BHUTAN
Nation goes into lockdown
The Himalayan kingdom has imposed its first nationwide lockdown due to a COVID-19 infection in a returning traveler who had been released from quarantine. The government issued a stay-at-home order for its approximately 750,000 people, and all schools, offices and commercial establishments were closed. The lockdown would be enforced from five to 21 days “to identify and isolate all positive cases, immediately breaking the chain of transmission,” a government statement said.
CHINA
Flood damage at US$25bn
Summer floods have left 219 people dead or missing, destroyed 54,000 homes and caused US$25 billion in direct damage, Vice Minister of Emergency Management Zhou Xuewen (週學文) said yesterday. The floods struck major river systems across the central and southern parts of the country. Major cities have been largely spared by the flooding, but the impact compounds losses to the economy from the pandemic that began in Wuhan late last year. Zhou said economic losses of 178.9 billion yuan (US$25.8 billion) were 15.9 percent higher than the average from flood damage over the past five years.
CHINA
Two test positive again
Two patients who recovered from COVID-19 months ago have tested positive again, raising concern over the virus’ ability to linger and reactivate in people whom it previously infected. A 68-year-old woman in Hubei Province, where the novel coronavirus first surfaced in December last year, tested positive on Sunday, six months after she was diagnosed with COVID-19 and recovered. Another man found to have contracted the disease in April after returning from abroad tested positive in Shanghai on Monday, but has not shown any symptoms. None of the patients’ close contacts has tested positive for the virus, but they have been placed under quarantine, local authorities said.
CHINA
Frozen wings test positive
Consumers in Shenzhen have been urged to exercise caution when buying imported frozen food after a surface sample of chicken wings from Brazil tested positive for COVID-19, a statement from the local government said. The positive sample appears to have been taken from the surface of the meat, while previously reported positive cases from other Chinese cities have been from the surface of packaging on imported frozen seafood. The chicken came from an Aurora Alimentos plant in the southern state of Santa Catarina, according to a registration number given in the statement. Virus tests of people who have possibly come into contact with the product, and tests of related products, all came back negative, it said.
INDONESIA
Mt Sinabung erupts again
Mount Sinabung erupted again yesterday with a string of blasts that sent plumes of ash 2km into the sky, triggering a flight warning and fears of lava flows. The activity marked at least the eighth time that the rumbling volcano on Sumatra has erupted in less than a week, although no injuries or major damage were reported. Authorities issued a warning to planes flying near the volcano, which last saw a deadly eruption in 2016. The crater’s alert status remained at the second-highest level, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Raditya Jati said Authorities had marked a 5km no-go-zone around Sinabung and warned of possible lava flows, he said.
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The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
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