DRULAP

Hanoi — Typhoon Yagi caused $1.6 billion in economic losses in Vietnam, state media said Monday, as the UN’s World Food Program said the deadly floods it triggered in Myanmar were the worst in the country’s recent history.

Yagi battered Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand with powerful winds and a huge dump of rain more than a week ago, triggering floods and landslides that have killed more than 400 people, according to official figures.

It tore across Vietnam’s densely populated Red River delta — a vital agricultural region that is also home to major manufacturing hubs — damaging factories and infrastructure, and inundating farmland.

The typhoon caused an estimated $1.6 billion in economic losses, state media reported, citing an initial government assessment.

The death toll in Vietnam stands at 292, with 38 missing, more than 230,000 homes damaged and 280,000 hectares of crops destroyed, according to authorities.

In Myanmar, the ruling junta has reported 113 fatalities and said that more than 320,000 people have been forced from their homes into temporary relief camps.

“Super Typhoon Yagi has affected most of the country and caused the worst floods we have seen in Myanmar’s recent history,” Sheela Matthew, WFP’s representative in Myanmar, said in a statement, without giving precise details.

Exact details of the impact on agriculture were not yet clear, she said.

“But I can say for sure that the impact on food security will be nothing less than devastating,” Matthew said.

Severe flooding hit Myanmar in 2011 and 2015, with more than 100 deaths reported on both occasions, while in 2008 Cyclone Nargis left more than 138,000 people dead or missing.

The latest crisis has prompted the junta to issue a rare appeal for foreign aid, with neighbor India responding with 10 tons of materials, including dry rations, clothing and medicine.

Myanmar’s military has blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad in the past, including after powerful Cyclone Mocha last year when it suspended travel authorizations for aid groups trying to reach around a million people.

Even before the latest floods, people in Myanmar were already grappling with the effects of three years of war between the junta and armed groups opposed to its rule, with millions forced from their homes by the conflict.
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Osaka, Japan — Japan celebrated on Monday the record-breaking Emmy Awards triumph of “Shogun”, although many confessed not having watched the series about the country’s warring dynasties in the feudal era.  

“Shogun” smashed all-time records at the television awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, taking home an astounding 18 statuettes and becoming the first non-English-language winner of the highly coveted award for best drama series.  

Lead Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Lord Toranaga, became the first Japanese actor to win an Emmy, while Anna Sawai achieved the same for her performance as Lady Mariko.  

“As a Japanese, I’m happy Sanada won,” Kiyoko Kanda, a 70-year-old pensioner, told AFP in Tokyo.   

“He worked so hard since he moved to Los Angeles,” she said.  

“In ‘Last Samurai’, Tom Cruise was the lead, but it’s exciting Sanada is the main character in ‘Shogun’,” Kanda added.  

But she admitted that she only watched the trailer.  

The series is available only on Disney’s streaming platform, which is relatively new in Japan.  

“I want to watch it. I’m curious to know how Japan is portrayed,” Kanda said.  

Otsuka, who declined to give her first name, said she, too, has not watched the show.   

“But I saw the news and I’m happy he won.” Sanada, now 63, began his acting career at the age of five in Tokyo and moved to LA after appearing in “Last Samurai” in 2003.   

The words “historic achievements” and “Hiroyuki Sanada” were trending on X in Japanese, while Sanada’s speech at the awards racked up tens of thousands of views.  

Yusuke Takizawa, 41, also only watched a trailer but he said he was amazed by the quality of the show.  

“I was impressed by the high-spirited acting, the attention to detail and the film technology,” Takizawa told AFP outside Osaka Castle, a major historical location for the series.  

“I think many young people will want to try their hand in Hollywood after watching Sanada,” he said.  

Tourists at the castle also welcomed the record Emmy win.   

“I think was the best TV show that I’ve seen this year,” said Zara Ferjani, a visitor from London.   

“I thought it was amazing… The direction was beautiful, and I really enjoyed watching something that wasn’t in English as well,” the 33-year-old said.  

She said she had planned to watch “Shogun” after returning home from Japan.  

“But one of my friends strongly advised me to watch it beforehand, just to appreciate the culture more and definitely Osaka Castle more,” she added.  

• Breaking from cliches – 

Many in the Japanese film industry were also jubilant.   

“He won after many years of trying hard in Hollywood. It’s too cool,” wrote Shinichiro Ueda, director of the hit low-budget film “One Cut of the Dead”, on X.  

Video game creator and movie fan Hideo Kojima, who has described the show as “Game of Thrones in 17th-century Japan”, reposted a news story on the win.  

The drama, adapted from a popular novel by James Clavell and filmed in Canada, tells the tale of Lord Toranaga, who fights for his life against his enemies alongside Mariko and British sailor John Blackthorne.   

A previous TV adaptation made in 1980 was centered on Blackthorne’s perspective.  

But the new “Shogun” breaks away from decades of cliched and often bungled depictions of Japan in Western cinema, with Japanese spoken throughout most of the show.  

Sanada, who also co-produced the drama, is credited with bringing a new level of cultural and historical authenticity to “Shogun.”   

An army of experts, including several wig technicians from Japan, worked behind the scenes to make the series realistic, poring over sets, costumes and the actors’ movements. 
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CHENNAI, India — Police on Monday detained 104 striking workers protesting low wages at a Samsung Electronics plant in southern India as they were planning a protest march without permission, with the dispute disrupting output at the key factory for the past week.

The detention marks an escalation of a strike by workers at a Samsung home appliance plant near Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. Workers want higher wages and have stopped work at the plant that contributes roughly a third of Samsung’s annual India revenue of $12 billion.

The Samsung protests have cast a shadow on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan of courting foreign investors to “Make in India” and his goal of tripling electronics production to $500 billion within six years.

Lured by cheap labor, foreign companies are increasingly using India for manufacturing to diversify their supply chain beyond China.

On Monday, the workers planned to start a protest march, but were detained as no permission was given since there are schools, colleges and hospitals in that area, said senior police officer of the Kancheepuram district K. Shanmugam.

“It is the main area which would become totally paralyzed and [the protest would] disturb public peace,” he said.

“We have detained them in wedding halls as all of them can’t be in stations,” he said.

Samsung workers since last week have been protesting at a makeshift tent near the plant, demanding higher wages, recognition for a union backed by influential labor group the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), and better working hours.

Samsung is not keen to recognize any union backed by a national labor group such as the CITU, and talks with workers, as well as state government officials, have not yielded resolution.

The CITU Tamil Nadu Deputy General Secretary, S. Kannan, condemned the police action, saying “This is an archaic move by the state government.”

Despite Monday’s police action, 12 union groups, including one affiliated with the ruling party of Tamil Nadu, said in a public notice dated Sept. 11 that they will stage a protest in support of the striking workers in Chennai on Wednesday, a move that could intensify the tensions between the company and the workers.

“We are going ahead with Wednesday’s protest … no changes to the plan,” said A. Jenitan, a deputy district secretary for the CITU.

The protests add to Samsung’s challenges in India, a key growth market.

The South Korean company is planning job cuts of up to 30% of its overseas staff in some divisions, including in India. And India’s antitrust body has found Samsung and other smartphone companies colluded with e-commerce giants to launch devices exclusively, violating competition laws, Reuters has reported.

Samsung did not respond to a request for comment on Monday, but on Friday said it has initiated discussions with workers at the Chennai plant “to resolve all issues at the earliest.”

Video footage from Reuters partner ANI showed dozens of Samsung workers wearing the company uniform of blue shirts being transported in a bus to a hall.

The Samsung plant employs roughly 1,800 workers and more than 1,000 of them have been on strike. The factory makes appliances such as refrigerators, TVs and washing machines. Another Samsung plant that makes smartphones in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh has had no unrest.

The police also detained one of CITU’s senior leaders, E. Muthukumar, who was leading the Samsung protests at the factory near Chennai, according to the CITU’s Jenitan.

Kancheepuram police official Shanmugam said there was no timeline as to how long the workers will be detained.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — It’s noisy, smelly, shy – and New Zealand’s bird of the year.

The hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, won the country’s fiercely fought avian election on Monday, offering hope to supporters of the endangered bird that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the species.

It followed a campaign for the annual Bird of the Year vote that was absent the foreign interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls. Instead, campaigners in the long-running contest sought votes in the usual ways — launching meme wars, seeking celebrity endorsements and even getting tattoos to prove their loyalty.

More than 50,000 people voted in the poll, 300,000 fewer than last year, when British late night host John Oliver drove a humorous campaign for the pūteketeke — a “deeply weird bird” which eats and vomits its own feathers – securing a landslide win.

This year, the number of votes cast represented 10% of the population of New Zealand — a country where nature is never far away and where a love of native birds is instilled in citizens from childhood.

“Birds are our heart and soul,” said Emma Rawson, who campaigned for the fourth-placed ruru, a small brown owl with a melancholic call. New Zealand’s only native mammals are bats and marine species, putting the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved — and often rare.

This year’s victor, the hoiho — its name means “noise shouter” in the Māori language — is a shy bird thought to be the world’s rarest penguin. Only found on New Zealand’s South and Chatham islands — and on subantarctic islands south of the country — numbers have dropped perilously by 78% in the past 15 years.

“This spotlight couldn’t have come at a better time. This iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa before our eyes,” Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird — the organization that runs the poll — said in a press release, using the Māori name for New Zealand. Despite intensive conservation efforts on land, she said, the birds drown in nets and sea and can’t find enough food.

“The campaign has raised awareness, but what we really hope is that it brings tangible support,” said Charlie Buchan, campaign manager for the hoiho. But while the bird is struggling, it attracted a star billing in the poll: celebrity endorsements flew in from English zoologist Jane Goodall, host of the Amazing Race Phil Keoghan, and two former New Zealand prime ministers.

Aspiring bird campaign managers — this year ranging from power companies to high school students — submit applications to Forest & Bird for the posts. The hoiho bid was run by a collective of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, where the bird is found on mainland New Zealand, making it the highest-powered campaign of the 2024 vote.

“I do feel like we were the scrappy underdog,” said Emily Bull, a spokesperson for the runner-up campaign, for the karure — a small, “goth” black robin only found on New Zealand’s Chatham Island.

The karure’s bid was directed by the students’ association at Victoria University of Wellington, prompting fierce skirmish on the college campus when the student magazine staged an opposing campaign for the kororā, or little blue penguin.

The rivalry provoked a meme war and students in bird costumes. Several people got tattoos. When the magazine’s campaign secured endorsements of the city council and local zoo, Bull despaired for the black robin’s bid.

But the karure – which has performed a real-life comeback since the 1980s, with conservation efforts increasing the species from five birds to 250 – took second place overall.

This weekend as Rawson wrapped up her campaign for the ruru, she too took her efforts directly to the people, courting votes at a local dog park. The veteran campaign manager who has directed the bids for other birds in past years was rewarded by the ruru placing fourth in the poll, her best ever result.

“I have not been in human political campaigning before,” said Rawson, who is drawn to the competition because of the funds and awareness it generates. The campaign struck a more sedate tone this year, she added.

“There’s been no international interference, even though that was actually a lot of fun,” she said, referring to Oliver’s high-profile campaign.

It was not the only controversy the election has seen. While anyone in the world can vote, Forest & Bird now requires electors to verify their ballots after foreign interference plagued the contest before. In 2018, Australian pranksters cast hundreds of fraudulent votes in favor of the shag.

The following year, Forest & Bird was forced to clarify that a flurry of votes from Russia appeared to be from legitimate bird-lovers.

While campaigns are fiercely competitive, managers described tactics more akin to pro wrestling — in which fights are scripted — than divisive political contests.

“Sometimes people want to make posts that are kind of like beefy with you and they’ll always message you and be like, hey, is it okay if I post this?” Bull said. “There is a really sweet community. It’s really wholesome.”
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Islamabad — Pakistan has documented the killings of 11 journalists in 2024, reaching a record-breaking annual tally with nearly four months left in the year.

The South Asian nation continues to face persistent criticism for an alleged lack of justice or impunity for journalists’ murders, making it one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media workers.

The latest victim was Nisar Lehri, a 50-year-old Pakistani journalist and secretary of a local press club in violence-hit southwestern Balochistan province. Unknown assailants shot and killed him on September 4 near his home in the town of Mastung for his reporting about criminal elements, according to a complaint filed with the area police.

Lehri’s murder followed the death of reporter Muhammad Bachal Ghunio on August 27. He was associated with the local Awaz TV channel and was targeted by gunmen in his native Ghotki district in southeastern Sindh province.

Ghunio’s family and police investigators believe he was killed because of his reporting. Police subsequently announced the arrest of a suspect, and the recovery of a weapon allegedly used in the attack.

Islamabad-based nonprofit Freedom Network, an advocate for press freedoms, reported that before the two fatalities, nine journalists were killed in Pakistan this year, including a YouTube show host. 

“Safety is every journalist’s key concern while reporting, and given the fact that 11 journalists, including a YouTuber, were killed this year so far, it has a chilling effect on independent media,” Iqbal Khattak, the executive director of the nonprofit network, told VOA. 

Pakistani officials blame growing terrorist activities in the country for the uptick in attacks on journalists.

However, critics dispute these claims, noting that many of the journalist fatalities this year occurred in Sindh and the country’s most populous Punjab province, which have been relatively peaceful compared to terrorism-hit Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 

While Pakistan’s military and its intelligence agencies are routinely accused of orchestrating violence against journalists critical of their involvement in national politics, influential feudal lords and politicians in Sindh, as well as Punjab, are often blamed for ordering violence against media workers in their native constituencies and escaping accountability. 

“The deep-rooted impunity and political instability are driving the current violence. However, the list of press freedom predators is not restricted to the two drivers,” Khattak stated. “The list is long to name the predators. Terrorism is not excluded,” he added.

Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters Saturday that the federal government is working closely with authorities in the four provinces to address the challenges facing journalists.

“There are incidents in Sindh, I totally agree. Some people often use political influence to get their way and get out of these cases,” Tarar stated when asked by VOA about his government’s role in addressing the cases of fatal attacks on journalists and providing justice to their families.

The minister pledged to coordinate with provincial counterparts to investigate these cases and deter further violence against media workers.

“We need to set an example in one or two cases, so this does not happen again. I think this is a very important issue which needs to be handled,” Tarar said.  

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a U.S.-based global media rights group, mourned the deaths of Lehri and Ghunio in a Friday statement. 

“Pakistani authorities must immediately bring the perpetrators of the killings … to justice and show urgent political will to end the horrifying cycle of violence against journalists that has continued this year across Pakistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, the CPJ Asia program coordinator.

“The press in Pakistan cannot carry out their journalism unless the government and security agencies put an end to the impunity against journalists in the country,” she stressed. 

The CPJ statement also noted that dozens of Pakistani journalists have been attacked or forced into hiding this year due to their reporting across the country.

Another global media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), urged Pakistan’s federal and provincial authorities in a recent report to take urgent measures to address the alarming decline in press freedom in the country.

“The many press freedom violations reveal a climate of violence, and a determination to censor that has little in common with the undertakings by the political parties in their elections campaign manifestos and the message of support for journalists by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif,” stated Celia Mercier, the head of RSF’s South Asia desk.

“Pakistan remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media personnel, and the level of impunity for the murders of journalists is appalling,” Mercier said in June.  

Stifling free press

Until this month, millions of Pakistanis experienced significant disruptions in accessing major social media platforms nationwide, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, drawing a public outcry.

The military-backed Sharif government was blamed for imposing the shutdowns and internet slowdowns to deter dissent or political unrest. 

Pakistani authorities rejected the allegations and blamed internet disruptions on a faulty submarine internet cable. 

In an August 28 announcement, the state regulator, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, announced that repairs to the faulty cable would likely be completed by early October, but slow internet speeds might persist until then. 

VOA Islamabad Bureau Chief Sarah Zaman contributed to this report.
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DHAKA, Bangladesh — A high-level U.S. delegation met Sunday with the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, to affirm “dedication to fostering inclusive economic growth,” according to the American embassy in Dhaka. 

Yunus took over after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country last month amid a mass uprising. She was accused of corruption, violation of human rights and excessive use of force against the protesters. 

During her 15-year rule, Hasina enjoyed close relations with India, China and Russia who have heavily invested in the country’s infrastructure development, trade and investment. The U.S. has also become the single largest foreign investor in Bangladesh under Hasina. 

Yunus on Sunday said he sought U.S. support “to rebuild the country, carry out vital reforms, and bring back stolen assets,” his press office said in a statement after he met the delegation at the State Guest House Jamuna in Dhaka. 

He told the U.S. representatives his interim administration has moved fast to “reset, reform, and restart” the economy, initiate reforms in financial sectors, and fix institutions such as the judiciary and police, the statement said. 

The U.S. delegation, led by Brent Neiman, assistant secretary for International Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, had representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Donald Lu, assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, joined the delegation after visiting India. 

They met with several officials in Dhaka, including Touhid Hossain, the country’s adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The USAID also signed an agreement to provide $202.25 million in aid to Bangladesh. 

The U.S. embassy on X underscored how American companies are entrenched in the South Asian country. 

“With the right economic reforms in place, the American private sector can help unlock Bangladesh’s growth potential through trade and investment,” the embassy wrote on its official account. 

The delegation also met representatives of the American companies under the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) operating in Bangladesh upon arriving Saturday. 

Concerns over safety and lack of order in Bangladesh were relayed by the companies’ agents. 

AmCham President Syed Ershad Ahmed said at the meeting that while there were improvements after the interim government was installed, “there are some bottlenecks too.” Profit repatriation amid the ongoing crisis of U.S. dollars and challenges in the supply chain resulting from congestion at ports were among the issues he raised. 

The meeting came as unrest took hold of the country’s major garment industry with workers walking out, leaving factories shuttered, as they demanded better benefits including higher wages. The factory owners, the government and workers’ leaders are holding meetings to ease the tension. 

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate-induced disasters. The U.S. embassy on its official Facebook page said the United States wanted to help it “mitigate climate risks.” 
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