SANAA: Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Tuesday (Dec 19) they would not halt attacks on Red Sea shipping in solidarity with Gaza despite the announcement by the United States of a new maritime protection force.
The flurry of drone and missile attacks by the rebels, the latest of which targeted two vessels on Monday, threaten to upend global trade flows, with major shipping firms halting traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb strait.
"Even if America succeeds in mobilising the entire world, our military operations will not stop ... no matter the sacrifices it costs us," senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said on X, formerly Twitter.
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said the "US-formed coalition aims to protect Israel and militarise the sea", adding that "whoever seeks to expand the conflict must bear the consequences of those actions".
The two officials spoke after Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin announced a 10-nation coalition on Monday to quell Houthi missile and drone attacks on shipping passing through the Red Sea, with Britain, France and Italy among countries joining the "multinational security initiative".
Austin said the force would operate "with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity".
Yemen's Houthi rebels have launched a flurry of drone and missile attacks on vessels passing through the Red Sea, aimed at pressuring Israel over its devastating war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, they claimed attacks on two vessels in the vital shipping lane between Asia and Europe, including the Norwegian-owned Swan Atlantic.
Electricity, water, transport and communication have been cut off in some areas due to the 6.2-magnitude earthquake, state media reported.
The quake struck in Gansu’s Jishishan autonomous county, which is near the border with Qinghai province. Tremors were felt as far as Xi’an in Shaanxi province, some 570km away.
A total of 4,782 homes have been damaged or destroyed, with hundreds of people injured.
In Gansu, 105 people have died and 397 are injured, the provincial authorities told a news conference on Tuesday morning.
At least 13 have died in Qinghai and another 182 injured, with 20 people still missing.
Mr Ma Zhongying, who lives in Dongjiagou village in Jishishan, said he was awakened by the quake and woke up his family of six.
“We rushed out of our house within seconds. Some family members had a few scrapes here and there amid the tumbling and shaking, but we are very lucky already, considering the damage that the earthquake has caused,” Mr Ma, the county representative of a Chinese logistics company, told The Straits Times over the phone.
He sent ST pictures showing the damage to his two-storey home: roof tiles had fallen off, while parts of the ceiling in his kitchen had also collapsed. There were cracks in the walls of his bedroom and the exterior of the house.
A security video of his company warehouse he provided to ST showed violent tremors occurring around midnight on Dec 18.
Electricity, water, transport and communication have been cut off in some areas due to the 6.2-magnitude earthquake, official state media Xinhua reported on the morning of Dec 19.
The quake struck in Gansu’s Haidong city, which is near the border with Qinghai province. Tremors were felt as far as Xi’an in Shaanxi province, some 570km away.
A total of 4,782 homes have been damaged or destroyed, with hundreds of people injured.
Videos and images of collapsed buildings, shaken residents and emergency rescue operations flooded Chinese social media right after the deadly tremors.
When the earthquake first hit at around midnight, people posted videos of home chandeliers and hanging light bulbs swinging wildly. Buildings were also shaking, as seen on videos on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok, as well as Kuaishou, another short-video streaming platform.
As the tremors intensified during the night, people were seen rushing down staircases and going out onto the streets to seek safety, amid the blasting of sirens in the affected areas.
A visibly shocked Gansu resident, still in pyjamas and clutching a blanket outside her home, told local media: “The whole house was trembling and my hands and legs are still shaking from the fear. I don’t think I can sleep at all tonight.”
On social media, residents posted videos showing fallen ceilings and other collapsed structures, together with clips showing rescue workers searching for survivors amid the debris and rescued residents warming themselves by fires. Temperatures have fallen to sub-zero in the northern part of China amid a harsh winter.
About 1,440 national firefighters were dispatched to the disaster area for rescue operations, with an additional 1,603 firefighters from Gansu and neighbouring provinces on standby.
Roads that were blocked due to landslides triggered by the earthquake have since been cleared, with electricity and communications also restored, Xinhua reported on the morning of Dec 19.
Officials are watching out for after-shocks of a magnitude of at least 5.0. At least 32 aftershocks had been recorded as of 8am on Dec 19, with the largest at a scale of 4.0.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for “all-out efforts” in the search and relief work, as well as in ensuring the safety of survivors and their property.
China’s deadliest earthquake in recent decades struck in 2008, when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake left about 87,000 people dead or missing in south-western Sichuan province, which is south of Gansu. In 2014, an earthquake in Yunnan, also in south-western China, killed at least 600 people.
UNITED NATIONS: One-third of the population of Myanmar, or more than 18 million people, now require humanitarian aid, the United Nations warned on Monday (Dec 18) seeking a billion dollars in donations next year to combat the need.
The humanitarian situation in the country has worsened since the coup there nearly three years ago, the global body said.
"Myanmar stands at the precipice in 2024 with a deepening humanitarian crisis that has spiralled since the military takeover in February 2021 with the civilian population that is now living in fear," said a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published on Monday.
The 18.6 million people who are currently in need of humanitarian assistance is 1 million more than a year ago and 19 times as many as in 2020, before the coup.
"Children are bearing the brunt of the crisis with 6 million children in need as a result of displacement, interrupted health care and education, food insecurity and malnutrition, and protection risks including forced recruitment and mental distress," warned Marcoluigi Corsi, the UN's interim humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar.
MASS DISPLACEMENT IN CONFLICT
The report highlighted the particular concern of mass displacement, with nearly 2.6 million people pushed out of their homes as of Dec 11 - an increase of 1.1 million since the same time last year - including more than 660,000 people who have been displaced since late October amid the escalating conflict between the military and ethnic minority fighters in the country's north.
Further exacerbating the situation, "conflicts and violence are expected to worsen in 2024", the report said, while denouncing "systematic military violence against civilians".
Given the dire circumstances, OCHA called on Monday for US$994 million in donations to help the 5.3 million people that have been identified as priorities for aid in Myanmar in 2024.
"We cannot afford a repeat of the gross underfunding seen in 2023," when only 29 per cent of required funding was met, Corsi said, pointing out that an estimated 1.9 million people who had been prioritised for aid in 2023 were not reached.
"Millions of lives are at stake and we all must do everything we can to prevent Myanmar becoming a forgotten emergency," he said, even as the majority of UN international aid programmes remain underfunded.
LONDON : Taiwanese container shipping line Evergreen said on Monday that it has decided to temporarily stop accepting Israeli cargo with immediate effect and instructed its container ships to suspend navigation through the Red Sea until further notice.
Evergreen added that ships on regional services to Red Sea ports will sail to safe waters nearby and wait for further notification, while container ships which are scheduled to pass through the Red Sea will be rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope to continue their voyages to destination ports.
The army said its special “Yahalom” unit, which specializes in tunnel warfare, has worked to excavate the tunnel since it was first detected. They say they've found weapons inside.
"At this point, this is the biggest tunnel in Gaza," Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, told reporters in a tour of the tunnel's entrance on Friday.
It is unclear if the tunnel was used on Oct 7.
The army also showed reporters soldiers' barracks at the nearby base that it said were set ablaze by the militants. They looked like the ashes of a furnace, with blackened walls and smelted bunks. The military announced Friday that it had recovered in Gaza the bodies of two soldiers who were working at the base on Oct 7.
Dinar, who visited the tunnel Friday, said it was twice the height and three times the width of other tunnels found in Gaza. He said it is equipped with ventilation and electricity and dives 50m underground in some points. He said it was clear that millions of dollars as well as a great deal of fuel and workforce had been needed to build and sustain the tunnel.
Hagari said the military planned to destroy the tunnel and continue to “hunt" militants hiding in others.
“We will hunt them even if we need to go down to the tunnels,” Hagari said. “We also need to do it with attention to the rescue of our hostages and the understanding that maybe some of them are in the tunnels.”
“[The prosecution] is out of time therefore there’s no jurisdiction for the court,” Pang told the three judges – Madam Justices Esther Toh Lye-ping and Susana D’Almada Remedios and Mr Justice Alex Lee Wan-tang – approved by the chief executive to hear national security cases.
Lee identified the key argument in Pang’s submission as focusing on when the alleged offence began, as the prosecution said the first seditious article was published on April 1, 2019.
Pang argued that the alleged conspiracy agreement could be linked to one or more than one offence, but the legal timeline should only start when the first suspected offence occurred, so that the prosecution could not accumulate the indictable offences beyond the six-month time frame.
Lai, the founder of the popular Apple Daily tabloid newspaper, is facing one count of conspiring to publish seditious publications, alongside former editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong and five other editorial staff, under the Crimes Ordinance.
He also allegedly violated the national security law, with two conspiracy charges relating to collusion with foreign forces for allegedly drawing international sanctions against authorities and inciting public hatred in the wake of anti-government protests in 2019, sparked by a now-withdrawn extradition bill.
Jimmy Lai’s wife Teresa Lai and their youngest son outside the court. Photo: Sam Tsang
Earlier in the morning, a queue stretched from the entrance of the West Kowloon Law Courts Building in Cheung Sha Wan, as dozens of attendees braved the chilly weather for a ticket to the trial.
Vehicles heading to the car park of the building were stopped by police, accompanied by dogs, for inspection. Officers used a handheld device to check the underside of the cars.
Police dogs and dozens of officers, including three armed and masked personnel guarding an anti-riot vehicle dubbed the “Sabre-toothed tiger”, circled the entrances of the courthouse, a press zone and the public queue outside.
Steve Li Kwai-wah, chief superintendent of the national security department, was near the court building to monitor police operations in the morning. He was later seen outside the courtroom during the trial.
Lai turned 76 at the maximum-security Stanley Prison earlier this month, his fourth birthday behind bars since first being denied bail in December 2020. He has been detained for more than 1,100 days.
He was brought to West Kowloon Court at 7.35am on Monday.
Representatives from at least 10 consulates, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland began arriving at the court at around 8.20am, to observe the trial.
From left to right: representatives from the consulates of New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Canada and the UK. Photo: Jess Ma
US representative Roxie Houge, the economic and political affairs chief at the country’s consulate, told the press that she hoped the city’s national security trials “would be kept public”.
Matthias Kaufmann, counsellor and deputy head of the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macau, was also in the queue. He said his presence was a signal of the union’s commitment to upholding the rule of law.
Retired Catholic leader Joseph Zen Ze-kiun was seen entering the courthouse at 9am.
Lai’s wife Teresa Li-Lai Wan-kam, his youngest son Augustin Lai Zhun-yan and daughter Claire Lai Choi also attended the trial. Li-Lai sat next to Zen during the hearing.
A founding leader of the Democratic Party, Emily Lau Wai-hing, arrived at 9.45am. She told the press that she hoped Lai would get a fair trial.
Barristers began arriving at the court at 8.45am. Colman Li Fung-kei, one of the lawyers representing Lai, was seen entering the building at 8.50am.
Wearing a grey blazer, Lai was flanked by four prison officers while he was escorted into the dock. He looked at the public gallery and smiled when he saw Zen waving at him.
Retired Catholic leader Joseph Zen entered the courthouse at 9am. Photo: Jess Ma
There were additional security measures inside the court building, requiring everyone entering to walk through a metal detector and have their belongings checked using an X-ray scanner.
The trial, which is a High Court case, was moved to the more spacious West Kowloon Court in light of the 80-day duration of the proceedings and to better accommodate crowds.
The case will be heard without a jury after justice minister Paul Lam Ting-kwok cited concerns including “involvement of foreign factors”.
Three Apple Daily-related companies are also named as defendants and are represented by counsel appointed by the company’s liquidators. The High Court ordered the winding up of the newspaper’s publisher Next Digital in December 2021 following a government petition.
Police earlier announced they would deploy 1,000 officers, including personnel from the Counter Terrorism Response Unit and bomb disposal squad, to guard the area round the clock over the next three months. Sniffer dogs would also be dispatched, the force added.
Four police vehicles are expected to be stationed at the elevated section of the West Kowloon Corridor, dozens of metres from the complex. The measure follows a suspected airgun attack on the court building that shattered a large window during a subversion trial in February.
A police bomb disposal vehicle was seen parked on a lane opposite the courthouse entrance on Monday.
A police bomb disposal vehicle parked on a lane opposite the courthouse entrance. Photo: Sam Tsang
The judiciary has set aside 388 seats for members of the public to attend the trial. Seventy spectators will observe the proceedings from the main courtroom’s public gallery, while the rest will watch a live broadcast. Another 161 seats have been reserved for the press.
About 40 people were waiting in each of the two queues, comprising members of the press and the public, outside the court building shortly after 7am.
The first four people in the public queue said they wanted to see the trial because of its historical significance.
A woman who was first in the public queue, who gave her name as JC, said she had been waiting since 10pm last night.
“I want to make sure I can go inside,” the 29-year-old catering worker said. “I’m worried there are people who were paid to queue up coming here to take the spots.”
She said she saw fewer than 10 police officers outside the court building last night.
An arts professional in his 40s, who gave his surname as Sung, said he was second in the queue after arriving at 4am on Monday.
“I was inspired to come here after reading an interview with JC. It was interesting to see someone come by so early, which inspired me to join her so she won’t be alone,” he said.
Two observers from Reporters Sans Frontières, an international non-governmental organisation advocating for press freedom, were third and fourth in line. They said they had flown into the city for the trial.
Members of the press and public brave the chilly weather for a ticket to the trial. Photo: Sam Tsang
The public queue included people of all ages, both the young and the elderly, vying for a spot inside the courthouse.
A retiree in her 60s, who gave her surname as Wong, said she came at 7am to secure a seat.
“We need to support Hongkongers. I think he did nothing wrong,” she said.
There were concerns during the opening of a high-profile subversion trial in February involving 47 opposition politicians that some people had been paid to wait in the public queue and attend the trial.
The Post has not seen anyone paying others to wait for a public seat, or receiving money for queuing up on Monday morning.
Some middle-aged and elderly attendees were seen queuing up in groups while wearing face masks. A Post reporter approached one of the groups, but they declined to speak.
The first batch of public members and the press entered the courthouse for security checks at 8.30am.
