At Columbia, demonstrators vowed to remain until their demands are met, including that the school divest all financial holdings linked to Israel.
The university has rejected the demand, with president Minouche Shafik saying talks with students had collapsed.
"Students occupying the building face expulsion," Columbia's Office of Public Affairs said in a statement, adding that the protesters were provided "the opportunity to leave peacefully" but instead declined and escalated the situation.
The university outlined in a press update on Tuesday that those in the encampments and Hamilton Hall "number in the dozens", while nearly 37,000 attend Columbia.
On Tuesday evening, police could be seen outside the university, according to footage on CNN.
NEW YORK: The judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial fined the former US president US$9,000 for contempt of court on Tuesday (Apr 30) and said he would consider jailing him if he continued to violate a gag order.
In a written order, Justice Juan Merchan said the fine may not be enough to serve as a deterrent for the wealthy businessman-turned-politician and lamented he did not have the authority to impose a higher penalty.
"Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment," Merchan wrote.
Merchan had imposed the gag order to prevent Trump from criticizing witnesses and others involved in the case.
The judge fined Trump US$1,000 for each of nine online statements that he said violated his order not to criticize witnesses or other participants in the trial. Prosecutors had flagged 10 posts as possible violations.
The posts, made between Apr 10 and Apr 17, included an article calling his former lawyer Michael Cohen a "serial liar". Cohen is expected to be a prominent witness in the trial.
Another post quoted a Fox News pundit who claimed "undercover liberal activists" were trying to sneak onto the jury. Merchan rejected Trump's argument that he could not be held liable for "reposts" of material he did not write himself.
Merchan will consider whether to impose further penalties for other statements at a hearing on Thursday.
Asia is warming faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, a UN agency.
PHOTO: REUTERS
BANGKOK – Large swaths of Asia are sweltering through a heatwave that has topped temperature records from Myanmar to the Philippines and forced millions of children to stay home from school.
Here are some questions and answers about the extreme heat, which scientists warn will become more frequent and intense because of human-induced climate change.
The Thai authorities have issued warnings about “severe conditions”, while the authorities in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh all forecast temperatures above 40 deg C.
The Philippines and Bangladesh have both suspended in-person classes, while India is reviewing whether heat has affected turnout in national elections.
Even northern Japan has been affected: temperatures in Japan’s Sapporo in April passed 25 deg C at the earliest point of any year on record.
What is causing the heat?
The months preceding the region’s monsoon, or rainy season, are usually hot, but temperatures in 2024 are well above average in many countries.
Experts say climate change is causing more frequent heatwaves that are more intense and last longer.
Asia is also warming faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, a UN agency.
And the El Nino weather phenomenon is playing a role in 2024, said Dr Milton Speer, a meteorologist and visiting research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney.
“The lack of cloud in El Nino means that temperatures are likely to be higher on average,” he told AFP.
Sea surface temperatures in the region are currently several degrees Celsius above normal, “which helps keep the temperatures higher than average inland overnight”.
“So daytime temperatures start climbing from a higher base.”
There are other factors at play too, including deforestation that reduces shade and increases dry surface area, and the urban heat island effect, where concrete, glass and steel structures absorb rather than reflect heat.
Extreme heat disproportionately affects children, the elderly and those living in poverty.
Children, older people and those with pre-existing conditions or disabilities can overheat more quickly.
Those living in poverty also often lack cooling solutions at home or are forced to work in conditions without adequate heat protection.
The UN children’s agency Unicef warned this month that 243 million children across the Pacific and East Asia are at risk from heatwaves.
“Child exposure to heatwaves leads to heat stress,” said health specialist for Unicef’s regional East Asia and Pacific office Salwa Aleryani.
“Severe issues can develop, such as cardiovascular diseases, organ failure, muscle and nerve dysfunction,” she told AFP.
How have countries reacted?
The authorities in several countries asked citizens to stay at home. Hospitals in Nepal were put on standby, while Cambodian officials asked public schools to keep doors and windows open for ventilation.
Measures went further in Bangladesh and the Philippines, with schools closed for days.
But many children will not have cooler conditions at home, warned Ms Aleryani.
They may also be left unsupervised by parents who cannot afford to stay home from work, and risk serious interruptions to their education,
The heat in Bangladesh is not expected to recede until May 2 at the earliest, and in Thailand, forecasters warned that annual rains may arrive in late May, several weeks later than normal.
Dr Speer said the overall warming trend will continue even when the region’s monsoon arrives to lower temperatures.
“Heatwaves will continue to happen more often because the oceans and atmosphere are gradually heating up due to global warming,” he said.
That in turn poses growing risks to crops and livestock, as well as humans whose jobs require them to work outdoors.
Adaptation will be crucial, including offering “sustainable neighbourhood structures with air-conditioning where people could go during the day and sleep at night”, Dr Speer said. AFP
These knowledge and experience gaps faced by North Koreans led another defector, Ms Nam Yeong Hwa, to run an academy just for them.
Ms Nam arrived in South Korea in 2003. She set up H Nuri Education Centre a decade later to train students in becoming certified accountants, then began taking in only North Koreans, who found it difficult to keep up with regular classes.
She said: “North Korean defectors often submit their resumes to various companies but give up because no matter how many resumes they submit, they can't get interviews or responses.
“As a result, there aren't many defectors who are employed and working. So I thought: ‘This must be what I need to do.’”
Defectors learned the Russian language back home and are not familiar with English, Ms Nam said. This makes learning how to use a computer keyboard difficult, and they end up repeating the same words frequently.
Variations in the Korean language following decades of separation compound the difficulties. They are often confused by “Konglish” – a combination of Korean and English that is commonly used in the South.
Such issues expose defectors to mockery and isolation even after they land a job.
“They often try to leave the company within three to six months,” Ms Nam noted.
“People might think their speech is a bit awkward, and when they ask questions, their colleagues often look at them like: ‘Why don't you even know that?’ It makes them feel like they can't fit in.”
Ms Heo Jin Hwa, a student at H Nuri Education Centre who defected from North Korea 12 years ago, said there was a “huge difference” between the reality of South Korea and what she imagined it to be.
“When North Koreans come here, we are adults, but we are like newborns,” she told CNA.
“If we can't communicate at all, we'll learn everything from the beginning. Lifestyle, culture, things like that.”
JERUSALEM: Hopes rose on Monday (Apr 29) for a long-sought-after truce and hostage release deal after almost seven months of war in Gaza between Palestinian Hamas militants and Israel.
Washington's top diplomat said he was "hopeful" Hamas would accept the offer, which his British counterpart said could see the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
After meeting in Cairo, the Hamas delegation left Egypt and returned to Qatar "to discuss the ideas and the proposal ... and we are keen to respond as quickly as possible", a Hamas source close to the talks told AFP on condition of anonymity.
According to Egyptian sources quoted by Al-Qahera News, a site also linked to Egyptian intelligence services, the Hamas delegation will "return with a written response to the truce proposal".
For months, meditators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to broker a new agreement between the combatants. A one-week truce in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Diplomacy in the past few days appeared to suggest a new push to halt the fighting.
The war has brought Gaza to the brink of famine, United Nations and humanitarian aid groups say, while reducing much of the territory to rubble and raising fears of a wider regional conflict.
Salvaging belongings from the remains of a house in Gaza City, a bandage on his head, Ibrahim Juzar said a strike wounded his three girls and wife.
"My wife's chest has been fractured" and she has internal bleeding, he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh that the proposal before Hamas is "extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel".
He urged the Palestinian Militant group to "decide quickly", saying: "I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision."
TOKYO: Bhasan Char, an island about 60 km from Bangladesh's mainland, is home to 35,000 Rohingyas fleeing persecution and violence in Myanmar.
The Bangladeshi government has been relocating them to the remote, cyclone-hit island from the town of Cox’s Bazar - one of the world’s largest refugee camps - since 2020.
The aim is to accommodate a total of 100,000 refugees in Bhasan Char, and they are getting help from Japanese non-profit group Nippon Foundation to do so.
The organisation will also help the refugees learn new skills. In December, it pledged US$3 million to that end.
Young men will learn to maintain and repair motorcycles, while women will be taught handicrafts and how to use a sewing machine.
After making his first visit to the island this month, Nippon Foundation chairman Yohei Sasakawa announced another US$2 million in funding.
“One day, when they go back to their hometown, we want them to be able to live independently. For that, we want them to acquire skills and to have a dream,” he told CNA.
He added that they will learn how to fish in the sea, how to breed sheep and chickens, and perform marine and modern farming.
Palestinians gather on a beach as they collect aid airdropped by an airplane, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
PHOTO: REUTERS
RIYADH - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 29 urged Hamas to swiftly accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.
Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on April 29 to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal which Israel presented at the weekend.
“Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
“The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly,” he said. “I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision.”
A source briefed on the talks said Israel’s proposal entailed a deal for the release of fewer than 40 of the roughly 130 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza in exchange for freeing Palestinians jailed in Israel.
A second phase of a truce would consist of a “period of sustained calm” - Israel’s compromise response to a Hamas demand for a permanent ceasefire.
A French diplomatic source said there was a convergence on the number of hostages released in return for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but that obstacles remained on the longer term nature of truce.
“We’re not far off from a deal, but that’s not the first time,” the source said.
Israel retaliated by imposing a total siege on Gaza and mounting an air and ground assault that has killed about 34,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Palestinians are suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine in a humanitarian crisis brought on by the offensive that has demolished much of the territory.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, also described the Israeli proposal as “generous”.
It included a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners as well as Israeli hostages, he told a WEF audience.
“I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying ‘take that deal’,” Cameron said.
Cameron is among several foreign ministers in Riyadh, including from the US, France, Jordan and Egypt, as part of a diplomatic push to bring an end to the Gaza war.
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Saudi ties
Blinken reiterated that the US, Israel’s main diplomatic supporter and weapons supplier, could not back an Israeli ground assault on Rafah if there was no plan to ensure that civilians would not be harmed.
Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on, where they discussed the urgent need to reduce tensions in the region, the US Department of State said in a statement.
More than a million displaced Gaza residents are crammed into Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, having sought refuge there from Israeli bombardments. Israel says the last Hamas fighters are holed up there and it will open an offensive to root them out soon.
Blinken also said the US and Saudi Arabia had done “intense work together” over the past few months towards a normalisation accord between the kingdom and Israel. That goal has been disrupted by the Gaza war.
“To move forward with normalisation, two things will be required: calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state,” he said.
In return for normalisation, Arab states are pushing for Israel to accept a pathway to Palestinian statehood on land it captured in the 1967 Middle East war - something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah also said on April 29 that an accord between Washington and Riyadh over normalisation was “very, very close”. REUTERS
The Philippines announced it will halt in-person classes at public schools, while Thai power demand rose to a record, as the heatwave gripping southern Asia continued to take its toll.
The temperature in metropolitan Manila soared to 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday, according to the nation’s weather forecaster. That beat the previous all-time high recorded in May 1915, ABS-CBN News reported. The Department of Education responded to the sweltering weather, and a Jeepney transport strike across the country, by closing public schools on Monday and Tuesday.
In Thailand, power demand reached a record 36,356 megawatts late on Saturday, the Ministry of Energy said. The country’s northern and northeastern regions are expected to be the hottest, with a high of 44 degrees recorded in some areas on Sunday.
Power lines suspended above a street during high temperatures in Bangkok. Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy has been bracing for hotter-than-normal days due to the El Nino weather pattern that’s forecast to last until June. Photographer: Bloomberg
Bangkok issued extreme heat warnings last week as its index rose to “very dangerous” levels. About 30 people have died due to the high temperatures this year in Thailand, compared with 37 heat-linked fatalities in all of 2023, according to government data.
Myanmar recorded its hottest ever April temperature, authorities said on Monday.
The mercury hit 48.2 degrees in the town of Chauk in central Myanmar’s Magway region on Sunday, according to a statement from the country’s weather office, the highest temperature seen anywhere in Myanmar in April since records began 56 years ago.
A woman walks with a cold drink under an umbrella along a street on a hot day in Yangon. Myanmar recorded its hottest ever April temperature of 48.2 degrees Celsius. Photo: AFP
A Bangladeshi court ordered a nationwide shutdown of schools on Monday, the day after the government sent millions of children back to class despite searing temperatures.
Bangladesh follows the Sunday-Thursday Islamic work week. The order directs schools to remain closed for an estimated 32 million students until the coming Sunday.
The government had imposed a weeklong national school closure beginning April 21 as the heatwave persisted, but lifted the order over the weekend.
Classes had resumed in Dhaka on Sunday, with anxious relatives accompanying their children to the school gates.
Average temperatures in the capital Dhaka over the past week have been 4–5 degrees higher than the 30-year average for the same period.
Earlier this month, the United Nations Children’s Fund warned that more than 243 million children across East Asia and the Pacific are at risk of heat-related illnesses and death, as the region braces for an unusually hot summer.
A man showers with a hosepipe during hot weather in Manila on Sunday. The Philippines will suspend in-person classes in all public schools for two days due to extreme heat. Photo: AFP
The prolonged heatwave already forced the Philippines to close some schools earlier this month, prompting a return to remote learning that became the norm during Covid, while the government urged people to save electricity as power plants were forced to shut down.
A provincial government in the main Luzon island will implement a four-day work week through July to mitigate the impact of high temperatures on its employees and the public.
The nation’s heat index, which measures the temperature felt by individuals as it takes humidity into account, is forecast to reach as high as 46 degrees on Monday in Manila, the weather agency said.
The number of fatalities involved in the Polam Kopitiam food poisoning outbreak rose to four.
PHOTO: POLAM KOPITIAM
Another person has died of suspected food poisoning on April 29 after reportedly dining at a Malaysian vegetarian restaurant in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, local media reported.
This brings the number of fatalities involved in the Polam Kopitiam food poisoning outbreak to four, Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang confirmed on April 29.
According to Focus Taiwan, the death of a 40-year-old woman on April 29 was the second such death in three days. Another person had died of multiple organ failure on April 27.
After eating char kway teow at the eatery in mid-March, the woman experienced nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea upon reaching home.
Mr Wang said the woman had been in the intensive care unit for more than a month as she faced organ failure and infections. She died of multiple organ failure at 3am on April 29.
China Press reported that 35 people have reported falling ill after dining at the eatery so far, including the four who died.
Two of them – one still undergoing liver transplant surgery and another in the hospital – are in severe condition, Mr Wang added.
Earlier samples taken from his hands on March 24 also tested positive for the deadly toxin, which – even in a minute dose of 1mg – can kill a human being.
The same toxin was found in most of the sick diners, local media reported.
All Polam Kopitiam outlets were ordered to close during the ongoing investigations, though Mr Wang reiterated that the outbreak was confined to the Xinyi branch.
Although the restaurant passed a food safety inspection in 2022, Taipei health inspectors who visited the eatery after the outbreak found cockroach droppings on the premises, knives stored on the counter next to the sink, and a failure to provide employee health records, local media reported.
A report by the Centre for Integrated Sustainability Analysis in Australia found that the so-called Black Summer of bushfires, which started in 2019, wiped US$1.8 billion from tourism supply chains.
One of the authors of the report, Ms Vivienne Reiner, noted that education-related travel combined with personal travel is worth more exports than natural gas in Australia.
“If people start to think it’s dangerous to come to (Australia), that could really impact us,” she added.
9.3 MILLION VISITORS EXPECTED IN 2024
Tourism is a major export earner and employer, with one in eight Australian businesses related to the industry.
The country is expected to welcome 9.3 million international visitors this year, reaching 98 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, according to Tourism Research Australia’s latest forecasts released late last year.
Australia also expects to surpass pre-pandemic levels next year and set a new record, with about 10.2 million international visitors predicted to travel there.
Ms Phillipa Harrison, managing director of government agency Tourism Australia, said that carbon emissions from travel are increasingly being discussed as the world reels from one natural disaster to another.
“Here, there (were) black summer bush fires, there (were) floods, there were cyclones,” she said during the agency’s annual Destination Australia conference held in March.
“There's also widespread bleaching on the (Great Barrier) Reef which is again happening right at the moment, and all of those have ensured that carbon and the impact of global warming is really poignant right now.”
Ms Harrison added that the country needs to ensure it is competitive in the right areas for economic growth, while protecting its potential for future generations of residents and visitors.
The fear is that news of fires and floods could have a negative impact on an industry that prides itself on selling its pristine environment to the world.
However, Australia’s Climate Council, which predicts many more intensive weather systems to come, believes it is not too late to counter the threat.
“We are a remarkable continent with amazing things that people experience, but protecting that industry, protecting the people and places we love – that is very much going to depend on the choices we make now and every ton of carbon pollution we leave in the ground,” said the council’s director of research Simon Bradshaw.
“That’s protecting tourism; it’s protecting everything we depend upon,” he added.
However, the Axios news website, citing two Israeli officials, reported that Israel's latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss the "restoration of sustainable calm" in Gaza after hostages are released.
It is the first time that Israeli leaders have suggested they are open to discussing an end to the war, Axios said.
A Hamas source close to the negotiations had told AFP the group "is open to discussing the new proposal positively" and is "keen to reach an agreement that guarantees a permanent ceasefire, the free return of displaced people, an acceptable deal for (prisoner) exchange and ensuring an end to the siege" in Gaza.
As diplomatic efforts intensified, US President Joe Biden spoke with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Sunday and reviewed the ongoing talks, the White House said.
Countries hoping to broker a ceasefire are among those at a summit in Saudi Arabia, whose Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the international community has failed Gaza.
"The situation in Gaza obviously is a catastrophe by every measure – humanitarian, but also a complete failing of the existing political system to deal with that crisis," Prince Faisal told the World Economic Forum (WEF) special meeting in Riyadh.
He reiterated that only "a credible, irreversible path to a Palestinian state" will prevent the world from confronting "this same situation two, three, four years down the line".
Netanyahu's hard-right government rejects calls for a Palestinian state.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, appealed at the WEF meeting for the United States to stop Israel from invading Rafah, which he said would be "the biggest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people".
Israel vows to go after Hamas battalions in the southern Gaza city on the border with Egypt, but the prospect has raised global alarm because much of Gaza's population has sought shelter there.
MANILA: Sweltering heat in the Philippines can curb farm production, disrupt water and power and weigh on businesses, but it also takes a toll on students, hampering the Southeast Asian nation's efforts to catch up to its neighbours in education.
Heat indices have hit 50 degrees Celsius in various regions in the Philippines, as the weather phenomenon El Nino intensifies the heat enveloping the nation in its summer months of March to May.
The Philippines scores among the lowest in the world in mathematics, science and reading, partly because of years of inadequate remote learning during the pandemic, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment, an international study of education systems.
"It is extremely hot now. The heat burns my skin, it's not like the usual (summer) heat that is tolerable," said senior high school student Kirt Mahusay, 23, whose education was halted during COVID-19.
"In May, we're expecting more class suspensions because of the heatwaves. We're seeing an average of more than 52 degrees Celsius, so you could imagine how stressful that would be for learners," said Xerxes Castro, basic education adviser for Save the Children Philippines.
"This is the hottest I've ever experienced here," said Nancy Bautista, 65, whose resort in Cavite province near Manila was fully booked.
"Many of our guests are friends and families. They swim in the pool to fight the heat."
March, April and May are typically the hottest and driest months of the year in the region but this year's conditions have been exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
"All places in the country, not necessarily just Metro Manila, are expected to have hotter temperatures until the second week of May," Glaiza Escullar of the state weather forecaster told AFP.
Camiling municipality in Tarlac province, north of Manila, recorded a temperature of 40.3 degrees Celsius on Saturday - the highest in the Philippines this year.
As the mercury rose, Gerise Reyes, 31, planned to take her two-year-old daughter to a shopping mall near Manila.
"It's hot here at home. This is the hottest I've ever experienced, especially between 10am and 4pm," she said.
"We need a free aircon to cut our electricity bill."
BANGKOK: Thai former energy executive Pichai Chunhavajira was named the country's finance minister on Sunday (Apr 28), facing a tough task to revive Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.
Pichai, 75, an adviser to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, takes over from Srettha as finance minister and becomes deputy prime minister, the official Royal Gazette said, announcing his appointment by the king.
Pichai was the chair of the board of Bangchak Corp since 2012. He headed the board of the Stock Exchange of Thailand for less than three months this year and was on the central bank board from 2014 to 2017.
Lagging its regional peers, the Thai economy faces high household debt and borrowing costs, as well as China's slowdown.
Gross domestic product unexpectedly shrank in the final quarter of 2023 from the third, while growth last year slowed to 1.9 per cent from 2.5 per cent in 2022. The state planning agency in February cut its 2024 growth forecast to between 2.2 per cent and 3.2 per cent from a previous 2.7 per cent-3.7 per cent projection.
The controversial stimulus has been delayed to late 2024 due to a lack of funding and concerns about the impact on public debt, with economists and some former central bank governors criticising it as fiscally irresponsible.
The government, rejecting that criticism, is forging ahead with the scheme, although the central bank recommends it be targeted only towards vulnerable groups.
Srettha, a real estate mogul and political newcomer, has been finance minister since taking office last year.
He has been at loggerheads with the Bank of Thailand over the direction of monetary policy, repeatedly asking it to cut rates to help an economy he describes as at a "critical" stage.
The central bank has resisted that pressure, leaving its key interest rate unchanged at 2.5 per cent, the highest in more than a decade, for a third straight meeting in April. Its next rate review is on Jun 12.
Analysts said Pichai's seniority and political and economic knowledge should help policy coordination with the central bank.
Pichai holds a master's degree in business administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and also served as director at PTT Exploration and Production from 2001 to 2013.
Late Cantopop diva Anita Mui’s mother Tam Mei Kam recently turned 100 and the centenariancelebrated the milestone with a small gathering with friends and family.
Snaps from the celebration have since made the rounds online, and in the pics, Mei Kam looked to be in good spirits as she posed with her birthday cake and longevity buns, alongside pink balloons spelling her age.
A sumptuous-looking spread was prepared for the celebration, which appeared to have taken place at Mei Kam’s home.
But perhaps the best birthday present are the ang pows and framed letter Mei Kam received from the Hong Kong government.
According to reports, since 2002, it has been a tradition for the Secretary of the Labour and Welfare Bureau, together with the Chairman of the Elderly Commission, to send birthday greetings to Hong Kong residents who are 100 years old.
They will receive another letter when they turn 105, as well as their birthday every subsequent year.
At the same time, the Ministry of Public Security crushed any discussion of bank runs from social media, imprisoning several people who had posted stories about SCB as a deterrent to others.
The case against Lan and Van Thinh Phat expanded, and eventually prosecutors made the explicit link between them and SCB. The government case showed that Lan had secretly acquired 91.5 per cent of the bank, through 27 nominees, following its 2012 establishment, when three insolvent banks were merged to create SCB.
Cross-ownership among banks and real estate companies, alongside poor management and high levels of corruption, have long been a slow-burn crisis in Vietnam’s banking sector. Without strong and timely solutions from the authorities, it will soon damage Vietnam’s reputation as one of the best investment destinations in Asia.
Truong My Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings, during her trial at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on April 11. Photo: EPA-EFE
From 2016 to 2022, Lan ordered bank officers, who were in on the fraud, to steer 2,500 loans worth more than US$44 billion to some 1,100 shell companies that she and allies controlled. That accounted for 93 per cent of the bank’s total lending and led to some US$27 billion in losses.
Lan got away with it by bribing a senior regulator at the central bank, and some 23 other government regulators, with US$5.2 million to falsify their oversight reports of SCB and hide bad debts and evidence of wrongdoing.
When it all came crashing down, there were some 1,300 outstanding loans to Lan and her affiliates, worth a total of 677 trillion dong (US$27 billion). Seventy per cent of the loans were deemed “unrecoverable”. In addition, the bank is not getting any of the interest payments on the loans.
Lan was convicted and sentenced to death for masterminding the fraud and personally embezzling US$12.5 billion.
But with her conviction and the scope of her fraud revealed, public confidence in SCB plummeted again.
In mid-2023, the State Bank of Vietnam submitted for government approval a restructuring plan for SCB, and in September it appointed a new chairman for the bank. Yet the bank remains saddled with the non-performing loans to Van Thinh Phat, its subsidiaries, and some 1,000 or so shell companies.
The Vietnam Asset Management Company, which was established in 2013 to buy up distressed assets, has been involved, but SBC’s losses dwarf VAMC’s assets and ability to raise funds through bond offerings.
A Vietnamese flag flies atop the State Bank building in central Hanoi. Its bailout of SCB amounted to 6 per cent of Vietnam’s GDP last year. Photo: Reuters
To put it into perspective, the current SCB bailout amounted to 6 per cent of Vietnam’s gross domestic product of US$430 billion in 2023.
But, according to Reuters, deposits at SCB fell by 80 per cent to US$6 billion between October 2022 and December 2023. At the same time, consumers have been withdrawing their funds at record rates.
SCB was once one of the largest banks in the country in terms of assets, as it attracted depositors with high interest rates. In de facto receivership, its rates are no longer above market. And added to that is a lack of trust in the bank’s solvency, or the government’s ability to guarantee deposits.
Compounding SCB’s woes, non-performing loans are now over 97 per cent of its lending portfolio – while under 3 per cent is considered “healthy” in Vietnam.
The court ordered Lan and her family to come up with US$27 billion in restitution, and is now liquidating 1,112 assets, including the iconic Saigon One Tower and Saigon Peninsula hotel. Lan’s husband sold roughly US$1 billion in assets in Hong Kong as part of the restitution process.
Lan argues that the court’s valuation of Van Thinh Phat’s assets, roughly US$12 billion, is a fraction of her valuation of more than US$30 billion.
02:09
Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for US$12.5 billion fraud
Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for US$12.5 billion fraud
While liquidation should recover 30 per cent of the Van Thinh Phat fraud, roughly US$13 billion to US$14 billion, it will be a slow process. And that has forced the government to quietly inject an unprecedented US$24 billion in “special loans” since March 29 to keep SCB solvent, a number that seems suspiciously large, given the bank’s overall size.
“Without lending, SCB will collapse,” an insider told Reuters. “Yet the scale was absolutely unsustainable. If the lending continues, the national treasury will gradually dry up.” The lending amounts to nearly one-quarter of the country’s US$100 billion in foreign reserves.
Historically, when similar banking crises happened, the central bank sought help from other local banks to bail out the troubled ones. Given the economic slowdown since the Covid-19 pandemic, no local bank appears to have sufficient capital to rescue SCB at the moment.
It is much less attractive to foreign investors given the 30 per cent cap on foreign ownership and how fragile the banking and real estate sectors are at the moment, plus the lack of trust in the banking system’s corporate governance and transparency.
Already, the government and State Bank of Vietnam have a lot on their plate. The economy is slowing, and the government has had to intervene to shore up the dong against the dollar, while the government announced the first auction of gold since 2013, to stabilise the precious metal’s soaring price.
Signage atop a Saigon Commercial Bank branch in Ho Chi Minh City. SCB was an important commercial lender before the fraud was uncovered. Photo: Bloomberg
Impact on the banking system
This has huge repercussions for the economy. First, SCB was an important commercial lender.
To make matters worse, other banks have drastically reduced their lending, despite the fact that their deposits are substantially up. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh recently held a meeting where he chastised bank executives for failing to lend.
Yet banks have reason to be cautious in their lending given the scope of the Van Thinh Phat and SCB fraud.
Moreover, as a result of the scandal, financial regulators are under intense scrutiny right now and are looking at the banks’ balance sheets with a bit more rigour than in the past.
A container port in Quy Nhon, Vietnam’s Binh Dinh province. Vietnam’s economy grew by 5.66 per cent in the first quarter, below target. Photo: AFP
There are also market forces at work. Vietnam’s economy is still too tied to exports and is too vulnerable to externalities. Nikkei Asia Review reported a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in corporate failures in 2023, which has caused banks to be even more cautious.
Third, the loss of confidence in SCB could very likely have a contagion effect on the entire banking system. The government has been stretched to the limit dealing with SCB; it cannot afford to deal with multiple simultaneous bank runs.
All of this comes when Vietnam’s growth in the first quarter, though still at 5.66 per cent, is below the target and the 6.72 per cent growth rate in the last quarter of 2023. Vietnam’s target is 6-6.5 per cent growth for 2024, but a major banking crisis would thwart that.
Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington, DC, where he focuses on Southeast Asian politics and security issues. The views are his own and do not reflect those of the National War College or Department of Defence.
Truong My Lan was found guilty in April of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank for over a decade.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
HANOI – A top Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in a US$27 billion (S$36.8 billion) fraud case has launched an appeal against her conviction, state media said on April 26.
Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty in April of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank for over a decade.
The 68-year-old was found to have embezzled US$12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to US$27 billion – one of the biggest frauds in history, equivalent to 6 per cent of Vietnam’s 2023 gross domestic product.
Thanh Nien news site said Lan has filed an appeal against the verdict and sentence and that the court in Ho Chi Minh City had received it.
Lan said in her appeal that she took on risks through the bank but did not appropriate the bank’s money.
After a five-week trial, 85 others were sentenced alongside Lan on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.
Four were given life imprisonment, while the others received jail terms ranging between 20 years and three years suspended.
The police have identified around 42,000 victims of the scandal, which has shocked the South-east Asian country.
The case was part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam’s business elite in recent years.
The latest scalp was the head of the National Assembly, who resigned on April 26 because of “violations and shortcomings”, according to a party statement.
On April 25, the head of one of Vietnam’s top soft drinks companies was jailed for eight years in a US$40 million fraud case. AFP
NEW YORK: New York prosecutors said on Friday (Apr 26) they had returned to Cambodia and Indonesia 30 antiquities that were looted, sold or illegally transferred by networks of American dealers and traffickers.
The antiquities were valued at a total of US$3 million, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
Bragg said in a statement that he had returned 27 pieces to Phnom Penh and three to Jakarta in two recent repatriation ceremonies, including a bronze of the Hindu deity Shiva ("Shiva Triad") looted from Cambodia and a stone bas-relief of two royal figures from the Majapahit empire (13th-16th century) stolen from Indonesia.
Bragg accused art dealers Subhash Kapoor, an Indian-American, and American Nancy Wiener in the illegal trafficking of the antiquities.
Kapoor, accused of running a network trafficking in items stolen in Southeast Asia for sale in his Manhattan gallery, has been the target of a US justice investigation dubbed "Hidden Idol" for more than a decade.
Arrested in 2011 in Germany, Kapoor was sent back to India where he was tried and sentenced in November 2022 to 13 years in prison.
Responding to a US indictment for conspiracy to traffic in stolen works of art, Kapoor denied the charges.
"We are continuing to investigate the wide-ranging trafficking networks that ... target Southeast Asian antiquities," Bragg said in the statement.
