Australian telco Optus reports major outage affecting millions - The Straits Times

SYDNEY - Millions of Australians were left without a phone or Internet connection on Wednesday after the country’s second-largest telecommunications provider experienced an unexplained nationwide outage.

The outage crippled payment systems and online operations and led to morning peak-hour chaos as train networks and ride-share services were down briefly in some cities.

Optus chief executive officer Kelly Bayer Rosmarin ruled out a cyber attack but in an interview on ABC Radio did not give a reason for the outage, already in its sixth hour, or say how long it would take for services to be restored.

“It is highly unlikely (that the problem started within software in Optus networks), our systems are actually very stable ... This is a very, very rare occurrence,” she said.

“We are working really hard to get it up and running as soon as we possibly can.”

Optus is the Australian unit of telecoms firm Singapore Telecommunications and has more than 10 million customers, about 40 per cent of Australia’s population.

“Without my phone I pretty much can’t do anything. I’m looking for a bank, and when you can’t go onto your phone and Google pretty much you are lost,” said Angela Ican outside the Optus store in Sydney’s central business district

Construction worker Kyle, who did not give his full name, said he wanted answers from Optus.

“I was running late for work and couldn’t let my boss know. When I got on site, I couldn’t find my boss - it’s been a big day,” he told Reuters.

An Optus spokesman told Reuters in a statement that the company “apologises sincerely to customers”.

Limited information

Commonwealth Bank, the country’s biggest lender, said in a statement that some customers may encounter difficulties with some of its services.

Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said she had “limited” information about the outage.

“What we do know is that this is a deep fault. It has occurred deep within the network. It has wide ramifications across mobile, fixed, and broadband services for Optus customers,” she told reporters.

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2023-11-07 22:15:00Z
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Blinken calls for G7 'clear voice' on Gaza - CNA

France was the only G7 member to vote in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution last month seeking an immediate "humanitarian truce".

The United States voted against it while Japan, Britain, Italy, Germany and Canada all abstained.

France said in a statement announcing Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna's attendance in Tokyo that the G7 would discuss "the need to respond to the needs of civilian populations in Gaza and to respect international humanitarian law."

Colonna "will reiterate our condemnation of the terrorist actions of Hamas and the imperative of releasing the hostages", the statement added.

Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa said at the start of a working dinner devoted to the Gaza situation that she wanted a "candid and deep discussion".

UKRAINE WAR

Another major topic at will be the Ukraine war, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba set to join by video conference.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said after arriving in Tokyo that the G7 would discuss a "winter protection shield" for Ukraine.

"It is clear, particularly at this moment, that some (parties) are watching very closely how we will continue to support Ukraine," Baerbock told reporters.

Analysts said however that the G7 might moderate its language regarding China as tentative signs emerge that Beijing's tensions with the West may be easing.

These include upcoming talks between the United States and China ahead of the COP28 climate conference and President Xi Jinping's scheduled meeting with US President Joe Biden in San Francisco.

Another G7 topic will be deepening ties with resource-rich and strategically located Central Asia, with foreign ministers from the region set also to join by video.

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2023-11-07 13:30:59Z
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Korean Air says it 'strictly manages' radiation exposure after crew death ruling - CNA

SEOUL: Korean Air said on Tuesday (Nov 7) that it "strictly manages" cosmic radiation exposure for its flight crew, after a landmark decision ruled an air steward's cancer death was akin to an industrial accident.

The ruling by the state-run Korea Worker's Compensation and Welfare Service - issued last month and sent to AFP on Tuesday - found the cancer death of a male flight attendant, who had flown for the flag carrier for 25 years, resulted from cosmic radiation exposure.

Flight crews are exposed to higher levels of naturally occurring cosmic radiation as the shielding effect of the Earth's atmosphere decreases at higher altitude.

The attendant, identified by his surname Song, spent nearly 1,022 hours on board a plane each year with nearly half of his flights covering long-haul routes to the Americas and Europe.

Such routes expose flight crews to more cosmic radiation because they involve flying over the North Pole, where such radiation is higher due to Earth's magnetic field.

Song was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer in April 2021 and died a month later.

Korean Air declined to comment on the panel's decision, but denied any wrongdoing.

"Korean Air strictly manages individual data, and crew members can check their accumulated amount of cosmic radiation exposure, which is updated on a monthly basis," the company said in a statement to AFP.

The company limits the radiation exposure to "less than 6mSv a year", it said, which is "a lot stricter than the legal maximum radiation exposure standard of up to 50mSv a year".

While the panel was considering the case, Korean Air denied there was any correlation between the plaintiff's cancer and cosmic radiation, saying that it limited annual radiation exposure to under 6mSv for its crews.

But the panel rejected the airline's claim, saying it was possible the plaintiff had been exposed to "more than 100mSv of accumulated radiation" and that the measuring method deployed by Korean Air could have downplayed the actual amount of radiation.

The ruling is the first time that an official labour body in South Korea has recognised the correlation between cosmic radiation and cancer for flight attendants as an industrial death.

Korean Air's grasp of the issue is "understated" because it uses an old measuring method, labour attorney Kim Seong-hyun who represented the Song family told AFP.

A significant number of crews have been diagnosed with blood and breast cancer with many on sick leave, he said.

"Korean Air needs to be open about this issue and carry out a thorough investigation."

South Korea in June amended a law putting a ceiling on the number of international flights allowed for cabin crew members to minimise their exposure to cosmic radiation, the Yonhap news agency reported at the time.

A study of more than 5,000 US-based flight attendants published in Environmental Health in 2018 found that flight crews have higher than average rates of certain cancers.

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2023-11-07 09:42:00Z
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Israel open to 'little pauses' in Gaza fighting, Netanyahu says - The Straits Times

WASHINGTON - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would consider "tactical little pauses" in Gaza fighting to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid or allow the exit of hostages held by Hamas militants.

But he reiterated his country's rejection of a ceasefire without the release of all people being held captive in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave.

Mr Netanyahu made the comments in a US television interview during which he was asked who should govern Gaza after fighting is over.

"I think Israel will for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we've seen what happens when we don't have that security responsibility," Mr Netanyahu told ABC News.

Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hamas after the militant group carried out an attack on southern Israel in October.

Israel says the gunmen killed 1,400 people and took 240 others hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory bombardment has killed at least 10,000 people in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health authorities.

Both Israel and Hamas have rebuffed mounting international pressure for a ceasefire.

Israel says Hamas should release the hostages first; Hamas says it will not free them or stop fighting while Gaza is under assault.

Asked if he was open to a humanitarian pause in Gaza, Mr Netanyahu said: "Well, there'll be no ceasefire, no general ceasefire in Gaza without the release of our hostages."

He added: "As far as tactical little pauses - an hour here, an hour there - we've had them before. I suppose we'll check the circumstances, in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods, to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave." REUTERS

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2023-11-07 00:28:36Z
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China lent $1.34 trln in 2000-2021, focus shifts from Belt and Road to rescue finance-report - Reuters

JOHANNESBURG/HONG KONG, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Chinese financial institutions lent $1.34 trillion to developing countries from 2000 to 2021, U.S. researchers at AidData said in a report that showed the world's biggest bilateral lender switching from infrastructure to rescue lending.

While lending commitments peaked at almost $136 billion in 2016, China still committed to almost $80 billion of loans and grants in 2021 according to the data, which captures almost 21,000 projects in 165 low and middle income countries as probably the most comprehensive dataset of its type.

Overseas finance has won Beijing allies across the developing world, while drawing criticism from the West and in some recipient countries, including Sri Lanka and Zambia, that infrastructure projects it funded saddled them with debt they were unable to repay.

Both the sources and the focus of China's overseas financing, have changed, the data showed.

In 2013, when President Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative to build infrastructure across the developing world, China's policy banks accounted for over half of the lending. Their share started falling from 2015 and was 22% by 2021.

The People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), which manages China's foreign currency reserves, accounted for more than half of lending in 2021, almost all bailout lending.

"Beijing is navigating an unfamiliar and uncomfortable role— as the world's largest official debt collector," said the report by AidData, a research lab at William and Mary university.

Reuters Graphics

Much of China's growing rescue lending is denominated in renminbi, the report found, with loans in the Chinese currency overtaking U.S. dollars in 2020. Overdue payments to Chinese lenders have also risen.

One way China is managing repayment risk is through foreign currency cash escrow accounts it controls, AidData said. The arrangement is controversial because it gives China debt seniority, meaning other lenders, including multilateral development banks, could get paid second during any coordinated debt relief.

AidData identified 15 countries, primarily in Africa, with escrow accounts totalling a combined $2.5 billion at their peak in June 2023.

Brad Parks, the study's lead author, said they were not able to identify all such accounts, as they are normally kept private. He noted, though, that they had found collateralised loans worth $614 billion and that cash was the main source of collateral required by Chinese lenders, indicating that the amount in escrow accounts could be far higher than $2.5 billion.

China is also working more with multilateral lenders and Western commercial banks. Half of its non-emergency lending in 2021 was syndicated loans, 80% of that alongside Western banks and international financial institutions.

Reuters Graphics

The destinations of Chinese overseas lending have also changed. Loan commitments to African countries fell from 31% of the total in 2018 to 12% in 2021, while lending to European countries almost quadrupled to 23%.

A different dataset showed loan commitments to African countries falling to a 20-year low in 2022.

Reporting by Rachel Savage and Clare Baldwin Editing by Tomasz Janowski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Rachel Savage

Thomson Reuters

Rachel Savage is Africa Senior Markets Correspondent at Reuters, where she covers finance and economics across Sub-Saharan Africa, from sovereign debt crises and IMF programs to foreign exchange markets and cryptocurrencies. Previously she was LGBT+ Correspondent at the Thomson Reuters Foundation for just over three years and was awarded Journalist of the Year in 2021 by the NLJGA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, a U.S. group. Before that, Rachel was based in Nairobi and then Lagos as an East and West Africa Correspondent for The Economist, after starting her career a decade ago as a business journalist in London.

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2023-11-06 23:31:00Z
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Philippines says Japan, South Korea, India offer to fund railway projects - CNA

MANILA: Japan, South Korea and India have offered to finance three Philippine railway projects worth nearly US$5 billion, the country's transport chief said on Monday (Nov 6), after Manila dropped China as a funding source last year.

Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said the Philippine government could tap the three countries for possible official development assistance (ODA). He said the government may also fund a portion of the rail projects or seek private sector investments.

"We're exploring these. We cannot give any details yet," Bautista told a media forum.

The rail projects are the Subic-Clark Railway Project, the Philippine National Railways South Long-Haul Project and the Davao-Digos segment of the Mindanao Railway Project, collectively worth US$4.95 billion.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr had ordered officials last year to renegotiate loan agreements with China, which were considered "withdrawn" after the Chinese government failed to act on the funding request.

But Bautista said the government had to look for other financing options since there was no progress on the loan negotiations with China on the rail projects, which began in 2018 during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte pursued warmer ties with Beijing and set aside territorial disputes in exchange for billions of dollars in aid when he was president. Marcos replaced him in June last year.

From more than 1,100km before World War II, the Philippines had only 77km of operational railway as of 2016, well behind other urban centres across Asia, government data shows. Marcos has promised to modernise the country's railway system.

Construction of the Philippines' first subway train, funded by loans from Japan, is underway in the capital region.

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2023-11-06 07:35:08Z
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Blizzards in China's northeast ground flights, force school closures - CNA

BEIJING: Unseasonably cold weather and blizzards hit northeast China on Monday (Nov 6), forcing hundreds of flights to be rescheduled and closing schools as several cities issued heightened weather alerts and warned people to stay indoors.

As of 10.30am, 405 flights were cancelled at Harbin Taiping International Airport in the capital of Heilongjiang, the country's northernmost province, according to data from third-party travel app Flight Master.

Earlier, Heilongjiang's government said operations were otherwise normal at the airport.

Most parts of Harbin suspended primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, and off-campus training institutions, according to the government's official WeChat account, as snow and freezing temperatures hit the region.

Many flights were also cancelled in Jilin and Liaoning provinces, and in the Inner Mongolia region, Flight Master showed.

Video from a local newspaper showed many travellers stranded in a railway station as heavy snow lashed Jilin's Changchun city, with some trains from the city suspended.

China's weather authority warned of a drastic drop in temperature in the coming days, along with blizzards, anticipated to substantially affect several cities, state media reported.

"The season changed outside overnight," a netizen from Heilongjiang complained on Weibo, China's popular social media platform.

Provinces and cities upgraded weather response protocols as heavy snowfall is expected in parts of Inner Mongolia, and Hebei, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, China Daily reported.

On Monday, Inner Mongolia, and Liaoning and Jilin provinces suspended schools.

Late on Sunday, Heilongjiang issued a red alert - the country's highest weather advisory - as cities in the province were expected to see 20mm to 40mm of blizzard precipitation into Monday evening, according to Chinese weather forecasters, China Daily reported.

The Central Meteorological Observatory said some areas could see 8cm to 10cm of snow and temperatures in many regions would drop sharply.

Chinese weather forecasters kept orange alerts for blizzards in several areas, while China's National Meteorological Centre issued an orange alert for blizzards and a blue alert for cold waves and strong wind, Global Times reported.

China has a four-tier colour-coded weather alert system, with red the highest, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

In Harbin, social media video footage showed residents battling gale force winds and sliding and stumbling as they made their way down icy streets.

The cold forced governments in Beijing and Tianjin to make preparations to supply heat earlier than usual, according to city government notices.

Over the past week, northern China has experienced unseasonably odd contrasts in weather from smog to logging the second-warmest October in decades and then a sharp drop in temperatures over the weekend.

The Central Meteorological Administration said this week most of the northeast is expected to see temperatures dive to the single digits or below freezing as cold air moves east and south.

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2023-11-06 07:12:00Z
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