TOKYO: Bird flu has been detected in a fourth Japanese prefecture, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday (Dec 1), as a wave of infections at poultry farms sparks the country's worst outbreak in more than four years.
Avian influenza was discovered at a poultry farm in Hyuga city in Miyazaki prefecture on Kyushu island in southwestern Japan, the ministry said on its website. There is no possibility that humans will contract bird flu from eating poultry or eggs, the ministry said.
Japan's worst outbreak since at least 2016 started last month in Kagawa prefecture on Shikoku island, which is adjacent to Kyushu island.
The 40,000 chickens at the Miyazaki farm will be slaughtered and buried, while exports in a 3km (1.8 mile) radius around the farm will be restricted.
The new action means more than 1.8 million chickens will have been culled since the latest outbreak began.
Japan's last outbreak of bird flu was in January 2018, also in Kagawa prefecture, when 91,000 chickens were culled.
The last big outbreak was between November 2016 and March 2017, when a total of 1.67 million chickens were culled due to the H5N6 strain of bird flu.
Bird flu is being reported around the world with South Korea on Tuesday confirming another case in an outbreak that has led to the culling of around 400,000 chickens and ducks.
In Europe, the poultry industry is on alert as a highly contagious and deadly form of bird flu is spreading rapidly on the continent.
WASHINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden's victories in Arizona and Wisconsin were certified on Monday (Nov 30), further cementing his win even as Donald Trump continues to make baseless claims of vote fraud.
"This election was conducted with transparency, accuracy and fairness in accordance with Arizona's laws and elections procedures, despite numerous unfounded claims to the contrary," Arizona secretary of state Katie Hobbs said during the vote's final, official certification.
The last Democrat to carry the southwestern state in the race for the White House was Bill Clinton in 1996, marking a significant shift of the US electoral map this year.
Biden beat Trump by just over 10,400 ballots in a state where turnout was high, and shifting demographics saw a growing population of young Hispanic voters.
The ex-vice president's win in the former reliably Republican bastion could also be attributed to suburban women attracted to his centrist approach, experts have said.
Trump has refused to concede to Biden, which delayed the start of the presidential transition by weeks, as he made baseless claims of fraud that have been shot down in state and federal courts.
"WOW, total election corruption in Arizona. Hearing on now!" Trump tweeted as his lawyers and some lawmakers met in Arizona.
Wisconsin, another hotly contested state which Trump narrowly won in 2016, also certified Biden's win on Monday, with Governor Tony Evers tweeting he had "carried out his duty".
"Please join me in thanking our clerks, election administrators, and poll workers across our state for working tirelessly to ensure we had a safe, fair and efficient election," he added.
Trump has also targeted legal challenges at the state of Pennsylvania, which the president won in 2016 but was flipped back to the Democrats this year.
Pennsylvania's supreme court dismissed on Saturday a Republican lawsuit that had sought to invalidate mail-in ballots in the battleground state - or to throw out all votes and allow the state's legislature to decide the winner.
The court dismissed both claims in a unanimous decision, calling the second one an "extraordinary proposition that the court disenfranchise all 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted in the general election".
Pennsylvania officially certified Biden's victory there on Nov 24. The lawsuit had also sought to stop certification.
Biden has proceeded with the transition process, despite efforts by Trump and his campaign to undo the election, and is due to be sworn in on Jan 20.
Biden won the electoral college vote - the state-by-state competition deciding the winner - by 306 to 232.
In the popular national vote, which does not decide the result but still has political and symbolic heft, Biden won by 51 to 47 per cent.
The Electoral College is all but certain to go through the formal motions of confirming Biden when it meets on Dec 14.
WASHINGTON: The Wisconsin Elections Commission's chair on Monday (Nov 30) confirmed the election result in the state following a recount in two counties, bringing Democratic President-elect Joe Biden closer to an official Electoral College victory in the key swing state.
Biden's victory in Arizona was also finalised Monday, further cementing his win even as Donald Trump continues to make baseless claims of vote fraud.
"This election was conducted with transparency, accuracy and fairness in accordance with Arizona's laws and elections procedures, despite numerous unfounded claims to the contrary," Arizona secretary of state Katie Hobbs said during the vote's final, official certification.
The last Democrat to carry the southwestern state in the race for the White House was Bill Clinton in 1996, marking a significant shift of the US electoral map this year.
Biden beat Trump by just over 10,400 ballots in a state where turnout was high, and shifting demographics saw a growing population of young Hispanic voters.
The ex-vice president's win in the former reliably Republican bastion could also be attributed to suburban women attracted to his centrist approach, experts have said.
Trump has refused to concede to Biden, which delayed the start of the presidential transition by weeks, as he made baseless claims of fraud that have been shot down in state and federal courts.
"WOW, total election corruption in Arizona. Hearing on now!," Trump tweeted as lawyers for the president and some lawmakers met in Arizona.
Trump has also targeted legal challenges at the state of Pennsylvania, which the president won in 2016 but was flipped back to the Democrats this year.
Pennsylvania's supreme court dismissed on Saturday a Republican lawsuit that had sought to invalidate mail-in ballots in the battleground state - or to throw out all votes and allow the state's legislature to decide the winner.
The court dismissed both claims in a unanimous decision, calling the second one an "extraordinary proposition that the court disenfranchise all 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted in the general election."
Pennsylvania officially certified Biden's victory there on Nov 24. The lawsuit had also sought to stop certification.
Biden has proceeded with the transition process, despite efforts by Trump and his campaign to undo the election, and is due to be sworn in on Jan 20.
HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Hong Kong is sending civil servants back to work-from-home arrangements as the government steps up efforts to contain the latest wave of coronavirus infections in the Asian financial hub, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Monday (Nov 30).
The move, which Mrs Lam urged private sector employers to follow, is the most far-reaching since another flare-up of infection started earlier this month and signals that authorities' concern that the current outbreak will escalate in scale.
Many multinational companies refer to what civil servants are doing to determine their own guidelines about employees coming to the office.
Mrs Lam also announced a ban on public gatherings of more than two people and the closure of venues such as mahjong parlours and swimming pools. Restaurants must now limit diners to two per table, down from the current rule of four. Gyms and sports venues will be allowed to stay open for now, though.
The new measures are similar to those announced in July, when the city faced its worst-ever outbreak.
This round of restrictions will start on Wednesday and last for two weeks, Mrs Lam said. The city reported 76 cases on Monday, most of them local, including nine of unknown origins.
Hong Kong estimates that the government employed more than 177,000 people as of June, accounting for about 4.6 per cent of the city's workforce. When civil servants were told to work from home during the last wave of Covid-19 cases, government services such as work-visa extensions were delayed.
SYDNEY: Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday (Nov 30) Canberra is seeking an apology from Beijing about a tweet containing a false image of an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child.
Morrison said Australia was seeking the removal of the "truly repugnant" image posted on Monday (Nov 30) by Zhao Lijian, a spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"It is utterly outrageous and cannot be justified on any basis ... The Chinese government should be utterly ashamed of this post. It diminishes them in the world's eyes," Morrison told media at a press briefing.
"This sort of conduct is not conducive to any relationship," Morrison said of the tweet, calling it an "outrageous and disgusting slur" against the Australian armed forces.
"That's why I think it's so important in our mutual interests that this egregious act be dealt with."
He said countries around the world were watching how Beijing responded to tensions in Australia's relationship with China.
The Chinese government spokesman had tweeted that he was "shocked by the murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, & call for holding them accountable".
Australia last week discharged 13 soldiers following a report into conduct in Afghanistan that prosecutors believe may have constituted war crimes.
The results of a years-long investigation published in November reported that Australia's elite special forces "unlawfully killed" 39 civilians and prisoners in Afghanistan, including by summary execution as part of initiation rituals.
It recommended that 19 individuals be referred to Australian Federal Police, compensation be paid to the families of victims, and that the military carry out a slew of reforms.
Australia's top military officer has admitted there was credible evidence of the killings, recommending the matter be taken up by a prosecutor investigating alleged war crimes.
"Some patrols took the law into their own hands, rules were broken, stories concocted, lies told and prisoners killed," said Chief of the Defence Force General Angus Campbell.
After the Sep 11, 2001 attacks, more than 26,000 Australian uniformed personnel were sent to Afghanistan to fight alongside US and allied forces against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups.
Australian combat troops officially left the country in late 2013, but since then a series of often-brutal accounts have emerged about the conduct of elite special forces units.
WASHINGTON: White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his team are headed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week for talks in a region simmering with tension after the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist.
A senior administration official said on Sunday (Nov 29) that Kushner is to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi city of Neom, and the emir of Qatar in that country in the coming days. Kushner will be joined by Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook and Adam Boehler, chief executive of the US International Development Finance Corporation.
Kushner and his team helped negotiate normalization deals between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan since August.
The official said they would like to advance more such agreements before President Donald Trump hands power to President-elect Joe Biden on Jan 20.
US officials believe enticing Saudi Arabia into a deal with Israel would prompt other Arab nations to follow suit. But the Saudis do not appear to be on the brink of reaching such a landmark deal and officials in recent weeks have been focusing on other countries, with concern about Iran's regional influence a uniting factor.
Kushner's trip comes after the killing on Friday of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran by unidentified assailants. Western and Israeli governments believe Fakhrizadeh was the architect of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Days before the killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Saudi Arabia and met with bin Salman, an Israeli official said, in what was the first publicly confirmed visit by an Israeli leader. Israeli media said they were joined by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The historic meeting underlined how opposition to Tehran is bringing about a strategic realignment of countries in the Middle East.
Bin Salman and Netanyahu fear Biden will adopt policies on Iran similar to those adopted during Barack Obama's US presidency which strained Washington's ties with its traditional regional allies.
Biden has said he will rejoin the international nuclear pact with Iran that Trump quit in 2018 - and work with allies to strengthen its terms - if Tehran first resumes strict compliance.
The senior administration official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, declined to give more details of Kushner's trip for security reasons.
The official said Kushner met at the White House last week with the Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah. Kuwait is seen as critical in any effort to resolve a three-year rift between Qatar and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which comprise the GCC, cut diplomatic ties with Qatar in 2017 and imposed a boycott over allegations that Qatar supported terrorism, a charge it denies.
SHANGHAI (AFP) - Around 9,000 runners - some wearing face masks - took part in the Shanghai International Marathon on Sunday (Nov 29), Chinese media said, a rare mass event in a year when coronavirus laid waste to most such sport.
Before the race, officials touted it as an opportunity to show how China - where the virus emerged late last year before unleashing a pandemic - is moving ahead despite the continuing global health crisis.
The prestigious New York, Berlin, Boston and Chicago marathons all fell victim to coronavirus this year, while London and Tokyo were open only to elite runners.
Bucking that trend, the Shanghai marathon went ahead under sunny skies following several days of rain, and with virus prevention measures in place to thwart infections.
Shanghai is on edge following a scattering of recent local cases, but China has largely got to grips with the epidemic thanks to strict lockdowns and aggressive mass testing.
Runners had to pass a coronavirus test in order to take part and were ordered to wear a mask immediately before and after the race. Some kept them on the whole time.
About 9,000 runners had been expected to take part, down from 38,000 in previous Shanghai marathons.
No overseas athletes flew in for the race and spectators were told to stay away.
Distance running is booming in China, with state media saying there is "marathon fever".
PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The plan to form Perikatan Nasional originated from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself in order make him a prime minister supported by all Members of Parliament across all parties, said Senior Minister Azmin Ali.
He also said the general election would have been held last month if not for the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic currently faced by the country.
In an exclusive interview with The Star, the International Trade and Industry Minister and Gombak MP shared details of what happened behind the scenes which led to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government and why he left Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Anwar Ibrahim's side after 30 years.
"Perikatan is not a back-door government as there was a vacancy (in the post of prime minister). I did not suggest at that time - if it (resignation of Dr Mahathir) did not happen then - that we knock on the door and take him out and we go in," said Datuk Seri Azmin.
"That was not the plan or case."
Relating what happened before Dr Mahathir's resignation, Mr Azmin said that on Feb 23, 131 statutory declarations from MPs across parties were presented to the palace.
"It was all for one name as the prime minister - Dr Mahathir. We were then trying very hard to make sure that Dr Mahathir would continue to serve as the prime minister," Mr Azmin said.
"That was the meeting we had at his house on Feb 23 at 4pm when he met all the six political party leaders, including Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) head Datuk Seri Abang Johari and myself, " said Mr Azmin.
He also questioned why Dr Mahathir had planned the Malay Congress with Umno and the Malaysian Islamic Party PAS on Oct 6 last year if he was indeed against working with Umno.
Mr Azmin then shared how the whole plan went haywire when Dr Mahathir resigned the next morning.
He said: "We were thrown into a political crisis when the sitting prime minister, Dr Mahathir, resigned.
"If Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin didn't act within that small window, someone else could have rushed to the palace and pressured the palace in order to become the prime minister. I would not have allowed that to happen.
"The only option for me and Muhyiddin then was to leave Pakatan."
Mr Azmin subsequently left PKR with nine other MPs.
He said the party leaders then returned to meet Dr Mahathir on Feb 24 to ask him what happened.
"We discussed before we went back to the palace. He was then appointed as interim prime minister," Mr Azmin said.
"Again, during that period - from Feb 24 to 28 - we worked day and night to get the numbers. Unfortunately, he did not get the strong, formidable numbers until Friday."
He continued: "So I told Dr Mahathir that in any democratic system, you need the numbers. If you go to elections, you need numbers. You go to Parliament, you need numbers. You go to the palace, you need the numbers.
"If you don't have the numbers, there is nothing much we can do. As there was no Parliament sitting then, under the Federal Constitution, the King had to decide who had the support of the majority to be PM."
Mr Azmin added: "Finally, Muhyiddin got that majority. Of course, we came in as a new government, not through an election but through a political crisis. But that crisis came about because this man tendered his resignation.
"If Dr Mahathir had not tendered his resignation that Monday, he would still be prime minister with a bigger majority."
To allegations that it was a back-door government, Mr Azmin said: "The King opened the door for us to come in, so it was not a back-door government."
Asked if he still has any ties with Dr Mahathir, Mr Azmin said he regarded him as a father.
"I still have so much respect, love and affection for Dr Mahathir. He is our statesman," he said. "I may disagree on what he did on Feb 24 when he tendered his resignation without sharing that with us beforehand."
He added: "I'm not saying that we would have vetoed him on it but based on our discussion on Sunday, Feb 23, we had plans for him before the opening of Parliament on March 9."
Mr Azmin insisted that he did not choose Mr Muhyiddin over Dr Mahathir.
"I think we should just allow Muhyiddin to lead, especially during this pandemic. Whatever you may say, I think he has done a very good job - very focused on handling the Covid-19 pandemic and reviving the economy with less politics," said Mr Azmin.
"So it is only fair for all MPs and citizens to give support to him."
On whether Perikatan would seek a mandate from the people through a general election, Mr Azmin admitted that had the Covid-19 pandemic not happened, an election would have been held last month.
"Although we came in with a majority, with all humility, I must say the majority is small. When the majority is small, the government is weak. When the government is weak (or) not stable, then we do not have the opportunity to focus on the delivery for the rakyat (people)," he said.
"If you ask me, of course, we are ready to go back to the rakyat to get the mandate. If you ask me when we should have got the mandate, I would say it should have been last month but unfortunately, we are facing the Covid-19 pandemic."
Mr Azmin continued: "The word 'election' is so toxic. Society cannot accept that, for they only want the government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 and help retain jobs and make sure there is food on the table.
"So that is our focus now. But certainly when this pandemic is over - we don't know when, hopefully in the near future - we will go back to the rakyat to seek their mandate."
He said only the Health Ministry could give the green light for elections before the Perikatan term expires.
On working with Umno and PAS, which sometimes openly take pot shots at Perikatan, Mr Azmin said it was all part of being democratic.
"Maybe for the Malaysian media, it is a bit odd for members of the government to speak so loudly in public," he said.
"As for Muhyiddin and the Cabinet, we accept criticism as this is part of the democratic process. But of course, it is also our responsibility to explain, to engage and to allow the process to grow to be able to make stronger decisions on policies and particular programmes."
He added: "Look at thebBudget. This is the first time in the history of the Finance Ministry that the minister himself engaged with opposition leaders. This never happened during Barisan Nasional or Pakatan governments.
"This is unprecedented because we allowed the democracy process as we needed their input. This budget is for the rakyat and the opposition too are representative of the rakyat."
On his own political ambitions, Mr Azmin said it was fate which led him to where he is right now.
"I am a reluctant politician. I must thank Dr Mahathir for getting me involved in politics in 1998," he said.
" When I served Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (as aide) for 15 years (when Anwar was education minister, finance minister and deputy prime minister), I had no interest in becoming active in politics until he was sacked in 1998," said Mr Azmin.
"Then I had to be together with the rakyat, part of the reformasi and later part of the political party, Keadilan Nasional. That was the first political party I was actively involved in, in 1999."
He continued: "I am not ambitious in politics. In PKR, I was denied in 2008 when we won in Selangor. Someone else was made the mentri besar and again, when he was removed unceremoniously by Anwar, the intention was not for me to succeed.
"Langkah Kajang happened and that is politics. By divine intervention, I was made the Selangor MB. I worked very hard and in the last general election in 2018, for the first time, Pakatan won 51.56 per cent of the votes in Selangor."
Said Mr Azmin: "Then, when the Pakatan government in Selangor was formed, my name was not there again. I was told to go to the federal government and I had to sit with the Sultan of Selangor to get his consent to move from Selangor to the federal government.
"He gave his consent that I may go to the federal government, provided that I support the development of Selangor under the Economic Planning Unit."
Asked why he has fallen out with Mr Anwar, whom he had stuck by for decades, Mr Azmin said he was not to blame.
"I have served him for 30 years - officially for 15 years when (he) held the posts of education and finance ministers and DPM (deputy prime minister).
"I also took care of his family when he was in prison. I thought after he was released from prison, he would come out a better person."
Mr Azmin continued: "Unfortunately, he became a bitter person - not only for me but for the whole nation.
"You can see that his close staff left him and many others from his previous personal team have also left him.
Mr Azmin gave names of a few individuals. "You can't blame me alone, then, for leaving him."
HENAN and SEATTLE: Schoolboy Wang Kai possesses the ability to throw playing cards with so much force that they can slice through vegetables and fruits. A useless skill, some may say.
But this 11-year-old’s card-throwing videos, numbering over 700, have been shared by 60 million people worldwide, propelling him to internet stardom since four years ago.
His subscribers have swelled to more than 200,000, while the click-through advertising revenue from his library of videos earns him nearly RMB2,000 (S$407) a month, half of his family’s monthly income in Henan province, China.
The boy is under pressure to maintain this income stream. “I do know that my dad uploads new content daily. Sometimes he’d be filming my videos,” he said.
“I can feel his pressure too. My dad’s pretty strict with me. Sometimes when I’m not performing that well, he’d physically hit me.”
Wang Kai with his father video-recording him.
It is just one example of how going viral is now serious business.
If you enjoy videos of children with physical skills or funny cat videos, have you ever wondered how far people will go to make videos of their children or their pets go viral, to cash in on their popularity?
Or whether everything you see is as it seems? To find out, the series Beyond The Viral Video tracks down some of these internet sensations in China.
It also uncovers the ugly realities of some of these videos, involving children or animals, and what their creators do to up the ante and stay competitive.
The top viral videos year after year always include children or animals.
KEEPING IT REAL
Certainly, content creators have a ready audience, as people’s appetite for online videos has grown. On YouTube alone, a billion hours of content are watched every day.
And the number of video content hours uploaded every minute to this platform grew by around 40 per cent between 2014 and last year.
On Douyin, the domestic version of TikTok in China, half of the top 20 child videos in the first half of this year featured children performing a feat.
Take, for example, the video of a 13-month-old Chinese girl riding a hoverboard.
“There’s a stereotype that kids in China can do a lot of magical things,” said Curtin University senior research fellow (internet studies) Crystal Abidin. And this “quality of exoticism is often what attracts us to internet celebrity.”
But as the stakes get higher in the viral video world, so has the number of viral hoaxes. For every adorable, funny and amazing video that is real, there is another out there that is fake.
One that has been seen 71 million times is the video of four-year-old Lin Lin, who lives in Jilin city in northeast China and who can parallel park and reverse his motorised toy car into a sliver of space.
But is he bona fide? To prove that he is, he reversed his car between rows of eggs with precision in front of the Beyond The Viral Video crew.
Four-year-old Lin Lin in action.
“I know I’m famous, but I don’t know what it means to be famous,” he declared.
Meanwhile, the video of toddler Long Yixin gliding on a hoverboard has been viewed more than 10 million times.
When CNA filmed her, she was already two and a half years old. And for the entire hour she was playing with the hoverboard, not a single time did she fall.
Her mother, Wang Ao’ao, said Yixin was able to control the hoverboard after ten minutes of playing with it.
“We thought it was rather impressive, so I quickly shared it with my circle of friends (to) show off my daughter,” she added.
Wang Kai also displayed his talent in front of the television cameras. He sliced not only vegetables and fruits, but also a drink can with just a poker card. His internet fame has led him to dream even bigger.
“My goal is to challenge the Guinness World Records when I’m older,” he said.
He picked up card flicking as a six-year-old hoping to win back his mother after she left the family. She did get in touch with him subsequently, but did not return.
NO PAIN, NO GAIN
Creating a viral video is not easy, however, even for talented children.
For his training in the past four years, Wang Kai has used up some 400 boxes of cards. His father, Wang Dongqiang, said the boy found it “unbearable” at first and complained about wrist pains.
“I told him that he can’t simply give up because of the initial pain,” said Wang. “The persistence needed isn’t just over a month or two; it’s over a year or two.”
In contrast, two-year-old Xiao Tian did not have to practise anything much to become a minor internet celebrity. A video of him picking up a bottle lying on the ground and then binning it garnered more than 17 million views.
Xian Tian with his uncle Xiao Yang.
“How many people would actually pick up a bottle they see on the ground? So the things we did in the video resonated with the people’s hearts,” said his uncle Xiao Yang.
It was all by design, however. CNA found out that Xiao Tian’s father and uncle are video professionals who have spun the boy’s success.
Realising that videos showing children being obedient or demonstrating civic consciousness would do well, they film him doing these acts every day, with candy as an incentive.
Then there is Liu Limei in Hunan province. She could carve works of art on vegetables when she was six years old, and her viral videos resulted in a windfall for her family last year.
“During live streams, the fans could give tips of between RMB200 to RMB300. It was unbelievable,” said her father, Liu Guocheng.
Liu Limei.
Virtual gifts also flooded into their Kuaishou (a Chinese video-sharing app) account, and they raised close to RMB660,000 on a separate crowdfunding platform.
The money came in useful, as Limei suffers from kidney problems and her brother has leukaemia. The donations went towards their medical treatment in Beijing.
But people stopped donating this year, and the family is scraping by once again. Although Limei has tried to update her skills with the paring knife, she is still waiting for her next viral success.
NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED?
Child videos are not the only ones, however, that can hit pay dirt.
Consider this: Jiff Pom, a pomeranian dog, has more than 21.1 million fans on TikTok, 10.5 million followers on Instagram and reportedly earns up to £35,000 (S$62,000) per Instagram post.
But as the rewards have risen, so has the competition. And with the lure of a big pay day, there may be no telling how far owners will go to make their pet a viral success.
Are pets exploited?
Seattle film-maker Will Braden, whose day job as the curator of the Cat Video Fest involves watching some 15,000 videos every year, must make sure that no cats were harmed in the videos he selects.
And it is getting to be a daily challenge. In one video of a cat jumping through snow outside a house, he thought the video was cropped in a strange way.
“I looked a little bit more into it, and sure enough, in the wider version of it, someone just … throws the cat through the snow,” he said.
“It’s a lot of work in terms of following up on things and back stories, but it’s incredibly important … to speak with the people who shot the video.”
Will Braden.
In another viral animal video, a poodle in China is constantly filmed walking on its hind legs. But many YouTube users have criticised this for being cruel to the dog.
“That’s a no-no because that causes a lot of pain, especially in future,” said professional dog trainer Joy Chia-Ling.
“You can train the dog to walk on his hind legs. But because dogs have a very high pain threshold … they wouldn’t tell you immediately that it’s painful.”
In another popular video, a slow loris seemingly giggles in response to being tickled. But the animal was actually raising its arms in self-defence, pointed out Oxford Brookes University professor in primate conservation Anna Nekaris.
When a loris is threatened, it puts up its arms to combine venom from the oil in its arm and from its saliva to bite a potential predator, she said.
“In the video, we see an animal in a very defensive position, not in a submissive or cute position,” she added.
“It made my heart sink the moment I saw that video. I thought this was going to be the end for the slow loris.”
A FACTOR IN WILDLIFE TRADE
Viral videos of exotic pets may also be fuelling the trade in them.
Cassandra Koenen, who heads the World Animal Protection’s wildlife campaigns, noted that in a survey of first-time exotic pet buyers, 15 per cent said YouTube videos had inspired them to buy their pets.
Cassandra Koenen.
Half of them did next to no research before buying these animals.
“Social media platforms are still struggling (with) … or ignoring the fact that these animals are continually being sold on their platforms,” said Koenen.
“It just makes it too easy. You see the video, search online for a place to buy it … and then it’s in your home.”
Nekaris said that once an exotic animal appears in a video with a person, there is a perception that the animal “isn’t as endangered”.
“The fact that you can hold it and it doesn’t necessarily bite you, or (in) the videos you’re watching, the people aren’t being bitten … suggests it’s a suitable pet,” she said.
Reptiles like iguanas cannot digest food in temperatures below 16 to 18°C. Did you know that?
Paul Lewis, who runs the Forgotten Kingdom Animal Shelter outside Seattle, has lost count of the number of exotic animals he has nursed back to health.
Most of the animals that have ended up in this shelter over the past two decades were rescued by wildlife authorities or abandoned by their owners.
During this COVID-19 pandemic, he has noticed more people streaming videos of their exotic pets, which he said encourages others to buy or adopt these animals.
And he is worried about more exotic pets, legal or illegal, turning up at the shelter once their owners return to a “normal life” after the pandemic.
“Those types of animals … require a lot of care, (their owners) aren’t going to be around to take care of them, and then they’re going to have a problem,” he said.
TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday (Nov 28) retaliate for the killing of the country's top nuclear scientist, raising the threat of a new confrontation with the West and Israel in the remaining weeks of Donald Trump's presidency.
Khamenei pledged to continue the work of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Western and Israeli governments believe was the architect of a secret Iranian programme to make weapons.
Friday's killing, which Iran's president was swift to blame on Israel, could complicate any efforts by President-elect Joe Biden to revive a detente with Tehran that was forged when he was in Barack Obama's administration.
Trump pulled Washington out of the 2015 international nuclear pact agreed between Tehran and major powers.
Khamenei, who is Iran's top authority and who insists the country has never sought nuclear arms, said on Twitter that Iranian officials must take up the task of "pursuing this crime and punishing its perpetrators and those who commanded it".
He called Fakhrizadeh a "prestigious nuclear and defence scientist" and said he was "martyred by the hands of criminal and cruel mercenaries".
"This unparalleled scientist gave his dear and valuable life to God because of his great and lasting scientific efforts, and the high prize of martyrdom is his divine reward," he added.
A handout picture provided by the Iranian Supreme Leader's official website on Nov 27, 2020, shows Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh during a meeting with the Iranian supreme leader in Tehran, on Jan 23, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Official Khamenei Website/Handout)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a televised cabinet meeting on Saturday Iran would respond "at the proper time".
"Once again, the evil hands of Global Arrogance and the Zionist mercenaries were stained with the blood of an Iranian son," he said, using terms officials employ to refer to Israel.
Israel's N12 news channel said Israeli embassies had been put on high alert after the Iranian threats of retaliation.
Israel has declined to comment on the killing of Fakhrizadeh and an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said the ministry did not comment on security regarding missions abroad.
The White House, Pentagon, US State Department and CIA have also declined to comment on the killing, as has Biden's transition team. Biden takes office on Jan 20.
"Whether Iran is tempted to take revenge or whether it restrains itself, it will make it difficult for Biden to return to the nuclear agreement," Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief and director of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, wrote on Twitter.
Fakhrizadeh was "martyred" after being seriously wounded when assailants targeted his car and engaged in a gunfight with his bodyguards outside the capital Tehran on Friday, according to Iran's defence ministry.
The ministry said that the scientist, who headed its research and innovation organisation, died after medics failed to revive him.
The scene where Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in Absard, a small city just east of the capital, Tehran, Iran on Nov 27, 2020. (Photo: AP/Fars News Agency)
"REMEMBER THAT NAME"
Germany, one of the signatories to the nuclear pact, called for restraint on all sides to avoid derailing any future talks.
"Definitely Iran will retaliate. When and how depends on our national interests. It might happen in the coming days or weeks, but it will happen," a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
He pointed to Iran's retaliatory missile attacks in January on an Iraqi base where US forces were stationed, days after a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad killed top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. No US troops were killed in the action.
"The martyrdom of Fakhrizadeh will accelerate our nuclear work," said Fereydoon Abbasi, the former head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, who survived an assassination attempt in 2010.
At least four scientists were killed between 2010 and 2012 in what Tehran said was a programme of assassinations aimed at sabotaging its nuclear energy programme. Iran has always denied pursuing nuclear weapons, saying its aims are only peaceful.
Fakhrizadeh was thought to have headed what the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the US intelligence services believe was Iran's nuclear arms programme.
He was the only Iranian scientist named in the IAEA's 2015 "final assessment" of open questions about Iran's nuclear programme. It said he oversaw activities "in support of a possible military dimension to (Iran's) nuclear programme".
Fakhrizadeh was also a central figure in a presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 accusing Iran of continuing to seek nuclear weapons. "Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh," Netanyahu said at the time.
US intelligence services and the IAEA believe Iran halted its coordinated weapons programme in 2003. The IAEA has said it had no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009.
The United States deployed US aircraft carrier Nimitz with accompanying ships to the Gulf on Wednesday, shortly before the killing, but a US Navy spokeswoman said the deployment was not related to any specific threats.
