Southeast Asia heat shuts schools, boosts power demand, as Myanmar hits 48 degrees - South China Morning Post

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.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

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2024-04-29 08:02:06Z
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Woman dies 1½ months after food poisoning at popular Taipei eatery, raising death toll to 4 - The Straits Times

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.

In March, two men had died from suspected food poisoning after dining at the eatery.

A lethal toxin suspected to be behind the fatal food poisoning outbreak was found in the stool of the restaurant’s chef.

The toxin, bongkrekic acid, was detected in faecal samples collected from the Xinyi outlet’s chef on March 27, said Mr Wang in a Facebook post on April 6.

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.

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• Food hygiene/safety
• Taiwan
• Malaysia

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2024-04-29 07:10:00Z
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Extreme weather events due to climate change threaten future of tourism in Australia - CNA

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.

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2024-04-29 07:44:13Z
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Hamas says 'no major issues', as Gaza truce effort builds - CNA

"A COMPLETE FAILING"

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.

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Philippine students suffer in wilting heat, thwarting education efforts - CNA

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.

Thousands of schools have suspended classes due to the heat, affecting more than 3.6 million students, education ministry data shows.

"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.

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2024-04-29 02:09:00Z
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Schools closed, warnings issued as Asia swelters in extreme heatwave - CNA

"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."

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2024-04-28 11:40:00Z
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Thai ex-executive Pichai named finance minister, faces growth challenge - CNA

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.

Pichai will oversee policies including Srettha's flagship 500 billion baht (US$14 billion) handout scheme, which would transfer 10,000 baht to each of 50 million Thais to spend in their communities.

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.

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2024-04-28 09:51:00Z
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