NEWCASTLE, Australia — An ambitious plan to build a massive solar farm in remote northern Australia that would transmit energy by submarine cable to Singapore is a step closer after the Australian government granted environmental approvals for the $19 billion project Wednesday.

Australian company Sun Cable plans to build a 12,400-hectare solar farm and transport electricity to the northern Australian city of Darwin via an 800-kilometer overhead transmission line, then on to large-scale industrial customers in Singapore through a 4,300-kilometer submarine cable.

The Australia-Asia PowerLink project aims to deliver up to six gigawatts of green electricity each year, which according to Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will “help turn Australia into a renewable energy superpower” and boost its economy.

“This massive project is a generation-defining piece of infrastructure,” Plibersek said in a written statement on Wednesday. “It will be the largest solar precinct in the world – and heralds Australia as the world leader in green energy.”

The project was initially backed by Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes. The plans were highlighted during a state visit by then Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as part of a ’Green Economy ’ agreement in 2022.

In January 2023, the project collapsed when Sun Cable entered voluntary administration due to a funding dispute between Forrest and Cannon-Brookes. By May of that year, a consortium led by Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures acquired the company, finalizing the takeover in September 2023.

SunCable Australia’s managing director Cameron Garnsworthy said it was pleased to have cleared a major regulatory hurdle “and will now focus its efforts on the next stage of planning to advance the project towards a Final Investment Decision targeted by 2027.”

The company said electricity supply would commence in the early 2030s.

Energy has been a politically charged issue for nearly two decades in Australia, which is reliant on coal and gas as well as royalties from exporting those fuels to help underpin its economy.

This reliance on fossil fuels has historically made it one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters on a per capita basis.

Australia’s main opposition party in June announced plans to build the country’s first nuclear power plants as early as 2035, ensuring the major parties will be divided on how Australia curbs its greenhouse gas emissions at elections due within a year.

The parties haven’t gone to an election with the same carbon reduction policies since 2007.

“Australians have a choice between a renewable energy transition that’s already underway creating jobs and driving down prices; or paying for an expensive nuclear fantasy that may never happen,” Plibersek said.
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Kabul, Afghanistan — The Taliban have barred United Nations-appointed special rapporteur Richard Bennett from entering Afghanistan, the administration’s spokesperson told local broadcaster Tolo, accusing the human rights watchdog of “spreading propaganda.”

Bennett was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2022 to monitor Afghanistan’s human rights situation after the Taliban took over the previous year.

Bennett, who has previously said the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls could amount to a crime against humanity, is based outside Afghanistan but has visited several times to research the situation.

The U.N. Human Rights Council did not immediately respond to request for comment. Bennett could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Taliban administration’s foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi told Reuters that Bennett “had been unable to acquire a travel visa to Afghanistan.”

“Even after repeatedly requesting Mr. Bennett to adhere to professionalism during work … it was decided that … his reports are based on prejudices and anecdotes detrimental to interests of Afghanistan and the Afghan people,” Balkhi said.

Taliban administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has previously said the Taliban respect women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law and local customs. He told Tolo that Bennett would not be allowed to come to Afghanistan, a rare public barring of an individual foreign official.

“Mr. Bennett’s travel to Afghanistan has been prohibited because he was assigned to spread propaganda in Afghanistan… He used to exaggerate minor issues and propagate them,” Mujahid said, according to Tolo.

Three years into their rule after foreign forces withdrew, the Taliban have not been formally recognized by any foreign government.

Foreign officials, including Washington, have said the path towards recognition is stuck until the Taliban changes course on women’s rights, having barred most girls over the age of 12 from schools and universities, banning women from parks, and stopping most long-distance travel by women without a male guardian.

Afghanistan’s central bank assets have been frozen and many senior Taliban officials are subject to U.N. travel restrictions that require them to seek exemptions to enter other countries.

The U.N. has been trying to find a unified international approach to dealing with the Taliban. In June, top U.N. officials and envoys from up to 25 countries met the Taliban in Qatar, receiving criticism from human rights groups for not including Afghan women and civil society representatives at the meeting.

The U.N. mission to Afghanistan also operates from Kabul and monitors and reports on human rights issues.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia may shut down a portion of a coal-fired power plant near Jakarta to reduce air pollution affecting the city, a senior minister said Wednesday.

The country is looking at closing 2 gigawatts  of power capacity at the 4 GW Suralaya coal-fired power complex in Indonesia’s Banten province that is owned by state utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, said Luhut Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment, who oversees some commodity policies.

“(Shutting down Suralaya) is important for air pollution in Jakarta,” said Luhut, speaking at a solar power conference. “We are working on that and we will announce soon.”

PLN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PLN operates eight units at the Suralaya power complex west of Jakarta, with the oldest unit in operation since the 1980s.

The Suralaya plants are some of the main sources of electricity for Jakarta, but they have also been blamed for high air pollution levels in the city of 10 million.

Jakarta residents have complained of toxic air from chronic traffic, industrial smoke and coal-fired power plants. Some of them launched and won a civil lawsuit in 2021 demanding the government take action to control air pollution.

Rachmat Kaimuddin, a deputy maritime minister, said on the sidelines of the conference that discussions on cost calculations and other details for the close-down of some of Suralaya’s units were underway.

While Indonesia is considering shutting some units at Suralaya, PLN is adding capacity there as well.

Through its joint venture with Indonesian firm Barito Pacific, named PT Indo Raya Tenaga, PLN is developing 2 GW of more modern coal-fired capacity at Suralaya to provide power for Java and Bali.

The new power capacity will be operational by the end of August, state news agency Antara reported last week.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — A flood of Chinese products into Indonesia has hit local manufacturers hard, prompting the government to look for ways to placate domestic producers while avoiding angering the country’s biggest trading partner.

Garment makers — both home-based piecework producers and factories — have appealed for help as they lose market share to low-cost apparel and textiles from China. A surge of products bought online has added to the problem.

A protest by workers in Jakarta prompted Indonesian Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan to announce in July that the government will impose import tariffs of up to 200% on some products from China, particularly textiles, clothing, footwear, electronics, ceramics and cosmetics, to try to protect local businesses and prevent layoffs.

“The United States can impose a 200% tariff on imported ceramics or clothes, so we can do it as well,” Zulkifli said, to ensure micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and industries “survive and thrive.”

But China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade exceeding $127 billion in 2023. Imposing higher tariffs could prompt Chinese manufacturers to invest in more in factories in Indonesia, but could also backfire, leading Beijing to retaliate. As a result, the government announced in July that it was setting up a task force to monitor and handle problems related to certain imports.

It’s an urgent matter, Hasan said, given the flood of imported products that has caused closures of textile factories and mass layoffs. From January to July 2024, at least 12 textile factories shut down operations, causing more than 12,000 workers to lose their jobs, according to the Nusantara Trade Union Confederation.

In Bandung district in Indonesia’s West Java province — an area famous for textiles such as batiks, handwoven fabrics and silks — imports of Chinese products have left thousands of workers idle and without regular incomes, said Neng Wati, a manager at manufacturing company Asnur Konveksi.

“Now they take turns. The number of workers stays the same, but the work is divided up and not all get some. Some of them have been off for two weeks, some of them haven’t gotten work for a month,” Wati said.

That’s a hard blow coming after the slow days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many workers were shifted to e-commerce to make ends meet, said Nandi Herdiaman, head of a local organization of small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs. Only 60% of the 8,000 members of the association kept working after the pandemic.

Now, the biggest challenge is cheap imports from China. In the past two months, output from home-based industries has fallen by 70%, the industry organization says.

The uptick in imports of Chinese products is partly seen as the result of trade friction between the U.S. and China, which has led to increased American tariffs on Chinese goods. But it also reflects rising trade within Asia as the region implements various free trade pacts, as well as weakening demand in Western markets for Chinese exports.

Industry groups in Thailand have also expressed increasing concern about an influx of cheap products from China, which they say have greatly hurt sales by domestic producers who are unable to compete.

In what it called an urgent measure, the Thai government imposed a 7% value-added tax on all imported products, a change from the previous rule that only collected taxes on imported products that cost more than 1,500 baht ($44). The policy is only in effect from July until December this year to give the government time to study the issue before a longer-term solution can be applied.

In December, Indonesia issued a regulation to tighten monitoring of more than 3,000 imported goods, including food ingredients, electronics and chemicals. But the regulation was reversed after domestic industry said it hindered the flow of imported materials needed for local production, and the government began considering steep tariff hikes instead.

While smaller manufacturers have suffered the greatest setbacks, big factories are also hurting.

Jany Suhertan, managing director of PT Eksonindo Multi Product Industry, which makes clothing and accessories like backpacks and handbags in West Java, wants the government to raise import duties on finished goods from China but not on raw materials needed to make products in Indonesia.

Nearly half of the materials his company uses are from China.

“I don’t agree with imposing (higher tariffs) on raw products, since the government should protect the supply chain. If it is not secure, it will impact production,” Suhertan said.
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Beijing — Rising unemployment in China is pushing millions of college graduates into a tough bargain, with some forced to accept low-paying work or even subsist on their parents’ pensions, a plight that has created a new working class of “rotten-tail kids.”

The phrase has become a social media buzzword this year, drawing parallels to the catchword “rotten-tail buildings” for the tens of millions of unfinished homes that have plagued China’s economy since 2021.

A record number of college graduates this year are hunting for jobs in a labor market depressed by COVID-19-induced disruptions as well as regulatory crackdowns on the country’s finance, tech and education sectors.

The jobless rate for the roughly 100 million Chinese youth people ages 16-24 crept above 20% for the first time in April last year. When it hit an all-time high of 21.3% in June 2023, officials abruptly suspended the data series to reassess how numbers were compiled.

One year on, youth unemployment remains a headache, with the reconfigured jobless rate spiking to a 2024 high of 17.1% in July, as 11.79 million college students graduated this summer in an economy still weighed down by its real estate crisis.

President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that finding jobs for young people remains a top priority. The government has called for more channels for the youth to access potential employers, such as job fairs, and has rolled out supportive business policies to help boost hiring.

“For many Chinese college graduates, better job prospects, upward social mobility, a sunnier life outlook, all things once promised by a college degree, have increasingly become elusive,” said Yun Zhou, assistant professor of sociology, University of Michigan.

Some jobless young people have returned to their hometown to be “full-time children,” relying on their parents’ retirement pensions and savings.

Even those with postgraduate degrees haven’t been spared.

After spending years climbing China’s ultra-competitive academic ladder, “rotten-tail kids” are discovering that their qualifications are failing to secure them jobs in a bleak economy.

Their options are limited. Either they cut their expectations for top-paying jobs or find any job to make ends meet. Some have also turned to crime.

Zephyr Cao obtained a master’s degree from the prestigious China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing last year.

Now 27, and back in his home province of Hebei, Cao has stopped seeking full-time work after lower-than-expected wages made him question the value of his education.

“If I worked for three or four years after my undergraduate studies, my salary would probably be similar to what I get now with a master’s degree,” Cao said.

Cao said he was considering pursuing a Ph.D. in hopes his prospects would improve in a few years.

Amada Chen, a recent graduate from Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, quit her sales job at a state-owned enterprise last week after just one month.

She blamed her decision on the toxic work culture and her boss’s unrealistic expectations. For the first 15 days of her probation, she was also getting just 60 yuan ($8.40) a day despite having to work 12 hours daily.

“I cried every day for a week,” she said.

Chen had wanted to become a quality inspector or a researcher, jobs she thought would match her skills as a traditional Chinese medicine major.

But over 130 job application letters later, she was offered mostly sales or e-commerce-related positions.

Chen said she was reconsidering her career path altogether and might turn to modeling.

Joblessness among college graduates is not without precedent.

In 1999, China dramatically expanded the enrolment capacity of universities in a bid to produce a better-educated workforce to drive its fast-growing economy.

But the supply of graduates kept exceeding jobs, with authorities expressing concern in 2007 over job availability, an issue that receded but never fully faded as more young people armed with degrees entered the market.

The outlook is uncertain even when a student’s major aligns with market needs.

Shou Chen finished her third year at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications this year majoring in artificial intelligence.

However, Chen has yet to secure an internship after more than a dozen applications and remains pessimistic about the job market.

“It may be worse,” she said. “After all, there will be more and more people (in this field).”

Supply of tertiary students will exceed demand from 2024 through 2037, after which the effects of falling fertility rates will kick in and sharply narrow the gap, according to a study published in June by China Higher Education Research, a journal under the education ministry.

New college graduates will likely peak at around 18 million in 2034, it said.
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Bangkok — Ethnic and resistance forces in Myanmar have completely blocked a key trade route to China, halting cross-border commerce and further damaging Myanmar’s already struggling economy.

The Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road is considered the most strategically important road in the country’s northern Shan State.

Formerly known as the “Burma Road,” locals commonly call it the “pearl necklace,” as it connects Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay with the Chinese border. The string of pearls of trade towns already captured by rebel forces include Nawnghkio, Kyaukme, Lashio, Hsenwi, Kutkai and Muse near China’s southern border of Yunan province.

Lway Yay Oo, spokeswoman for the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, told VOA that right now “there are battles all along the trade route.” That has increasingly been the case, she said, since the second phase of operation 1027 began several weeks ago.

The TNLA is part of the “Three Brotherhood Alliance,” along with the Arakan Army, AA and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA.

The first phase of the 1027 rebel offensive, which is named after the date it began, began on October 27, 2023.

The recent capture of several key towns along the trade route in a relatively short span of time has been widely seen as a potential turning point in the resistance as rebels look to cement control and further loosen the grip of junta forces the region.

The military government isn’t giving in easily, however, with intense battles along the route making trade nearly impossible.

“The TNLA and joint forces control the entire border trade route with the cities of Kutkai, Lashio, Kyaukme and Hsipaw, except for Muse,” Lway Yay Oo added. “Although we are prepared to keep businesses operating, we’ve had to stop border trade due to fierce fighting.”

Myanmar’s trade crisis deepens

The ongoing conflict and capture of key trading towns is already having an impact.

“Myanmar’s trade sector depends mostly on border trade,” said one Yangon-based businessman, who requested anonymity due to security reasons during a phone interview with VOA. “Air trade is very expensive now, and maritime trade takes a long time, so we must rely on border trade routes.”

With main trade routes closed, businesses are looking to find alternate routes.

“Trade flows are slower than they should be, and we are spending more on transportation, leading to further losses,” the man said. There is also an impact on consumers as the ripple effect of higher transportation costs, currency fluctuations and slower trade spreads to the general population.

“When these things happen, consumers also suffer,” he said, adding that right now “with demand so low, our revenue has dropped by about 50%.”

Earlier in June, the World Bank downgraded Myanmar’s economic growth forecast to just 1% for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, citing the intensifying conflict, labor shortages and a depreciating currency as key challenges. And that was just as the second phase of operation 1027 was beginning.

Impacting the junta

According to the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics, the border trade value between Myanmar and China totaled US$416.867 million in the first two months of the current financial year 2024-2025, which began on April 1.

It is a significant decline from the $640.43 million recorded during the same period last year, and a decrease of $223.564 million.

So far, for its part, Myanmar’s military rulers are playing down the impact the conflict is having.

“Despite the challenges posed by recent conflicts, we continue to facilitate trade with our neighboring countries, especially China,” a representative from Myanmar’s Ministry of Commerce said in June, according to state media. The ministry has not commented on the impact fighting has had on the economy since then.

Opposition forces disagree and say the success of the resistance has significantly weakened the junta’s ability to manage the economy, including trade.

“The revolutionary forces have grown stronger militarily and now control more territory,” said Min Zayar Oo, the NUG Deputy Minister of Planning, Finance, and Investment, in an interview with VOA.

Min Zayar Oo added that part of this is because of the junta’s mismanagement.

“Stability and clear policy are essential for business, but the military council has failed to provide this,” he said.

Commodity prices are soaring due to inflation and recent efforts by the junta, such as printing new currency notes, have only worsened the economic situation, he adds.

“Cross-border trade routes are disrupted, foreign currency is scarce, and the junta is struggling to provide basic services. The economic front, like the military front, is already collapsing,” he said.

The economic downturn is also impacting military funding, former army Major Naung Yoe told VOA in a telephone interview.

“No matter how much the junta increases the military spending budget, if the country doesn’t have foreign currency, the military spending will also be affected,” he said.

Border trade stalls, Kyat at record low

As fighting continues and trade stalls and the value of Myanmar’s currency the Kyat plummets, many business owners are hoping a resumption of stability will come soon.

“Every day that the fighting continues, our businesses suffer,” one medium-sized entrepreneur based in Yangon told VOA, who requested anonymity for security reasons. “We rely on cross-border trade, and with the current situation, it feels as though we have been cut off from the rest of the world.”

In late June, the Kyat hit a record low in foreign exchange markets, exacerbating the financial crisis faced by many in the country.

“We are struggling to keep our operations afloat,” another entrepreneur noted. “The depreciation of the kyat is making imports prohibitively expensive, and we cannot raise prices without losing customers.”

As the conflict rages on, the future of Myanmar’s economy remains uncertain, with many calling for an urgent resolution to restore stability and revive trade. “We need peace to rebuild our businesses and our country,” the Yangon based entrepreneur added. “Without it, we are all at risk.”
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Dhaka, Bangladesh — Since student-led opposition protests led Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and flee Bangladesh on August 5, religious minorities say their communities have suffered violent attacks in the power vacuum.  

Bangladesh is around 90% Muslim, with Christians and Buddhists making up most of the rest of the population. According to Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council head Oikya Parishad, four people who belonged to the minority community were killed between August 5 and 8, following the deposition of Sheikh Hasina’s government. 

Parishad’s group estimates there have been more than 200 incidents where temples, religious crematoriums and other places of worship have also been vandalized and attacked by mobs. 

The Bangladesh interim government insists reports of violence against minorities are exaggerated and often fake. The interim government also says whatever violence is happening is political, not sectarian.

Widespread violence largely subsided following the swearing-in of the interim government on August 8, minorities say the fear of persecution still looms over them during this time of political unrest. 

The motive of other attacks can be more difficult to discern. According to local media reports, on August 5 the house of a famous musician Rahul Anand in the capital Dhaka was attacked and vandalized. The assailants threw the family out, ransacked their home and set it on fire along with a large number of musical instruments that Rahul had made and collected. 

However Rahul, his wife and his wife’s business partner later posted on Facebook that the attack on Rahul’s house was not motivated by religious or communal reasons. 

For many, including Shravasti Bandopadhyay, a student of Mass communication and Journalism in Dhaka University, it has been difficult to tell who is out to hurt or help them. 

In a Facebook post shared by her teacher Kaberi Gayen at Dhaka University, Bandopadhyay wrote that she has had to abandon her home, staying with neighbors and sleeping in different places.

“I can’t make up my mind about what to think about my fellow countrymen as one the one hand,  I’m dying in fear of death, because some of them had come to my house and threatened me , on the other hand there are others who took me to a safe place and still protecting me.”

Finding justice for victims

Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser of the interim government, last week met with minority community representatives and said the government is focused on providing justice for all people, regardless of their faith, in remarks published by the Bangladesh news agency. 

“If there is justice, who will not get justice, tell me? Who of any religion, any caste, any community won’t get it?  Does the law say that these communities will go to this court, those communities will go to another court? Who has the power to discriminate here?” he said. 

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised concerns over the reported attacks on minorities and said via a post on X last week that he had spoken to Yunus, who pledged “protection, safety and security” of minorities in the country.

The Indian government has set up a committee to monitor the India-Bangladesh border situation, reported Indian news media, NDTV. The committee will liaise with the authorities of Bangladesh regarding the security of the Indians staying there and the security of the minorities in Bangladesh.

Human rights activist Noor Khan Lytton told VOA that while it’s clear minorities have been under attack since the Sheikh Hasina government fell, political parties and social groups have stood up for targeted communities. 

“We hope this kind of attack will not happen in the future again,” he said. 

The General Secretary of the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council Rana Dasgupta told VOA that although violence against minorities appears to have waned in recent days, there is still the matter of bringing those responsible to justice.

“In all the attacks on minorities in our country, we have seen a culture of impunity. Whether the new administration can come out of that culture of impunity remains to be seen” he said.

Dasgupta also said that people who had been displaced must also be given back the land they own.
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Bangkok — The brother of a prominent Cambodian activist has been arrested by local authorities, according to the activist and a Thai human rights group.

Hay Vannith, a Cambodian scholar, was arrested and detained at the Poi Pet border in northwestern Cambodia after trying to travel to Thailand, Hay Vanna told VOA.

Hay Vanna, a Cambodian political activist who lives in Japan, said Vannith was detained Friday.

“My brother has nothing to do with my political advocacy,’’ he told VOA on Monday night. ‘’He’s a scholar, public servant and a professor at National Institute of Public Health. I call for his immediate release. It’s more than 48 hours since we lost contact on August 16.”  

Vannith, 28, studied in the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar and as a graduate student at the Food Science Institute at Kansas State University. He works as a civil servant at the Ministry of Health in Cambodia.  

The Bangkok-based human rights group Manushya Foundation also reported the detention.

Hay Vanna is the Japan director for the Cambodia National Rescue Movement, whose supporters include former members of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party. The party, often known as the CNRP, was declared illegal in 2017 by Cambodia’s Supreme Court after it was convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government. It had been the sole credible challenger to the ruling CPP in the 2013 national elections and had performed better-than-expected in 2017 local elections, before being removed from electoral politics.

Vanna has continued to work for the Cambodia National Recue Movement in Japan. His overseas activities caught the attention of Cambodian authorities.  

In remarks broadcast on state TV on July 23, former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for nearly 40 years until last year, warned Vanna over his advocacy.  

“After posting a message on my social media, this person by the name of Hay Vanna who lives in Japan, commented on the so-called ceasing of the four Cambodian provinces to others,’’ Hun Sen said. ‘’I didn’t respond. Instead, I blocked him right away. But you shouldn’t be confused that you have family members here in Cambodia. And they, who are living here, must not be arrogant. After hearing his message … You must stop, or else.”

Hun Sen’s comments were in connection to the Cambodian-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle, a project that promotes economic trade, but activists have voiced criticism, asserting Cambodia risks ceding land to Vietnam.

Fearing reprisal, this prompted Vanna’s family to leave Cambodia in early August.

“My entire [family] escaped Cambodia on August 4. Arrived in Japan on August 5. [My brother] intended to leave on August 16, [but] got caught,” Vanna told VOA.  

Vanna said he remains in contact with the Cambodian authorities over his brother’s detention. A photo of Hay Vannith in detention and his arrest record documents have been seen by VOA.

Vanna Hay says the authorities are accusing Vannith of trying to “overthrow the government.”

“He is forced to provide untrue information,” Vanna said. “I call on the Hun Sen and Hun Manet authoritarian regime to be more mature and dare to play politics with me directly, not my siblings. He is innocent.”

Emilie Palamy Pradichit, the founder of Manuysha Foundation, condemned the detention, saying Vannith was “unjustly targeted.”

“We strongly condemn the arbitrary detention of Vannith Hay by Cambodian authorities,’’ she told VOA. ‘’He is being unjustly targeted simply because of his brother’s courageous advocacy for democracy.”

“The arbitrary detention of Vannith Hay violates Cambodia’s commitments under international law and its duty to uphold the rights to liberty, security, and freedom from discrimination. We call for the immediate release of Vannith Hay and urge authorities to cease using family members as pawns in their attempts to silence dissent.”  

The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has dominated Cambodian politics for more than 40 years. Dissidents, outspoken critics and political rivals to the CPP regularly have encountered trouble with the law and legal system.  

Both the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and the Candlelight Party have been banned from running in elections in the past decade, while political figures have been targeted.  

In March 2023, Cambodia jailed former CNRP leader Kem Sokha for 27 years on charges he had faced for years, that he conspired with foreign powers to overthrow the Cambodian government.

Hun Manet, Hun Sen’s eldest son, succeeded his father as prime minister almost one year ago.

Additionally, on Sunday, at least 20 political and human right activists were arrested in Phnom Penh after protests had been planned to oppose the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle project, according to local media.

Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence spokesman Chhum Socheat said the arrests marked “another defeat” against “extremist opposition groups overseas” who attempt to “overthrow the government by non-democratic means.”

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet insists no Cambodian territory will be lost in the three-nation development initiative, Radio Free Asia reported.

Protests against the project took place in South Korea, Canada and Australia on August 11. Vanna organized a rally in Japan, attracting some 700 people, he said.

Phil Robertson, the Director for Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates, says the Cambodian government is “paranoid” and using any suspicions to conduct a broad crackdown on dissidents.

“The government’s paranoia and mistrust of the Cambodian people was on full display on Sunday as scores of police manned checkpoints and conducted arrests on civil society groups, opposition politicians and anyone else who came under the security forces’ suspicious eye,” Robertson told VOA.

“To justify all this, PM Hun Manet and his administration are manufacturing the fictional, so-called “color revolution” narrative again as the bogeyman to justify any sorts of human rights violations they commit as part of this broad crackdown. The people and the country are worse off because of it,” Robertson added.

VOA has requested comment from the Cambodian government but have yet to receive a reply.
…

Beijing — Approvals for new coal-fired power plants in China dropped sharply in the first half of this year, according to an analysis released Tuesday, after a flurry of permits in the previous two years raised concern about the government’s commitment to limiting climate change.

A review of project documents by Greenpeace East Asia found that 14 new coal plants were approved from January to June with a total capacity of 10.3 gigawatts, down 80% from 50.4 gigawatts in the first half of last year.

Authorities approved 90.7 gigawatts in 2022 and 106.4 gigawatts in 2023, a surge that raised alarm among climate experts. China leads the world in solar and wind power installations but the government has said that coal plants are still needed for periods of peak demand because wind and solar power are less reliable. While China’s grid gives priority to greener sources of energy, experts worry that it won’t be easy for China to wean itself off coal once the new capacity is built.

“We may now be seeing a turning point,” Gao Yuhe, the project lead for Greenpeace East Asia, said in a statement. “One question remains here. Are Chinese provinces slowing down coal approvals because they’ve already approved so many coal projects …? Or are these the last gasps of coal power in an energy transition that has seen coal become increasingly impractical? Only time can tell.”

Greenpeace released the analysis with the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, a government-affiliated think tank.

Government weather experts have warned that the country should prepare for more extreme weather events because of climate change. The Ministry of Water Resources said at the end of July that major rivers had had 25 significant floods this year, the most since record-keeping started in 1998.

In Hunan province, authorities said Monday that the death toll had risen to 50 people with 15 others still missing, as the search continued after landslides and flash flooding related to a tropical storm hit parts of southern China late last month.

While seasonal flooding is common in southern China, the historically drier northeast and bordering areas in North Korea also are beginning to get heavier rain. Flooding cut power and communication to most of Jianchang county in the region’s Liaoning province on Tuesday and trapped more than 300 people, with evacuation taking place by helicopter, state media said.

The government has issued a slew of documents in recent months on reducing carbon emissions and accelerating the shift to renewable energy.

The National Energy Administration unveiled a three-year plan in June to retrofit existing coal power units and equip newly built ones with low-carbon technologies. Another government plan released this month to “accelerate the construction of a new power system” took aim at bottlenecks and other challenges, including how to expand transmission of renewable energy.

Gao said that China should focus its resources on better connecting wind and solar power to the grid rather than building more coal power plants. Coal provides more than 60% of the country’s electricity.

“Coal plays a foundation role in China’s energy security,” Li Fulong, an official of National Energy Administration, said at a news conference in June.

China is also looking to nuclear power as it seeks to meet its carbon reduction targets. The State Council, China’s Cabinet, greenlighted five nuclear power projects on Monday with 11 units and a total cost of 200 billion yuan ($28 billion). 
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KATHMANDU, Nepal — Hundreds of LGBTQ+ people and their supporters rallied in Nepal’s capital Tuesday during the annual Pride parade, the first since gay couples were able to register same-sex marriages officially in the Himalayan nation.

The event brought together the sexual minority community and its supporters in Kathmandu during the Gai Jatra festival. A government minister, diplomats and officials participated in the rally, which began at the city’s tourist hub and went around its main streets.

“Gai Jatra festival is a festival that is a long tradition that has been carried for years, and we all are here to help preserve and continue the tradition, and as a sexual minority are doing our part to save the tradition. We also celebrate the day as a Pride parade,” said Bhumika Shrestha, a gay rights activist who was at the parade.

The Gai Jatra festival is celebrated to remember family members who have passed away during the year but has long had colorful parades that brought in sexual minorities.

After years of struggle, gay couples were able to register same-sex marriages for the first time in November 2023 following a Supreme Court order. Rights activists had long sought to amend laws and end provisions that limited marriage to heterosexual couples.

Nepal has undergone a transformation since a court decision in 2007 asked the government to make changes in favor of LGBTQ+ people. People who do not identify as female or male are now able to choose “third gender” on their passports and other government documents. The 2015 constitution also states that there can be no discrimination based on sexual orientation.
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Islamabad — Taliban morality police in Afghanistan said Tuesday that they had “seized and destroyed” more than 21,000 musical instruments over the past year as part of a crackdown on what they called anti-Islam practices.

Officials of the so-called Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice discussed their “annual performance” at a news conference in Kabul a day after Taliban authorities publicly staged a mass burning of hundreds of musical instruments in the nearby northern Parwan province.

The provincial moral police department also urged residents not to use musical instruments at weddings and other celebrations.

Speaking in the Afghan capital Tuesday, ministry officials claimed to have destroyed thousands of “immoral films” and blocked many more “from use on personal computers” nationwide “as part of societal reforms” being undertaken by the Taliban administration. They did not elaborate on the nature of the films.

The ministry said without discussing specifics that it had “successfully implemented 90% of reforms across audio, visual, and print media” in Afghanistan.

Free media advocacy groups and local journalists say that Taliban leaders have significantly curtailed press freedom and access to information in the country.

The Islamist Taliban revived the Ministry of Vice and Virtue to police public morality after retaking control of the war-shattered, impoverished South Asian nation three years ago when all U.S.-led Western troops withdrew from Afghanistan after their involvement in the war for almost two decades.

The Taliban ministry has introduced strict guidelines for local media professionals, binding female presenters and guests to comply with an “Islamic” dress code on air requiring that only their eyes be visible.

Women are prohibited from working on national radio and television stations, and dramas featuring female performers are banned. De facto Afghan authorities have also enforced strict “gender-based segregation” in workplaces at large.

Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the minister of vice and virtue, was quoted by state media as saying on Monday that the Taliban “are determined to implement Islamic Sharia and no one’s pressure is acceptable in this regard.”

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said last month that the Taliban’s morality police were contributing to “a climate of fear and intimidation” among the people and identified the ministry as the leading violator of human rights in the Taliban government, which is not recognized by any country.

The U.N. report noted that the activities of the de facto ministry have had “negative impacts on the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms”… in Afghanistan, with a discriminatory and disproportionate impact on women.”

The morality police department has banned women’s beauty salons, prohibited females from traveling without a male guardian beyond 78 kilometers from their home limits, and banned them from visiting parks, gyms, and public baths.

The Taliban have also banned school education for girls beyond the sixth grade, and many women are not allowed to work in public as well as private organizations, including U.N agencies.

The U.N. Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization said in its new report last week that Taliban authorities had “deliberately deprived” 1.4 million girls of schooling since returning to power, putting at risk the future of an entire generation and making Afghanistan the only country in the world to deny girls ages 12 and older access to education.

Taliban officials dismiss criticism of their governance as interference in the country’s internal matters and defend their policies, saying they are aligned with Afghan culture and Islamic law.

During the previous Taliban rule in Kabul from 1996 to 2001, the Ministry of Vice and Virtue garnered notoriety for its arbitrary abuses. Particularly, women and girls were banned entirely from education and employment at that time.
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NEW DELHI — India and Malaysia will seek to expand economic ties and strengthen cooperation on defense and security, the leaders of the two countries said on Tuesday. 

This came during Malaysian Prime Minster Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to India, his first since he took office in 2022, where he met with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. 

Recently, Anwar has sought to move closer to China, with whom New Delhi has been locked in a long-running border dispute. A key part of Modi’s foreign policy has been to deepen trade and ties with other Asian countries, including Malaysia, to push back against growing Chinese influence in the region. 

Both heads of state addressed reporters after signing a slew of new agreements, including digital technologies, tourism and traditional medicine. Anwar said the two countries have enjoyed good relations for years, adding that “we realized this must be strengthened in a multitude of areas,” including construction, agriculture and military collaborations to safeguard both nations’ borders. 

Modi said the two had discussed cooperation in the defense sector, and that trade and investment between the two countries should grow while they collaborate on new industries like the production of semiconductors. He also stressed how the partnership between the two countries had grown, taking on “new momentum and energy” over the years. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the Malaysian prime minister received a ceremonial welcome at India’s presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan before paying his respects to Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi at the Rajghat memorial site in New Delhi. 

Bilateral trade between the two countries is strong at $20 billion. Malaysia is India’s 16th largest trading partner, while India is among the top ten largest trading partners for Malaysia. There are around 70 Malaysian companies operating in India and more than 150 Indian ones in Malaysia, where Indians comprise about 7% of the country’s population.
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HONG KONG — Hong Kong journalists rated the city’s press freedom lower than ever in an annual survey released on Tuesday, citing fears of sweeping national security laws.

Published every year since 2013 by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI), the Press Freedom Index ranks the city’s media environment on a zero-to-100 scale — 100 being a perfect score. 

It is based on a poll of moe than 250 working journalists and around 1,000 members of the public.

The rating this year among journalists dropped to a record low of 25, down 0.7 points from last year and 17 points from the survey’s launch.

More than 90% of the surveyed journalists said the city’s press freedom was “significantly” impacted by a new security law enacted in March which punishes crimes like espionage and foreign interference.

Colloquially known as Article 23, it was the second such law enacted for the financial hub, following one imposed by Beijing in 2020 after Hong Kong saw massive, and at times violent, pro-democracy protests.

Ninety-four percent of journalists also cited the prosecution of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-shuttered Chinese news tabloid Apple Daily, under the first law as being “highly damaging” to press freedom.

Other concerns included the disappearance of South China Morning Post reporter Minnie Chan in Beijing.

HKJA had previously released a statement saying it was “very concerned” about Chan, an award-winning journalist, who has been unreachable since attending a security forum in Beijing last year.

For the public, the overall rating was 42.2 — largely stable after the last major drop from 45 in 2018 to 41.9 in 2019.

“This discrepancy may be explained by the relatively less heated discussion around Article 23 compared to the 2020 National Security Law,” HKJA said in a statement.

However, journalists are “more cognizant of potentially running afoul of the new crimes created by Article 23 when reporting.”

China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that Hong Kong’s security laws “target a very small number of individuals who severely endanger national security, not law-abiding media reporters.”

Since the laws’ implementation, “press freedom in Hong Kong has been better protected under a safe and stable environment in accordance with the law,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.

The index’s publication came weeks after HKJA’s newly elected chairperson Selina Cheng was fired by the Wall Street Journal after she took up the new role.

The Journal’s parent company Dow Jones declined to comment on Cheng’s case but said at the time it “continues to be a fierce and vocal advocate for press freedom.”
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Bangkok — Politicians in Thailand must reform the judiciary to prevent interventions that have the country “going around in circles,” a recently banned opposition figurehead said, after two big rulings that dissolved his party and dismissed a prime minister.

Pita Limjaroenrat, whose now defunct Move Forward Party was blocked from forming a government last year, said a 10-year political ban would not weaken his resolve to lead Thailand and start major reforms, including stopping independent institutions from being politicized.

Thailand has been trapped in a tumultuous two-decade cycle of coups and court rulings that have toppled multiple governments, as part of a power struggle between popularly elected parties and an influential establishment with powerful connections in the military and key institutions.

“It’s back to square one and nothing has been achieved for the people,” Pita told Reuters, reflecting on upheaval that saw Move Forward dissolved and Srettha Thavisin dismissed as premier in the space of a week, both by the same court.

“We confuse movement with progress,” he said. “It’s almost like we’re going around in circles and we’re thinking we’re going somewhere but actually we’re going nowhere.”

His remarks came as 134 Thai academics and legal experts in a statement criticized the court, which they said overstepped its jurisdiction and damaged the public’s trust in legal and democratic systems.

Pita will return to Harvard University as a democracy fellow following his ban over his party’s plan to amend a law that punishes royal insults with up to 15 years in jail, a campaign the court said undermined Thailand’s constitutional monarchy.

His predicament provides a snapshot of Thailand’s cutthroat politics, with Pita hugely popular yet forced onto the sidelines, despite leading Move Forward to a surprise election victory that gave a ringing public endorsement of its progressive, anti-establishment platform.

Pita, 43, has polled consistently as the most preferred prime minister choice in Thailand, long after army-appointed senators thwarted his bid to become premier.

He and 43 colleagues could be subject of another pending case over the campaign on the lese-majeste law and face lifetime political bans by the anti-corruption commission, which has a remit that goes beyond graft cases.

He said the issue shows elected politicians need to reform institutions such as the commission and courts to guarantee their independence and accountability to the public.

“Penalize someone because of differing ethical standards or morality standards – that’s a bit too much for our democracy,” he said.

Though the two verdicts shook Thai politics and sparked concerns about the outlook for its stagnating economy, the status quo remains after casualties of both cases quickly regrouped within two days of the decisions.

Move Forward formed a new vehicle, the People’s Party, while the Pheu Thai Party-led coalition rallied behind Srettha’s replacement, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who won the overwhelming backing of parliament on Friday and was endorsed by the king on Sunday.

Paetongtarn is daughter of divisive political heavyweight and billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist parties have been worst hit by Thailand’s tumult. He is indicted for an alleged royal insult, though his lawyer on Monday said witness testimony will not start until July 2025.

Pita is planning a memoir of his roller-coaster ride and to give speeches and seminars on Southeast Asian affairs, hoping to return to politics stronger.

“I’ll be waiting for my time, you know I still very much want to bring about change in Thailand,” he said.

“I’ll be accumulating knowledge and experiences so when I return to be the leader of the country, I’ll be a better person then.”
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Manila — The Philippines on Tuesday said China’s coast guard was not helping efforts to build confidence in the South China Sea, after accusing it of ramming and damaging its vessels in the latest in a succession of altercations.

The Philippines urged China to refrain from aggressive actions and adhere to international law, said Alexander Lopez, a spokesperson for the country’s maritime council, an inter-ministerial body that formulates policy on the South China Sea.

The latest incident took place near the Sabina Shoal, as the Philippines conducted a resupply mission to two islands it occupies in the Spratly chain, parts of which are also contested by China, Vietnam and Malaysia.

China has challenged Manila’s account and said the Philippine coast guard acted in an “unprofessional and dangerous” manner.

Lopez at a briefing at the presidential palace said the council expressed “serious concern over the deliberate harassment and infringement by China” on the Philippines sovereignty and sovereign rights in the South China Sea.

China’s actions have drawn condemnation from treaty ally, the United States which described them as “dangerous” and “reckless,” while Japan through its embassy in Manila also expressed serious concern while reiterating its call for peaceful settlement of disputes.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, deploying an armada of coast guard vessels to protect what it considers its territory, hundreds of kilometers off its mainland. An international arbitral tribunal has said Beijing’s claim has no basis under international law.

The Philippines has been testing China’s resolve with increased coast guard activity in disputed areas of its exclusive economic zone, including resupply missions that have angered China, which sees the moves as deliberate provocations.
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BERLIN — Two German warships await orders from Berlin, their commander said, to determine whether next month they will be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait, drawing a rebuke from Beijing.

While the U.S. and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the strait since 2002.

China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180-km (110 miles) wide waterway that divides the two sides and is part of the South China Sea. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

The Taiwan Strait is a major trade route through which about half of global container ships pass, and both the United States and Taiwan say it’s an international waterway.

“The decision has not been taken yet,” the commander of the naval task group, Rear Admiral Axel Schulz, told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding the weather would play a role.

“We are showing our flag here to demonstrate that we stand by our partners and friends, our commitment to the rules-based order, the peaceful solution of territorial conflicts and free and secure shipping lanes.”

Asked about the German ships’ potential passage, China’s foreign ministry said Taiwan was an internal Chinese affair and the key to stability was opposing Taiwan’s independence.

“China has always been opposed to the undermining of China’s territorial sovereignty and security under the guise of freedom of navigation,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.

Before their possible passage through the strait next month, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main plan to call in Tokyo on Tuesday. They will also make stops in South Korea and the Philippines.

They will take part in exercises in the region with France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and the United States.

Over the last four years, Beijing’s military has increased its activities in the strait.

Expanding military presence

Sailings through the waterway by foreign warships, especially American, are regularly condemned by Beijing, which says such missions “undermine peace and stability” in the region.

Germany, for whom both China and Taiwan, with its huge chip industry, are major trade partners, has joined other Western nations in expanding its military presence in the region as their alarm has grown over Beijing’s territorial ambitions.

In 2021, a German warship sailed through the South China Sea, for the first time in almost 20 years.

Last month, the Luftwaffe deployed fighter jets to Japan for the first joint drills there.

Schulz said he was not planning for any specific security measures should the warships under his command cross the Taiwan Strait, calling it a “normal passage” similar to sailing through the English Channel or the North Sea.

However, he anticipated any passage would be closely monitored.

“I expect the Chinese navy and potentially the coastguard or maritime militia to escort us,” he said, describing this as common practice.
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Islamabad — Flash floods triggered by monsoon rains swept through streets in southern Pakistan and blocked a key highway in the north, officials said Monday, as the death toll from rain-related incidents rose to 209 since July 1.

Fourteen people died across Punjab province in the past 24 hours, said Irfan Ali, an official at the provincial disaster management authority. Most of the other deaths have occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces.

Pakistan’s annual monsoon season runs from July through September. Scientists and weather forecasters have blamed climate change for heavier rains in recent years. In 2022, climate-induced downpours inundated one-third of the country, killing 1,739 people and causing $30 billion in damage.

Zaheer Ahmed Babar, a senior official with the Pakistan Meteorological Department, said the latest spell of heavy rains will continue this week in parts of the country. The downpour in southern Pakistan has flooded streets in Sukkur district of Sindh province.

Authorities said efforts were underway to clear the key Karakorum highway in the north of landslides. Flash floods have also damaged some bridges in the north, disrupting traffic.

The government advised tourists to avoid affected areas.

More than 2,200 homes have been damaged across Pakistan since July 1, when the monsoon rains began, the National Disaster Management Authority said.

Neighboring Afghanistan also has had rains and flood-related damage since May, with more than 80 people killed. On Sunday, three people died when their vehicle was washed away by floods in Ghazni, according to provincial police. 
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan reported Monday that at least three soldiers had been killed in clashes with militants attempting to cross over from Afghanistan.   

A military statement said that Pakistani forces had intercepted the predawn infiltration attempt in the Bajaur border district and “effectively engaged and thwarted” it. The ensuing intense gunfight also killed five assailants and wounded several others, it added.  

The reported militant casualties could not be immediately confirmed by independent sources, nor were there any claims of responsibility for the attempted incursion. 

However, the military blamed fugitive militants associated with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a globally designated terrorist organization, for carrying out the attack from their bases on the Afghan side of the border.  

“Pakistan has consistently been asking [the] interim Afghan government to ensure effective border management on their side of the border,” the military stated, referring to the neighboring country’s de facto Taliban rulers.  

The statement renewed Islamabad’s call for Kabul to “fulfill its obligations and deny the use of Afghan soil by Khwarij (official reference to TTP in local language) for perpetuating acts of terrorism against Pakistan.” 

Taliban authorities deny the Pakistani allegations, asserting they have secured and “firmly” control the entire Afghan territory. 

“Afghanistan is not a threat to any country,” Taliban-run state TV quoted Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy government spokesperson, as saying Monday.  

“The Islamic Emirate has made it clear that it does not allow the territory of Afghanistan to be used against the security of any other nation,” Fitrat stated, using the official title of their government, which is not recognized by any country. 

Pakistan has reported a dramatic surge in TTP attacks in the country since the Taliban reclaimed power in Kabul three years ago. The violence has killed and wounded several thousand civilians and security forces, according to official and independent reports.  

The rise in militancy has strained relations between the two countries, sharing a nearly 2,600-kilometer (1,616-mile) border.  

The United Nations has backed Islamabad’s complaints and, in a security assessment released last month, described TTP as “the largest terrorist group” in Afghanistan.  

The report stated that up to 6,500 TTP militants operate on Afghan soil with the growing support of the Taliban government to launch cross-border attacks in Pakistan. The U.N. noted that the militants are being equipped and trained in al-Qaida-run training camps in Afghanistan.  

The de facto Kabul authorities dismissed the U.N. findings as propaganda at the time.
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Seoul, South Korea — Just two years ago, Zane Han couldn’t have imagined his life today: living in Seoul and writing whatever he wants about the North Korean government, which once tried to control his every move. 

Han, a broad-shouldered, energetic man approaching middle age, has lived a dizzying life. As a teenager, he survived the 1990s famine; later, he attended an elite Pyongyang university, where bribes were often necessary to get passing grades. Eventually, he worked for a North Korean construction company in Russia, where brutal conditions led him to seek freedom. 

Now, sitting in an office in central Seoul where he works as a journalist, Han struggles to describe what it feels like to have gone from the rigid outdatedness of North Korea to the vibrant modernity that now surrounds him. 

“It’s like experiencing a time machine,” he told VOA in an interview. 

Han is one of a strikingly small number of North Koreans to escape in recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea tightened border controls, intensifying a crackdown that began when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took power in 2011.  

Forced labor 

Han’s escape began in the far-western Russian city of St. Petersburg, where he worked grueling 15-hour days as a migrant laborer — pouring concrete, installing rebar, and laying bricks at a series of construction sites. 

Han said he and his North Korean colleagues were given only two days off each year. Confined to temporary container housing on the construction sites, they were rarely allowed to leave — usually about once a year. 

At first, Han didn’t see himself as a slave. It wasn’t until he overheard his Russian coworkers referring to him as a servant of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — the pawn of a mafia boss — that the reality of his situation began to sink in. It was a moment of self-awareness and what Han describes as the first shock that set him on the path to escape.  

“Of course, I [knew] we have no freedom inside North Korea,” he said, “But I didn’t imagine that North Korea’s image [in the outside world] was so poor.”  

Still, he pushed on, trying to make the most of what he had been assured was a rare opportunity to leave North Korea and send money back to his family in Pyongyang.  

Dramatic escape 

The breaking point came during the COVID-19 pandemic when North Korean authorities demanded an even larger cut of overseas workers’ earnings. Han suddenly found himself keeping just $100 to $150 a month, half of what he had been earning before. 

He’d had enough. The next time Han was allowed to leave the construction site, he called the United Nations refugee agency office in Moscow, using a cellphone that he had purchased from an Uzbek coworker for about $30.  

The U.N. office helped facilitate his escape, first to Moscow then through a third country. Within 20 hours of fleeing the construction site, he had landed in South Korea, one of just 67 North Koreans to reach the South in 2022. 

New pattern 

Han’s escape reflects an important trend, according to Lee Shin-wha, who until earlier this month was South Korea’s ambassador for North Korean human rights.  

Like Han, most recent escapees were already outside North Korea — mostly living in China and Russia working as diplomats, businessmen, or migrant laborers, said Lee. Some had lived abroad for 10 or 20 years before fleeing Pyongyang’s control, she said.  

According to a U.N. report this year, around 100,000 North Korean workers remain overseas, earning money for the North Korean government despite U.N. Security Council resolutions that prohibit such activity.  

Activists have long tried to reach overseas North Korean workers, who despite being in tightly controlled environments, might have some access to outside information.  

But Lee also emphasized the plight of those trapped inside North Korea, especially since the pandemic, when North Korea cracked down on unauthorized border crossings.  

“Ordinary North Koreans’ chances [of escape], I think, are almost zero,” she said. “That is my big concern.” 

Speaking out 

Han, whose entire family remains in North Korea, is also motivated by those who cannot leave. 

After spending three months at Hanawon, a government-run facility that helps defectors adjust to life in the South, Han settled in Seoul and now writes for NK Insider, an English language website that aims to elevate North Korean voices. The project, funded by the U.S.-based Human Rights Foundation, launched earlier this year. 

Using his contacts back home, Han has written stories that help uncover rights abuses, such as sexual violence at North Korean prison camps, as well as a new system to incentivize North Koreans to spy on their neighbors.  

Though Han speaks with urgency — almost an evangelistic zeal — he is also cautious, using a pseudonym in part to protect his family, which he has not spoken with, two years after defecting.  

Despite the challenges, Han sees his work as crucial for revealing the true conditions inside North Korea. 

“Nobody can imagine what the situation [in North Korea] is like,” he said. “[But] I was there — I know.” 
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A group of North Korean defectors in Seoul has started a news website aimed at exposing North Korean human rights abuses. They also want to provide a more nuanced perspective about their homeland, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from the South Korean capital. Video: Kim Hyungjin
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JAKARTA — Outgoing Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday appointed new cabinet ministers with close ties to his successor Prabowo Subianto, in a move aimed at smoothing the transition of power two months ahead of his departure.

Defense Minister Prabowo won the February election by a massive margin with the help of Widodo’s huge popularity and political clout, in what is widely interpreted as a quid-pro-quo that will ensure the outgoing leader maintains influence after a decade in charge.

Jokowi, as the president is widely known, appointed new ministers for energy, investment and law, as well as the heads of three agencies, with most of the new appointments close to Prabowo, having supported his candidacy or campaigned for him.

Bahlil Lahadalia, the investment minister, will move to the post of energy minister, while former ambassador to the United States Rosan Roeslani will be the new investment minister.

Bahlil said he would prioritize working on incentives to promote efforts to reactivate idle energy wells and reverse the decline in Indonesia’s crude oil output.

Jokowi also named Dadan Hindayana, a professor at Bogor Agricultural University, to head the newly created National Nutrition Agency and oversee Prabowo’s signature free school meals program, which will cost $4.56 billion in its first year.

Dadan, a member of Prabowo’s campaign teams, was quoted telling local media the meals program would start on Jan. 2 next year.

Jokowi also appointed Prabowo’s spokesperson Hasan Nasbi as head of the presidential communications body.

The changes “are needed to prepare and support the government transition so it works well, smooth, and effectively,” said Ari Dwipayana, a presidential palace official, in a statement.

The appointments come during a transition period in which Prabowo has been racing to consolidate power ahead of his presidency, including months of talks that led to him securing a parliamentary majority late last week, with support from parties that had backed his election rival.

Prabowo, 72, a former rival who lost two presidential elections to Jokowi, has also been seeking to boost his profile overseas, with trips to Russia, Qatar, Japan and China since his victory. On Monday, he was in Australia.

Ujang Komarudin, a politics expert at Al-Azhar Indonesia University, said the appointments announced on Monday were “accommodation politics” that could see Jokowi’s loyalists given posts in Prabowo’s cabinet once he takes office.

Jokowi’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, will be vice president, after playing a key role in Prabowo’s campaign as his running mate. It is unclear what future role, if any, Jokowi might play in Indonesia having served the maximum two terms allowed as president.

 
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CHENNAI — A group of Indian port workers’ unions has called for a strike from Aug. 28 to demand immediate settlement of pay revisions and pension benefits, according to a note signed by its members. 

A strike by India’s port workers could exacerbate the existing congestion issues at Asian and European ports, leading to further delayed shipments, which have a global impact on trade and commerce. 

The country’s shipping ministry formed a bipartite wage negotiation committee in March 2021, and the workers submitted their demands six months later, ahead of the expiration of the previous agreement in December of that year, according to the note. 

Although the wage negotiation committee met seven times, it failed to meet the port workers’ demands, the note said. 

The workers’ group agreed to call for a strike after a meeting this month in Thoothukudi, a port city in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.  

The government and port management should consider demands such as pay scale revisions, payment of arrears and protection of exiting benefits to help avoid the strike, the workers’ group said in the note. 

India’s federal shipping ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. 

The annual cargo handling capacity of major Indian ports such as Chennai, Cochin and Mumbai totaled 1.62 billion metric tons, according to the shipping ministry. 

In the fiscal year to March 31, 2024, India exported goods worth $437 billion, with imports estimated at $677 billion. 

 
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