Hundreds of tourists have been located safely in Taiwan, a day after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the island. Despite hundreds of aftershocks, rescue efforts have also successfully reached a crew of miners in the mountainous region.
Published On 4 Apr 2024
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Australian leader says he demanded ‘full accountability’ for Australian’s killing in call with Benjamin Netanyahu.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed Israel’s explanation for the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza as “not good enough”, as outrage over the attack continues to reverberate globally.
Australian woman Zomi Frankcom was one of seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK) who were killed on Monday when their convoy was struck by an Israeli air strike in central Gaza.
A US-Canadian dual citizen, a Pole, a Palestinian and three nationals of the United Kingdom were also killed in what the US-based charity described as a “targeted attack”.
Albanese, who earlier this week described Frankcom’s death as “beyond any reasonable circumstances”, on Thursday said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks that innocent people get killed in war were unacceptable.
“We need to have accountability for how it has occurred, and what is not good enough is the statements that have been made, including that this is just a product of war,” Albanese said during a news conference in Sydney.
“This is against humanitarian law – international humanitarian law makes it very clear that aid workers should be able to provide that aid and that assistance free of the threat of losing their life.”
Albanese said Frankcom’s vehicle had been clearly identified as belonging to an aid organisation and should not have been at risk.
“Her being killed in this way is a catastrophic event that is devastating for her family but is also felt keenly by our nation,” he said.
The Australian leader said he had spoken with Netanyahu the previous day to demand “full accountability” and that Israel must conduct a transparent investigation whose findings are made public “so that we find out how exactly this can occur.”
“There have been too many innocent lives lost in Gaza … It shouldn’t be the case that innocent Palestinians or people assisting them are made to pay the price for the actions of the terrorist group Hamas,” he said.
In a video message on Tuesday, Netanyahu said the killings were unintended and tragic but that “this happens in war”.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Tuesday that an Israeli drone had fired three missiles at the WCK convoy out of a mistaken belief that a Hamas member was travelling with them.
The report, which cited unnamed Israeli military sources, said the drone fired on three separate vehicles in succession, despite them being clearly marked with the WCK logo and even after the aid workers informed the Israeli military that they had been attacked.
WCK CEO Jose Andres said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that the Israeli military had targeted his employees “systematically, car by car”.
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The first time 27-year-old Ong Mei Ching* came across the Chinese online magazine, Sixth Tone, it immediately caught her attention.
For years, Ong had been interested in Chinese current affairs and had stayed updated about news from China, but she found that much of the coverage revolved around similar topics.
Sixth Tone, which is published in English, was different.
“I found it refreshing because it was not about Chinese business or economics or politics – it was about people,” Ong told Al Jazeera.
She was captivated by the way the publication’s journalists ventured beyond the usual spaces into lesser-known cities and provinces to report about social dilemmas such as the country’s ageing population or its marginalised groups like single parents and children left with their grandparents by parents who had left for work in faraway cities.
“I felt they were doing something quite meaningful, that they were changing the narrative of how an international audience saw China,” she said.
Ong wanted to be a part of it. So, when she got the opportunity to work at Sixth Tone in 2019, she jumped at the chance and moved her life to Shanghai where the magazine has its headquarters.
She became a part of an editorial team that she described as upholding high journalistic standards and whose members were passionate about their work.
However, the work could often lead to clashes with Chinese censors who objected to certain topic choices and story angles, which sometimes resulted in pieces getting killed before they were ever published or taken down just a few hours after they went online.
“We were testing the waters with many stories to see whether they would pop the censors,” she said.
Regardless of the scrutiny, Ong found that Sixth Tone, which was geared towards a Western and internationally-minded audience, often had more leeway than media for more local audiences.
But its room for manoeuvre now appears to have shrunk.
Former and current employees at Sixth Tone have recently given accounts of how articles have been removed and phrases censored on a massive scale across the outlet’s archives. Editors have also been required to check in with censors every few hours and certain terminology has been changed to align with the preferred narrative of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) including referring to Tibet as “Xizang”.
Al Jazeera reached out to Sixth Tone for comment but did not receive a reply.
Ong is not surprised that the grip appears to be tightening around Sixth Tone.
“As Sixth Tone has grown, it has attracted a bigger audience making the government want to increase its control over the content this audience is getting,” she said.
“At the same time, there is a lot of pressure on Chinese media today to portray China in a solely positive manner.”
Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has called for “telling China’s story well” and spreading “positive energy”.
Such mantras have not always been reflected in Sixth Tone’s many articles about the socioeconomic issues facing common people in China.
The irony is that while Sixth Tone’s reporting has drawn the attention of Chinese censors, the outlet is also considered state media because it is part of the state-controlled Shanghai United Media Group.
According to Shaoyu Yuan, a scholar of Chinese studies at Rutger’s University in the US, state media in China serve as a mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with less emphasis on editorial independence and more focus on aligning content with party ideology and government policies.
“This means that state media operate under the auspices of the CCP and contribute to the promotion of government objectives, enhancing national unity and supporting China’s image domestically and internationally,” he told Al Jazeera.
But although Sixth Tone had to balance credible reporting for an international audience with CCP ideology, Yuan is not convinced the magazine was doomed to lose its edge.
Instead, he argues that allowing Sixth Tone to pursue its own journalistic style was akin to a controlled experiment by the CCP.
“Chinese citizens interested in such reporting most likely already knew how to bypass censorship and access foreign news outlets that already cover some of the same issues,” he said.
“The Chinese government’s support for Sixth Tone allowed for a subtle control over the tone and framing of such issues.”
Additionally, when Sixth Tone was founded in 2016, China was still transitioning from the less assertive governing style of Hu Jintao, who was China’s president from 2003 until 2013.
“Compared to eight years ago, it would be more unusual to see a media like Sixth Tone be founded today,” Yuan said.
Since Xi came to power in 2013, the media environment has tightened. Internet freedom has also declined.
In Freedom House’s 2023 report on internet freedom around the world, China was rated “not free: with a score of only nine points out of 100, one point less than the year before.
In RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, meanwhile, China fell four spots compared with 2022, ranking second to bottom and just above North Korea. More journalists are currently in jail in China than anywhere else in the world.
“There has been a very clear development towards greater state control over the media in China in recent years leaving very little space for media,” Alfred Wu, a scholar of public governance in China at the National University of Singapore, told Al Jazeera.
This development has also affected state media, according to Yuan at Rutger’s University.
“Under the rule of President Xi Jinping, state media in China have been consolidated and aligned closer with the ideology of the CCP,” he said.
“This involves regular ideological education and training, aiming to make sure that reporting reinforces Xi Jinping Thought [Xi’s ideology] and the objectives of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and this is why we are witnessing foreign staff members resigning from media outlets like Sixth Tone.”
One of those staff members is former editor Bibek Bhandari who allegedly landed himself and several other employees at Sixth Tone in “hot water” last year after publishing a media project that criticised Beijing’s zero-COVID policy.
On X, Bhandari wrote a long thread explaining how the list of prohibited topics was growing and had come to include migrant relocation, the Shanghai lockdown, LGBTQ-related stories, women’s issues and the zero-COVID protests.
Bhandari attended the biggest of the zero-COVID protests in November 2023 along with other members of the editorial team.
By May 2023, none of them were left at Sixth Tone, he wrote in a series of posts.
“I resigned. Demand for ‘positive stories’ was growing. Censorship getting worse. And the place has been utterly mismanaged. Space for stories that we previously published without any hiccups is shrinking. It’s not the same place I joined.”
But it is not only journalists in more outspoken media such as Sixth Tone who have come under pressure.
When a reporting team from Chinese state television CCTV began a live interview close to the scene of a gas leak explosion that had claimed the lives of 27 people in a city outside Beijing in the middle of March, members of the local authorities reportedly blocked the camera while others engaged in pushing and shoving to physically remove the journalists.
Even this year’s annual news conference at the end of the annual political gathering of the Two Sessions was cancelled.
Yuan warns that the incident near the gas leak explosion, the cancelled press event and the tightening controls over media outlets like Sixth Tone suggest more difficulties ahead for journalists in China.
“These developments underscore the precarious nature of media freedoms and the tightrope that journalists must walk within the regulatory and political landscape of the country,” he said.
Despite recent crackdowns and restrictions, former staffer Ong believes that Sixth Tone still has a role to play in China’s media landscape.
“I don’t think they will be shut down completely because I think they are still useful as a tool to promote China to a Western audience,” she explained.
“And even if it is not the same as before, a lot of it is still real stories, real people and real issues.”
Yuan noted that the future of outlets like Sixth Tone is not set in stone.
“I consider Sixth Tone’s journey to be reflective of the evolving strategies within China’s media ecosystem,” he said.
“Should there be a shift towards a more open governance approach, there’s the possibility that Sixth Tone could once again rise to prominence.”
*The source’s name was altered to respect a wish for anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic.
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The quake struck on Wednesday morning and was the strongest to hit the island in 25 years.
The search for survivors of Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years continues.
At least nine people have been confirmed dead and hundreds injured after the magnitude 7.2 tremor hit off the island’s east on Wednesday morning.
Relief efforts are focussed on Hualien, along the rugged and scenic east coast, where dozens of buildings were left teetering after their lower floors collapsed, bridges and tunnels were destroyed and roads were damaged by rocks and landslides.
In its latest update on Thursday morning, the National Fire Agency said 1,038 people had been injured, while 52 were missing and uncontactable. The death toll remained at nine, all of whom were found in Hualien.
Three people among a group taking a morning hike in the Taroko National Park were killed after the earthquake triggered a rock slide.
The fire agency said rescuers were using drones and helicopters to search for people thought to be trapped in the park, which is known for its scenic beauty. About 38 workers on their way to a hotel in the park remain missing after some of their colleagues were found safe.
Located on a tectonic boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate, Taiwan is used to earthquakes and well-prepared for them, but officials at the earthquake monitoring agency were expecting a far weaker tremor and did not send out their usual alert.
The quake, which Japan’s meteorological agency initially put at 7.5 magnitude and the US Geological Survey at 7.4, struck about 18km (11 miles) south of Hualien. It caused widespread alarm in Taipei more than 100km away, where buildings shook violently, and triggered tsunami warnings from southern Japan to the Philippines.
Authorities have recorded multiple aftershocks.
For some, the quake reawakened memories of Taiwan’s last major quake in 1999, when a magnitude 7.6 quake killed some 2,400 people and injured 10,000 more.
Stacy Liu, a former engineer-turned-Chinese teacher, was in an online lesson when the earthquake struck.
“I was freaking out. I felt like scary things were going to happen all over again, because I’ve been through 1999, so I know how scary it can be,” Liu told Al Jazeera. “I was taking out [construction] helmets, prepping our guinea pigs, and putting some water and snacks under the table in case something crazy happened.”
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As crews begin to demolish buildings left standing precariously after Taiwan’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake, residents say they worry about a night of aftershocks. Already, over 100 aftershocks have been felt following the island’s most destructive earthquake in 25 years, which killed at least 9 people.
Published On 3 Apr 2024
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On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake and a subsequent 15-metre tsunami struck Japan, which triggered a nuclear disaster at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Three of the six plant’s reactors were affected, resulting in meltdowns and the release of a significant amount of radioactive material into the environment.
Today, 13 years later, Japan is still experiencing the impacts of this disaster. Immediately after the earthquake struck, more than 160,000 people were evacuated. Of them, nearly 29,000 still remain displaced.
Disastrous health effects due to exposure to radioactivity are still a serious concern for many, and environmental impacts on land, water, agriculture, and fisheries are still visible. The cost of the damage, including victim compensation, has been astronomical; $7bn has been spent annually since 2011, and work continues.
Last year, Japan’s plan to start releasing more than a million tonnes of treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean sparked anxiety and anger, including among community members who rely on fishing for their livelihoods, from Fukushima to Fiji.
Yet, Japan and the rest of the world appear not to have learned much from this devastating experience. On March 21, Belgium hosted the first Nuclear Energy Summit attended by high-level officials from across the globe, including Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Masahiro Komura. The event was meant to promote the development, expansion and funding of nuclear energy research and projects.
The summit came after more than 20 countries, including Japan, announced plans to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050 at last year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP28).
All of these developments go against growing evidence that nuclear energy is not an efficient and safe option for the energy transition away from fossil fuels.
Despite advancements in waste-storage technology, no foolproof method for handling nuclear waste has been devised and implemented yet. As nuclear power plants continue to create radioactive waste, the potential for leakage, accidents, and diversion to nuclear weapons still presents significant environmental, public health, and security risks.
Nuclear power is also the slowest low-carbon energy to deploy, is very costly and has the least impact in the short, medium and long term on decarbonising the energy mix. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report pointed out that nuclear energy’s potential and cost-effectiveness of emission reduction by 2030 was much smaller than that of solar and wind energy.
Large-scale energy technologies like nuclear power plants also require billions of dollars upfront, and take a decade to build due to stricter safety regulations. Even the deployment of small modular reactors (SMR) has a high price tag. Late last year, a flagship project by NuScale funded by the US government to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars had to be abandoned due to rising costs.
In addition to that, according to a report released by Greenpeace in 2023, even in the most favourable scenario and with an equal investment amount, by 2050, the installation of a wind and solar power infrastructure would produce three times more cumulative electricity and emit four times less cumulative CO2 compared to a water nuclear reactor in the same period.
And the climate crisis is not just about CO2 emissions. It is about a whole range of environmental justice and democracy issues that need to be considered. And nuclear energy does not have a stellar record in this regard.
For instance, uranium mining – the initial step in nuclear energy production – has been linked to habitat destruction, soil and water contamination, and adverse health effects for communities near mining sites. The extraction and processing of uranium require vast amounts of energy, often derived from nonrenewable sources, further compromising the environmental credentials of nuclear power.
Nuclear energy also uses centralised technology, governance, and decision-making processes, concentrating the distribution of power in the hands of the few.
For an equitable energy transition, energy solutions need not only to be safe, but justly sourced and fairly implemented. While nuclear power plants require kilometres of pipelines, long-distance planning, and centralised management, the manufacturing and installation of solar panels and wind turbines is becoming more and more energy efficient and easier to deploy.
If implemented correctly, regulation and recycling programnes can address critical materials and end-of-life disposal concerns. Community-based solar and wind projects can create new jobs, stimulate local economies, and empower communities to take control of their energy future as opposed to contributing more money to the trillion-dollar fossil fuel industry.
Although the 2011 disaster in Fukushima may seem like a distant past, its effects today on the health of its environment, people and community are reminders that we must not be dangerously distracted with the so-called promises of nuclear energy.
We must not transition from one broken system to another.
Wealthy countries have an ethical historical responsibility to support global finance reform and provide ample funding for renewable energy in lower-income countries. To keep our world safe and fair, not only do we need to tax and phase out fossil fuels immediately, but it is essential that we power up with renewable energy, such as wind and solar, fast, widely, and equitably.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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Taiwan’s earthquake kills at least nine people, injures nearly 900, with 77 trapped in tunnels and collapsed buildings.
Taiwan was rocked by a magnitude 7 earthquake on Wednesday, the strongest to hit the island in 25 years. It has so far killed nine people, injured about 900 others and prompted a tsunami warning for southern Japan and the Philippines, which was later lifted.
Here is what we know so far:
Notable quake, preliminary info: M 7.4 – 18 km SSW of Hualien City, Taiwan https://t.co/G7yLg1BGyO
— USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) April 3, 2024
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Buildings have been toppled in Taiwan after it was hit by its most powerful earthquake in 25 years.
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State media said the the missile – named Hwasong-16B – was a key piece of the country’s nuclear war deterrent.
North Korea has said it tested a new solid-fuelled hypersonic intermediate-range missile (IRBM) as it continues to expand its weapons programme.
Wednesday’s report in the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) came a day after South Korea and Japan detected the launch of a missile from North Korea towards the east.
KCNA shared photos of leader Kim Jong Un on site near the weapon, the Hwasong-16B, as well as with his military commanders, less than two weeks after he supervised a solid-fuel engine test for an IRBM.
Kim lauded the weapon as a demonstration of the “absolute superiority” of North Korea’s defence technology. Pyongyang had developed nuclear-capable, solid-fuel systems for “all the tactical, operational and strategic missiles with various ranges”, he added, according to KCNA.
The North Korean leader promised to further develop the country’s arsenal to counter his “enemies”, a reference to Japan, South Korea and the United States.
KCNA said the Hwasong-16B flew for about 1,000km (621 miles), reaching a peak altitude of 101km (62 miles). Seoul’s military said it was airborne for about 600km (370 miles) before splashing down in the sea between South Korea and Japan.
North Korea has focused on developing more sophisticated solid-fuel weapons because they are easier to conceal and move, and can be launched more quickly. Liquid-propelled weapons need to be fuelled before launch and cannot stay fuelled for long periods of time.
Hypersonic weapons, meanwhile, are designed to exceed five times the speed of sound and can also be maneouvred in flight.
North Korea previously said it tested a hypersonic IRBM in January.
The Tuesday launch “appears to be part of Pyongyang’s missile development blueprint, including hypersonic weapons”, said Han Kwon-hee of the Korea Association of Defence Industry Studies.
Analysts say such weapons, if perfected, would be potentially capable of reaching remote US targets in the Pacific, including the island of Guam.
“North Korea, in declaring that it has fully accomplished the nuclear weaponisation of its missiles, also emphasised its commitment to arm its hypersonic missiles with nuclear weapons,” Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at South Korea’s Research Institute for National Strategy, told the Associated Press news agency.
“North Korea’s development of hypersonic IRBMs targets Guam, which hosts US military bases, and even Alaska.”
Tensions in the region have risen since 2022 as Kim used Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate his testing of missiles and other weapons. The US and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan and sharpening their deterrence strategies.
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DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Japan Meteorological Agency warns of 3 metre waves (9.8 ft)after 7.7-magnitude quake.
Taiwan has been jolted by its biggest earthquake in a quarter-century, triggering tsunami warnings for the self-ruled island, Japan and the Philippines.
The earthquake on Wednesday shook buildings off their foundations and led to a landslide in the eastern part of the island. At least two buildings in the eastern city of Hualien collapsed.
In the capital Taipei, vehicles pulled over on the side of the road and the city’s subway service was briefly suspended, while tiles were thrown from older buildings and furniture was knocked over with the force of the quake.
A series of aftershocks were felt in the capital about 15 minutes later and continued over the next hour.
Authorities did not immediately report casualties.
Taiwanese authorities issued a tsunami alert for coastal areas, calling on residents to be “vigilant”, and said aftershocks could continue for the next three to four days due to the intensity of the earthquake.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JAM) said the magnitude of the quake was 7.7, up from an earlier estimate of 7.5.
Wu Chien-fu, the director of Taipei’s Seismology Centre, said the quake was the strongest to hit the island since a 1999 quake that killed 2,400 people.
“It’s felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands,” Wu told reporters.
Taiwan’s earthquake alert system, which typically provides warnings minutes in advance, did not activate prior to the quake.
The JMA said residents in areas around Okinawa Island, Miyakojima Island and Yaeyama Island should immediately evacuate, warning of waves of up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) high.
“Tsunami waves are approaching the coasts. Evacuate as quickly as possible. Waves can hit repeatedly. Continue to evacuate until all warnings are lifted,” the meteorological agency said.
The agency said that a wave measuring about 30 centimeters high was detected on the coast of Yonaguni island about 15 minutes after the quake.
Okinawa’s main airport suspended flights following the alert.
The Philippines’s seismology agency said coastal areas were expected to experience “high tsunami waves”.
“The people in the coastal areas of the following provinces are strongly advised to immediately evacuate to higher grounds or move farther inland,” the agency said in an advisory.
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