BEIJING - Ahead of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) centennial celebrations on Thursday (July 1), journalists, diplomats and other invited guests have been given a list of dos and don'ts for partaking in the festivities at Tiananmen Square.
Among them: refrain from taking toilet breaks after 7.30am; no hats; no taking personal belongings.
Details of the parade, which starts at 8am, have been kept tightly under wraps, but President Xi Jinping will address the nation while a fly-past of fighter jets and helicopters is also slated.
In a note to attending envoys, who checked into Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Wednesday night for a Covid-19 test and quarantine, diplomats were encouraged to sing along and wave the Chinese flag during the celebratory event "to help with the atmosphere".
Control over the centennial celebrations has been unprecedented - more stringent than when the country marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China two years ago.
Residents who live near Tiananmen Square told The Straits Times that they are not allowed to leave their homes after 2pm on Wednesday. Policemen are on guard at every street to make sure they abide by their curfew.
Journalists, who all have to be fully vaccinated to cover the event, had to quarantine in a hotel for at least 15 hours before being taken to the venue.
They were also told on Wednesday that they could not take hats, umbrellas, water or food to the venue, and only one mobile phone is allowed for each person.
The party has been on a campaign to reinforce its political legitimacy.
On Thursday, he is also expected to announce that China has reached its target of becoming a "moderately prosperous society" by doubling its per capita gross domestic product (GDP) to US$10,000 (S$13,400) from 2010 levels.
Its membership has swelled in recent years. On Wednesday, the party said its membership number has crossed the 95 million mark, growing nearly 4 per cent from the end of 2019.
The CCP started with about 50 members when it was founded in 1921.
About 2.31 million people joined in the first half of this year alone, said a statement from its organisation department.
Nearly 25 per cent of its members are aged 35 or younger, while 28.8 per cent of all members are women.
SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has congratulated Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Writing in his capacity as secretary-general of the People’s Action Party (PAP), Mr Lee noted the CPC’s role amid “tremendous and rapid” changes in the world over the past century.
"Against this backdrop, the CPC has steered China to overcome many domestic and external challenges, and shepherded China onto the path of peace and prosperity,” he wrote in a letter addressed to Mr Xi as general secretary of the CPC.
“China has made momentous progress in its development, raising the standard of living for an unprecedented number of people.”
In the letter released to the media on Wednesday (Jun 30), Mr Lee said that in recent years and under Mr Xi's leadership, China "has succeeded in eradicating absolute poverty and achieving a moderately prosperous society".
China has also brought its COVID-19 situation under control, paving the way for economic recovery, he added.
The CPC marks its 100th founding anniversary on Jul 1. The party has ruled China since 1949.
Mr Lee said the goals laid out in the CPC’s 14th five-year plan will bring China "another step closer to its vision of a modern socialist economy".
"A stable, prosperous, and successful China that is well-integrated into the international system benefits not just China, but also the rest of Asia and the world," he wrote.
Mr Lee added that the PAP and the CPC share warm and friendly ties, underpinned by regular exchanges.
“The growing relations between both parties have kept pace with our countries’ evolving development priorities and greatly benefited our peoples,” he said.
"I am confident that our bilateral relations will continue to strengthen in the years ahead.”
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s King wants Parliament to reconvene before the state of emergency expires on Aug 1, despite the government committing to a sitting by October.
In a joint statement on Wednesday (June 30), the chairs of both Houses in the federal legislature said Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah had “decreed his view” during an audience on Tuesday, which was also attended by their deputies.
“(We) stated our commitment and the full readiness of Parliament to meet as decreed by His Majesty,” said Lower House Speaker Azhar Harun and Senate president Rais Yatim.
They added that they had made this known to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and suggested to him that “a special sitting be held before Aug 1”.
The issue of exactly when Parliament should meet for the first time since December has been the subject of heated debate in the fortnight since the King and eight other state rulers said that the legislature should assemble as soon as possible.
Sultan Abdullah and the other rulers had convened a special meeting on June 16. Prior to that, the King had spent a week in a series of audiences with leaders of major political parties, heads of institutions and experts on the pandemic following the deadliest weeks of Malaysia’s ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.
The royal statements came just a day after Mr Muhyiddin unveiled a National Recovery Plan, which outlined a September or October target for a parliamentary session to be held when Malaysia’s worst Covid-19 wave eases and lockdown restrictions are loosened.
Although the law states that it is up to the embattled Premier to decide when to bring the House into session, the royal opinions are weighing on Mr Muhyiddin, whose grip on a parliamentary majority has been in doubt since a spate of defections in January.
It was immediately after two Umno lawmakers withdrew support for his Perikatan Nasional government that the state of emergency was imposed on Jan 11. It suspends the need for Parliament to sit within six months of its last meeting in December.
Cabinet ministers have insisted that the government’s timeline meets the royal criteria of “as soon as possible”, while critics and the opposition disagree.
Heaping pressure on Mr Muhyiddin, main opposition pact Pakatan Harapan has begun the process of convening the assemblies of the three states it governs - Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan. Pahang, ruled by the King himself, will resume in August.
Pahang’s state government is led by Umno, Mr Muhyiddin’s partner in the federal administration, which has been pushing for fresh polls to be held as soon as the pandemic is under control.
TAIPEI: Taiwan will discuss easing the import and export of COVID-19 vaccines with the United States when it holds trade talks with Washington this week, which will help in bringing the pandemic under control, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday (Jun 29).
The two sides are due to resume long-stalled trade discussions on Wednesday as Washington seeks to deepen its support for the Chinese-claimed island, and at a time when Taiwan is dealing with a cluster of domestic COVID-19 cases.
In an address from her office, Tsai said the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement talks, or TIFA, would include what she referred to as an "important" topic.
"That is to simplify the import and export process of vaccines and other medical supplies. This substantive cooperation will bring important help to our current epidemic situation. I have asked our negotiating team to go all out," Tsai said.
"If Taiwan's epidemic is brought under control and economic fluctuations are reduced, it will be a further contribution to the peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region."
Taiwan is a major producer of semiconductors, a global shortage of which has reverberated around the world, though the island's domestic COVID-19 outbreak has not had a substantial impact on supplies.
A further 410,000 doses of Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in Taiwan on Wednesday, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen said earlier on Tuesday, part of its direct order for 5.05 million doses from the company.
Only about 8 per cent of Taiwan's 23.5 million people have received at least one of the two shot regimen against COVID-19, and the government has been under pressure to speed up deliveries of the millions of doses it has on order.
When asked if a government-run research centre is in talks with Moderna to make COVID-19 vaccines, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said the government "will not give up any opportunity" and is currently reviewing its vaccine manufacturing capacity for international companies.
"We are reviewing related capacity, willingness and division of labour domestically. That will smooth things out in a negotiation," Chen told a daily news briefing, without giving details.
Taiwan has received a total of 4.85 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to date, including 1.24 million donated by Japan and 2.5 million donated by the United States. Japan has pledged another 1 million, while Lithuania is giving Taiwan 20,000.
Taiwan's own domestic outbreak of the virus is being brought under control, but it remains wary about a handful of cases of the highly contagious Delta variant in southern Taiwan.
The island reported 54 new domestic infections on Tuesday, down from 60 a day earlier, marking the smallest daily rise since May 15, when the government raised the alert level for Taipei and its neighbouring city in the wake of a sudden spike of domestic cases.
SINGAPORE: Forty-one suspects were arrested or investigated in Hong Kong and Singapore for their involvement in transnational job scams, said the Singapore Police Force (SPF) on Tuesday (Jun 29).
Fourteen alleged "core members" of the scam syndicate, which operated from Hong Kong, were arrested by Hong Kong Police between Jun 16 and Jun 18 over 134 cases of jobs scams in Hong Kong that involved HKD 9 million (S$1.56 million).
Another 27 people were arrested by the Singapore police for their suspected involvement in job scams.
"Preliminary investigations indicated that they had allegedly facilitated in bank transfers, funds withdrawals, or had relinquished their bank accounts to the scam syndicate," said SPF.
In a news release, SPF said it has seen a rise in the number of job scam cases in recent months.
"In these scams perpetuated by the Hong Kong syndicate, the syndicate would post advertisements for jobs promising quick cash on different social media platforms," said SPF.
The job would require the victims - job seekers - to assist in "improving the sales of online platforms", which included Taobao, HKTV Mall, and "some malicious mobile apps", added SPF.
The victims would then be told to make payments by transferring funds to different bank accounts. In return, they were promised reimbursements of the full sum, with 5 per cent to 12 per cent commissions.
In the initial stages, the scammers would purportedly reimburse the victims and pay them commissions to convince them that it was a legitimate job. This was also done to "induce them" to deposit increasingly larger sums of money to earn more commission, said Singapore police.
Cash seized from operations in Singapore. (Photo: SPF)
"At this point, the scammers would promise commissions only after a certain number of tasks had been completed and would delay payments," said SPF.
"The victims would only realise they had fallen prey to a scam when they did not receive the subsequent reimbursements and commissions."
The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), Police Intelligence Department and seven land divisions of the SPF, together with the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force, had "jointly crippled" the transnational job scam syndicate, said SPF.
Mobile phones and cards seized from operations in Singapore. (Photo: SPF)
SPF managed to detect potential victims who could have received unsolicited texts, WhatsApp and Telegram messages from the alleged scammers.
Since May 20, the CAD's Anti Scam Centre has contacted more than 660 potential victims to advise them of these job scams, said SPF.
The centre has also terminated more than 270 phone numbers and frozen more than 80 bank accounts suspected to be linked to these scams.
"IF IT IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS"
CAD's director David Chew said the transnational crime syndicate targeted unsuspecting victims in "many jurisdictions", including Singapore.
"In this instance, they had enticed potential job seekers with promises of highly paid jobs that allowed them to work-from-home," said Mr Chew.
SPF will continue collaborating "closely" with its counterparts to detect and deter such syndicates, which "exploit the anonymity of the Internet", he added.
(Graphic: SPF)
Members of the public are advised that e-commerce platforms will never ask anyone to transfer money on the promise of a refund with a commission.
"If it is too good to be true, it probably is. Do not accept dubious job offers that offer lucrative returns for minimal effort," said SPF.
People who are randomly invited into a messaging application group chat, which they suspect is promoting a scam, should report the group chat using the in-app function.
"If possible, always verify the authenticity of the job with the official websites or sources; and do not click on suspicious URLs or download applications from unknown sources," SPF added.
SHANGHAI: At the house where Mao Zedong and 12 others met 100 years ago to found the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping recently led his politburo in reciting an oath to uphold principles and "sacrifice everything" for the party and the people.
The obscure Shanghai courtyard of 1921 is now a lavish memorial hall, a focal point as China celebrates the centenary on Thursday (Jul 1) of the party that controls the world's most populous nation and second-biggest economy.
The site of that first party congress now chronicles China's "humiliation" at the hands of warlords and imperialists, its "awakening" in the early 20th century and its revival after the party's 1949 victory in a civil war that sent Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists into exile in Taiwan.
The commemorations in what has become an upscale neighbourhood of boutiques and restaurants reflect something broader: A myth-making project to amplify China's message at home and abroad, aligning with Xi's call this month to tell more positive stories about China.
But even as China celebrates, it erases.
A boy dressed in a replica uniform of Red Army poses with a Chinese flag outside the Memorial of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China, ahead of the 100th founding anniversary of the party, in Shanghai, China June 22, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song
A stirring video montage highlights China's proudest achievements, including its first atomic bomb, the construction of prestige infrastructure and the recent unmanned mission to Mars.
Ignored are the major tumults of the 20th century that historians reckon killed millions: The "Great Leap Forward" famine of 1958 to 1960, the decade of chaos in the "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 and the crackdown that killed hundreds or even thousands of people in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
"There's a lot of its history (the party) needs to forget," said Robert Bickers, a historian of the party at Britain's University of Bristol. "It has devoted a great deal of effort throughout the course of its 100 years ensuring that there is an agreed text of a history that needs to be celebrated."
Neither the State Council Information Office nor the CCP's Party History and Literature Research Office responded to faxed requests for comment.
Tourists ride on a bus marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, in Shanghai, China June 13, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song
"HISTORICAL NIHILISM"
The party has long sought to control history. That effort has intensified under Xi, who has spearheaded a campaign against "historical nihilism", defined as any attempt to use the past to question the party's leading role or the "inevitability" of Chinese socialism.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has established a specialist history unit to propagate the official version of the past. This year Beijing set up a hotline for citizens to report historical nihilism to authorities.
Glenn Tiffert, a historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said this campaign reflects the party's insecurity and is rooted in Xi's fears that it could collapse like its Soviet counterpart, ousted in 1991.
"It seems to be a particular preoccupation of his from the very beginning," he said. "It is part of a more systematic, integrated approach to re-establishing the authority of the party and ensuring it does not go the way of the Soviet Communist Party."
Workers build an installation ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China, in Shanghai, China June 15, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song
Despite Xi's efforts to emphasise the continuity of the party's century-long efforts to rejuvenate China, the new memorial hall shows that the party has moved far from its roots.
While it describes its first decades as a triumph of Marxist ideas, there is no mention of the theoretical contortions that allowed the party to jettison the collectivism of the Maoist era and launch market reforms that transformed its economy into the world's second-largest and also one of its most unequal.
A list of party "facts and figures" published by the official Shanghai Daily this month barely mentions ideology, saying the party's mission is "to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation".
"It's not about the belief in communism anymore, it's about delivering the goods," said Tiffert. "And in order to sustain that, they want to cover up all of the missteps."
Yang Xuzhen, an 89-year-old visiting the memorial hall in a wheelchair, was happy to remember the party's achievements, saying the organisation she joined seven decades ago had rescued her from hard labour and servitude.
The Communist Party "has helped change so much in this country, especially for people in the countryside, the poor people and all of the minorities," she said.
TAIPEI: Taiwan will discuss easing the import and export of COVID-19 vaccines with the United States when it holds trade talks with Washington this week, which will help in bringing the pandemic under control, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday (Jun 29).
The two sides are due to resume long-stalled trade discussions on Wednesday as Washington seeks to deepen its support for the Chinese-claimed island, and at a time when Taiwan is dealing with a cluster of domestic COVID-19 cases.
In an address from her office, Tsai said the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement talks, or TIFA, would include what she referred to as an "important" topic.
"That is to simplify the import and export process of vaccines and other medical supplies. This substantive cooperation will bring important help to our current epidemic situation. I have asked our negotiating team to go all out," Tsai said.
"If Taiwan's epidemic is brought under control and economic fluctuations are reduced, it will be a further contribution to the peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region."
Taiwan is a major producer of semiconductors, a global shortage of which has reverberated around the world, though the island's domestic COVID-19 outbreak has not had a substantial impact on supplies.
A further 410,000 doses of Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in Taiwan on Wednesday, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen said earlier on Tuesday, part of its direct order for 5.05 million doses from the company.
Only about 8 per cent of Taiwan's 23.5 million people have received at least one of the two shot regimen against COVID-19, and the government has been under pressure to speed up deliveries of the millions of doses it has on order.
When asked if a government-run research centre is in talks with Moderna to make COVID-19 vaccines, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said the government "will not give up any opportunity" and is currently reviewing its vaccine manufacturing capacity for international companies.
"We are reviewing related capacity, willingness and division of labour domestically. That will smooth things out in a negotiation," Chen told a daily news briefing, without giving details.
Taiwan has received a total of 4.85 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to date, including 1.24 million donated by Japan and 2.5 million donated by the United States. Japan has pledged another 1 million, while Lithuania is giving Taiwan 20,000.
Taiwan's own domestic outbreak of the virus is being brought under control, but it remains wary about a handful of cases of the highly contagious Delta variant in southern Taiwan.
The island reported 54 new domestic infections on Tuesday, down from 60 a day earlier, marking the smallest daily rise since May 15, when the government raised the alert level for Taipei and its neighbouring city in the wake of a sudden spike of domestic cases.
SYDNEY (BLOOMBERG, REUTERS) - More than 12 million Australians - close to half of the population - are now in lockdown as the nation struggles to contain a spread of the Delta coronavirus variant.
On Tuesday (June 29), Brisbane became Australia's fourth regional capital city to restrict movement outside of homes except for essential reasons such as shopping and exercise for at least three days, less than 24 hours after a similar move in Perth.
They followed Sydney and Darwin, which over the weekend announced longer lockdowns of up to two weeks. An outbreak in New South Wales (NSW) capital Sydney linked to the variant has grown to nearly 150 cases.
Worries the strain could spark major outbreaks have forced lockdowns in the major cities and some form of curbs in several others - affecting more than 20 million Australians, or about 80 per cent of the population.
The Queensland capital city of Brisbane, along with other areas of South-east Queensland state, including the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast and the more remote regions of Townsville city, Palm Island and Magnetic Island, will enter a three-day lockdown from 6pm on Tuesday.
"We need to go hard and we need to go fast," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday after two new local cases were recorded from the previous day.
"There will be a lockdown for three days and I don't want it to be 30 days." In a late night press conference in Perth on Monday, Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan announced a snap four-day lockdown for that city - the nation's unofficial resources capital - after a woman returned to the city from Sydney while infectious.
Sydney, home to one-fifth of Australia's 25 million population, is under a two-week lockdown until July 9 while the lockdown in the northern city of Darwin was extended for another 72 hours until Friday.
Tough restrictions, including mandatory masks and fewer gatherings, are in place elsewhere. NSW reported 19 new locally acquired infections, detected from a record 67,000 tests, versus 18 cases a day ago.
The outbreaks are ramping up pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to increase the pace of a tardy vaccine roll-out. The Delta variant is leaking out of the nation's hotels being used for quarantine, with the current outbreaks also linked to mining workers and airline crew who have travelled around the nation.
The clusters show the limits of Australia's so-called "Covid-zero" strategy, which has relied on closed international borders and rigorous testing to eliminate community transmission of the virus.
While nations such as Britain and the US are preparing to open up their economies after widespread vaccinations, a slow roll-out in Australia means the economy, particularly domestic tourism, remains vulnerable.
While international borders are closed to most, Queensland and Victoria state leaders have asked PM Morrison's government to reduce the number of arrivals into the nation until dedicated quarantine facilities are built or a large proportion of the population are vaccinated.
The nation's current system has proven unable to contain the Delta variant, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday.
"Right around the country right now there is a lot going on with this pandemic," Mr Miles said.
The outbreaks could all "be traced back to international arrivals. In fact, every day we have new cases in hotel quarantine from people who have travelled from overseas. Our international borders are supposed to be closed."
Contact tracers around the nation are battling to keep up with a growing list of exposure sites, including some domestic Virgin Australia flights after a cabin crew member tested positive.
Meanwhile, an outbreak at a mining site in a remote region of the Outback in central Australia has raised fears that the nation's indigenous population is at the greatest risk since the pandemic began.
In response to the clusters emerging around Australia, states and territories are reimposing domestic border restrictions, while a quarantine-free travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand has been suspended.
To head off infections, Australia late on Monday announced steps to increase Covid-19 vaccinations such as mandatory shots for high-risk aged-care workers and employees in quarantine hotels as well as making the AstraZeneca vaccine available to people under the age of 60.
The authorities have now said people under 60 could request the AstraZeneca vaccine if approved by their doctors, who will be covered by a no-fault indemnity scheme matching a wider practice seen overseas.
Health officials say the AstraZeneca vaccine offers a high level of protection against Covid-19 and its benefits far outweigh any risks.
Lockdowns, swift contact tracing and strict social distancing rules have helped Australia keep its Covid-19 numbers relatively low, with just over 30,500 cases and 910 deaths, even as its vaccine roll-out has hit several roadblocks.
WASHINGTON - The world will soon get a new look at the man accused of plotting the October 2002 bombing in Kuta, Bali, that killed 202 people, and the 2003 attacks at the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta that killed 11.
It has been some 18 years coming. Hambali, now about 57, was captured in Ayutthaya, Thailand, on Aug 14, 2003 in a joint US-Thai operation and transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006.
He is believed by investigators to have masterminded the strategy of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror organisation of striking at soft targets. JI has previously been linked to Al-Qaeda and later to the Islamic State.
Hambali was not formally charged in the US with any crime until January this year and remains wanted in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines in connection with terrorist plots.
In Dec 2001, 15 JI operatives were arrested in Singapore for planning attacks on government buildings, embassies and US servicemen in the Republic.
In 2002 came the Bali bombing - the worst terrorist attack ever on Indonesian soil. Then in 2003, the group carried out the twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton in Jakarta.
The charges list Hambali as "Encep Nurjaman, also known as Riduan bin Isomudin, alias HAMBALI".
Two others who will stand trial with him are Mohammed Nazir Lep, alias Lillie, and Mohammed Farik Amin, also known as Zubair.
An appendix provides a long list of other aliases of the three.
The charge sheet dated April 2019 lays out, in chilling detail, planning by the three as "principals, as co-conspirators, and as participants" of the Bali and Jakarta attacks, and a string of other plans for attacks against Americans and American interests - including the idea of attacking American servicemen and sinking an American warship in Singapore.
The three are classified as "alien unprivileged enemy belligerents".
The trio is standing trial on Aug 30 for "offences triable by military commission, including murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, terrorism, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, and destruction of property in violation of the law of war".
A file photo shows an armed Indonesian policeman in front of what remains of the Padi club in Denpasar, Bali, following a car bombing on Oct 13, 2002. PHOTO: AFP
Defence attorneys appointed by the military will speak in their defence. One of the principal points they will be making is that Hambali was tortured in detention.
Additionally, the charge sheet states that "From on or about August 1996 to on or about August 2003, at multiple locations in or around Afghanistan, South-east Asia and elsewhere, the three knowingly conspired and agreed with… Usama bin Laden, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Abu Ba'aysir, Abdullah Sungkar and others, known and unknown".
The Pakistani militant Khalid Shaikh Mohammad is accused of masterminding the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the US and is also being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison on terrorism-related charges.
As the 20th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks approaches, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad may also finally see a long-delayed formal trial. In summer 2019, a military judge set the date for January 2021, but amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it was again postponed. A new date has not been set.
BANGKOK: Owners of eateries in Bangkok and nearby provinces were left frustrated after a ban on dining-in was reimposed on Monday (Jun 28), a week after the government relaxed COVID-19 control measures.
The ban was announced late Saturday night after Thailand’s daily case numbers rose above 2,000 for several weeks. It was enforced along with other restrictions on interprovincial travel, construction sites and gatherings in various parts of the country, and will last at least 30 days.
This came as a blow to many restaurant owners, some of whom had just begun to recover from the previous dining-in ban.
“How did I feel when I heard about the latest restrictions? Exasperated,” said Mika Apichatsakol. Her vegan eatery Bangkok City Diner had suspended its dining-in services from May 1 to follow the government’s order. Since then, it has only managed to serve food for deliveries.
"We had actually planned to reopen for dine-in on Jul 1. We announced it about a week ago, and now we'll just be going back to deliveries only,” Mika told CNA.
It's that feeling of constantly taking a step forward and then a step back again.
Bangkok City Diner posted this image on its Facebook page on Jun 23, 2021, as it planned to reopen for dine-in services in July. This came shortly before the government reimposed a ban on dining-in at eateries to control COVID-19. (Photo: Bangkok City Diner)
Thailand is battling a third wave of COVID-19 infections, which started in April when a cluster was found at high-end nightclubs in Bangkok.
More than 220,000 people have since tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 1,840 patients have died from the disease.
To curb the spread, the government imposed restrictions on eateries and various businesses. Still, the situation worsened last month when the virus infected inmates in crowded prisons and detention facilities nationwide.
Last week, some control measures were eased and food and beverage outlets were allowed to stay open for diners until 11pm. But that did not last long.
Many new clusters were reported and a number of them involved workers in construction and service industries.
According to Thailand's Disease Control Department, health officials are monitoring more than 100 clusters in Bangkok alone.
The situation prompted Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha to impose certain restrictions in areas with high COVID-19 infections such as Bangkok and its nearby provinces.
Bangkok City Diner is one of many eateries in Bangkok and nearby provinces that were affected by a ban on dining-in reimposed by the government on Jun 28. 2021. (Photo: Bangkok City Diner)
For some restaurateurs, the return of the ban on dining-in services has devastating impact on their businesses and staff members. Each wave of outbreaks came with restrictions that slashed their income and shrank their capital with hardly any compensation from the government.
“I was watching the news until 1am and I was puzzled,” said restaurateur Thavalsak Grajangpho from Ruean Rim Nam in Bangkok.
“I think it’s the same for every restaurant that had done so – all of a sudden, in the morning, we had to cancel all our orders,” he added.
I was quite surprised and I think it’s unfair.
On Monday, Gen Prayut promised compensation for entrepreneurs and employees affected by his latest order. They include restaurant owners, their staff members, construction workers and their employers in Bangkok and its vicinity.
“We’re no less affected than you are, even more so actually because we have to make sure everybody can live through this period. Let me tell you, many countries even have it worse than we do right now,” he said in a press briefing after meeting economic advisors at the Government House.
“I’ll do my best to take care.”
Ruean Rim Nam is one of many restaurants in Bangkok affected by the government's new order to ban dining-in at eateries for one month. (Photo: Thavalsak Grajangpho)
According to Danucha Pichayanan, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Council, employees affected by the new set of restrictions will receive 50 per cent of their salary but no more than 7,500 baht (US$235) from the government, with an additional 2,000 baht (US$63), if they are registered in the social security system.
Employers will receive 3,000 baht (US$94) for every employee as long as they too are registered in the system. However, the number of employees is capped at 200.
“In case entrepreneurs and employees are not in the system but need help, please quickly register yourselves in the social security system,” Danucha said in a press conference at the Government House on Monday.
“Employers will then receive 3,000 baht for each employee they have. Employees of Thai nationality will then get 2,000 baht each as well.”
However, these employees will not receive the subsidy, which is worth half of their salary. They are required by law to contribute to the social security fund for at least six months before they can receive the subsidy, according to Danucha. The subsidy is available for one month.
For restaurant owners like Thavalsak, who still have to pay rent and workers, the future remains uncertain.
“This wave is worse than the first time and there is no guarantee that after a month of closure, it will really be over,” he told CNA. “I’m angry, definitely. I feel like they don’t empathise with SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) like us at all.”
“I think everyone is wondering why restaurants are shut and not venues like malls, and how many of the COVID-19 clusters are actually caused by restaurants,” Mika added.
HONG KONG: Hong Kong will ban all passenger flights from the United Kingdom from Thursday (Jul 1) to curb the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the government said on Monday.
Britain will be specified as extremely high-risk, and people who have stayed in the country for more than two hours will be unable to board passenger flights bound for Hong Kong, it said.
It is the second time Hong Kong has barred arrivals from Britain after a ban that was in force from December 2020 until May.
The government said the ban was due to "the recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the UK and the widespread Delta variant virus strain there, coupled with a number of cases with L452R mutant virus strains detected by tests from people arriving from the UK".
Parents in Hong Kong with children in Britain reacted with shock. They complained that they had paid large sums to comply with COVID-19 testing rules but their children would now be stranded.
Hong Kong already has bans in place on arrivals from Indonesia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.
The Chinese special administrative region has recorded more than 11,900 cases and 211 deaths because of COVID-19. Most of the city's recent cases over the past month have been imported.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled a new economic stimulus package worth RM150 billion (US$36.2 billion) on Monday (Jun 28), in an attempt to mitigate the impacts of a continued total lockdown.
Speaking during a televised national address, Mr Muhyiddin said the package – named people protection and economic recovery package (Pemulih) – aims to allow people to cope with the financial difficulties arising from COVID-19.
"I hope this financial package is able to help you continue with your lives in the coming months. I am aware many of you are impacted badly, as a result of battling the COVID-19 pandemic for more than a year," he said.
"Even though millions of Malaysians have received financial help from the government since March 2020 ... I understand that help must be extended as long as the pandemic is ongoing."
He said that RM4.6 billion will be set aside under the special COVID-19 assistance scheme (BKC) to help 11 million people, mainly the elderly and those who have yet to get married.
This includes those in the B40 (bottom 40 per cent) and M40 (middle 40 per cent) categories, who are set to receive between RM250 and RM1,300.
Mr Muhyiddin added that another RM500 million would be set aside for those who have lost income as a result of the pandemic. Under this scheme, around 1 million residents are likely to receive RM500 each.
To help the public with their utilities expenses, the government will give electricity bill discounts of between 5 to 40 per cent to households for three months from July, with a maximum limit of 900 kilowatt hours a month.
For small and medium-sized businesses, Mr Muhyiddin said that the government has agreed to provide additional payments under the special prihatin grant (GKP), where companies which qualify will receive RM500 in September and another RM500 in November.
The Prime Minister said that this scheme could help improve the cash flow for around 1 million small and medium enterprises such as barbers, workshop owners, bakeries and health care centres.
LOAN MORATORIUMS FOR INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESS OWNERS
Mr Muhyiddin also announced that under the Pemulih package, individuals from the B40, M40 and T20 (top 20 per cent) groups, as well as business owners, will be able to receive an automatic six-month moratorium from banks.
Unlike in the previous scheme, applicants for the loan moratorium will no longer be held back by several conditions including requirements to show proof of loss of income or employment due to the pandemic.
"I hope this moratorium initiative will go someway in helping individual borrowers and SMEs in managing their cash flow problems during this challenging period. However, I would also advise the public to resort to this for emergency use only and not to make any additional financial commitments," he said.
A general view of Malaysia's Prime Minister's office, in Putrajaya, Malaysia October 26, 2020. REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng
Prior to Monday's announcement, Putrajaya had rolled out seven stimulus packages worth a total of RM380 billion.
The restrictions were set to end on Monday but Mr Muhyiddin said that they will not be eased until daily cases fell below 4,000.
He also told reporters that a more comprehensive financial assistance package will be extended to lower-income families as well as small and medium enterprises impacted by the pandemic.
"Everyone is waiting to see how the government is going to help those who are impacted. I would like to stress here that assistance will be given to the B40 and M40 groups, and loan moratorium for the T20 group, we will also consider their needs. It will be a comprehensive package," said Mr Muhyiddin at the weekend.
"What's important is for us to give support to all levels of society, and in the current climate, around 12 million individuals are affected. We may increase the level of assistance provided to them," he added.
In a statement on Sunday evening, Senior Minister for Defence Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that phase 1 of the movement control order (MCO) will be maintained until the three key threshold value indicators are achieved.
The indicators are that the number of daily COVID-19 cases drop to below 4,000, the rate of bed usage in intensive care units is at a moderate level and that 10 per cent of the population has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Based on the risk evaluation carried out by the Ministry of Health, the government will maintain the phase 1 period nationwide," said Mr Ismail Sabri in a statement.
"This takes into account the current situation, which has yet to successfully transition from phase 1 to phase 2, where the graph on daily COVID-19 positive cases shows a horizontal trend," he added.
On Monday, Malaysia recorded 5,218 new COVID-19 cases. There are now more than 735,000 cases nationwide. More than 4,900 people have died from COVID-19 in Malaysia.
SYDNEY: Australia's COVID-19 response committee is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday (Jun 28) as outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant across the country prompted a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere.
Around 18 million Australians, or around 70 per cent of the population, are now under some form of lockdown or COVID-related restrictions as officials grapple with COVID-19 flare-ups in almost every state or territory.
"I think we are entering a new phase of this pandemic, with the more contagious Delta strain," federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Monday, adding Australia was facing a "critical time" in its fight against COVID-19.
The national security committee, chaired by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will be briefed by the country's chief medical officer later on Monday, Frydenberg said.
Sydney, Australia's most populous city, was plunged into a two-week lockdown over the weekend, while the northern city of Darwin entered a two-day shutdown, as officials grapple to contain the outbreaks.
Australia's Queensland state on Monday reintroduced mandatory masks and limited home gatherings in several areas, including state capital Brisbane, following a similar move by Western Australia officials for state capital Perth. Restrictions remain in place in Victoria state capital Melbourne and national capital Canberra.
A health alert was issued over the weekend for hundreds of passengers after an infected Virgin Australia cabin crew member worked on five different flights covering Brisbane, Melbourne and Gold Coast.
In Sydney, New South Wales state capital, dozens of venues including cafes, shopping centres and public transport routes scattered across the city have been added as virus-exposed locations.
The Darwin lockdown was prompted by the detection of the Delta variant of the virus in a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) worker at a gold mine after he had left the facility.
Australia has so far fared much better than many other developed countries in tackling the spread of the coronavirus, with just over 30,450 cases and 910 deaths.
Lockdowns, tough social distancing rules and swift contact tracing have helped the country successfully suppress prior outbreaks but the fast-moving Delta variant has alarmed health authorities.
SURFSIDE, Florida: Rescuers digging through the rubble of a Florida beachfront condo sought to reassure families that they were doing as much as possible to find missing loved ones, but the crews said they needed to work carefully for the best chance of uncovering survivors.
As the death toll rose Sunday (Jun 27) to nine, relatives grew increasingly desperate for news and worried about the slow progress and dwindling hopes. No one has been pulled alive from the pile since Thursday, hours after the collapse. Some family members were taken by bus on Sunday to a location near the site after relatives frustrated with the pace of rescue efforts demanded to visit the scene.
“My daughter is 26 years old, in perfect health. She could make it out of there,” one mother told rescuers during a weekend meeting with family members. A video of the meeting was posted by Instagram user Abigail Pereira.
“It’s not enough,” continued the mother, who was among relatives who pushed authorities to bring in experts from other countries to help. “Imagine if your children were in there.”
More than 150 people are still unaccounted for in Surfside, and authorities and loved ones fear the toll will go much higher.
Scores of rescue workers remained on the massive pile of rubble, searching for survivors but so far finding only bodies and human remains.
In a meeting with families on Saturday evening, people moaned and wept as Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah explained why he could not answer their repeated questions about how many victims they had found.
“It’s not necessarily that we’re finding victims, OK? We’re finding human remains,” Jadallah said, according to the video posted on Instagram.
He noted the pancake collapse of the 12-story building, which had crumbled into a rubble pile that could be measured in feet. Those conditions have frustrated crews looking for survivors, he said.
Every time crews find remains, they clean the area and remove the remains. They work with a rabbi to ensure any religious rituals are done properly, Jadallah said.
“So the question is, is why is things taking so long?” he said, “What we’re doing is making sure that everything is followed to a ‘T'.”
If crews find any “artefacts", such as documents, pictures or money, they turn them over to police, officials said.
Authorities said their efforts are still a search-and-rescue operation. Alan Cominsky, chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, said they are holding out hope of finding someone alive, but they must be slow and methodical.
“The debris field is scattered throughout, and it’s compact, extremely compact,” he said.
Debris must be stabilised and shored up as they go.
Crews work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo on Jun 27, 2021, in Surfside, Fllorida. (Photo: AP/Gerald Herbert)
“If there is a void space, we want to make sure we’re given every possibility of a survivor. That’s why we can’t just go in and move things erratically, because that’s going to have the worst outcome possible,” he said.
In meetings with authorities, family members repeatedly pushed rescuers to do more. One asked why they could not surgically remove the largest pieces of cement with cranes, to try to uncover bigger voids where survivors might be found.
“There’s not giant pieces that we can easily surgically remove," replied Maggie Castro, of the fire rescue agency, who described herself as “one of the people out there attempting to find your family members.”
“They’re not big pieces. Pieces are crumbled, and they’re being held together by the rebar that’s part of the construction. So if we try to lift that piece, even as carefully, those pieces that are crumbling can fall off the sides and disturb the pile,” Castro said.
She said they try to cut rebar in strategic places and remove large pieces, but that they have to remove them in a way that nothing will fall onto the pile.
“We are doing layer by layer," Castro said. “It doesn’t stop. It’s all day. All night.”
Rescuers were also using a microwave radar device developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the Department of Homeland Security that “sees” through up to eight inches of solid concrete, according to Adrian Garulay, CEO of Spec Ops Group, which sells them. The suitcase-sized device can detect human respiration and heartbeats and was being deployed Sunday by a seven-member search-and-rescue team from Mexico’s Jewish community.
But as the work dragged on, family members grew desperate. Some asked to visit the site so they could shout messages to their loved ones, “so they can hear our voices". On Sunday afternoon, relatives were driven to a location next to the site as crews continued their work.
TV cameras showed two buses pull up and groups of relatives step off. They walked to an area near the scene, where officials said they could observe and have a moment of reflection.
A fire in the rubble pile slowed rescue efforts earlier in the weekend, but Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said it was suppressed on Saturday.
Women pray on Jun 26, 2021, during a prayer vigil for the victims and families of the Champlain Towers collapsed building in Surfside, Florida, at the nearby St Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach. (Photo: AP/Wilfredo Lee)
She said six to eight teams are actively searching the pile at any given time, with hundreds of team members on standby ready to rotate in. She said teams have worked around the clock since Thursday, and there was no lack of personnel.
Teams are also working with engineers and sonar to make sure the rescuers are safe.
“We need to be sure that the pile does not fall on them. It does not fall on any possible survivors and we are diligently pursuing that as we do our work,” she said.
Crews spent the night digging a trench that stretches 125 feet, 20 feet across and 40 feet deep, which, she said, allowed them to find more bodies and human remains.
Earl Tilton, who runs a search-and-rescue consulting firm in North Carolina, said the rescuers in Miami-Dade County were doing an “outstanding job.” Rushing into the rubble without careful planning and execution would injure or kill rescuers and the people they are trying to save, said Tilton, who runs Lodestar Professional Services in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
“I understand the families’ concerns on this. If it was my family member, I would want everyone in there pulling rubble away as fast as humanly possible,” Tilton said. “But moving the wrong piece of debris at the wrong time could cause it to fall on them and crush them.”
During past urban rescues, rescuers have found survivors as long as a week past the initial catastrophe, Tilton said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis praised the search teams as being “some of the best in the business".
“I’d hope that none of these things would ever happen anywhere, but if something like this happens, the people you would want are Miami-Dade search and rescue," DeSantis said during a Sunday news conference. "These teams have gone all over the world. These are the people that you want. And they’ve been there within minutes, and it’s been nonstop.”
Authorities also sought to assure family members directly that the rescuers were well qualified, telling them during a Saturday meeting that some rescuers had worked on search-and-rescue operations after the Oklahoma City bombing, at the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks and following the Haiti earthquake.
After remains are found, they are sent to the medical examiner. Authorities are gathering DNA samples from family members to aid in identification. Late Saturday, four of the victims were identified as Stacie Dawn Fang, 54; Antonio Lozano, 83; Gladys Lozano, 79; and Manuel LaFont, 54.
JAKARTA - Thirty doctors have died of Covid-19 so far this month in Indonesia, as the country battles a second wave of infections driven by the Delta variant, triggering renewed calls to impose a nationwide lockdown or risk a dire situation such as that in India.
In a statement on Sunday (June 27), the Indonesian medical doctors' association (IDI) appealed to the government to impose a hard lockdown of at least two weeks, especially in Java, adding that maximum enforcement is required.
Java is the most populous island where the capital Jakarta is located.
Dr Adib Khumaidi, head of IDI's mitigation team, flagged some grim statistics in several epicentres in Java at an online briefing.
He said Kudus, the smallest regency, has recorded 231 doctors currently hospitalised or serving self-quarantine at home. Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Jakarta are also among the regions that have seen high casualty numbers among doctors.
The 30 doctors who died this month included four on Sunday, bringing the total death toll for doctors since the pandemic started to 405, according to IDI.
The country's total number of Covid-19 cases is now 2.12 million, and the total death toll is 57,138.
Dr Adib warned of the possibility of a dire outbreak in Indonesia, such as that in India, citing as reasons the country's overloaded hospitals and a testing rate lower than India's.
"Merely adding (hospital) beds isn't enough. (Adequate) medical human resources is key. The current situation is that a lot of our fellow medical workers are infected, doing self-isolation, hospitalised," Dr Adib said.
He added that a number of hospitals could be considered as having collapsed, warning that if no drastic step is taken, the whole healthcare system could also collapse.
India had its first surge last September when its total number of active cases soared above one million, before going down to around 137,000 in mid-February. The cases then spiked again and reached the peak of around 3.7 million in May as pandemic fatigue set in and people flouted restriction rules.
On Friday, Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced that the government will convert more hospital beds to treat Covid-19 patients, and at least two major, newly built government-subsidised housing towers in the capital will be turned into facilities to treat patients with mild symptoms.
On Sunday, calls to impose a large-scale lockdown - rather than the current localised lockdowns - also came from the legislative branch, with Parliament's health committee deputy chairman Charles Honoris issuing a statement telling the government to at least impose a hard lockdown in Java.
Indonesia's epidemiological curve is described as "nearly being a vertical line, resembling that of India's in April", Mr Charles said in a text message to The Straits Times last evening.
Meanwhile, Indonesia on Sunday issued an emergency use approval for the Sinovac vaccine to be administered to people aged between 12 and 18.
