many teams and workers to help but at the end of the day, Malaysians are just at the mercy of nature.”

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  • Fire at Indonesian fuel storage station kills at least 16 | CNN

    Fire at Indonesian fuel storage station kills at least 16 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least 16 people were killed in a fire at a fuel storage station in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, CNN affiliate CNN Indonesia reported on Friday.

    The station is operated by Pertamina, Indonesia’s state-run energy company.

    Social media footage showed a huge flame billowing and people running for cover.

    Some nearby residents have been evacuated and Jakarta’s firefighting force has dispatched 52 units to respond to the blaze.

    Pertamina will investigate the cause of the fire and provide treatment for those affected, the company’s CEO Nicke Widyawati told CNN Indonesia.

    Fuel supplies for Jakarta will be provided from other terminals nearby, Widyawati said.

    Firefighters respond to the incident on March 3, 2023.

    In 2018, an oil spill cause by a leak of Pertamina’s undersea crude pipelines killed five fishermen.

    Indonesian authorities at the time declared a state of “emergency response” over the massive scale of the spill and environmental damage off the coast of the Southeast Asian country.

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  • Earthquakes Fast Facts | CNN

    Earthquakes Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at earthquakes worldwide.

    The US Geological Survey describes an earthquake as “the ground shaking caused by a sudden slip on a fault. Stresses in the earth’s outer layer push the sides of the fault together. Stress builds up and the rocks slip suddenly, releasing energy in waves that travel through the earth’s crust and cause the shaking that we feel during an earthquake.”

    Earthquakes are measured using seismographs, which monitor the seismic waves that travel through the Earth after an earthquake strikes.

    Scientists used the Richter Scale for many years to measure earthquakes but now largely follow the “moment magnitude scale,” which USGS says is a more accurate measure of size.

    (selected timeline of earthquakes around the world with death tolls exceeding 100)

    June 4, 2000 – A magnitude 7.9 earthquake strikes southern Sumatra, Indonesia, killing an estimated 103 people.

    January 13, 2001 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquakes hits near San Miguel, El Salvador, killing an estimated 852 people.

    January 26, 2001 – An estimated 20,000 people are killed by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake centered in Gujarat, India.

    February 13, 2001 – Another earthquake strikes El Salvador, magnitude 6.6. Three hundred and fifteen people are estimated to have been killed.

    June 23, 2001 – An estimated 138 people are killed in Peru by an 8.4-magnitude earthquake.

    March 3, 2002 – In the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, an estimated 166 people are killed by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake.

    March 25, 2002 – Another earthquake in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, this one a magnitude 6.1, kills 1,000 people.

    June 22, 2002 – A magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes western Iran, killing an estimated 261 people.

    February 24, 2003 – In southern Xianjiang, China, a magnitude 6.3 quake leaves an estimated 263 people dead.

    May 1, 2003 – A 6.4-magnitude quake strikes eastern Turkey, killing approximately 177 people.

    May 21, 2003 – An estimated 2,266 people are killed by a magnitude 6.8 quake in northern Algeria.

    December 26, 2003 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes the city of Bam in southeast Iran. Around 31,000 people die in the quake.

    February 24, 2004 – Approximately 631 people are killed in Morocco by a magnitude 6.4 quake.

    December 26, 2004 – A magnitude 9.1 earthquake strikes off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The earthquake and tsunamis generated by the earthquake kill 227,898 people in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Bangladesh. The quake releases an amount of energy equal to a 100-gigaton bomb and lasts between 500-600 seconds.

    February 22, 2005 – A magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes central Iran, killing at least 612 people.

    March 28, 2005 – A magnitude 8.6 earthquake strikes off the coast of Indonesia, on the same fault line that originated a December 26 earthquake that launched a deadly tsunami. At least 1,300 people are killed.

    October 8, 2005 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake strikes Pakistan. At least 86,000 people are killed.

    May 26, 2006 – A magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurs in central Java, Indonesia, killing at least 5,749 people.

    July 17, 2006 – A magnitude 7.7 quake strikes Java, Indonesia, killing an estimated 730 people.

    August 15, 2007 – A magnitude 8.0 earthquake hits Peru, about 100 miles south of the capital of Lima. Approximately 514 people are reported dead.

    May 12, 2008 – A magnitude 7.9 earthquake strikes in central China, killing more than 87,000 people.

    October 28, 2008 – A 6.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Pakistan, killing an estimated 166 people.

    April 6, 2009 – A magnitude 6.3 earthquake strikes central Italy, killing 295 people.

    September 29, 2009 – A magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Samoa Islands kills 192 people.

    September 30, 2009 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake strikes Sumatra, Indonesia, killing more than 1,000 people.

    January 12, 2010 – A 7.0-magnitude earthquake strikes 14 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. USAID estimates the death toll to be about 230,000, but other estimates are as high as 316,000.

    February 27, 2010 – An 8.8-magnitude earthquake strikes central Chile, killing an estimated 547 people.

    April 13, 2010 – A 6.9-magnitude earthquake strikes China’s Qinghai province. Approximately 2,968 people are reported dead.

    October 25, 2010 – At least 503 people die due to a magnitude 7.7 earthquake off Indonesia and a subsequent tsunami.

    February 21, 2011 – A 6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes Christchurch, New Zealand. An estimated 181 people are killed.

    March 11, 2011 – A 9.1-magnitude earthquake strikes near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, causing a massive tsunami. The quake’s epicenter is 231 miles away from Tokyo. The total of confirmed deaths and missing is over 22,000.

    September 18, 2011 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes Sikkim, India, killing an estimated 111 people.

    October 23, 2011 – A 7.1-magnitude earthquake strikes eastern Turkey. The death toll is 604 people.

    February 6, 2012 – A 6.7-magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Negros, Philippines, killing at least 113 people.

    August 11, 2012 – Two earthquakes hit northern Iran. The first to strike is a 6.4-magnitude earthquake. 11 minutes later, a second earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 hits. At least 306 people are killed.

    November 7, 2012 – A 7.4 earthquake off the coast of Guatemala kills an estimated 139 people.

    April 20, 2013 – An earthquake strikes the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, killing at least 192 people. The USGS gauges it at 6.6-magnitude and the China Earthquake Networks Center estimates it at 7.0-magnitude.

    September 24, 2013 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake hits the Balochistan province of Pakistan. More than 300 people are reported killed.

    August 3, 2014 – An earthquake hits China’s Yunnan province, killing at least 615 people and injuring more than 2,400. The USGS gauges the quake at 6.1 magnitude and the China Earthquake Networks Center estimates it at 6.5 magnitude.

    April 25, 2015 – A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal, and is centered less than 50 miles from its capital Kathmandu. The death toll is more than 8,000, with 366 missing, according to Nepal’s National Emergency Operations Center. Weeks later on May 12, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake strikes the already reeling country of Nepal, killing at least 125 in Nepal, India and Tibet.

    October 26, 2015 – A 7.5-magnitude earthquake hits South Asia, killing at least 364 people and injuring more than 2,000 others. The epicenter is in northeastern Afghanistan, but most of the deaths – at least 248 – are reported in Pakistan.

    April 16, 2016 – A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes coastal Ecuador, killing 663 people.

    August 24, 2016 – A 6.2-magnitude earthquake strikes central Italy, killing at least 290 people.

    September 19, 2017 – A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hits Mexico City and surrounding states, killing at least 369 people.

    November 12, 2017 – A 7.3-magnitude earthquake hits the border region between Iraq and Iran. More than 600 people are killed.

    September 28, 2018 – A 7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. More than 2,100 people are killed and 1,300 missing from the earthquake and resulting tsunami.

    August 14, 2021 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes southwest Haiti. Two days later, Tropical Storm Grace brings strong winds and heavy rain to the same region, complicating relief efforts. Approximately 2,248 people are killed and 12,763 injured.

    June 22, 2022 – A 5.9-magnitude earthquake strikes eastern Afghanistan. More than 1,000 people are killed and at least 1,500 are injured.

    November 21, 2022 – A 5.6-magnitude earthquake hits the Cianjur region in West Java, Indonesia, killing more than 334 people.

    February 6, 2023 – A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria. The epicenter is 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province. More than 50,000 people are killed and tens of thousands injured.

    (from the USGS)

    May 22, 1960 – Chile, 9.5

    March 28, 1964 – Prince William Sound, Alaska, 9.2

    December 26, 2004 – Sumatra, Indonesia, 9.1

    March 11, 2011 – Honshu, Japan, 9.1

    November 4, 1952 – Kamchatka, Soviet Union, 9.0

    February 27, 2010 – Chile, 8.8

    January 31, 1906 – Ecuador, 8.8

    February 4, 1965 – Rat Islands, Alaska, 8.7

    August 15, 1950 – Assam, Tibet, 8.6

    April 11, 2012 – Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, 8.6

    March 28, 2005 – Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, 8.6

    March 9, 1957 – Andreanof Islands, Alaska, 8.6

    April 1, 1946 – Unimak Island, Alaska, 8.6

    February 1, 1938 – Banda Sea, Indonesia, 8.5

    November 11, 1922 – Chile-Argentina Border, 8.5

    October 13, 1963 – Kuril Islands, 8.5

    February 3, 1923 – Kamchatka, Soviet Union, 8.4

    September 12, 2007 – Southern Sumatra, Indonesia, 8.4

    June 23, 2001 – Arequipa, Peru, 8.4

    March 2, 1933 – Sanriku, Japan, 8.4

    January 12, 2010 – Haiti – 316,000 killed (magnitude 7.0). Other sources report 230,000.

    July 27, 1976 – Tangshan, China – 255,000 killed (7.5)

    December 26, 2004 – Sumatra, Indonesia – 227,898 killed in quake and resulting tsunami (9.1)

    December 16, 1920 – Haiyuan, China – 200,000 killed (7.8)

    September 1, 1923 – Kanto, Japan – 143,000 killed (7.9)

    October 5, 1948 – Ashgabat, Turkmenistan – 110,000 killed (7.3)

    May 12, 2008 – Eastern Sichuan, China – 87,587 killed (7.9)

    October 8, 2005 – Pakistan – 86,000 (7.6)

    December 28, 1908 – Messina, Italy – 70,000 (7.2)

    May 31, 1970 – Chimbote, Peru – 66,000 killed (7.9)

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  • Voice of Democracy, one of Cambodia’s last independent media outlets, has been shut down | CNN Business

    Voice of Democracy, one of Cambodia’s last independent media outlets, has been shut down | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    One of Cambodia’s last remaining independent media outlets has been shut down by Prime Minister Hun Sen ahead of national elections in July, in a move condemned by rights groups as a blow to press freedom.

    Based in the capital Phnom Penh, Voice of Democracy (VOD), a local outlet run by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, published radio and online reports about labor and rights issues, environmental crime and political corruption.

    It reported last week that Hun Manet, son of the prime minister, allegedly signed an agreement to donate aid to Turkey, which was struck by a catastrophic earthquake last week. The report alluded to an apparent overstep of his authority.

    Hun Sen refuted the report and issued statements on Facebook accusing the outlet of attacking his son and hurting the “dignity and reputation” of the Cambodian government.

    He also refused to accept an official apology from VOD and added that its newsroom staff “should look for jobs elsewhere.”

    Government officials revoked VOD’s operating license on Monday and blocked its websites in English and Khmer.

    Several VOD staff took to social media to share news of the company’s sudden closure.

    “It has reached the end point,” wrote Mech Dara, one of its reporters, on Twitter. “I (thought) we might have survived longer.”

    He told CNN that many journalists were “still in shock” after Monday’s events.

    “We were expecting it to happen but not so quickly,” he said. “We fought for the truth. We always have but clearly some people could not handle it.”

    “There are so many stories to be told about Cambodia from Cambodia and this extends to the wider region – countries like Myanmar and Vietnam,” he added. “It’s a space that’s getting narrower and narrower and voices are stifled so that the outside world can’t see in.”

    “We have to face the reality and the challenges that come along with it but we will take it one day at a time.”

    The prime minister’s office hasn’t yet responded to a CNN request for further comment about the VOD closure.

    Hun Sen has served as the country’s prime minister since 1985, making him one of the world’s longest serving leaders.

    During his tenure, several independent newspapers and websites have been shut down and dozens of opposition figures jailed or forced into exile.

    “Voice of Democracy has served as an important mainstay of independent investigative reporting and objective criticism for years,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Hun Sen’s closure of VOD is a devastating blow to media freedom in the country and will have an impact across Cambodian society.”

    “The Cambodian people are the ultimate losers because they have lost one of the last remaining sources of independent news on issues affecting their lives, livelihoods and human rights.”

    Amnesty International said the closure served as “a clear warning to other critical voices” months before national elections in July.

    “The Prime Minister should immediately withdraw this heavy handed and disproportionate order,” it said.

    Exiled former Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy said VOD’s closure was “obviously politically motivated.”

    “Substantially all of Cambodia’s media is now government controlled,” he told CNN. “It also occurs in the context of [the] ongoing wrongful imprisonment of opposition supporters and routine intimidation of those who continue to operate.”

    “Governments [around the world] must educate citizens about the dangers of [those in power in] Cambodia because the Cambodian government won’t play its part in doing so.”

    Western ambassadors in the country expressed their concerns about the closure of VOD.

    “We are deeply troubled by the abrupt decision to revoke VOD’s media license,” according to a statement from the US embassy in Phnom Penh. “A free and independent press is the cornerstone of any functioning democracy, providing the public and decision makers with facts and holding governments to account,” it added.

    “We urge the Cambodian authorities to revisit this decision.”

    “Germany believes in the free access of information as the basis for free and fair elections,” said the German embassy. “The freedom of press in Cambodia has lost one of its last remaining independent media outlets.”

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  • She used hidden cameras to help students cheat exams. Now she’s wanted by Interpol | CNN

    She used hidden cameras to help students cheat exams. Now she’s wanted by Interpol | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Think “international manhunt” and the image that likely springs to mind is that of a hardened criminal like a murderer, bank robber or billion-dollar fraudster – not the middle-aged boss of a high school tuition center.

    But that’s who’s at the center of a Red Notice issued this week by the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, which facilitates police cooperation between 194 countries.

    Poh Yuan Nie, 57, is thought to have fled Singapore after masterminding an elaborate cheating scam during the Southeast Asian country’s annual GCE O Level examinations, which students take during their final year of high school.

    Poh failed to surrender to police after a court sentenced her to four years in prison for running the scam, in which she and three of her tutors fed answers to students using a system of bodycams, earphones and bluetooth devices.

    Private tuition centers are big business in the wealthy city-state where the pressure for students to perform well can be overwhelming and it is not unusual for monthly fees at established private tuition centers to cost up to 2,000 Singapore dollars ($1,500).

    According to early court documents, Poh, 57, and her three accomplices – her niece Fiona Poh Min, ex-girlfriend Tan Jia Yan and a Chinese national named Feng Riwen – were each paid 8,000 Singapore dollars ($6,100) by a man from China to help six students aged between 17 and 20 – also from China – pass the GCE exams in 2016 so they could enter local colleges.

    The payment would have been fully refunded if the students did not pass the exams.

    Under Poh’s instructions, the six students wore skin-colored earphones and taped mobile phones and bluetooth devices to their bodies so that they could be fed answers by Tan who posed as a private student sitting the same test papers.

    With the help of a hidden camera phone taped to her chest, Tan livestreamed the questions to Poh and the two other tutors back at the tuition center, who then worked out the answers and fed them to the students.

    They were rumbled when an exam invigilator heard unusual noises coming from one of the students, who came clean when questioned.

    After a year-long trial that ended in 2020, Poh was convicted on 27 counts of cheating and sentenced to four years’ jail. Her Red Notice on Interpol included a mugshot and listed her charges of “abetment to commit cheating.”

    Singapore police, who requested the notice from Interpol, said Poh had been due to begin her jail term in September, but failed to surrender herself. Her three accomplices are all currently serving their respective prison terms, police said.

    “Poh was convicted for a series of cheating offenses, having conspired with students to cheat in the 2016 GCE O Level examinations,” the Singapore Police Force said in a statement, adding that local warrants had also been issued for her arrest.

    “She was ordered in September 2022 to surrender herself to serve her imprisonment term but she did not do so.”

    According to Interpol, global law enforcement units are requested to locate and arrest people under Red Notices – pending extradition, surrender or other legal actions.

    The case has put the spotlight on a school system that is ranked among the world’s best and is known for its competitiveness.

    Singapore’s government has implemented a raft of reforms in recent years aimed at easing the mental burden on students who can face immense pressure to achieve good grades.

    The GCE O Level exams can be a particularly stressful time, as they define a student’s entire high school performance and determine which local college or vocational institute they can go to. The exams, known in full as General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level, are national tests in mathematics, science, languages and humanities.

    They are conducted jointly by the Cambridge Assessment International Examination and Singapore’s Ministry of Education. They are not the same as the annual British GCSE examinations.

    GCE exams are usually taken by students aged 16 and 17 and are also open to private candidates. Every year around 30,000 students sit the exams, according to MOE estimates.

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  • Outdoor Dining Is Doomed

    Outdoor Dining Is Doomed

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    These days, strolling through downtown New York, where I live, is like picking your way through the aftermath of a party. In many ways, it is exactly that: The limp string lights, trash-strewn puddles, and splintering plywood are all relics of the raucous celebration known as outdoor dining.

    These wooden “streeteries” and the makeshift tables lining sidewalks first popped up during the depths of the pandemic in 2020, when restaurants needed to get diners back in their seats. It was novel, creative, spontaneous—and fun during a time when there wasn’t much fun to be had. For a while, outdoor dining really seemed as though it could outlast the pandemic. Just last October, New York Magazine wrote that it would stick around, “probably permanently.”

    But now someone has switched on the lights and cut the music. Across the country, something about outdoor dining has changed in recent months. With fears about COVID subsiding, people are losing their appetite for eating among the elements. This winter, many streeteries are empty, save for the few COVID-cautious holdouts willing to put up with the cold. Hannah Cutting-Jones, the director of food studies at the University of Oregon, told me that, in Eugene, where she lives,  outdoor dining is “ absolutely not happening” right now. In recent weeks, cities such as New York and Philadelphia have started tearing down unused streeteries. Outdoor dining’s sheen of novelty has faded; what once evoked the grands boulevards of Paris has turned out to be a janky table next to a parked car. Even a pandemic, it turns out, couldn’t overcome the reasons Americans never liked eating outdoors in the first place.

    For a while, the allure of outdoor dining was clear. COVID safety aside, it kept struggling restaurants afloat, boosted some low-income communities, and cultivated joie de vivre in bleak times. At one point, more than 12,700 New York restaurants had taken to the streets, and the city—along with others, including Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia—proposed making dining sheds permanent. But so far, few cities have actually adopted any official rules. At this point, whether they ever will is unclear. Without official sanctions, mounting pressure from outdoor-dining opponents will likely lead to the destruction of existing sheds; already, they keep tweeting disapproving photos at sanitation departments. Part of the issue is that as most Americans’ COVID concerns retreat, the potential downsides have gotten harder to overlook: less parking, more trash, tacky aesthetics, and, oh God, the rats. Many top New York restaurants have voluntarily gotten rid of their sheds this winter.

    The economics of outdoor dining may no longer make sense for restaurants, too. Although it was lauded as a boon to struggling restaurants during the height of the pandemic, the practice may make less sense now that indoor dining is back. For one thing, dining sheds tend to take up parking spaces needed to attract customers, Cutting-Jones said. The fact that most restaurants are chains doesn’t help: “If whatever conglomerate owns Longhorn Steakhouse doesn’t want to invest in outdoor dining, it will not become the norm,” Rebecca Spang, a food historian at Indiana University Bloomington, told me. Besides, she added, many restaurants are already short-staffed, even without the extra seats.

    In a sense, outdoor dining was doomed to fail. It always ran counter to the physical makeup of most of the country, as anyone who ate outside during the pandemic inevitably noticed. The most obvious constraint is the weather, which is sometimes pleasant but is more often not. “Who wants to eat on the sidewalk in Phoenix in July?” Spang said.

    The other is the uncomfortable proximity to vehicles. Dining sheds spilled into the streets like patrons after too many drinks. The problem was that U.S. roads were built for cars, not people. This tends not to be true in places renowned for outdoor dining, such as Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, which urbanized before cars, Megan Elias, a historian and the director of the gastronomy program at Boston University, told me. At best, this means that outdoor meals in America are typically enjoyed with a side of traffic. At worst, they end in dangerous collisions.

    Cars and bad weather were easier to put up with when eating indoors seemed like a more serious health hazard than breathing in fumes and trembling with cold. It had a certain romance—camaraderie born of discomfort. You have to admit, there was a time when cozying up under a heat lamp with a hot drink was downright charming. But now outdoor dining has gone back to what it always was: something that most Americans would like to avoid in all but the most ideal of conditions. This sort of relapse could lead to fewer opportunities to eat outdoors even when the weather does cooperate.

    But outdoor dining is also affected by more existential issues that have surmounted nearly  three years of COVID life. Eating at restaurants is expensive, and Americans like to get their money’s worth. When safety isn’t a concern, shelling out for a streetside meal may simply not seem worthwhile for most diners. “There’s got to be a point to being outdoors, either because the climate is so beautiful or there’s a view,” Paul Freedman, a Yale history professor specializing in cuisine, told me. For some diners, outdoor seating may feel too casual: Historically, Americans associated eating at restaurants with special occasions, like celebrating a milestone at Delmonico’s, the legendary fine-dining establishment that opened in the 1800s, Cutting-Jones said.

    Eating outdoors, in contrast, was linked to more casual experiences, like having a hot dog at Coney Island. “We have high expectations for what dining out should be like,” she said, noting that American diners are especially fussy about comfort. Even the most opulent COVID cabin may be unable to override these associations. “If the restaurant is going to be fancy and charge $200 a person,” said Freedman, most people can’t escape the feeling of having spent that much for “a picnic on the street.”

    Outdoor dining isn’t disappearing entirely. In the coming years there’s a good chance that more Americans will have the opportunity to eat outside in the nicer months than they did before the pandemic—even if it’s not the widespread practice many had anticipated earlier in the pandemic. Where it continues, it will almost certainly be different: more buttoned-up, less lawless—probably less exciting. Santa Barbara, for example, made dining sheds permanent last year but specified that they must be painted an approved “iron color.” It may also be less popular among restaurant owners: If outdoor-dining regulations are too far-reaching or costly, cautioned Hayrettin Günç, an architect with Global Designing Cities Initiative, that will “create barriers for businesses.”

    For now, outdoor dining is yet another COVID-related convention that hasn’t quite stuck—like avoiding handshakes and universal remote work. As the pandemic subsides, the tendency is to default to the ways things used to be. Doing so is easier, certainly, than coming up with policies to accommodate new habits. In the case of outdoor dining, it’s most comfortable, too. If this continues to be the case, then outdoor dining in the U.S. may return to what it was before the pandemic: dining “al fresco” along the streetlamp-lined terraces of the Venetian Las Vegas, and beneath the verdant canopy of the Rainforest Cafe.

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  • Who is Shou Zi Chew? Mounting scrutiny on TikTok could put new spotlight on its CEO | CNN Business

    Who is Shou Zi Chew? Mounting scrutiny on TikTok could put new spotlight on its CEO | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    When TikTok was the title sponsor last summer for Vidcon, an annual convention for the creators and brands that make up a key part of the short-form video app’s audience and business, it was Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas who got on stage for the industry keynote event.

    Months later, when TikTok was grilled by Congress over privacy and security concerns, Pappas was the TikTok executive in the hot seat fielding questions.

    But while Pappas has arguably been the public face of the company for much of the past few tumultuous years, she has done so while acting as TikTok’s second-in-command. The person who has actually served as the CEO of one of the most popular apps on the planet for nearly two years is a longtime tech finance executive named Shou Zi Chew, based thousands of miles away from Washington, in Singapore.

    In Silicon Valley, it’s common for tech CEOs to be household names and the faces of the company’s they lead. Mark Zuckerberg is synonymous with Facebook and Jack Dorsey was the bearded face of Twitter, before Elon Musk acquired it. But Chew, who took over as TikTok CEO in April 2021, has largely stayed out of the spotlight at a time when the app he leads can’t seem to avoid it.

    After averting a threat of a ban in 2020, TikTok has increasingly found itself under scrutiny from state and federal lawmakers in the United States over concerns about its ties to China through its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, as well as over fears that it could have a harmful impact on younger users.

    Some US lawmakers have once again renewed calls to ban the app outright, while the Biden administration is still said to be negotiating with TikTok over a deal to let it continue to operate in the United States. Meanwhile, officials in the European Union have also begun toughening their rhetoric toward TikTok.

    That could put greater pressure on Chew. Already, he has had to respond to pointed letters from US senators, and just last week he made the rounds in Brussels to meet with EU officials. At the same time, Chew, who previously was CFO of ByteDance, is reportedly constrained in how much control he has over TikTok and how much power rests with its parent company.

    In a rare interview at the New York Times DealBook summit in late November, Chew was asked whether he worked “at the behest of the folks at ByteDance and therefore at the behest of the Chinese government.” In response, he said, “I am responsible for all the strategic decisions at TikTok.”

    Shou Zi Chew, chief executive officer of TikTok Inc., speaks during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022.

    But he added that ByteDance is “organized the way you would expect an internet company to be organized,” featuring global investors and a board of shareholder and employee representatives. “I am responsible for the decisions at TikTok,” Chew re-emphasized, “but, ultimately, I have to be responsible to the shareholders and to the board as well.”

    TikTok did not make Chew available for this story or respond to requests for comment.

    In interviews, Chew has described himself as a a 40-year-old father of two who likes to golf and read books on theoretical physics. But it’s his national origin that TikTok seems to like to highlight most.

    In a letter to US lawmakers in June, TikTok appeared to try and distance itself from ByteDance’ reach and said it was led by “its own global CEO, Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean based in Singapore.”

    It’s not the first time TikTok has played up the nationality of its CEO. In 2020, as it faced growing pressure from the Trump administration, TikTok repeatedly defended itself against critics by touting its “American CEO,” Kevin Mayer, a former executive at one of the most iconic US companies, Disney.

    Mayer held the chief executive position at TikTok for just three months before stepping down. Pappas, an Australian based in Los Angeles with experience at other big US tech platforms like Google’s YouTube, then served as interim global head of TikTok for less than a year.

    Then Chew took over as CEO.

    “I think they brought him in specifically because, frankly, he’s not a Chinese national, and Singapore traditionally straddles the fence of these worlds,” said Ivan Kanapathy, a former director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia on the White House’s National Security Council staff and current senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “And they’re quite good at it, geopolitically.”

    “Ultimately, I don’t think it’s going to be enough for Washington,” Kanapathy added of Chew’s Singaporean origin offering comfort to lawmakers concerned about China’s reach over TikTok. “For now, I don’t think it makes much of a difference because at the end of the day, he still answers to ByteDance, and so there’s only so much he can do.”

    After completing his mandatory military service in Singapore, Chew attended university in London before graduating with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2010. He was exposed to Silicon Valley while at Harvard, after he interned one summer at a “startup” that “was called Facebook,” as he put it in an alumni spotlight.

    He eventually went on to become the CFO of Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, which he helped take public in 2018.

    In 2013, he led a group that became one of ByteDance’s earliest investors. In an interview with business magnate David Rubenstein, Chew said he stayed in contact with the ByteDance team throughout his career and they eventually reached out to offer him the CFO position. He took over as CEO of TikTok in April 2021, with Pappas named COO.

    As CEO of TikTok, “I’m most focused on trust building,” Chew told Rubenstein. “We are a young company and I think trust is something that we have to earn, through actions.”

    Chew doesn’t tweet and has a private, but verified, Instagram account with zero posts. He has shared a handful of videos on TikTok, mostly short clips of his travels and visits to various TikTok offices. But despite running one of the most popular apps on the planet, Chew largely keeps his own life private.

    In some ways, it can be a refreshing break from certain US tech executives who can’t seem to help tweeting their every thought. But it might also stem from cultural differences that come from leading a massive tech company with a Chinese parent company, according to Matthew Quint, the director of the center on global brand leadership at Columbia Business School. While Chew is not a Chinese national, Quint noted Chinese tech companies and leaders that have drawn too much attention to themselves have faced tough government crackdowns.

    Even if Chew does become more of a public figure and attempt to go on a charm offensive, it may not matter much for TikTok’s future in the United States. Ultimately, Quint said, “I don’t think the CEO of TikTok has much relevance at all” for US lawmakers scrutinizing its ties to China.

    “We’ve seen a rotating group, many of whom are not born-Chinese nationals, and that has not swayed the pressure around TikTok from a regulatory, national security perspective over the course of the last 18 months or so,” Quint said.

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  • South Korea brought K-pop and K-dramas to the world. The Korean language could be next | CNN

    South Korea brought K-pop and K-dramas to the world. The Korean language could be next | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    There’s never been a better time to learn Korean.

    It’s one of the fastest-growing languages in the world, outpacing traditionally popular rivals like Chinese in multiple markets – reflecting the global phenomenon many call the “Korean wave.”

    In 2022, Korean was the seventh most-studied language on the learning app Duolingo, according to the company’s annual language report. And it’s seeing particular success in parts of South and Southeast Asia, as the most-studied foreign language in the Philippines, and not far off the top spot in Thailand, Indonesia and Pakistan.

    Although Chinese – which for years has been considered as the business language of the future – remains the second most spoken language in the world, thanks in part to the sheer size of China’s population, it has sat in eighth place on Duolingo for the last several years, lagging behind Korean.

    Korean is the second most-studied Asian language on Duolingo, only narrowly behind Japanese, according to the language report. Duolingo, which has more than 500 million users internationally, ranks Korean ahead of Chinese, Russian and Hindi, and behind Italian. English and Spanish still sit comfortably in the top two spots.

    This rise in interest, experts and teachers say, is thanks to the Korean wave, or “hallyu” – the proliferation of Korean culture internationally.

    The last two decades have seen South Korean exports sweep the world, from K-pop and Korean TV dramas to beauty products, fashion and food. The country has become an international cultural juggernaut – so much so that the Oxford English Dictionary added more than 20 words of Korean origin in 2021, saying in a statement, “We are all riding the crest of the Korean wave.”

    This phenomenon has been aided by South Korea’s own government, which has worked to spread the country’s cultural influence through music and media since the 1990s. Now, the Korean language could be the next export to go global.

    “Compared to the time I started my career, the perceptions of Korea as a nation, Korean culture and society, and the Korean language have gone through a significant, positive change,” said Joowon Suh, director of the Korean Language Program at Columbia University. “Now it is perceived more modern, advanced, marketable, cooler, and hipper.”

    For decades, East Asian language studies overseas have mostly been limited to Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.

    But that began to change in the past decade after major hits by Korean artists and directors, such as Psy’s 2012 song “Gangnam Style,” the 2019 thriller “Parasite,” the 2021 Netflix show “Squid Game,” and the emergence of BTS, undoubtedly the biggest global stars of K-pop.

    Figures show a surge in interest toward the language in the same period.

    The number of students enrolled in Korean classes at higher education institutions in the United States leapt from 5,211 in 2002 to nearly 14,000 in 2016, according to data analyzed by the Modern Language Association.

    K-pop group BTS at the 64th Grammy Awards in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022.

    This jump is striking given Korean isn’t easy for non-native speakers to learn. The US State Department lists Korean as a “super-hard language,” meaning it’s “exceptionally difficult” for English speakers and takes on average 88 weeks to achieve professional working proficiency.

    Modern Korean follows a phonetic alphabet called Hangul, meaning the syllables are generally pronounced as they’re written – unlike non-phonetic languages such as Chinese, which uses symbols to represent specific meanings.

    Suh, the Columbia instructor, said she first began noticing a rise in interest around 2015 – but it has accelerated in the last three to four years. The number of Columbia students enrolling in Korean courses increased by 50% from the 2017 to 2021 academic years, she said.

    Other popular languages have seen numbers either plateau or drop over the last decade. US students enrolled in Chinese classes, for instance, jumped significantly from 2002 to 2013, a period marked by China’s massive economic growth and global influence.

    But enrollments in Chinese had dipped by 2016, according to the Modern Language Association – coinciding with the deterioration of US-China relations, and the worsening perception of China in the West due to its alleged human rights abuses.

    “Students’ interest in foreign language learning in US higher education tends to depend more on the perception or reputation of a country in terms of economy and geopolitics, such as China, Russia or Portugal,” said Suh.

    Similarly, in the United Kingdom, the number of higher education students taking Korean courses tripled from 2012 to 2018, according to the University Council of Modern Languages – compared to just a 5% increase for Chinese, and a decline in several European languages like French and German.

    Korean’s newfound popularity was no accident, with South Korean authorities jumping at the chance to promote their language on the back of its more successful exports.

    “It is the Hallyu that has persuaded Asian countries at the societal level that Korea is really part of the developed, western world,” said John Walsh in his 2014 book on the phenomenon. This shift in perception has in turn boosted the government’s ability to pursue “national interests in the areas of diplomacy, investment, education and trade,” he wrote.

    Over the last decade, the Ministry of Education has sent Korean teachers overseas, including several dozen to Thailand in 2017 to teach the language at middle and high schools.

    A display at a bilingual Korean-English language immersion class at Porter Ranch Community School in Los Angeles, photographed in September 2016.

    In more recent years, numerous countries including Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have officially adopted Korean as a foreign language in their school curricula, under agreements signed with the Korean education ministry, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

    Meanwhile, the King Sejong Institute, a government-founded Korean-language brand, has established 244 learning centers worldwide, according to its website.

    These efforts aim to “keep the interest of Korean language abroad, which has become widely popular with the Korean Wave,” said the education ministry in a 2017 press release.

    “In the long term, Korean language courses in the local school curriculum will serve as a step to foster Korean experts, and thereby strengthening friendly relationships between Korea and other countries,” it added.

    Suh cautioned that the Korean wave runs the risk of oversimplifying nuances of Korean culture and society, such as regional differences or class conflicts, while glorifying “anything (Korean) without fully understanding its history.”

    But, she added, this simplification could actually benefit the South Korean government as it expands its influence, as something “any rising soft power might have to go through.”

    Experts say students come to the table with various reasons for pursuing the Korean language – though certain trends have emerged among regional and ethnic lines.

    “The Korean wave is an important factor for non-heritage students,” said Suh, referring to those without Korean ethnicity or heritage who are simply interested in Korean cultural products like movies and K-pop.

    Meanwhile, students of Korean descent tend to take Korean classes for more “integrative” reasons, she said – for instance, wanting to live in South Korea, to better connect with their communities and families, or to explore their own Korean identities.

    Jiyoung Lee, an adjunct instructor at New York University’s Department of East Asian Studies, pointed to the rise of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. These have facilitated international cultural exchanges and “largely influenced” the number of Korean learners, she said.

    But Lee, who previously taught Korean in Indonesia and South Korea, also noticed differences among students in different parts of the world.

    US students tend to learn Korean “because they are more interested in enjoying culture … and want to talk to their favorite singers or actors,” she said.

    By contrast, students in Southeast Asia mostly study Korean to get a job in South Korea, or at a Korean company in their home country, she said, noting the number of Korean brands “establishing themselves not only in Southeast Asia but also in various countries.”

    For instance, the Korean entertainment giant SM Entertainment is expanding into Southeast Asia with new Singapore headquarters. Meanwhile, the Korean convenience store chain GS25 has more than 180 outlets in Vietnam, and is set to break ground in Malaysia this year, according to Yonhap.

    The expansion of Korean business and pop culture may also be pushing young Southeast Asians to travel to South Korea. Southeast Asians make up more than 40% of foreign students in South Korea, and 30% of foreign residents in the country overall, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    Jeffrey Holliday, who teaches Korean linguistics at Korea University in Seoul (with classes taught in English), said roughly 40% of his students are exchange students, mostly coming from the US. These students tend to be undergraduates, only in Seoul for a few semesters, and nearly all are avid fans of Korean pop culture such as K-pop, he says.

    Meanwhile, his foreign graduate students – who tend to be studying there full-time and are seeking jobs in Korea – largely hail from China and Vietnam.

    “To me it’s so surprising because when I was in college (in the US) from 1999 to 2003 … there was no-one learning Korean who wasn’t a heritage speaker. I was the only one who wasn’t Korean American,” he said.

    “Whereas now, these students come here, they’re very focused, very determined – they really want to learn Korean and they’re here for that.”

    Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the placing of Japanese on the Duolingo report. It is the most studied Asian language on the platform.

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  • What the return of Chinese tourists means for the global economy | CNN Business

    What the return of Chinese tourists means for the global economy | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    In the years before Covid, China was the world’s most important source of international travelers. Its 155 million tourists spent more than a quarter of a trillion dollars beyond its borders in 2019.

    That largesse fell precipitously over the past three years as the country essentially closed its borders. But, as China prepares to reopen on Sunday, millions of tourists are poised to return to the world stage, raising hopes of a rebound for the global hospitality industry.

    Although international travel may not return immediately to pre-pandemic levels, companies, industries and countries that rely on Chinese tourists will get a boost in 2023, according to analysts.

    China averaged about 12 million outbound air passengers per month in 2019, but those numbers fell 95% during the Covid years, according to Steve Saxon, a partner in McKinsey’s Shenzhen office. He predicts that figure will recover to about 6 million per month by the summer, driven by the pent-up wanderlust of young, wealthy Chinese like Emmy Lu, who works for an advertising company in Beijing.

    “I’m so happy [about the reopening]! ” Lu told CNN. “Because of the pandemic, I could only wander around the country for the past years. It was difficult.”

    “It’s just that I’ve been stuck inside the country for a little too long. I’m really looking forward to the lifting of the restrictions, so that I can go somewhere for fun! ” the 30-year-old said, adding that she wanted to visit Japan and Europe the most.

    As China announced last month it would no longer subject inbound travelers to quarantine starting January 8, including residents returning from trips abroad, searches for international flights and accommodations immediately hit a three-year high on Trip.com

    (TCOM)    .

    Bookings for overseas travel during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, which falls between January 21 and January 27 this year, have soared by 540% from a year ago, according to data from the Chinese travel site. Average spending per booking jumped 32%.

    The top destinations are in the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong. The United States and the United Kingdom also ranked among the top 10.

    “The rapid buildup in … [bank] deposits over the past year suggests that households in China have accumulated significant cash holdings,” said Alex Loo, a macro strategist for TD Securities, adding that frequent lockdowns have likely led to restraints on household spending.

    There could be “revenge spending” by Chinese consumers, mirroring what happened in many developed markets when they reopened early last year, he said.

    That’s good news for many economies battered by the pandemic.

    “We estimate that Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore would benefit the most if China’s travel service imports were to return to 2019 levels,” said Goldman Sachs analysts。

    Hong Kong — the world’s most visited city with just under 56 million arrivals in 2019, most of them from mainland China — could see an estimated 7.6% boost to its GDP as exports and tourism income increase, they said. Thailand’s GDP may be boosted by 2.9%, while Singapore would get a lift of 1.2%.

    Elsewhere in the world, Cambodia, Mauritius, Malaysia, Taiwan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Philippines are also likely to benefit from the return of Chinese tourists, according to research by Capital Economics.

    Hong Kong has suffered particularly acutely from the closure of its border with mainland China. The city’s pillar industries of tourism and real estate have been hit hard. The financial hub expects GDP to have contracted by 3.2% in 2022.

    The city government announced Thursday that up to 60,000 people would be allowed to cross the border daily each way, starting Sunday.

    Several other Southeast Asian countries reliant on tourism have kept entry rules relatively relaxed for Chinese tourists, despite the record Covid-19 outbreak that has swept through China in recent weeks. They include Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.

    “This is one of the opportunities that we can accelerate economic recovery,” Thailand’s health minister said this week.

    New Zealand has also waived testing requirements for Chinese visitors, who were the second largest source of tourist revenue for the country before the pandemic.

    But other governments are more cautious. So far, nearly a dozen countries, including the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Australia and South Korea, have mandated testing.

    The European Union on Wednesday “strongly encouraged” its members states to require a negative Covid test for visitors from China before arrival.

    There is clearly “conflict” between the tourism authorities and the political and health officials in some countries, said Saxon, who leads McKinsey’s travel practice in Asia.

    Airlines and airports have already blasted the EU’s recommendations for testing requirements.

    The International Air Transport Association, the airline industry’s global lobby group, together with airports represented by ACI Europe as well as Airlines for Europe, issued a joint statement on Thursday, calling the EU move “regrettable” and “a knee-jerk reaction.”

    But they welcomed the additional recommendation to test wastewater as a way of identifying new variants of the disease, saying it should be an alternative to testing passengers.

    Besides restrictions, it will take time for international travel to fully rebound because many Chinese must renew their passports and apply for visas again, according to analysts.

    Lu from Beijing said she was still considering her travel plans, taking into consideration the various testing requirements and the high price of flying.

    “The restrictions are normal, because everyone wants to protect people in their own country,” she said. “I’ll wait and see if some policies will be eased.”

    Liu Chaonan, a 24-year-old in Shenzhen, said she had initially wanted to go to the Philippines to celebrate the Chinese New Year, but didn’t have time to apply for the visa. So she switched to Thailand, which offers quick and easy electronic permits.

    “Time is short and I need to leave in about 10 days. People may choose some visa-friendly places and countries to travel to,” she said, adding that she plans to learn scuba diving and wants to buy cosmetics. Her total budget for the trip could exceed 10,000 yuan ($1,460).

    Saxon said he expected China’s outbound international travel to fully recover by the year end.

    “Generally, individuals are pragmatic and countries will welcome Chinese tourists due to their spending power,” he said, adding that countries may remove restrictions quickly when the Covid situation improves in China.

    “It will take time for international tourism to get going, but it will come rushing back, when it happens.”

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  • 18 of Asia’s most underrated places | CNN

    18 of Asia’s most underrated places | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations opening, inspiration for future adventures, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.



    CNN
     — 

    Comprising more than 40 countries, Asia can’t be summed up easily.

    The classics are classics for a reason – from the awe-inspiring architecture of Angkor Wat and the Taj Mahal to the buzzy metropolises of Tokyo and Hong Kong and the beaches of Bali and Phuket, it’s impossible for any traveler to find something not to their liking.

    But for the travelers who are fortunate enough to have time to dig a little bit deeper, there are less-crowded, equally-rewarding treasures to be found.

    CNN Travel tapped into our network of colleagues and contributors to ask them where the locals go. Here’s what they had to say.

    When it comes to great Malaysian food cities, most people think of Penang. But that’s only because they haven’t been to Ipoh.

    The capital city of Perak state, Ipoh’s location between Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown makes it an ideal stop for any Malaysian road trip. It’s also the gateway to Cameron Highlands, a district known for its cool weather and tea plantations.

    Ipoh’s food and world famous white coffee are enough reasons to visit but there are also magnificent limestone hills and caves that are home to unique temples as well as amazing hidden bars.

    Visit the Chinese temples of Perak Tong, Sam Poh Tong and Kek Lok Tong and be blown away by intricate stone carvings and bronze statues of Chinese deities surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites. Ipoh’s colonial legacy is also evident in its architecture: from its Railway Station to the Birch Clock Tower, town hall and the Old Post Office.

    – Heather Chen, Asia writer

    As popular as Thailand is among international tourists, the country’s northeast – collectively referred to as Isaan – is usually overlooked.

    But for those in search of a less-traveled destination that includes historic architecture, dramatic landscapes and culinary delights, Isaan ticks all the right boxes, and then some.

    Visitors will find it’s one of the most welcoming destinations in Asia and easily accessible, thanks to excellent infrastructure that includes several domestic airports offering daily flights to Bangkok and a range of upmarket hotels.

    The only challenge is deciding which highlights to experience. Made up of 20 provinces, Isaan shares borders with Laos and Cambodia, and their influences can be found in the region’s cuisine, language, historic sites and festivals.

    Attractions include the ancient Khmer ruins of Phenom Rung in Buriram, mountainous national parks in Loei, the 75 million-year-old “Three Whale Rock” in Bueng Kam and Bronze Age artifacts in the UNESCO-listed Ban Chiang Archeological Site in Udon Thani.

    And then there’s the food. Isaan cuisine, now prevalent on menus in Thai restaurants around the world, includes refreshing som tom (payaya salad), tangy Sai Grok Isaan (northeastern sausage) and larb, a flavorful minced-meat salad.

    – Karla Cripps, senior producer, CNN Travel

    Most people travel to Leshan city for the sole purpose of visiting the Giant Buddha. The world’s biggest and tallest ancient Buddha statue is indeed stunning, but this Sichuan city deserves much more than a side trip from Chengdu.

    The Mount Emei scenic area – home to the Giant Buddha – is also of great spiritual and cultural importance as the birthplace of Buddhism in China. Many ancient temples are scattered and ingeniously built on the cliffs of the pristine dense forest.

    On top of sightseeing, Leshan is a hidden foodie paradise with local Sichuanese saying “eating in Sichuan, tasting in Leshan.” This city is where Chengdu residents come for authentic bites of iconic Sichuan cuisine: chilled bobo chicken, jellied tofu, Qiaojiao beef, steamed meat with rice powder and more.

    – Serenitie Wang, producer, video programming

    Skardu district, in Pakistan’s Gilit Baltistan region, is a land of stark gigantic beauty, with many of the highest mountains on the planet – most famously K2 – concentrated in this one area.

    Deosai National Park sits on the second highest plateau in the world. It is a riot of color, alive with birds and butterflies. With no ambient city lights the stars are exceptionally bright, with the milky way looking so close it could be plucked out from the sky.

    In contrast, there’s the Sarfaranga Desert. The world’s highest cold desert, it’s filled with diamond-white sands and ebony mountains.

    Skardu has been inhabited for centuries and is studded with ancient Buddhist stupas and carvings, beautifully preserved mosques from the Middle Ages and shrines of Sufi saints.

    The Serena hotel chain has transformed the stunning Shigar Fort and Khaplu Palace into two of the country’s best kept hotels. Both are filled with gardens and climate friendly wooden architecture while serving regional food like Mamtu dumplings and grilled trout.

    – Sophia Saifi, producer, Pakistan

    Nikko is just 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Tokyo, but it feels like another world.

    This small city is one of the most important sites in Japan for Shinto culture, with the ornate, gold-dripping Toshogu Shrine – a UNESCO World Heritage site – its centerpiece.

    If peace is what you’re after, Nikko is the place to find it. Nikko National Park comprises 443 square miles across three prefectures, with dramatic waterfalls, groves of fir and cedar trees, finely carved gates and rocky outcroppings among the things to experience.

    The park is also home to some of Japan’s famous natural hot springs, making Nikko an ideal autumn or winter destination.

    While the area has long been popular with Tokyo urbanites looking for a bucolic weekend escape, Nikko is beginning to land on the radar of more international tourists – a Ritz Carlton opened there just before the pandemic.

    – Lilit Marcus, digital producer, CNN Travel

    With its fresh mountain air and pine forests in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, Dalat is a popular destination for local Vietnamese that isn’t as well known among international travelers.

    At 1,500 meters above sea level, the city’s cooler weather is a welcome reprieve from the tropical humidity found elsewhere in the Southeast Asian country.

    Centered around the romantic Xuan Huong Lake, Dalat boasts everything from French colonial architecture – a holdover from its days as a hill station – to the “Crazy House,” the Seussian creation of architect Đặng Việt Nga, with its twisting stairwells and whimsical sculptures. Plentiful waterfalls and a vibrant flower industry mean that delights abound in the city for honeymooners and nature lovers.

    – Dan Tham, producer, Global Features

    Urban Davao City is beloved for its night market.

    Davao City is more than just a provincial capital of the southernmost part of the Philippines — it’s a true mosaic of Filipino cultures seen nowhere else across the country.

    There’s food for everybody at the Roxas Night Market, which is lined with barbecue and grilled seafood, along with humble yet complex delicacies such as the fresh seaweed salad called lato and hearty law-uy vegetable soup. Nothing represents Davao more than pungent durians, which grow in abundance across the region as well as pineapples, bananas and sugarcane – served in all forms from shakes to pies.

    The city takes pride in its indigenous roots and celebrates the Kadwayan Festival in August to showcase local textiles, woodwork, song and dance from 11 tribes that reign from the mountains and its surrounding sea.

    A ferry ride away from the city will transport you to luxurious Samal Island, best known for its pristine beaches and pearl farms. Take a roadtrip along the palm tree-lined paths that lead to the surfer spot of Mati, or perhaps a detour to Mount Apo, the highest mountain and volcano in the Philippines.

    – Kathleen Magramo, breaking news writer

    The northeast Indian state of Meghalaya, which translates to “abode in the clouds,” boasts some of the country’s most peaceful and lush landscapes. As it requires a permit, it can be challenging to visit. But it’s worth it.

    Meghalaya is home to the towns of Cherrapunji and Mawlynnong. Both hold records for being the wettest places on Earth, having received nearly 12,000 mm (472 inches) of rain a year. The results are verdant, leafy forests with rivers and creeks running through that can be explored through crossing the state’s famous bridges.

    Built by locals out of the roots of ficus trees, some are as old as 500 years and symbolize the self-sufficiency of the Khasi indigenous tribe and their relationship with the forest. The living root bridges, known as “jingkieng jri” in the Khasi language, can be found in over 70 villages and continue to be used and nurtured by locals to keep them alive for future generations.

    In 2022, they were added to UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage sites. The most famous living root bridges are the Umshiang Double Decker root bridge in Nongriat village, south of Cherrapunji, and one in Riwai near Mawlynnong, certified as the “cleanest village in Asia” since 2003 by UNESCO.

    – Manveena Suri, freelance producer

    Palau Ubin is just a short ferry ride away from mainland Singapore.

    Thought Singapore was all about parties and skyscrapers? Think again. Located offshore from its northeast Changi region is Pulau Ubin (Malay for “granite island”), a nature lover’s paradise with jungle trails, mangrove wetlands and majestic quarries.

    Getting around the island is a breeze: In true Singaporean style, everything is well-marked, from jungle trails to concrete footpaths, but the island still remains very untouched.

    Mountain biking is particularly popular, especially on weekdays when crowds are few. But Ubin really comes to life on weekends – when families, couples and nature lovers descend, hoping to catch a glimpse of old Singapore.

    One of the most popular attractions on the island is Chek Jawa, a saltwater mangrove wetland rich in marine life. A well-built wooden boardwalk runs through the mangrove, allowing visitors to observe plant and marine life such as sea sponges, octopuses, starfish and cuttlefish, at close range.

    – H.C.

    Indonesia is comprised of several thousand islands – and, in the case of Samosir, an island on a lake within an island.

    Samosir Island is a volcanic island in North Sumatra’s Lake Toba. one of the world’s largest crater lakes.

    The Batak tribe calls this land their home, and you can meet these locals as they sell handicrafts from their villages along the waterfront, where their houses are built from wooden beams lashed to stones and have tall red roofs that resemble a ship’s sails.

    As Samosir is several hours’ drive and ferry ride from the closest airport, opt to spend the night in a homestay and support the community by purchasing ulos, a UNESCO-recognized woven, naturally dyed cloth that is used in every important facet of Betak life.

    – L.M.

    Northern Laos – home to elegant Luang Prabang and adventure-loving Vang Vieng – get the lion’s share of attention. But head south for a different kind of experience in Pakse, where two rivers converge in the country’s second biggest city.

    Pakse is diverse, pulsing and modern. It has buildings left over from the days of French colonialism, but these days Vietnamese and Chinese communities bring their foods, traditions and references alongside the existing Lao presence.

    While in town, head up to the giant gold Buddha at Wat Pho Salao, stroll along the Mekong at sunset, and then go off to the Bolaven Plateau to get deeper into jungle.

    – L.M.

    India casts a long tourism shadow over its neighbors, including Bangladesh. But this smaller nation has outsized offerings many travelers to South Asia might not realize. This is especially true in architecture, history, nature and food.

    In the capital of Dhaka, the Ahsan Manzil is an ornate, stunning vision in pink. Set on the banks of the Buriganga River, it was finished in 1872 during the British colonial era as a palace for the local rulers of the time. It is now a popular museum.

    For a sample of Mughal Empire architectural splendor, check out the incomplete Lalbagh Fort.

    And if you’d like to visit a mosque, consider the exquisite Star Mosque (Tara Masjid), renowned for hundreds of blue stars on its gleaming white domes.

    – Forrest Brown, freelance writer and producer

    Lijiang's old town, in Yunnan province, is popular with Chinese domestic travelers.

    Even though China is still closed to international tourists, Yunnan province has already welcomed about 350 million domestic visitors in the first half of 2022 alone.

    If you’d like to see the historical Yunnan like an experienced local, head to Tengchong.

    Bordering Myanmar in the west of Yunnan, Tengchong has been a critical trading stop on the historic Silk Route and Tea Horse Road in the past.

    Today, many local travelers first visit Heshun, an old town built surrounding a mountain and a lake. The Double Rainbow stone arch bridges, the Laundry Pavilion and the 98-year-old Heshun Library – the biggest rural public library in China – are some of the must-sees when visiting the cozy village.

    Yinxing (Gingko) Village in the northern side of Tengchong is known for its thousands of ginkgo trees, turning the village golden yellow every autumn.

    – Maggie Hiufu Wong, freelance CNN Travel writer

    The Gogunsan islands – meaning “an archipelago of mountains” in Korean – have been a popular summer destination for locals seeking a break from city life.

    A group of 63 islands on South Korea’s west coast, the islands offer a picturesque view of verdant hills scattered amid gentle waters.

    The world’s longest seawall and a series of bridges connect the islands to the mainland, making them an especially attractive destination for those behind wheels. The landscape invites visitors to light hikes and swim afterwards.

    – Jake Kwon, newsdesk producer

    Lan Ha Bay is a less-visited waterwat in northeastern Vietnam.

    Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam is no secret – the UNESCO-listed waterway has long been popular with backpackers and luxury travelers alike.

    But visitors who want to ply the waters with a lot fewer neighbors should head to Lan Ha, south of Ha Long Bay. Like its more famous sibling, Lan Ha Bay is a stretch of shimmering water broken up by limestone (karst) islands that can be enjoyed by day trip (kayak, canoe) or overnight (cruise ship, junk boat).

    Most travelers get here by bus or car from Hanoi or Haiphong, and it’s easy to set up door-to-door service with tour companies in advance.

    Leave from Cat Ba Island to explore Lan Ha Bay’s grottoes, caves and white-sand beaches.

    – L.M.

    On the southern tip of Taiwan lies Kenting, a sunny, laid back peninsula known for its white sandy beach, boisterous night market and chill vibe.

    Take a dip at Baishawan (White Sand Bay); scenes from the “Life of Pi” were filmed here on Wanlitong Beach, a hotspot for snorkeling teeming with marine life.

    Take a stroll at the Eluanbi Park, where a towering lighthouse stands – one of the top eight iconic landmarks on the island – and walk down to the southernmost tip of Taiwan, a perfect spot to watch the sunset.

    No visit to Kenting is complete without a stop at Longpan Park. Take in the panoramic view of the rugged coastline, the majestic cliffs and the grassy hills that together form a jaw-dropping landscape. Given the open space and the lack of lighting, the park is also popular with sunset watchers and stargazers.

    – Wayne Chang, China news desk producer

    Nestled under a canopy of trees, the temple ruins of Banteay Chhmar offer a glimpse into the might of the Khmer Empire – without the hordes of tourists.

    Completed in the late 12th century by Jayavarman VII, the “Citadel of Cats” is in northwest Cambodia, a few hours’ drive from Siem Reap, home to Angkor Wat. Banteay Chhmar is located 20 kilometers from the Thai border and is accessible by taxi from Sisophon, the fourth largest city in Cambodia.

    The massive complex comprises eight temples, featuring stone-faced towers adorned with mysterious smiles. There are also remarkably well-preserved bas-reliefs, depicting religious and military stories. Visitors to this remote, less-traveled part of Cambodia are rewarded with a sense of adventure and quiet.

    – D.T.

    Most foreign tourists head to Sri Lanka’s beautiful south coast or into its central tea country, both of which are fairly easy to reach from the main city of Colombo and beloved by Instagrammers who come to ride the famous rails.

    But the northern patch of the island is worth the sometimes-challenging car or bus trip to get there.

    Jaffna is the primary home of the country’s Tamil-speaking population and still has glimmers of its Indian and Dutch colonial past, resulting in a fascinating, complex culture.

    Start with architecture: the ornate, bright gold Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil Hindu temple and sprawling white Colonial-era Jaffna Library are both exceptional.

    Then, indulge in the food: bananas and mangoes fresh off the trees combine with curries, pickles and rice dishes for filling, inexpensive meals.

    – L.M.

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  • Philippines reports at least 8 deaths as rains, floods disrupt Christmas celebrations | CNN

    Philippines reports at least 8 deaths as rains, floods disrupt Christmas celebrations | CNN

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    Philippine authorities on Monday reported at least eight deaths mostly due to floods triggered by heavy rains in the southern provinces, as Christmas celebrations were disrupted for thousands of residents who were forced to evacuate.

    Images on social media showed rescue workers helping residents out of chest-deep flood waters caused by two days of moderate to heavy rainfall in the central and southern Philippines.

    In its latest bulletin, the national disaster agency reported eight casualties, five of whom died from drowning, while 19 were missing. Of the eight deaths, six were in the mountainous and coastal Misamis Occidental province.

    Nearly 46,000 people were sheltering in evacuation centers, data from the Social Welfare Ministry showed on Monday.

    “We need food. Our house and animals were carried away by floods,” Estela Talaruc, a Misamis Occidental resident, told DZRH radio station. “Nothing was left, not even clothes.”

    The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, sees an average of 20 tropical storms annually. The Southeast Asian nation is also hit by adverse weather conditions like monsoon rains that cause deadly landslides and floods, and damage crops.

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  • Indonesia president supports plan to scale back troops in restive Papua | CNN

    Indonesia president supports plan to scale back troops in restive Papua | CNN

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    Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Monday he supports plans to scale back the presence of troops in the eastern region of Papua, where the country’s military has been accused of human rights abuses in tackling a long-running independence movement.

    Jokowi, as the president is known, said “the reduction of military troops in Papua is good, but we need to continue to be stern,” after appointing a new chief of armed forces.

    Otherwise, he said, armed rebel groups will continue to operate there and “the problem will never end”.

    It was unclear when and by how much the military presence in Papua would be scaled back.

    Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has seen a long-simmering separatist movement, which has intensified in recent years. The military maintains a heavy presence in the impoverished region, and has been accused by activist groups of human rights abuses, which it denies.

    Former military chief Andika Perkasa had in 2021 advocated for a “humanistic approach” in Papua that emphasizes communicating with rebel groups, according to state news agency Antara.

    When asked whether troops in Papua would be reduced, newly-installed military chief, Yudo Margono, told reporters on Monday that he would go to Papua and evaluate the situation before making a decision but did not provide details.

    Jakarta-based research group, the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said in a report this year that the frequency of insurgency-related violence in Papua had increased from an average of 11 incidents a year between 2010 to 2017 to 52 incidents a year from 2018-2021.

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  • 5 things to know for December 19: Jan. 6, Twitter, World Cup, Immigration, Turbulence | CNN

    5 things to know for December 19: Jan. 6, Twitter, World Cup, Immigration, Turbulence | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    When you make a purchase at a coffee shop or casual eatery, an employee usually spins around a touch screen to show you suggested tip amounts – typically between 10% and 25%. Then, there’s an awkward moment as the worker (directly across from you) waits to see how much you tip while customers behind you peer over your shoulder. You then choose the highest option, reluctantly. It’s a familiar scenario that many people grapple with nowadays, and more shoppers are saying they feel stressed that a generous tip has become an etiquette norm instead of a low-pressure decision. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

    (You can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

    The January 6 committee investigating the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol is set to make announcements today about criminal referrals to the Justice Department. The panel has weighed criminal referrals for former President Donald Trump and several members of his inner circle. A referral is a recommendation that the Justice Department investigate whether to charge the people in question, but the move is largely symbolic because it doesn’t obligate federal prosecutors to bring such a case. Whether the Justice Department brings charges will depend on whether the facts and the evidence support a prosecution, Attorney General Merrick Garland has said. Garland will make the ultimate call on any charging decisions.

    Elon Musk says he will step down as Twitter’s CEO if he’s voted out by a poll he tweeted Sunday. According to the poll, the option “yes” won by a margin of 57% to 43% – and Musk has said he would abide by the results. In several follow-up tweets, Musk suggested he was serious about leaving and made a vague threat about Twitter’s future if he is voted out. “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it,” Musk tweeted. Since buying Twitter for $44 billion and taking over as CEO in late October, Musk has been embroiled in numerous controversies for causing abrupt changes to platform and its workforce. The most recent change came over the weekend when Twitter banned links to certain other social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The controversial policy was removed less than 24 hours after its initial introduction.

    Hear how Musk responded to journalists before he hung up mid-question

    Argentina won the 2022 World Cup on Sunday, beating France via a penalty shootout in one of the most thrilling finals in tournament history. Argentine soccer legend Lionel Messi dazzled in his last World Cup match, scoring twice, making tournament history and finally hoisting the trophy. The streets of Buenos Aires were awash with blue and white as people poured out to celebrate. While the match in Qatar ended in glory for Messi as a fitting culmination of his extraordinary career, it was a sad outcome for France’s superstar Kylian Mbappé. France made a stunning comeback to force the final to extra time, but was unable to secure the win, falling short of becoming the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles in 60 years. Now the countdown begins to the next men’s World Cup in 2026. It will be held in the US, Mexico and Canada.

    stefano pozzebon argentina world cup

    Fans in Argentina douse reporter while celebrating World Cup win

    As border authorities try to prepare for the scheduled lifting of Title 42 on Wednesday, officials in the Rio Grande Valley say they have encountered between 900 and 1,200 migrants daily during the past two weeks. These numbers are reminiscent of the 2019 surge, when agents at the border encountered at least 1,000 migrants a day, according to a federal law enforcement source. The termination of the Title 42 policy is expected to lead to an increase in border crossings since authorities will no longer be able to quickly expel migrants as has been done since March 2020. Meanwhile, two buses carrying migrants arrived in New York City on Sunday and up to 15 more are expected in the next few days. The city’s shelter system is already at capacity and should expect more than 1,000 additional asylum-seekers to arrive every week, Mayor Eric Adams said. Denver, Colorado, is also struggling to provide shelter for a growing number of migrants.

    At least 36 people on a Hawaiian Airlines flight were injured after their plane encountered “severe turbulence” on a flight from Phoenix to Honolulu on Sunday, authorities said. The turbulence occurred 15 to 30 minutes before the plane landed in Honolulu, carrying 278 passengers and 10 crew. Twenty passengers were taken to emergency rooms, and 11 patients were in serious condition, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said in a statement Sunday. Among those transported to the hospital was a 14-month-old child. The patients’ injuries included a serious head injury, lacerations, bruising and loss of consciousness, Honolulu EMS said. One passenger, a college student on her way home for winter break, told CNN the turbulence escalated suddenly and “felt like free-falling.”

    Thai warship sinks in severe weather, leaving 31 crew missing

    A Royal Thai Navy warship sank in severe weather early today, leaving 31 of its crew of 106 sailors missing in stormy seas in the Gulf of Thailand, Thai authorities said. Search and rescue operations are underway for the missing crew. The 252-foot long vessel was built in the US and commissioned into the Thai Royal Navy in 1987. A retired US Navy captain said the Thai crew faced a difficult situation on such an old ship.

    ‘Avatar: Way of Water’ has earned $435 million at the global box office

    The highly anticipated “Avatar” sequel is packing theaters – but needs to make another $2 billion to break even with its expensive production cost.

    Rihanna shares first images of baby boy

    The wait is over. The musician and entrepreneur posted this cute video of her son “hacking” her phone.

    Why we can’t get enough of the ‘Wednesday’ dance

    Hello, my dear storm clouds. Glad to know I’m not the only one still dying over Wednesday Addams and this iconic scene from the Netflix series.

    Cecily Strong bids farewell to ‘Saturday Night Live’

    The actress’ departure is another gut-punch to the show’s lineup. Watch some of the emotional moments from her farewell here.

    Pope Francis orders Vatican to return Parthenon sculptures to Greece

    These 2,500-year-old sculptures have been held in the Vatican for more than a century. The pope is now giving them to the Greek Orthodox Church.

    1,500

    That’s how many exotic fish spilled into a Berlin hotel lobby after a giant aquarium burst into shards, injuring at least two people. None of the fish survived, officials said, adding that the cause of the incident is being investigated. The aquarium was 46 feet high and on display in the foyer of a Radisson Collection Hotel. 

    “Together, we must stand up against the disturbing rise in antisemitism. And together, we must stand up against bigotry in any of its forms. Our democracy depends on it.”

    – US Attorney General Merrick Garland, speaking out against antisemitism at the National Menorah lighting Sunday night in New York City. The world’s largest menorah was lit to mark the start of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. Jewish families around the world will light a candle in a menorah every night for eight nights to commemorate the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians and the re-dedication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem around 165 BC.

    rain and snow

    Severe storm and tornado threat continues for South as North sees more snow


    03:07

    – Source:
    CNN

    Check your local forecast here>>>

    The reason why your doughnut box is pink

    What do you prefer in the morning: bagels or doughnuts? Even if you’re firmly “Team Bagel,” you may make a switch after learning about the sweet history of pink doughnut boxes. (Click here to view) 

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  • Asia’s year in review: Who had it good — and who had it bad — in 2022

    Asia’s year in review: Who had it good — and who had it bad — in 2022

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    Police officers step into the vandalized gateway to Sri Lanka’s presidential palace in July. The country has been hit hard by an economic crisis.

    Abhishek Chinnappa | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Curtis S. Chin, a former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is managing director of advisory firm RiverPeak Group. Jose B. Collazo is an analyst focusing on the Indo-Pacific region. Follow them on Twitter at @CurtisSChin and @JoseBCollazo.

    As the new year approaches, we turn again to our annual look at Asia’s winners and losers. Government and business leaders in every major economy — China now included — may well hope 2023 is the year when draconian pandemic-related lockdowns become a matter of history.

    In our 2021 annual review, we awarded “worst year in Asia” to Afghan women and girls — a consequence of the U.S. and its allies’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return of Taliban rule. “Best year” went to Asia’s Cold War warriors, as social media, “wolf warriors” and politicians helped spark a return to Cold War rhetoric amid worsening U.S.-China relations.

    Now, with hopes that Covid is in retreat and that inflation will moderate in the year ahead, we take a last look at who had it good and who had it bad in 2022.

    Best Year: Southeast Asia’s comeback kids — Marcos and Anwar

    Perseverance proved a winner in 2022 as the year ended with Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. of the Philippines and Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia becoming leaders of their respective countries. One salvaged a family legacy, the other moved from prison to power — storylines befitting a Netflix series.

    In the Philippines, Marcos — the namesake son of his authoritarian father — won a landslide election in May for president, despite what detractors see as a family legacy of corruption and impunity. More than 35 years ago, in February 1986, the senior Marcos and his wife Imelda fled to Hawaii in exile, driven out by a People Power Revolution and a loss of U.S. support.

    And in Malaysia, Anwar finally proved a winner in November, shedding the long-held descriptor of “prime-minister-in-waiting” to become his nation’s 10th prime minister. That followed decades marked by smear campaigns, imprisonment and backroom intrigue as the onetime deputy prime minister challenged vested interests with his vows to combat corruption.

    The two now face the challenge of governing and moving their respective countries forward. Stay tuned for the next episode.

    Good Year: Taiwan’s semiconductor chipmakers 

    In a year that saw tensions between the U.S and China reach a feverish peak when U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, the island’s sophisticated semiconductor industry ends the year in a good position. Taiwan’s chipmakers are more essential than ever.  

    Semiconductor chips lie at the heart of everything from computers to cars to smartphones. Underscoring the Taiwanese tech industry’s critical role, a Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)/Boston Consulting Group 2021 study found that 92% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity is located in Taiwan. The other 8% was in South Korea. 

    TSMC headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The semiconductor manufacturer’s products lie at the heart of everything from automobiles to smartphones.

    Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    A rare bipartisan U.S. Congress has taken notice, passing in July 2022 the CHIPS and Science Act, which allocates $52 billion in federal funding to spur further domestic production of semiconductor chips. In December, the world’s dominant chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), announced plans for a second semiconductor chip plant in Arizona, raising to $40 billion what is already one of the largest foreign investments in U.S. history. 

    With numbers like those, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry ends the year on the move, still building ties and winning growing support from business and government in the United States and elsewhere.

    Mixed Year: Asia’s ‘love’ for crypto

    As in much of the world, investors in Asia — once bedazzled if not bewitched by the crypto industry — end the year in a mixed mood. Industry meltdowns have left many, including in government, wondering if the message of caveat emptor — buyer beware — is sufficient, and new regulations loom. 

    The crypto exchange FTX’s billions-dollar implosion set off alarm bells throughout the region. Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, which has written off its entire $275 million investment in the now-collapsed FTX cryptocurrency business, has suffered “reputational damage,” Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said.

    FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is led by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police force following his arrest.

    Mario Duncanson | Afp | Getty Images

    Bad Year: Sri Lanka, the (one-time) pearl of South Asia 

    Even amid food insecurity and economic worries across much of Asia, the images of angry citizens storming the official residence of Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Presidential Secretariat stand out in what was most decidedly a bad year for this one-time “pearl of South Asia.”

    Sri Lanka continues to face a multidimensional crisis. A broken economy, depleted foreign currency reserves, high inflation — at one point reaching more than 70% — and power, fuel and food shortages made worse by the impact of the war in Ukraine, a growing “brain drain” and meager tourism numbers characterize this south Asian nation today.

    Negotiations for an IMF deal remain complicated by large amounts of Sri Lankan debt held so by China, India and Japan.

    By September, nearly 200,000 Sri Lankans had left the island nation, and thousands of would-be emigrants were planning to do the same in search of a brighter future elsewhere. 

    An IMF deal to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt could provide much needed cash and economic stability, but negotiations remain complicated by large amounts of Sri Lankan debt held so by China, India and Japan.

    Worst year: China’s beleaguered, locked-down citizens

    While China has taken pride in an extraordinarily low number of (officially reported) Covid-related deaths, the nation has also become a showcase for the negative consequences of efforts to contain the virus. In what should have been a good year for Chinese President Xi Jinping, he has seen the year close with a wave of Chinese discontent. 

    By year-end, anti-lockdown protests were reported in numerous cities, including at the world’s largest iPhone assembly factory in Zhengzhou, as China’s zero-Covid policy took its toll on the economy and everyday people’s mental health.

    China will come through the Covid reopening, but it's going to be a bumpy ride

    “We want freedom, not Covid tests,” became a common chant of some protesters, according to Reuters, as individuals “pushed the boundaries by speaking for change in a country where space for dissent has narrowed dramatically.”

    The spark that set off the rare protests was news of the deaths of 10 people, including several children, in an apartment building fire in Urumqi in China’s Xinjiang province — in an area that had been locked down for several months. A storyline on social media that resonated across the country focused on the role that Covid controls might have played in those deaths.

    Chinese citizens can take heart that those protests may well have had an impact. The Chinese government has begun to relax zero-Covid restrictions. Still, the nation continues to lag the world in opening and moving forward, and worries continue about the nation’s rate of vaccination among the elderly.

    And so, even as hope has returned for a better year ahead, China’s beleaguered, locked-down citizens take the dubious honors of worst year in Asia 2022.

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  • Indonesia’s Mt. Semeru eruption buries homes, damages bridge

    Indonesia’s Mt. Semeru eruption buries homes, damages bridge

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    SUMBERWULUH, Indonesia — Improved weather conditions Monday allowed rescuers to resume evacuation efforts and a search for possible victims after the highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island erupted, triggered by monsoon rains.

    Mount Semeru in Lumajang district in East Java province spewed thick columns of ash more than 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) into the sky Sunday. Villages and nearby towns were blanketed with falling ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties have been reported.

    Hundreds of rescuers were deployed Monday in the worst-hit villages of Sumberwuluh and Supiturang, where houses and mosques were buried to their rooftops by tons of volcanic debris.

    Heavy rains had eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop the 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) volcano, causing an avalanche of blistering gas and lava down its slopes toward a nearby river. Searing gas raced down the sides of the mountain, smothering entire villages and destroying a bridge that had just been rebuilt after a powerful eruption last year.

    Semeru’s last major eruption was in December 2021, when it blew up with a fury that left 51 people dead in villages that were buried in layers of mud. Several hundred others suffered serious burns and the eruption forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. The government moved about 2,970 houses out of the danger zone, including from Sumberwuluh village.

    Lumajang district chief Thoriqul Haq said villagers who are still haunted by last year’s eruption fled on their own when they heard the mountain start to rumble early Sunday, so that “casualties could be avoided.”

    “They have learned an important lesson on how to avoid the danger of eruption,” he said while inspecting a damaged bridge in Kajar Kuning hamlet.

    He said nearly 2,000 people escaped to emergency shelters at several schools, but many were returned to their homes Monday to tend their livestock and protect their property.

    Increased volcanic activity Sunday afternoon prompted authorities to widen the danger zone to 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the crater, and scientists raised the volcano’s alert level to the highest, said Hendra Gunawan, who heads the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.

    People were advised to keep off the southeastern sector along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is in the path of the lava flow.

    Semeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted numerous times in the past 200 years. Still, as is the case with many of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, tens of thousands of people continue to live on its fertile slopes.

    Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines, and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

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  • Indonesia’s Mt. Semeru unleashes lava river in new eruption

    Indonesia’s Mt. Semeru unleashes lava river in new eruption

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    JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s highest volcano on its most densely populated island released searing gas clouds and rivers of lava Sunday in its latest eruption.

    Monsoon rains eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) Mount Semeru, causing the eruption, according to National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari.

    Several villages were blanketed with falling ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties have been reported. Several hundred residents, their faces smeared with volcanic dust and rain, fled to temporary shelters or left for other safe areas.

    Thick columns of ash were blasted more than 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) into the sky while searing gas and lava flowed down Semeru’s slopes toward a nearby river.

    Increased activities of the volcano on Sunday afternoon prompted authorities to widen the danger zone to 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the crater, said Hendra Gunawan, who heads the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.

    He said scientists raised the volcano’s alert level to the highest and people were advised to keep off the southeastern sector along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is in the path of the lava flow.

    Semeru’s last major eruption was in December last year, when it blew up with fury that left 51 people dead in villages that were buried in layers of mud. Several hundred others suffered serious burns and the eruption forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. The government moved about 2,970 houses out of the danger zone.

    Semeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted numerous times in the last 200 years. Still, as is the case with many of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, tens of thousands of people continue to live on its fertile slopes.

    Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines, and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

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