From the outside, skyscrapers still loom over Hong Kong as a reflection of the bustling global financial center of Asia. Within the city, however, much has changed since 1997. July 1 marks the 24th anniversary of the moment Hong Kong reverted from a British colony back to Chinese rule. Changes to the financial hub were gradual at first, governed under the idea of “one country, two systems.”  Hong Kong native Anna Cheung still keeps the newspaper with the handover on the front page.  “It was like a landmark time at that moment,” remembered Cheung, a biology professor and pro-democracy activist now living in the United States. She said some Hong Kongers in the ’90s were hopeful “that maybe it is a good chance for Hong Kong to belong to China now and bring back the democratic value and all of the universal value[s] back to China.”  Instead of Hong Kong’s democratic values influencing China, however, the opposite has happened, said many pro-democracy activists. Cheung saw the biggest changes over the past year, after China implemented the National Security Law in response to the 2019 protests against an extradition bill, leading to months of confrontation between pro-democracy activists and police.  “I felt that Beijing was losing face, and they need[ed] to fix it quickly,” Cheung said.    Recent changes in Hong KongUnder the National Security Law, there have been mass arrests of people involved in anti-government activities.Pro-democracy activists holding a copy of Apple Daily newspaper and banner protest outside a court in Hong Kong, Saturday, June 19, 2021, to demand to release political prisoners.“The biggest change that I’ve seen is the self-censorship,” said U.S.-based Hong Kong pro-democracy exile Frances Hui. “People start[ed] to delete their posts on social media, the posts that they have made about the movement, about China — anything that is deemed to be criticizing the government or supporting the movement,” Hui added. Activists say Hong Kong residents now need to be careful about what they say and what they do.“They always say they don’t know where is the red line. When are you crossing the red line? So when they couldn’t say those words, we are here to say it. When they couldn’t do the things, we are doing [them abroad],” said Cheung about the work exiles are doing in other continents.Exiled Hong KongersFor pro-democracy activists, whether to stay or leave Hong Kong has become one of the most common debates with one another and within themselves. “The people who decided to stay in Hong Kong, they believe that existence is resistance and that by being there, they are protecting Hong Kong,” Hui said.Hui was attending college in the U.S. during the 2019 protests but had been active in social movements years earlier when she was in high school in Hong Kong as well as in the U.S. as a university student. When she returned to Hong Kong in 2020, she did not think she would be a target but soon realized the National Security Law changed everything.  “I didn’t want to leave, and thinking the fact that if I leave right now, I will never be able to go back home. That is, like, [torture] for me,” said Hui of her mindset when she decided to leave Hong Kong.   When Hui heard news of people she knew being arrested by Hong Kong police, “there is a sense of guilt, like a strong sense of guilt, because I left,” Hui said.U.S. resident Joey Siu of the human rights group Hong Kong Watch described her experience when she was last in the territory.“I found myself very frequently followed and also my personal information and so on and so forth are being exposed by the pro-Beijing groups,” she said.Former Hong Kong legislator Baggio Leung also made the decision to leave.“I feel that I need to leave, or else I would be in danger,” Leung said.    Another exile is a man who calls himself “Chuilao” to protect his identity. He arrived in the United States without documentation by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. He stayed in immigration detention before receiving asylum in the U.S.  “Other countries are willing to accept us Hong Kongers. We should leave [Hong Kong].  If a ship is sinking and we have life rafts, we will, of course, get on them. There’s no point in sinking with the ship,” Chuilao said.   Hong Kong pro-democracy movement abroad“Seems like there is nothing that we can do to stop [the changes], but all of us are trying our best to at least slow down the process,” Hui said.People gather for a rally to mark the second anniversary of the protests in Hong Kong, in Union Square in New York City, June 12, 2021.Hui and other exiled pro-democracy activists say they can do more for their movement abroad with the hope that they can save the Hong Kong they knew, unique among cities in China.  “We belong to the land of Hong Kong, and we are Hong Kongers, and we should have the ownership of that land,” Hui said.      Some exiles have given up on Hong Kong as a physical place and are starting new lives in a country that shares their ideals.  “Don’t miss Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is not a place. It’s a person,” said Chuilao, who would like to join the U.S. Marines. “If your position in the battlefield is lost, you can regain it, but when a people die, you can’t bring them back.”  Stella Hsu, Songlin Zhang and Suli Yi contributed to this report.
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July 1 marks the 24th anniversary of the moment when Hong Kong reverted from a British colony back to Chinese rule. While changes to the financial hub were gradual at first, China has been quickly reshaping Hong Kong in the past year. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has more.Camera: Songlin Zhang, Suli Yi 
Produced by: Elizabeth Lee 
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China said on Thursday it had filed a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization challenging Australia’s anti-dumping measures on a range of goods, marking further escalation in tensions between the two countries.The suit — regarding Chinese exports of train wheels, wind turbines and stainless-steel sinks — comes a week after Canberra challenged Beijing’s crippling tariffs on Australian wine exports.It aims to “safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson Gao Feng said at a regular briefing Thursday.“We hope that Australia will take concrete actions to correct its wrong practices, avoid distortions in the trade of related products, and bring such trade back to the normal track as soon as possible.”Australia has imposed tariffs on Chinese-built train wheels and wind turbines since 2019.Trade Minister Dan Tehan told reporters in Canberra that Australia will “vigorously defend the duties that we have put in place.”He said although Canberra wanted a “constructive engagement with the Chinese government” the measures were implemented “after a rigorous analysis.”“Why they’ve taken this action now is a question that you would have to ask China,” he added.China in November announced tariffs of up to 218% on Australian wines, which it said were being “dumped” into the Chinese market at subsidized prices.The crackdown virtually closed what had been Australia’s biggest overseas wine market, with sales falling from Aus$1.1 billion (US$ 840 million) to just Aus$20 million, according to official figures.Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that his government would respond forcefully to countries trying to use “economic coercion” against Australia.The decision last week “to defend Australia’s winemakers” came six months after Canberra lodged a separate protest at the WTO over tariffs on Australian barley, exports of which to China had been worth around U.S. $1 billion a year.Beijing has imposed tough economic sanctions on a range of Australian products in recent months, ranging from high tariffs to disruptive practices across several agricultural sectors and tourism.On Monday, Gao said China “opposes the abuse of trade remedy measures, which not only damages the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, but also hurts the solemnness and authority of WTO rules.”But the tit-for-tat measures are widely seen in Canberra as punishment for pushing back against Beijing’s operations to impose influence in Australia, rejecting Chinese investment in sensitive areas and publicly calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.Earlier this month a summit of the G-7 advanced economies echoed Australia’s call for a tougher stand against China’s trade practices and its more assertive stance globally.The leaders’ meeting ended with the announcement of U.S.-led plans to counter China’s trillion-dollar “Belt and Road Initiative,” the hallmark of its efforts to extend economic influence around the world.
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An Indonesian court jailed hardline Islamic cleric Rizieq Shihab on Thursday for four years for spreading false information in a video saying he was healthy despite having tested positive for COVID-19.The verdict comes after an eight-month jail term handed last month to Rizieq, the spiritual leader of the outlawed Islamic Defender’s Front (FPI), for breaching coronavirus curbs over several mass events, including his daughter’s wedding, which was attended by thousands.Prosecutors had called for a six-year sentence in the latest case after Rizieq was charged over the video, posted on the YouTube channel of the hospital where he was being treated for the coronavirus.In a streamed broadcast, Judge Khadwanto said Rizieq was guilty of “announcing false information and purposefully causing confusion for the public.”Indonesia passed the 2 million mark in coronavirus cases on Monday, as authorities announced a tightening of restrictions to contain the spread in the world’s fourth most populous country. Deaths from COVID-19 now total 55,594.Hundreds of Rizieq’s supporters had gathered outside the East Jakarta court amid heavy guard by police and video footage showed some scuffles.Shortly after being sentenced, Rizieq told the court he rejected its ruling and would contest it.Rizieq’s supporters and legal team have said the cases are politically motivated efforts to silence the cleric, who has a large and vocal following in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.He returned last year from self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia, where he had fled while facing charges of pornography and insulting the state ideology, both later dropped.The FPI had become politically influential in recent years and was among several Islamic groups that staged rallies in 2016 to bring down Jakarta’s then governor, a Christian, on charges of blasphemy.The mass protests stirred deep anxiety within the government of President Joko Widodo about a perceived Islamist threat.  
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Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, the son of pro-democracy icons who helped topple dictator Ferdinand Marcos and had troublesome ties with China, died Thursday, a cousin and public officials said. He was 61.Former Sen. Bam Aquino said he was heartbroken by the death of his cousin. “He gave his all for the Filipino, he did not leave anything,” he said.Details of his death were not immediately made public by members of his family, who were seen rushing to a metropolitan Manila hospital in the morning. But one of his former Cabinet official, Rogelio Singson, said Aquino had been undergoing dialysis and was preparing for a kidney transplant.Condolences poured in from Philippine politicians, the Catholic church and others.Aquino, who served as president from 2010-16, was the heir to a political legacy of a family that has been regarded as a bulwark against authoritarianism in the Philippines.His father, former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated in 1983 while under military custody at the Manila international airport, which now bears his name. His mother, Corazon Aquino, led the 1986 “people power” revolt that ousted Marcos. The army-backed uprising became a harbinger of popular revolts against authoritarian regimes worldwide.Although a scion of a wealthy land-owning political clan in the northern Philippines, Aquino, who was fondly called Noynoy or Pinoy by many Filipinos and had an image as an incorruptible politician, battled poverty and frowned over excesses by the country’s elite families and powerful politicians. One of his first orders that lingered throughout his presidency was to ban the use of sirens in vehicles that carried VIPs through Manila’s notorious traffic jams.Turbulent ties with ChinaAquino, whose family went into exile in the U.S. during Marcos’s rule, had turbulent ties with China as president. After China effectively seized a disputed shoal in 2012 following a tense standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships in the South China Sea, Aquino authorized the filing of a complaint before an international arbitration tribunal that questioned the validity of China’s sweeping claims in the strategic waterway on historical grounds.“We do not wish to increase tensions with anyone, but we must let the world know that we are ready to protect what is ours,” Aquino said in his State of the Nation Address to Congress in 2011.The Philippines largely won. China refused to join in the arbitration and dismissed as a sham the tribunal’s 2016 ruling, which invalidated Beijing’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea based on a 1982 U.N. maritime treaty and continues to defy it. Aquino’s legal challenge and the eventual ruling plunged the relations between Beijing and Manila to an all-time low.Born in 1960 as the third of five children, Aquino never married and had no children. An economics graduate, Aquino engaged in businesses before entering politics.’I accept the challenge to lead this fight’During the politically tumultuous presidency of her mother, Aquino was wounded by gunfire during a failed 1987 coup attempt by rebel soldiers, who attempted to lay siege on the heavily guarded Malacanang presidential palace. Aquino was in a car with companions on the way back to the palace in Manila when they came under heavy gunfire. Three of his security escorts were killed and Aquino was severely wounded, with one bullet remaining embedded in his neck all his life because it was too dangerous to take out by surgery.He won a seat in the powerful House of Representatives in 1998, where he served until 2007, then successfully ran for a Senate seat. Aquino announced his presidential campaign in September 2009 by saying he was answering the call of the people to continue his mother’s legacy. She had died just weeks earlier of colon cancer.“I accept the responsibility of continuing our fight for the people. I accept the challenge to lead this fight,” he said.He won by a large margin on a promise to fight corruption and poverty, but his victory was also seen as a protest vote due to exasperation with the corruption scandals that rocked the presidency of his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was detained for nearly five years and was released after the Supreme Court cleared her of the charges. Arroyo later successfully returned to political power, at one time serving as House speaker under Aquino’s successor, current President Rodrigo Duterte.Public expectations of Aquino were high and while he moved against corruption — detaining Arroyo and three powerful senators over corruption allegations — and initiated anti-poverty programs, the problems in his disaster-prone Southeast Asian nation, which remained wracked by decades-old communist and Muslim insurgencies, remained daunting.Under Aquino, the government expanded a program that provides cash dole-outs to the poorest of the poor in exchange for commitments by parents to ensure their children would attend classes and receive government health care. Big business, meanwhile, benefited from government partnership deals that allowed them to finance major infrastructure projects such as highways and airports for long-term gain.One of the legacies of the Aquino presidency was the signing of a 2014 peace deal with the largest Muslim separatist rebel group in the country, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in 2014 that eased decades of sporadic fighting in the country’s south, homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.Political opponents have pounded on what they say were his administration’s bungling of a number of crises, including a Manila bus hostage crisis that ended with the shooting deaths of eight Chinese tourists from Hong Kong by a disgruntled police officer, and delays in recovery efforts in the massively disastrous aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.Aquino came under heavy criticism in 2015 for his absence in a solemn ceremony at a Manila airbase, where air force aircraft brought the remains of police commandos who had been killed by Muslim insurgents while staging a covert raid that killed one of Asia’s most-wanted terror suspects. Aquino proceeded with a scheduled inauguration of a car manufacturing plant and was criticized by his opponents for his lack of empathy amid a national mourning for the deaths of the anti-terror commandos.Aquino retained high approval ratings when his single, six-year term ended in 2016. But the rise of the populist Duterte, whose deadly crackdown on illegal drugs has killed thousands of mostly petty drug suspects, was a reality check on the extent of public dissatisfaction and perceived failures during Aquino’s reformist rule.Aquino campaigned against Duterte, warning he could be a looming dictator and could set back the democracy and economic momentum achieved in his own term.After his presidency, Aquino stayed away from politics and the public eye. His former Public Works Secretary, Singson, told DZMM radio that Aquino told him in a cellphone message on June 3 that he was undergoing dialysis and was preparing for angioplasty, a delicate medical procedure to treat a blocked artery ahead of a possible kidney transplant.Singson said he would pray for the ailing presidency and for a successful treatment. “That was the last time,” said Singson, a respected former member of Aquino’s Cabinet who, like the late president, had an image as an incorruptible official in an Asian nation long plagued by corruption scandals.Aquino is survived by his four sisters.  
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Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy newspaper closed its doors just before midnight Wednesday, ending 26 years of journalism.The company’s remaining board members decided to close the paper earlier that day, following the arrests last week of five Apple Daily executives under the city’s national security law. Authorities arrested one of its editorial writers Wednesday.With Hong Kong’s security bureau freezing the company’s remaining financial assets and the paper’s founder and owner, Jimmy Lai, in jail, the board had little choice but to fold.An official statement from Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company, said it decided to shut down operations right after midnight “in view of staff members’ safety.” Earlier this week, the publisher had said it would run until Saturday.Mark Simon, Lai’s assistant, told VOA that the company could not pay staff and vendors after Hong Kong froze the newspaper’s access to accounts.”There is an order from the secretary of security (John Lee). Basically, no money, no news,” Simon said earlier this week.A spokesperson for Hong Kong’s security bureau told VOA that it will not comment on active legal proceedings but that “endangering national security is a very serious crime.”Lam claps backAt a media briefing this week, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam denied that the Apple Daily case was an attack on press freedom, saying, “What we are dealing with is neither a news outlet problem nor a news reporting problem. It’s a suspicious act of endangering national security.”Lam added: “And don’t try to accuse the Hong Kong authorities of using the national security law as a tool to suppress the media or to stifle the freedom of expression.”Hong Kong has said the paper violated national security law, but it has not yet provided evidence or identified the articles it is referring to, Simon said.”They’re telling us that you’re guilty of something, but they’re not telling you what you’re guilty of,” he told VOA’s Mandarin service.At least 50 staff members resigned Monday afternoon in anticipation of the imminent closure. The following day, the newspaper’s English news website closed, after just over one year in operation. The official website was due to go offline midnight Wednesday.Last-day livestreamsOutside the Next Digital offices in the district of Tseung Kwan O on Wednesday, supporters gathered and shouted slogans of support. With their smartphone flashlights shining, Apple Daily employees waved to supporters from balconies as the clock ticked to midnight.But inside the offices, livestreams showed staff frantically preparing the final edition, which had an estimated million-copy print run. Others were visibly upset, reminiscing with colleagues, as dozens of journalists and photographers documented the company’s final moments.One of the staff members, a senior journalist identified only as “Lee,” told VOA earlier this week that no matter what happened, he “would work until the last minute of Apple Daily.”Journalists at the newspaper have long anticipated that Apple Daily would end.After the company offices were raided in August 2020 following the arrest of Lai, the paper’s editor-in-chief, Ryan Law, reassured staff and encouraged them to keep reporting if another police raid happened.Law was one of five executives arrested on June 17, as police raided the offices for the second time in a year. All five are accused of foreign collusion. Law remains in custody.Lai is currently serving time in jail following his involvement in protests in 2019. The 73-year-old media tycoon is also awaiting trial over foreign collusion charges under the national security law and could face life imprisonment.Lai founded Apple Daily as a tabloid in 1995. The paper later focused on politics, but with its open criticism of China, sponsors became cautious, leading to a decline in advertising revenue.”The closure of Apple Daily marks the end of a vibrant and free era in Hong Kong,” Emily Lau, a former Democratic Party leader, told VOA.While residents have greater safety and freedom than some countries, “the departure of Apple Daily makes many people feel loss of press freedom and freedom of expression,” Lau said.But Lau insisted that despite the closure of the pro-democracy newspaper, “press freedom is not dead.”Political analyst Joseph Cheng, who moved to Australia from Hong Kong, told VOA that it’s a sad day for the pro-democracy movement and Hong Kong as a whole.”It’s a sad day for Hong Kong as well because the way that the newspaper had ceased publication certainly means that there is not much freedom of the media in the territory,” he said.Business as usual?Cheng added that Hong Kong’s reputation as an international financial center could also be damaged.”Now we certainly see freedom of information flow, rule of law … have been much eroded, and so it will affect the very livelihood and very functioning of Hong Kong,” Cheng said.Protesters used to carry copies of Apple Daily during rallies on important dates in Hong Kong, and the newspaper was a “companion, a spiritual and moral supporting force” Cheng said.One of those dates was July 1, which marked Britain’s returning of the territory to China in 1997. In 2021, the date will mark a year since the national security law went into effect.For the first time in 18 years, the pro-democracy Civil Human Rights Front canceled the annual rally to commemorate July 1. The group’s convener, Figo Chan, was jailed in May over an illegal protest in 2019.Beijing passed the national security law after anti-government protests in 2019. The legislation bans acts that authorities deem subversion, secession or foreign collusion.The U.S. State Department earlier this week said it was “deeply concerned by the Hong King authorities’ selective use of the national security law.”Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that the charges “are purely politically motivated” and the law is being used as a “tool to suppress independent media.”Hong Kong lawmaker Holden Chow said the arrests of the Apple Daily executives were a “proper legal enforcement” and not an attempt to suppress press freedom.Chow described national security as of “paramount importance” in the region, telling VOA, “As always, Hong Kong people will continue to enjoy freedom of press guaranteed under Basic Law as long as they don’t go beyond the law.”But media rights groups condemned Hong Kong’s actions Wednesday.Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, tweeted, “Chinese authorities seem intent not just to limit press freedom in Hong Kong, but to kill it outright.”#Chinese authorities seem intent not just to limit press freedom in #HongKong, but to kill it outright. Forcing #AppleDaily@appledaily_hk to shutter lays bare Hong Kong people’s dwindling access to accurate information and the growing restrictions on their basic rights. @hrwpic.twitter.com/Csdj0BRX9R— Sophie Richardson (@SophieHRW) June 23, 2021Others have a more hopeful outlook. The Taiwan-based lawyer and commentator Sang Pu notes that while the media environment is “very dark,” independent outlets still exist.”Does it mean there’s no free press in Hong Kong? Not necessarily. It’s 2021, and it’s a digital age. There are lot of online news media emerging, such as Stand News and Citizen News, and there are other popular news accounts on Facebook, on Twitter,” Sang Pu told VOA Mandarin.VOA Mandarin service’s Stella Hsu and Peggy Chang contributed to this report.  
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The leader of Myanmar’s military junta on Wednesday attended an international conference in Moscow, an appearance that reflected Russia’s eagerness to develop ties with it despite international opprobrium.
The military in Myanmar ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, saying her party’s landslide victory in elections last November resulted from massive voter fraud. It has not produced credible evidence to back its claim.
Security forces have brutally suppressed widespread popular protests against the military takeover, killing hundreds of protesters and carrying out waves of arrests.
The junta’s leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, claimed in Wednesday’s speech at the conference organized by Russia’s Defense Ministry that it was trying to consolidate a democratic system in the country that has “degraded.”
On Tuesday, Min Aung Hlaing met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who hailed strong military cooperation between the countries.
“We pay special attention to this meeting as we see Myanmar as a time-tested strategic partner and a reliable ally in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region,” Shoigu said at the start of the meeting.
He added that “cooperation in the military and military-technical field is an important part of relations between Russia and Myanmar” and praised Min Aung Hlaing for strengthening the country’s military.
Shoigu said that Russia would work to expand ties with Myanmar based on “mutual understanding, respect and trust.”
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The Delta COVID-19 variant first identified in India has spread quickly around the world and is now hitting Indonesia. Southeast Asia’s largest country now looks at another peak as it hits the 2 million mark in confirmed cases. VOA’s Ghita Permatasari reports. Ahadian Utama  contributed to this reportCamera: Ahadian Utama
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The parent company of Hong Kong pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper announced Wednesday that it will shut down the publication this week. Next Digital, owns Apple Daily and is one of the largest media company in Hong Kong, released a statement saying the final print and online editions of Apple Daily will be published no later than Saturday, June 26, citing “the current circumstances prevailing in Hong Kong.” Local news outlets say the Apple Daily’s final print edition will come out as soon as Thursday.   Apple Daily and its 73-year-old publisher, Next Digital founder and owner Jimmy Lai, have been the target of Hong Kong authorities since China imposed a strict national security law last June in response to the massive and sometimes violent anti-government protests in 2019.   The newspaper’s offices were raided last August after Lai was arrested at his house on suspicion of foreign collusion.   The decision to shut down Apple Daily comes nearly a week after more than 500 police officers raided the newspaper’s offices and arrested its chief editor, Ryan Law, and four other executives with the newspaper and Next Digital. Authorities then froze $2.3 million of its assets, leaving the company unable to pay its staffers.   Law and Chief Executive Officer Cheung Kim-hung have been charged with colluding with a foreign country and have been denied bail.   Hong Kong authorities have cited dozens of articles published by Apple Daily it says violated the security law, which targets anyone authorities suspected of carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces.  Reports out of Hong Kong say another Apple Daily staffer was arrested Wednesday.  The staffer has been identified as the newspaper’s lead editorial writer and columnist.  Hong Kong police issued a report saying a 55-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to collude with a foreign country or foreign forces. Lai is currently serving a 14-month prison sentence for taking part in separate unauthorized assemblies in 2019. His assets in Next Digital were frozen by the government last month.    The announcement Wednesday of Apple Daily’s closure came as Tong Ying-kit, a 24-year-old Hong Kong man, became the first defendant to be tried under the city’s national security law. 
 
Tong is charged with terrorism and inciting secession for displaying a flag on his motorbike that read “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” a slogan popularized during the massive 2019 anti-government protests that prompted the new law. He faces life in prison if he is convicted. 
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A 24-year-old Hong Kong man Wednesday became the first defendant to be tried under the city’s nearly one-year-old national security law. Tong Ying-kit was arrested after he drove his motorbike into a group of police officers on July 1 last year, the day after Beijing imposed the sweeping, draconian law on the semi-autonomous city.  The former restaurant cook was charged with terrorism and inciting secession for displaying a flag on his motorbike that read “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” a slogan popularized during the massive 2019 anti-government protests that prompted the new law.   Hong Kong’s justice secretary has ordered Tong to be tried by a panel of three specially picked judges instead of facing an impartial jury, a move critics say erodes the  independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary.   Tong, who has been held without bail since his arrest, entered a not guilty plea at the start of Wednesday’s hearing.  He faces life in prison if he is convicted. Tong is also facing a separate charge of causing grievous bodily harm by dangerous driving, which carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years. Anyone believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted under the national security law. Dozens of pro-democracy politicians and activists have been arrested under the law since it took effect.   
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A growing network of crisis-defusing telephone hotlines between China and other Asian countries shows Beijing’s intent to strengthen those relations but does not resolve the wider disputes that could spark conflict, analysts believe. Officials in Beijing expect these phone connections to show “we are cooperating” but without policy changes that would calm its neighbors, said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. Most acts that anger other countries in disputed waterways are planned rather than sudden, he believes. “In actuality it doesn’t really reduce tension, because tension is most of the time deliberate,” Vuving said of Sino-Vietnamese relations. “China and Vietnam also take care to keep the tension below the threshold of an open conflict.”   The navy hotline will ensure Sino-Vietnamese goodwill until the next planned upset, analysts believe. Each side has angered the other over the past seven years by exploring for oil under or near disputed tracts of the South China Sea. Last year Vietnam protested to China over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat. “I think that they’re just being responsible to have a secure line of communications in case anything happens. It doesn’t mean relations are any better or worse,” said Jack Nguyen, partner at the business advisory firm Mazars in Ho Chi Minh City. On the Sino-Vietnamese relationship, he said, “I think overall it’s stable, as stable as it can be.” Beijing claims about 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, which is prized for fisheries and fossil fuel reserves. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam call parts of the sea their own, and Taiwan claims most of it. China is the most militarily advanced. Southeast Asian states resent China’s landfilling of small islets in the sea for military use and passing vessels through waters they call their own. China cites historical usage records to back its claims including in the exclusive economic zones of other states. Tokyo and Beijing contest parts of the East China Sea including a chain of uninhabited, Japanese-controlled islets. Hotlines are a common solution for China. Military hotlines “provide a way of communicating, which can improve dispute management and reduce the risk of conflict,” the state-monitored Chinese news website Global Times said on its website in 2018, quoting a research fellow from Beijing-based Tsinghua University. Chinese and Vietnamese navy chiefs agreed earlier this month to work towards setting up a hotline aimed at reducing risk of conflict over competing claims in the South China Sea. Foreign ministers from the two countries opened their own line in 2012 to discuss sea-related issues as needed.   Defense ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed in 2017 to set up a hotline for what China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency calls “quick response cooperation in emergency situations, especially in maritime operations.” A year later China and its former World War II rival Japan agreed to establish a hotline to discuss any strife at sea and another with India following a border standoff. Experts know of no occasion when the low-cost setups have muted a conflict and believe that China doesn’t pick up its hotlines at crucial moments.  “It’s always of extreme danger if you pick up the phone on China’s end,” said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. “If things go right, you’ve got nothing, but any miscommunication whatsoever, then you are the guy [held responsible] because you forgot to ignore the ring.” China prefers to work directly with countries, including through offers of aid and investment for poorer ones, to ease disputes, analysts say. They point to the Philippines as a case in point over the past four years. China has other communication channels with Vietnam particularly, including informal talks between ruling Communist parties, they add.Once-Distrusted China Pledges Millions More to Philippines

        Closer relations with a once-distrusted China gave the Philippines another boost this week as Beijing pledged a round of investment for the developing Southeast Asian country and new ideas for maritime security.When Chinese President Xi Jinping met Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte in China Tuesday, the host offered $73 million in economic and infrastructure aid, while nine Chinese companies signed letters of intent to explore $9.8 billion in business in the Philippines, Manila’s presidential…

“China and Vietnam actually never lacked the need in the past for an intentional setup of a special hotline for handling two-way South China Sea issues, because the platforms used by the Communist parties of China and Vietnam, as compared to other Southeast Asian countries’ channels, are very numerous,” said Huang Chung-ting, assistant research fellow with the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei. The recently established navy hotline is a “symbolic and emblematic move” that’s unlikely to produce a “substantive result,” he said. 
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Some families living in a jungle may be fearful of things going bump at night, but for one household in Thailand, the sight of an elephant rummaging through their kitchen was not a total shock.”It came to cook again,” wrote Kittichai Boodchan sarcastically in a caption to a Facebook video he shot over the weekend of an elephant nosing its way into his kitchen.Likely driven by the midnight munchies, the massive animal pokes its head into Kittichai’s kitchen in the early hours of Sunday, using its trunk to find food.At one point, it picks up a plastic bag of liquid, considers it briefly, and then sticks it in its mouth — before the video cuts out.Kittichai and his wife live near a national park in western Thailand, by a lake where wild elephants often bathe while roaming in the jungle.He was unperturbed by the mammoth mammal, recognizing it as a frequent visitor as it often wanders into homes in his village where it eats, leaves and shoots off back into the jungle.The elephant had actually destroyed their kitchen wall in May, he said, creating an open-air kitchen concept reminiscent of a drive-through window. This weekend, its sole task was to find food.Kittichai said a general rule of thumb in dealing with unwelcome visitors crashing is not to feed them.”When it doesn’t get food, it just leaves on its own,” he told AFP. “I am already used to it coming, so I was not so worried.”Wild elephants are a common sight in Thailand’s national parks and its surrounding areas, with farmers sometimes reporting incidents of their fruits and corn crops being eaten by a hungry herd. 
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A coalition of 41 countries is calling for access to internment camps in China’s Xinjiang region to check on the situation of an estimated one million Muslim Uyghurs who allegedly are being detained under abusive conditions. Canada issued the cross-regional joint statement at the U.N. Human Rights Council Tuesday. In her delivery, Ottawa’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Leslie Norton, stressed the urgency of getting to the bottom of this human rights situation. “Credible reports indicate that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang and that there is widespread surveillance disproportionately targeting Uyghurs and members of other minorities and restrictions on fundamental freedoms and Uyghur culture,” she said. “There are also reports of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, forced sterilization, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced separation of children from their parents by authorities.”  Norton urged China on behalf of the coalition to allow immediate, unfettered access to Xinjiang for independent observers, including the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. This follows a similar request made by rights chief Michelle Bachelet at the opening of the council session Monday.   “I continue to discuss with China modalities for a visit, including meaningful access, to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and hope this can be achieved this year, particularly as reports of serious human rights violations continue to emerge,” she said.  Beijing has described the detention camps as vocational centers aimed at stopping religious extremism and terrorist attacks.  FILE – A perimeter fence is constructed around what is officially known as a vocational skills education center in Dabancheng in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, Sept. 4, 2018.China said it welcomes a visit by the high commissioner to China, including Xinjiang — but on condition that it be a friendly visit and not a so-called “investigation” under the presumption of guilt. 
China also responded quite differently to the joint statement that demanded access to the camps in Xinjiang. Minister Jiang Duan simply ignored it. Instead, he conveyed his deep concern about the serious human rights violations suffered by indigenous people in Canada. His statement was supported by seven countries — Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, and Sri Lanka. “Historically, Canada robbed the indigenous people of their land, killed them, and eradicated their culture… We call for a thorough and impartial investigation into all cases where crimes were committed against the indigenous people, especially the children,” said Jiang Duan.The Canadian ambassador acknowledged that indigenous people still faced systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice, but added her government was working to right these wrongs. 
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Officials in Australia’s New South Wales state say a plague of mice that has been tormenting farmers for several months has now forced the evacuation of hundreds of inmates from a rural jail.  
 
New South Wales Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin said mice have done significant damage to the infrastructure at the Wellington Correctional Center, including gnawing through wires and ceiling panels.  
 
“The health, safety and well-being of staff and inmates is our number one priority, so it’s important for us to act now to carry out the vital remediation work,” he said.
 
Severin said up to 420 inmates and 200 staff from the jail will be moved to other facilities in the next few weeks.
 
The facility is in a rural area that has been battling a mouse plague for several months after recent heavy rains relieved the country’s worst drought in 50 years. The rain brought in one of the largest ever grain crops, but also provided ample food to the rapidly reproducing rodents. Australian media report that just one pair of mice can produce on average, up to 500 offspring in a season.
 
The mice have done millions of dollars in damage to crops, prompting the government last month to offer farmers the use of bromadiolone, a highly toxic mouse and rat poison currently banned in Australia. Some farmers and environmentalists have warned of the unintended consequences from its use to native animals.
 
The Reuters news service reports mice are believed to have arrived in Australia along with the first European settlers. They are well suited to the country’s often harsh climate. They can survive long periods of dry weather and when the weather turns, they thrive and rapidly reproduce as food and water becomes available.
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The Philippine president has threatened to order the arrest of Filipinos who refuse COVID-19 vaccination and told them to leave the country if they would not cooperate with efforts to end a public health emergency.President Rodrigo Duterte, who is known for his public outbursts and brash rhetoric, said in televised remarks Monday night that he has become exasperated with people who refuse to get immunized amid a health crisis then help spread the coronavirus.”Don’t get me wrong. There is a crisis being faced in this country. There is a national emergency. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, I’ll have you arrested and I’ll inject the vaccine in your butt,” Duterte said.”If you will not agree to be vaccinated, leave the Philippines. Go to India if you want or somewhere, to America,” he said, adding he would order village leaders to compile a list of defiant residents.Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra acknowledged on Tuesday that there was no Philippine law criminalizing refusal to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.  “I believe that the president merely used strong words to drive home the need for us to get vaccinated and reach herd immunity as soon as possible,” Guevarra said.A human rights lawyer, Edre Olalia, raised concerns over Duterte’s threat, saying the president could not order the arrest of anybody who has not clearly committed any crime.Duterte and his administration have faced criticism over a vaccination campaign that has been saddled with supply problems and public hesitancy. After repeated delays, vaccinations started in March, but many still opted to wait for Western vaccines, prompting some cities to offer snacks and store discounts to encourage people to get immunized with any vaccine.  Duterte blamed the problem on wealthy Western countries cornering vaccines for their own citizens, leaving poorer countries like the Philippines behind. Some officials said the bigger problem was inadequate vaccine supply more than public hesitancy.Duterte also walked back on an earlier remark that required people to wear plastic face shields over face masks only in hospitals as an added safeguard. After experts briefed him on the threat of more contagious coronavirus variants, Duterte declared it mandatory for people to continue wearing face shields indoors and outdoors.The Philippines is a COVID-19 hotspot in Asia, with more than 1.3 million cases and at least 23,749 deaths. 
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Family members of alleged Islamic State militants held in Syrian camps are urging the Australian government to repatriate dozens of its citizens.Kamalle Dabboussy’s Sydney-born daughter Mariam and her three young children are being held at the al-Roj refugee camp in north-east Syria. They are among about 60 Australians stranded there. The Australian government has said it was too dangerous for diplomatic staff to visit the region to try to bring them home. Dabboussy believes the security situation is stable enough for his daughter and grandchildren to be brought home, but he has warned that volatility in the region could return at any time. It is estimated that 10,000 suspected widows and children of former Islamic State fighters are among 70,000 people held in the al-Roj and al-Hawl detention camps, according to Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a U.S.-based foreign policy think tank, most are Iraqi and Syrian nationals. They were taken to the facilities after the jihadist group was defeated in 2019. Charities have said the camps are beset by violence, food shortages and a lack of medical care. There are concerns that women and children are at risk of exploitation. The United States and the European Union have warned that the camps could breed a new generation of militants. Dabboussy told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that his daughter and three grandchildren should be brought home. 
“Whatever you think of the women these children should not be in prison. These children should be in a safe environment at school getting on with their lives,” he said. “Every day they face dangers. Every day these children lose some of their childhood.” Mariam Dabboussy said she was tricked into traveling to Syria while on a family holiday to Turkey in 2015.  Her husband, Kaled Zahab, an Islamic State fighter, was killed in an airstrike on a terrorist training camp. She has said she was forced to remarry twice after his death. Germany and Finland have begun repatriating their citizens, allowing a total of five women and 18 children to return, according to reports. German media said three of the women were being investigated for allegations of belonging to the Islamic State and the Belgian government has just announced it will soon bring its citizens home.  Kamalle Dabboussy has urged Australia to follow their lead. He has written about his experiences trying to secure his daughter’s return in a book called “A Father’s Plea.” The government in Canberra has no comment on Mariam Dabboussy’s case, but Defense Minister Peter Dutton has said previously that Islamic State widows held in camps in Syria were “not innocent women.”   
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A special committee with the United Nations’s cultural agency says Australia’s Great Barrier Reef should be placed on a list of World Heritage sites that should be designated as “in danger.” The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Committee, or UNESCO, recommended the 2,300-kilometer-long coral reef system should be placed on the list because it has deteriorated due to climate change.  Australian officials denounced the recommendation. Environment Minister Sussan Ley said Tuesday that Canberra opposes the designation and accused the World Heritage Committee of “a backflip on previous assurances” and that it would not take such an action before its formal meeting next month.  Ley said she and Foreign Minister Marise Payne had spoken by phone to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay about the decision, which she called “flawed” and a decision influenced by politics.   “This sends a poor signal to those nations who are not making the investments in reef protection that we are making,” she said. But Richard Leck, the head of oceans for World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, said in a statement the recommendation “is clear and unequivocal that the Australian government is not doing enough to protect our greatest natural asset, especially on climate change.” The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s biggest coral reef system that brings an estimated $4.8 billion annually in tourism revenue.  Climate change has driven temperatures in the Coral Sea higher in recent decades, leading to three mass “bleaching” events since 2015, destroying at least half of the Reef’s vibrant corals and prompting the Australian government to downgrade its long term outlook to “very poor.”   
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North Korea on Tuesday downplayed the possibility of talks with the United States, several days after its leader Kim Jong Un hinted at the possibility of dialogue.  Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, said in a statement that the United States appears to have the “wrong” expectation about her brother’s recent comments. “It seems that the U.S. may interpret the situation in such a way as to seek comfort for itself. The expectation, which they chose to harbour the wrong way, would plunge them into a greater disappointment,” she said in the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. At a ruling party meeting last week in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un said his country must be prepared for both “dialogue and confrontation.”  White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday told the ABC television network news program This Week that Kim’s comments were an “interesting signal” but that he wanted clearer signs from Pyongyang. He also reiterated that Washington wants to resume direct negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear program. On ABC, @JakeSullivan46 says Kim Jong Un’s declaration that he is ready for both dialogue and confrontation is an “interesting signal.” pic.twitter.com/AaqOk1Rvlx— William Gallo (@GalloVOA) June 20, 2021The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden completed its North Korea policy review last month, saying it was open to talks but insistent that North Korea must give up its nuclear weapons.  During a visit this week to Seoul, Sung Kim, the U.S. envoy for North Korea, said he hopes North Korea will positively respond to meet “anytime, anywhere without preconditions.” US Envoy Offers to Meet North Korea ‘Anywhere Anytime’The Biden administration has previously promised a “practical, calibrated approach”The U.S. envoy is meeting this week with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, to portray a unified stance on the North Korean issue. Despite the flurry of diplomatic activity, Kim Yo Jong’s statement suggests there has been little progress on resuming talks, some analysts say. “We’ve been waiting for follow up signals from Pyongyang after Kim Jong Un’s recent remarks to help clarify his meaning. Kim Yo Jong’s statement starts to do that. While she doesn’t fully shut out the idea that diplomacy can resume, she appears to suggest it’s not likely for now,” said Jenny Town, a Korea specialist at the Washington-based Stimson Center. North Korea has boycotted talks with the United States since 2019. At a summit with Kim Jong Un in February of that year, former U.S. President Donald Trump rejected an offer in which Pyongyang would dismantle a key nuclear complex in exchange for Washington lifting most sanctions. Since then, the coronavirus pandemic has upended the equation. North Korea went into a severe lockdown in January 2020, cutting off almost all contact with the outside world and even restraining trade with its economic lifeline, China. “Paranoid about the pandemic, North Korea has severely limited outside contact for a year and a half. It has been eking out national ‘self-reliance’ with discreet support from China, but border closures have caused much economic disruption,” pointed out Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. At a meeting with senior leaders, Kim Jong Un last week formally acknowledged his country is facing a “tense” food situation.North Korea Hints at ‘Prolonged’ COVID Lockdown World health crisis becoming ‘worse and worse,’ the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un saysSeveral foreign media reports, quoting sources inside North Korea, suggest massive price spikes and increasing food shortages. However, confirmation of such stories is difficult since most foreigners, including aid workers and diplomats, have left the country during the pandemic. “Kim feels the need to address domestic suffering by convening high-profile government meetings more frequently than his father and grandfather. These meetings are largely political theater to cover up failures of economic planning and oppressive social control,” Easley said. North Korea insists to the outside world that it has found no coronavirus cases within its borders — an almost impossible assertion that has been widely disputed by experts. A major outbreak could be devastating for North Korea, an impoverished country that lacks adequate health infrastructure and medical supplies.  
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The United States and South Korea have agreed to consider scrapping a working group established to coordinate North Korea policy, Seoul’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after it became seen as a way for Washington to block inter-Korean projects. During talks between U.S. special representative for North Korea Sung Kim and his South Korean counterpart Noh Kyu-duk on Monday, the two agreed to “look into terminating the working group” while reinforcing coordination at other levels, the ministry said in a statement.   On Monday Kim said he was willing to meet with the North Koreans “anywhere, anytime without preconditions” and that he looks forward to a “positive response soon.” He was scheduled to meet with South Korean Unification Minister Lee In-young, who handles relations with the North, on Tuesday. The working group was set up in 2018 to help the two allies coordinate their approaches to issues such as denuclearization talks, humanitarian aid, sanctions enforcement and inter-Korean relations amid a flurry of diplomatic engagement with North Korea at the time.   When asked last year about Seoul’s proposals such as reopening individual tourism to its northern neighbor, U.S. ambassador to South Korea at the time, Harry Harris, said that “in order to avoid a misunderstanding later that could trigger sanctions … it’s better to run this through the working group.” Though Harris added that it was not the United States’ place to approve South Korean decisions, the remarks caused controversy in Seoul and a former aide to South Korean President Moon Jae-in later told parliament the working group was increasingly seen as an obstacle to inter-Korean relations. The Moon administration would see ending the working group as a goodwill gesture from new U.S. President Joe Biden, said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea expert at King’s College London. “From a South Korean perspective, this was basically a mechanism for the U.S. to block inter-Korean projects during the Trump years,” he said. “It would be a clever political move for the Biden administration to end the group, since consultation between Washington and Seoul will take place anyway.” 
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Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, and Myanmar’s junta leader committed to further strengthening security and other ties between the two countries at a Moscow meeting on Monday.Myanmar’s junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, flew to the Russian capital on Sunday to attend a security conference this week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier on Monday said President Vladimir Putin would not be meeting Min Aung Hlaing, Interfax reported.Rights activists have accused Moscow of legitimizing Myanmar’s military junta, which came to power in a Feb. 1 coup, by continuing bilateral visits and arms deals.Russia says it has a long-standing relationship with Myanmar and said in March it was deeply concerned by the rising number of civilian deaths in Myanmar.Defense ties between the two nations have grown in recent years with Moscow providing army training and university scholarships to thousands of soldiers, as well as selling arms to a military blacklisted by several Western countries for alleged atrocities against civilians.Myanmar’s state-run MRTV devoted the first 10 minutes of its nightly newscast to a report of Min Aung Hlaing’s Russia trip, from him being met by officials at the airport to his meeting with the Security Council. It showed a smiling Min Aung Hlaing in a business suit, posing for pictures, shaking hands and exchanging gifts with members of the council before attending a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Moscow. The MRTV report said Min Aung Hlaing and Patrushev discussed cooperation between the two countries on security measures, Myanmar’s current affairs and agreed to maintain a good relationship between their two militaries.
 
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The European Union announced Monday a fresh round of sanctions against Myanmar military officials, the third since the junta seized power in a February coup.This round targeted eight individuals, three economic entities and the War Veterans Organization, according to a statement from the EU. “The individuals targeted by sanctions include ministers and deputy ministers, as well as the attorney general, who are responsible for undermining democracy and the rule of law and for serious human rights violations in the country,” the statement read.”By targeting the gems and timber sectors, these measures are aimed at restricting the junta’s ability to profit from Myanmar’s natural resources, while being crafted so as to avoid undue harm to the people of Myanmar,” it went on.The United States also sanctioned parts of the country’s gem industry in April. The United Nations formally condemned the coup on Friday, with member states calling for an end to the violence and for respect of the will of the people as expressed in the November election. While the resolution does not have the power to impose an international arms embargo, it did call on “all member states to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar” as the military’s violent crackdown on protesters continues.About 900 civilian protesters have been confirmed killed and 6,000 arrested since the military seized power February 1, a move rejecting the outcome of the November elections that overwhelmingly gave power to the National League for Democracy party.
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Opinion polls have for months suggested most Japanese oppose holding the Olympics. Some medical experts warn the event could lead to coronavirus clusters or spread new variants.But with only a month to go until the Olympic cauldron is lit in Tokyo, organizers remain confident they can safely hold the Games, thanks in part to pandemic precautions that will ensure this Summer Olympics are like no other in history. International spectators have already been banned from the Olympics, which start July 23. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said it is “definitely” possible the competition will be held in completely empty venues, depending on Japan’s COVID-19 situation. According to athlete guidelines issued last week, hugs, handshakes, and high-fives are forbidden. Off the field, virtually any degree of spontaneity has been outlawed, as athletes and staff must submit a detailed daily activity plan, including visits only to approved destinations.  A machine to check body temperature and hand sanitizers are placed at the doping control station of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Village in Tokyo, Japan, June 20, 2021.“You must not walk around the city,” specifies one section of the guidelines. Violators may be subject to disqualification, fines, or even deportation, the rules stipulate. With such measures in place, public opposition toward the Games is softening. But it is still widespread, with many saying Japan should instead focus on its own tepid pandemic recovery.Only about a third of Japanese support holding the Olympics, according to a poll released Monday by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Though that figure may seem low, it is up from just 14% who supported the Games last month. About 86% of Japanese are concerned about a resurgence in COVID-19 cases because of the Games, suggested a Kyodo News survey published Sunday. Vaccine woes Japan has seen a small number of coronavirus cases compared to many other countries, but its vaccination effort has been sluggish. Only around 6% of Japan’s population has been fully vaccinated, one of the worst rates among wealthy countries.  Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike inspects a vaccination of COVID-19 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government office in Tokyo as Tokyo Metropolitan Government started vaccination for the persons involved in the Olympic Games, June 18, 2021.While vaccinations have picked up in recent weeks, that does little good for the tens of thousands of Tokyo 2020 volunteers still waiting to be inoculated.One Olympics volunteer told VOA that if he does not get vaccinated soon, he may join the approximately 10,000 Tokyo 2020 volunteers who have already dropped out. “I’m very impatient,” said the volunteer, who did not want his name published because he is not authorized to speak with the media. He says unvaccinated volunteers feel unprepared to work with crowds. “Masks, disinfectant sprays, and leaflets distributed by the organizers to volunteers will not be enough to prevent infection when an infected person appears,” said the volunteer, whose job is to work with visiting media.  Japanese officials say they are considering vaccinating all 70,000 unpaid Olympics volunteers. But they are running out of time to do so. Even so, Japanese officials insist the danger will be minimal. They say an estimated 80% of the athletes and other Olympics visitors will be vaccinated. That may not be good enough, considering Japan’s low overall vaccination rate, according to some medical experts. “There is a big problem here,” Norio Sugaya, infectious disease expert and doctor at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, told VOA. “It is extremely difficult to completely regulate the behavior of a total of 100,000 people, including athletes, officers, and media personnel,” Sugaya said.  “I don’t think we should do something as risky as the Olympics at this time,” he adds.  A journalist looks at cardboard beds, for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Villages, which are shown in a display room the Village Plaza, June 20, 2021, in Tokyo.Pushing aheadBut Tokyo, which has spent billions of dollars in taxpayer money on the event, seems to believe moving ahead is the least bad option.The Games, which were already delayed a year because of the pandemic, This long exposure photo shows streaks of lights from cars passing by a Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics sign on the side of a building, June 11, 2021, in Tokyo.Political impact  Japan’s government, whose approval ratings are only in the 30% range, also hopes to reap some political benefit from hosting a successful event.  Prime Minister Suga’s government is planning to hold a lower house election once the Olympics finish, points out Wallace. “They will be hoping they get a little post-Olympics boost going into that election. But I think they will be unpleasantly surprised,” he predicts. Professor Kirsten Holmes of Australia’s Curtin University, who focuses on the sustainability of major international events like the Olympics, agrees that the pandemic has raised the cost for Tokyo in hosting the Games.  “On the other hand, being able to deliver a safe Olympic Games at this time during the pandemic will be an enormous boost to both people living in Japan but also Japan’s future in terms of hosting other events going forward,” she said.
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Taiwan has welcomed the arrival of about 2.5 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine from the United States, a gesture that was met angrily by China.The doses, which landed at the Taoyuan International Airport outside of the capital Taipei Sunday after a one-day flight, more than tripling an initial pledge of 750,000 doses made by the Biden administration to the self-governing island.In a post on Facebook, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen praised the arrival of the vaccines.“Whether it is for regional peace and stability or the virus that is a common human adversary, we will continue to uphold common ideas and work together,” President Tsai wrote.According to the Reuters news agency, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. to avoid “political manipulation in the name of vaccine assistance and stop interfering in China’s domestic affairs.”  China claims the self-governed island as part of its territory, and has offered Taiwan doses of its domestically produced vaccines, which Taipei has refused. The self-ruled island had been held up as one of the world’s few success stories in containing the spread of the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic, but it has been dealing with an sudden outbreak of new infections which authorities have connected to outbreaks among flight crews with state-owned China Airlines and a hotel at Taoyuan International Airport.Taiwan currently has 14,005 confirmed COVID-19 infections, including 549 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. 
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A rise in religious conservatism in Indonesia is drawing talent away from what some view as un-Islamic jobs in banking, industry professionals say, creating hiring woes for conventional banks but a boon for the country’s fledgling sharia finance sector.The trend comes amid broader societal change in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, driven by millions of young, ‘born-again’ Muslims embracing stricter interpretations of Islam.Reuters spoke to a dozen industry sources over how concern about Islamic law barring exploitative interest payments, known as “riba,” is reverberating through the world of Indonesian finance.Since 2018, hiring for banks and fintech companies in peer-to-peer lending, payments and investment platforms has been more challenging, said Rini Kusumawardhani, a finance sector recruiter at Robert Walters Indonesia.“Roughly speaking 15 out of 50 candidates” would refuse a job within conventional banking and peer-to-peer lending, she told Reuters. “Their reason was quite clear-cut. They wanted to avoid riba.”Islamic scholars do not all agree on what constitutes riba. Some say interest on a bank loan is an example, but others say that while such loans should be discouraged, they are not sinful.“It’s so common that the stigma is if one borrows it’s identical with riba,” Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a webinar on the Islamic economy earlier this year. “But loans are allowed in the Koran as long as they’re taken carefully and they’re recorded correctly.”Islamic banking accounts for just over 6% of the roughly $634 billion assets in Indonesia’s banking industry — but has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Savings in Islamic banks jumped 80% from end-2018 to March 2021, outstripping the 18% growth in conventional counterparts, while financing also grew faster than conventional loan growth.Worse than adulteryExactly how many have left Indonesia’s conventional banking sector is unclear. Statistics show a gradual employment drop, but this may also reflect digitalization or coronavirus pandemic-related layoffs.As of February, there were 1.5 million people overall employed in finance and the sector offered Indonesia’s third-highest average salary, government data showed. The sector employed 1.7 million in 2018.For 36-year-old Syahril Luthfi, finding online articles labeling riba as “tens of times more sinful than committing adultery with your own mother” was enough to persuade him to quit his conventional bank job and move to an Islamic lender, he said.Concerns over the issue have helped create online support groups for former bankers, including XBank Indonesia, which claims nearly 25,000 active members on a messaging platform and has an Instagram account with half a million followers.Its chairman, El Chandra, said in an email the community was founded in 2017 to support those facing challenges quitting a financially supportive, but un-Islamic job.“To decide to quit a riba-ridden job is not easy, many things must be taken into consideration,” said Chandra, who said some branded those who quit as stupid or radical.XBank Indonesia advises people against taking out mortgages and other loans. But it is hard to measure the impact on demand for banking products among the so-called “hijrah” movement of more conservative young, middle-class Indonesians now embracing Islam many already did not use banks to the extent Western peers might.Business opportunitiesSunarso, president director of Indonesia’s biggest lender by assets, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), acknowledges people had left jobs at financial institutions he has worked at for religious reasons. However, he views the hijrah trend as an opportunity for sharia finance, explaining how it determined a decision to merge the Islamic banking units of BRI and two other state-controlled lenders in February to form the country’s biggest Islamic lender, Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI). BSI’s chief executive Hery Gunardi told Reuters it planned to cater to the growing community of more religious millennials in a bid to double its assets. In fintech, some startups have also been trying to align with Islam, to tap a bigger slice of Indonesia’s multi-billion-dollar internet economy. Dima Djani, founder of Islamic lending startup ALAMI, expects Islamic financial products to really take off in two to three years as the hijrah movement matures, impacting people’s “lifestyle, their looks, their food and their travel” as they learn more about their religion. “But in the end, as they continue to learn and shift their behavior … they will shift their finances,” added Dima, who previously worked at foreign banks. He said due to high demand, he planned to expand ALAMI into an Islamic digital bank later this year. 
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