AUSTRALIA
New visas for Hong Kongers
The government yesterday said it is to introduce two permanent residence visas for Hong Kongers who have been living in the nation. About 9,000 Hong Kongers on temporary visas would be eligible to apply for the permanent visas starting in March next year, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs Alex Hawke said in a statement. Canberra has been critical of Beijing imposing a National Security Law in Hong Kong and changing its electoral system. It says those moves undermine rights and the high degree of autonomy that China had guaranteed until 2047. In the 18 months to July last year, about 6,000 Hong Kongers have been granted permanent visas, and 9,250 applications were filed, immigration records show. “These new visas will provide a pathway for temporary graduates and temporary skilled workers from Hong Kong currently in Australia on extended visas, and will build on the already close family connections and economic ties with Hong Kong that have existed for many years,” Hawke said.
SINGAPORE
Rapper Subhas Nair charged
A controversial Singaporean rapper of Indian descent who has accused authorities of racism might face jail after being charged yesterday with sowing divisions between the city-state’s different ethnic and religious groups. Outspoken rapper Subhas Nair faced four counts when he appeared in court over offenses that allegedly occurred between 2019 and this year. According to charge sheets, the 29-year-old made comments on social media appearing to suggest a Chinese man involved in the death of an Indian received lenient treatment from authorities because of his ethnicity. He allegedly posted further remarks on Instagram suggesting Chinese Christians are treated more leniently than Muslims over hate speech. He was also charged over a 2019 rap video that criticized a local Chinese actor who darkened his skin to portray an Indian in an advert. Police had already issued a warning over the video to Nair and his sister Preetipls, a well-known local comedian, who rapped alongside him. Nair appeared in court with his sister and was wearing a T-shirt bearing a picture of a Malaysian man convicted of drug trafficking in the nation, who is set to be executed soon.
UNITED STATES
Psaki has COVID-19
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday said she has contracted COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms. Psaki, 42, said she was last in contact with President Joe Biden on Tuesday last week, when she met him in the White House, where they were more than 1.8m apart and wearing masks. Biden, who is tested frequently, last tested negative on Saturday, the White House said.
? CAMBODIA
Nation hits vaccination goal
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday declared his country reopen and ready for a new way of life, having surpassed its COVID-19 vaccination target and recorded one of Asia’s highest inoculation rates. The nation has vaccinated nearly 86 percent of its more than 16 million people, with 2 million given booster shots already and 300,000 school children aged five set to be inoculated yesterday alone. The ratio is similar to that of Singapore. “From now on, the full reopening of the country in all areas and living with COVID-19 in a new way of life starts from today,” he said. “I won’t be in a crab cave anymore,” he said. The nation has recorded more than 118,522 COVID-19 cases and 2,788 deaths overall, the vast majority this year.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
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