Japan on Wednesday said that it would allow flights from Hong Kong and Macau to land at any airport in the country, partially reversing a rule it implemented last week for both territories and mainland China that restricted arrivals to four major airports.
Direct flights from Hong Kong and Macau would no longer be limited to Tokyo-area airports Narita and Haneda, Osaka’s Kansai airport and Chubu Centrair airport near Nagoya, the government said in a statement.
Airlines would also be asked to not increase the number of flights that they offer, the statement said.
The about-face came after Hong Kong requested that the rule be withdrawn, saying it created confusion for travelers visiting Japan over the holidays, media reports said.
The curb would have affected about 10,000 people, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Wednesday last week.
The Japanese government limited direct flights from China, Hong Kong and Macau to the four major airports starting on Friday last week.
The restriction came as China abandoned its “zero COVID-19” policy it pursued for the first three years of the pandemic and is to throw open its borders from Sunday.
New arrivals from China would be required to have negative COVID-19 test results, Japanese officials said.
Japan eased part of the policy on Thursday last week, allowing flights from Hong Kong and Macau to land at Okinawa’s Naha airport, Fukuoka airport and New Chitose airport near Sapporo, provided that none of the passengers had traveled to mainland China within the previous seven days.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
RSS