Tag: Asia Pacific

MH370 went missing 10 years ago. An Indonesian family hopes it can be found | Aviation News

Medan, Indonesia – Herlina Panjaitan has not changed her mobile phone number since her son, 25-year-old Firman Chandra Siregar, went missing 10 years ago.

Siregar, an Indonesian, was a passenger on MH370, the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared 40 minutes into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in the early hours of March 8, 2014 and was never heard from again.

It is important to 69-year-old Panjaitan that her number remains the same, just in case her youngest son tries to call her.

“That was the number I used at the time and that is the number Firman has for me. I still hope he will call and ask me to go and pick him up, wherever he is,” she told Al Jazeera.

Panjaitan had travelled to Kuala Lumpur from her home in Medan, Indonesia with her daughter-in-law and grandson the night before Siregar departed for Beijing, so the family could spend some time together before he started his new job with an oil company in China.

Before he left for the airport to catch the late-night flight, Panjaitan helped her son pack his belongings, including a bag filled with warm clothing for Beijing’s freezing winter.

The family took photographs together, with Siregar beaming as he played with his nephew.

Panjaitan proudly displays photos of Siregan in her home, including of his graduation from the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology [Aisyah Llewellyn/Al Jazeera]

The pictures now hang on the wall of the family’s home in Medan, which lies on the other side of the Strait of Malacca facing Malaysia.

“I told him to be careful and call me when he got to Beijing,” Panjaitan said. “There was no feeling that anything was about to go wrong.”

The next morning, Panjaitan got a call from her daughter who worked at the Indonesian embassy in Mexico to ask her if she had heard the news about MH370.

“She just said that she had heard that it had lost contact with air traffic control,” she recalled. “I didn’t know what to think.”

Panjaitan and her family immediately rushed to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) where the families of the 239 passengers and crew on board were briefed on the plane’s mysterious disappearance.

“That is when I started to believe that it had really gone missing,” she said.

Ten years since it took off from KLIA, the plane’s fate has become one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

No one has been able to say with any certainty what happened to the Boeing 777 after Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off from Malaysian air traffic control with the words “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero”, and prepared to enter Vietnamese airspace.

According to satellite data, rather than continuing on to Beijing, the plane dramatically veered off course, flying back across northern Malaysia and skirting around Indonesia, before heading south towards the deep waters of the Indian Ocean.

Panjaitan said that she called Siregar’s mobile phone after she heard the news and that it had rung several times but that no one had answered.

A woman writes a message on a board dedicated to MH370. It has the plane's number and the words '10 years gone'
A woman in Kuala Lumpur writes a message to mark the 10th anniversary of MH370’s disappearance [FL Wong/AP Photo]

Two weeks later, then Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the plane had “ended” its journey in the remote southern Indian Ocean.

‘The best child’

Siregar, a graduate of Indonesia’s prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology, was the youngest of five children – three boys and two girls – and Panjaitan says he was “the best”.

“That doesn’t mean my other children aren’t amazing,” she explained. “One works as a prosecutor and another is a diplomat, but Firman was just the best child and my other children understand what I mean when I say that. He was so handsome, so well-behaved, so respectful and so kind.

“He never gave me any trouble as a child, and he knew what to do and what not to do without me telling him.”

Before he went to Beijing, Siregar had introduced his mother and family to his girlfriend and her parents, who had travelled from Bandung to meet Panjaitan and her husband Chrisman.

“They said they wanted to get married and I was happy that he’d found his life partner,” she said.

Six months after the plane went missing, Panjaitan and her husband went to Bandung to meet Siregar’s girlfriend and gave her their blessing to move forward with her life.

“We said that if she wanted to get married in the future, she should do it,” Panjaitan told Al Jazeera. “She didn’t say anything, just cried. And we cried too, it was just so sad.”

Many theories, few answers

Endless speculation has filled the void left by the failure to find MH370.

Some claim Captain Zaharie engineered a sophisticated murder-suicide plot to deliberately crash the plane into the ocean.

Others suggest that the plane was hijacked, deliberately shot down, or suffered a technical malfunction that cut off its communication systems and incapacitated the pilots leading to its eventual crash.

None of the claims has been proven.

Searches have proved fruitless, including a significant underwater and air search across an area of 120,000sq km (46,332sq miles) that cost $147m and was led by an Australian team in conjunction with Malaysia and China.

The Malaysian authorities have also launched several investigations that culminated in a 495-page report that was finally released in 2018. It found that while foul play was likely, it was not possible to say who was responsible.

Last week, ahead of the 10th anniversary, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reiterated that Malaysia was prepared to reopen an investigation if new evidence emerged.

Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, has also said that he has plans to meet US marine robotics company, Ocean Infinity, to discuss a new proposed underwater search.

Panjaitan said that her family welcomes any renewed investigation.

Some fragments from the plane have washed up on East African beaches, including a flaperon that forms part of the wing, but there has been nothing more substantial.

For Panjaitan that leaves room for hope.

“If it crashed, why haven’t they found it? It is a huge plane. What is important is that, alive or not, we still have hope that they will be found,” she said.

“Hopefully Firman is alive, and we can go and pick him up wherever he is. When I see him again, the first thing I will do is give him a big hug.”

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FM Wang Yi insists China ‘force for peace’; defends Russian ties | Politics News

Speaking at a rare press conference in Beijing, Wang Yi calls for peace talks to bring two-year-old Ukraine conflict to an end.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said China sees itself as a “force for peace” in the world, even as it pursues deeper ties with Russia despite Moscow’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

“In the face of complex turmoil in the international environment, China will persist in being a force for peace, a force for stability, and a force for progress in the world,” Wang told reporters at a press conference in Beijing on the sidelines of the country’s annual meeting of its parliament.

Wang, who spoke in Mandarin, was also asked about China’s relationship with Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The two countries announced a “no limits” partnership shortly before the invasion, as Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing, and visiting Moscow last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed a “new era” of cooperation.

The foreign minister said Beijing and Moscow’s closer relationship was a “strategic choice”, noting that bilateral trade had reached a record $240bn in 2023.

“New opportunities” lay ahead, he added, portraying the two countries’ ties as a “new paradigm” in the relations between big powers.

“Major countries should not seek conflict and the Cold War should not be allowed to come back,” Wang said.

China has positioned itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war, and on the first anniversary of the conflict, released a 12-point peace plan calling for a ceasefire and talks between the two parties.

On Thursday, Wang insisted that Beijing maintained an “objective and impartial position” on Ukraine and called again for peace talks, noting that peace envoy Li Hui was currently in the region.

“A conflict, when prolonged, tends to deteriorate and escalate and could lead to an even bigger crisis,” Wang said.

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North Korea’s Kim Jong Un orders heightened war preparations | Politics News

Latest comments come as US and South Korea hold joint military exercises involving thousands of troops.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered heightened readiness for war after inspecting troops at a major military operations base in the country’s west.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not reveal the location of the base in its report on Thursday.

The North Korean leader said the military must “dynamically usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation”, according to KCNA.

“Our army should … steadily intensify the actual war drills aimed at rapidly improving its combat capabilities for perfect war preparedness,” he added.

Kim’s visit took place as forces from the United States and South Korea continued their annual Freedom Shield large-scale military exercises.

The drills, expected to involve 48 field exercises including missile interception drills, bombing, air assault and live-firing, began on Monday with twice the number of troops participating compared with last year.

KCNA did not say whether Kim discussed the US-South Korean drills with the troops he met with [KCNA via Reuters]

North Korea has long condemned military drills by the US and South Korea, claiming they are rehearsals for an invasion, and has conducted weapons tests in response to previous exercises.

On Monday, KCNA quoted an unnamed spokesperson for North Korea’s Ministry of Defence urging Seoul and Washington to cease their “reckless” and “frantic war drills”.

The US and South Korea “will be made to pay a dear price for their false choice”, the spokesperson added.

In Thursday’s report, KCNA did not mention whether Kim directly referred to the Freedom Shield drills.

It said the troops at the base were conducting manoeuvres under conditions simulating actual war.

North Korea has continued to carry out missile tests this year as it modernises its military.

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Climate change pushes Malaysia’s coastal fishermen away from the sea | Climate Crisis News

Gelang Patah, Malaysia – On an overcast morning six years ago, Mohammad Ridhwan Mohd Yazid was on his way back to Malaysia’s southern Johor coast when his small fishing boat was caught in a sudden storm.

In a matter of minutes, the calm southerly March winds transformed into gales whipping up high seas that slammed into his boat, knocking both him and the day’s catch into the air.

Alone and about a kilometre (about half a mile) from Singapore’s northwestern shore, Ridhwan landed back on the boat near its engine and turned quickly for land.

“I didn’t care that I lost half of what I caught that day. I just wanted to go home,” the 30-year-old told Al Jazeera in an interview at the coastal jetty in Pendas, a fishing village in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor.

Ridhwan’s tale is not an isolated one, but shared by many traditional Malaysian fishermen who have found themselves increasingly affected by the climate crisis, which is changing weather patterns that have long governed when and where they can fish.

Such fishermen are estimated to make up about 65 percent of Malaysia’s total fishing community, and are small-scale operators from seaside or river communities and ply waters close to shore or along the river for fish, clams, crabs and other marine animals to meet local demand.

They typically use single-engine boats about seven metres (23 feet) long, casting their nets in an area up to five nautical miles from the shore along the country’s more than 4,600km (2,858 miles) of coastline.

Malaysian fisherman Mohd Faizan Wahid, 43, checking his equipment after casting his net into the waters of the Johor Strait between Malaysia and Singapore [Patrick Lee/Al Jazeera]

But erratic weather, warming seas and declining fish stocks caused by climate change are slowly pushing them away from the seas they and generations before them once depended on.

“In the past, we didn’t have to go far to get a good catch. We could just go near the shore,” said Mohd Hafiza Abu Talib.

Now, he said, winds could shift direction without warning, treacherous for those who usually work alone or fish at night.

“The winds can suddenly change and bring us somewhere else. It’s even worse when we fish in the dark, and we don’t have GPS,” the man in his late 40s added.

Warming waters

Studies by the United Nations have shown that oceans absorb 25 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions and capture 90 percent of the heat generated by these emissions trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed a daily sea surface temperature of 21 degrees Celsius (69.8 Fahrenheit) from early January, one degree more than during the same period 30 years ago.

Man-made emissions have pushed the average temperature of oceans higher, leading to the melting of polar ice, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, marine heatwaves and more fiercely unpredictable weather.

Mangroves have also been damaged, and coral reefs, where fish breed, have bleached.

The small-time fishermen’s catch is sold at a market next to the jetty where they dock their boats in Pendas  [Patrick Lee/Al Jazeera]

Professor Mohd Fadzil Mohd Akhir, an oceanographer with Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, said marine animals, sensitive to sea temperatures, had been found to migrate to cooler waters as oceans warmed.

“It doesn’t mean that when the climate gets warmer, that fish is not available anywhere,” he said.

“Most marine organisms in tropical areas will move to cooler areas when these areas get warmer.”

A 2022 University of British Columbia study found that climate change would force 45 percent of fish that cross through two or more exclusive economic zones to move away from their natural habitats by the end of the century.

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) refers to an area of ocean or sea that extends some 200 nautical miles beyond a country’s territorial waters.

The prospect of a further decline in an already falling harvest is a huge blow for Malaysia’s coastal fishermen who have invested thousands in a back-breaking trade with often poor returns.

A single boat can cost about 14,000 Malaysian ringgit ($2,928) with thousands more needed for nets, engines and fuel.

A Pendas fisherman can potentially net upwards of about 300 ringgit ($62) of fish or crabs from the sea on a good day, and more during certain seasons. However, fishermen who have fished here for decades complain that there are fewer good days than before.

“I used to be able to get 30 to 40kg [66 to 88lbs] of crabs in a day,” said Shafiee Rahmat, 63, who has been fishing for 50 years.

“Now I get about 10kg [22lbs] in a day. It’s just not worth it.”

‘Dramatic collapse’

Originally, fishermen in the area blamed the dwindling supply on coastal and industrial developments.

Chief among the complaints was the construction of the artificial islands making up the 2,833-hectare (7,000 acres) China-backed Forest City property project, some 20km (12 miles) from Pendas.

But Serina Rahman, a conservation scientist working with fishermen in the area for more than 15 years, also noticed a “dramatic collapse” as the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We always thought it was development that was affecting the fish catch,” the lecturer from the National University of Singapore said.

Fishermen relax before heading out to sea in southern Johor [Patrick Lee/Al Jazeera]

However, Serina and the fishermen noticed that fish stocks did not climb back as hoped, even as coastal development, previously blamed for declining catches, came to a halt during the lockdowns.

She said that while dredging in the past had been shown to increase the catch of certain species, such as prawns, climate change had no such benefits.

“That was when we really saw the fall in catch, because over the COVID period was when we saw the numbers totally decline,” Serina said.

Spurred by the diminishing supply and extreme weather, some fishermen from Pendas have banded together with help from a local environmental group to build an offshore fishing platform to earn more money.

Colloquially referred to as “kelong” or “rafts”, the floating wooden structures serve as controlled aquaculture breeding grounds and spots for visiting anglers.

Potentially, each platform can net up to 100,000 ringgit ($20,920) a year in fish; a lot less risky than going out to sea.

Ridhwan said that there were “many” now skirting the Johor coast, compared with only three or four a decade ago.

Fed up with the unrewarding waters, he has taken several breaks from the trade over the past 10 years, working odd jobs including as a delivery courier during the pandemic.

He finally called it quits two years ago and sold his boat. Today, Ridhwan does diving work as well as sometimes maintaining the Pendas fishermen’s platform and feeding the fish they farm.

“Everyone here wants to be a fisherman,” he said. “But if it’s not good for us, what’s the point? We have to change with the times.”

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When is Ramadan 2024 and how is the moon sighted? | Religion News

For most countries, the first day of fasting is likely to be March 12, depending on the sighting of the new moon.

The first day of fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Mecca will be Monday, March 11 or Tuesday, March 12, depending on the sighting of the new moon.

Ramadan is determined by the Islamic lunar calendar, which begins with the sighting of the crescent moon. Saudi Arabia and other Muslim-majority countries rely on the testimonies of moon sighters to determine the start of the month.

How is the Ramadan moon sighted?

For the moon to be visible, the crescent must set after the sun. This allows the sky to be dark enough to spot the small slither of the new moon.

After the sun sets on the night of March 10, 29th of Shaaban month in the Hijri calendar, moon sighters face west with a clear view of the horizon for a first glimpse of the crescent moon.

If the moon is sighted, the month of Ramadan begins, with the first fasting day being March 11. Otherwise, Shaaban will complete 30 days, and the first fasting day will be March 12.

In Saudi Arabia, testimonies of people who have spotted the moon are recorded and the Supreme Court makes a decision on when Ramadan should begin.

When does Ramadan begin in different countries?

According to Crescent Moon Watch, a moon tracker run by the United Kingdom’s Nautical Almanac Office, Ramadan’s new moon will begin on March 10 at 17:23 GMT (8:23pm Mecca time), with no sightings of any type expected that night.

On March 10, the new moon should be visible only in the Pacific, near the Hawaiian Islands and parts of French Polynesia. It is unlikely that most of the world, including the Middle East, North America and Europe, will be able to see the new crescent with the naked eye.

The new moon could possibly be seen without optical aid if the skies are clear across most of the world on March 11. Telescopic sightings are likely in southern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.

For most countries, the first day of fasting will likely be March 12.

The moon phases of Ramadan

Lunar months last between 29 and 30 days, depending on the sighting of the new moon on the 29th night of each month. If the new moon is not visible, the month lasts 30 days.

Why is Ramadan holy?

Muslims believe that Ramadan is the month in which the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad more than 1,400 years ago.

Throughout the month, observing Muslims fast from just before the sunrise prayer, Fajr, to the sunset prayer, Maghrib.

The fast entails abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual relations to achieve greater “taqwa”, or consciousness of God.

Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, along with the Muslim declaration of faith, daily prayers, charity, and performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca if physically and financially capable.

In many Muslim-majority countries, working hours are reduced, and most restaurants are closed during fasting hours

How do you wish someone for Ramadan?

Various Muslim-majority nations have a personalised greeting in their native languages. “Ramadan Mubarak” and “Ramadan Kareem” are common greetings exchanged in this period, wishing the recipient a blessed and generous month, respectively.

When is Eid al-Fitr?

At the end of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr. In Arabic, it means “festival of breaking the fast”.

Depending on the new moon sighting, Eid al-Fitr, which lasts three days, will likely start on April 10 or 11.

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‘Left behind’ families look to ICC for Philippines drug war justice | News

Manila, Philippines — Ephraim Escudero had been missing for five days when a neighbour showed his family a news clipping.

The bodies of two unknown men had been found in Pampanga, about five hours from their home east of Manila in Laguna, but the report contained enough identifying details that the family knew instantly. “It was Ephraim,” said his sister, Sheerah.

“Both [victims] were wrapped with packaging tape around their heads,” Sheerah recalled. “[Ephraim] was hogtied. His hands were behind his back. His feet were tied with plastic and brown packaging tape. He also had gunshot wounds.”

When 18-year-old Ephraim first went missing in September 2017, local police had shown little interest in helping. An investigator in Pampanga acknowledged that Ephraim may have been killed because of the drug war unleashed by then President Rodrigo Duterte, but after the family submitted evidence, “we heard nothing from them,” Escudero said. “They were just fooling around, pretending like they were investigating, but they’re really not.”

Seven years and one president later, Escudero is no closer to finding justice.

While drug-related killings have slowed since their peak in 2017, they have begun to climb since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took power, according to data from the Dahas project, an initiative of the University of the Philippines.

Dahas recorded 331 drug casualties in 2023. That is seven more than the 324 it recorded in 2022 – 149 in Duterte’s final six months as president, and 175 in the six months after Marcos took office on June 30.

Rise Up for Life and for Rights supports women who have lost relatives to the drug war [Nick Aspinwall/Al Jazeera]

Philippine National Police chief Benjamin Acorda Jr admitted in February that people were still killed in police drug operations after Dahas project data showed there had been 28 drug-related killings in January.

He insisted the killings were not intentional.

“There will be aggressive operation[s],” Acorda said. “We want it done honestly.”

Marcos has repeatedly ordered his government not to cooperate with investigators from the International Criminal Court (ICC) who are probing Duterte for the thousands of killings that took place in the years up to 2019, when Duterte pulled the country from the ICC.

Although many have speculated the ICC will issue an arrest warrant for Duterte in the coming months, the Philippine National Police have already promised not to enforce it.

Escudero and other victims, nevertheless, see the ICC as their last hope for justice. There have been only three prosecutions of extrajudicial killings related to the drug war since 2016, according to a report by the US Department of State.

Marcos “hasn’t supported the families of victims,” said Jane Lee, whose husband, Michael, was killed in a 2017 police operation.

Lee and Escudero both received support from Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an organisation supporting women who have lost relatives to the drug war.

“We’re still saying the same thing,” Lee said. “Nothing has really changed.”

‘Collateral damage’

Lee had initially hoped Duterte’s harsh anti-drug campaign would “clean up” drug use in her neighbourhood in Caloocan, a city in Metro Manila.

But when the killings began, many of the victims “were not users or sellers,” she said. “They ended up becoming collateral damage.”

The bloody anti-drug campaign did not have the effect Duterte had promised. “There are still drugs,” she said. But now, under Marcos, the government has also failed to support the families of victims left behind.

“In some ways, it’s even worse,” Lee said. “I’m a solo parent. If my husband were alive, life would [still] be hard. But I’m the only one.

“There are no programmes for the children who are left behind,” she said. “We have not experienced any help and support.”

During the coronavirus lockdowns in 2020, police began visiting the homes of Lee and other family members of drug war victims, asking whether they would file court cases – which they saw as a thinly veiled attempt at pressuring them not to draw the attention of the ICC. The house visits continued until recently, Lee said. She was not sure if the police were continuing to visit other families.

But filing cases in domestic courts remains a futile exercise.

Christine Pascual filed a case against the police officers who killed her 17-year-old son, Joshua Laxamana, in 2018 when he was in Pangasinan, a region north of Manila, for a video game tournament. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court before it was dismissed in 2020.

Pascual said the pending ICC investigation “lessens the heaviness” she has felt since her son was killed.

“I was very disappointed” when the case was dismissed, she said. “In the Philippines, there’s no chance for justice.”

Out of all the cases filed against police involved in drug war killings, only one remains active in a regional court.

Going through the court system is like “aiming for the moon,” said Kristina Conti, a lawyer with the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers who is involved in the remaining case.

The government has told the ICC it is investigating certain drug war cases.

According to Conti, the cases involve police officers who allegedly “went rogue,” and do not constitute the kind of investigations families, activists and lawyers, believe are necessary.

“What we want to ask is, is there something wrong with the war on drugs? Is there something wrong with the police?” she said. “If you phrase it [that way], neutrally, you say, ‘Why did my son die?’”

‘Tiny speck’ of hope

The Marcos administration has yet to give the victims’ families reason for hope.

Joel Ariate

Joel Ariate, the lead researcher of the Dahas project, noted that killings have decreased in much of the country – including Metro Manila – since Acorda was installed as police chief in April 2023. However, they have increased in Davao, Duterte’s hometown, where his son, Sebastian, serves as mayor.

The improvements made by Acorda are still far from enough, Ariate said.

Marcos himself has been “ambiguous at best” when describing his feelings about the drug war, Ariate said. While members of the Marcos administration have pledged to take a new approach centred on rehabilitation, there has been no evidence of this actually happening.

“The underlying countermeasure is very much bent on singling out individuals and killing them,” Ariate said. “So as long as that mechanism and thinking is there, I think the killings will continue.”

Human rights organisations have criticised Marcos for failing to prosecute those behind the drug war killings, but their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has repeatedly promised to keep the ICC out of the country and has denied there is a “culture of impunity” in the Philippines.

“The ICC is like a tiny speck of light for us,” Escudero said. “We know we’ll get nothing from regional trials. We’ve seen it already from the other cases.”

When he died, Ephraim left behind two small children.

Now eight and six, they are getting old enough to use Google, and the eldest has already found news about his father and started asking questions.

Escudero held up a placard she had made depicting her brother smiling. She showed the original, blurry image on her phone, which she had digitally altered. “I used AI,” she said. “We didn’t have a good photo.”

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Singapore’s PM defends Taylor Swift exclusivity deal amid regional grumbles | Entertainment News

Lee Hsien Loong says deal to lure pop star not ‘unfriendly’ to other countries in Southeast Asia.

Singapore’s prime minister has defended striking a deal with Taylor Swift to ensure she did not perform in any other Southeast Asian country following complaints from regional neighbours.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that the city-state had signed an exclusivity deal with the global pop icon but denied that the arrangement was “unfriendly” to other countries in the region.

“Our agencies negotiated an arrangement with her to come to Singapore and perform, and to make Singapore her only stop in Southeast Asia,” Lee told journalists during a news conference at the ASEAN-Australia summit in Melbourne, Australia.

“A deal was reached. And so it has turned out to be a very successful arrangement. I don’t see that as being unfriendly.”

Lee said it was not clear that the pop singer would have performed in other countries in the region if such an arrangement had not been made.

“Maybe, maybe not. These are things that she will decide,” he said.

Lee’s remarks came after claims the city-state lured Swift with a grant worth $2-3m prompted complaints from across the region.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin last month lamented that he would have tried to strike a similar deal if he had known about Singapore’s arrangement.

Philippine legislator Joey Salceda on Wednesday called on Manila to grill Singapore about the grant, saying the city-state’s actions were “not what good neighbours do”.

Singaporean Culture Minister Edwin Tong on Monday told parliament that speculation about the size of the grant was not accurate without elaborating on its terms, including whether it stipulated that Swift not perform elsewhere.

Singapore officials have argued that the cost of attracting Swift is far outweighed by the benefits the pop icon will bring to tourism-related sectors such as accommodation, retail and dining.

Swift, one of the most successful music artists of all time, has sold out six shows in Singapore, the only Asian stop on The Eras Tour apart from Japan.

The shows, which run until March 9, are being attended by some 300,000 people, including fans from Asian neighbours such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

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Philippines says ship damaged in South China Sea incident with Chinese boat | South China Sea News

Collision occurred as the coast guard escorted a resupply mission to sailors on grounded ship at Second Thomas Shoal.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has said one of its boats suffered “minor structural damage” as Chinese ships tried to block a resupply mission in the South China Sea, in the latest confrontation in the disputed waters.

Jay Tarriela, the PCG spokesperson, said the incident took place early on Tuesday morning near Second Thomas Shoal where a small group of sailors have been living on board the Sierra Madre warship since it was grounded nearly 25 years ago.

He shared videos and images on X showing a Chinese ship cutting across the bow of the Philippine resupply ship and the crew rushing to drop a buoy between the vessels.

The PCG ships were accompanying the resupply boats.

“The PCG vessels faced dangerous maneuvers and blocking from Chinese Coast Guard vessels and Chinese Maritime Militia,” Tarriela wrote on the social media platform, adding that the resupply mission was continuing.

“Their reckless and illegal actions led to a collision between MRRV-4407 and China Coast Guard 21555 that resulted in minor structural damage to the PCG vessel.”

China’s Coast Guard said it had taken “regulatory actions” against Philippine ships in the area, accusing them of entering the waters “illegally”.

Tensions in the South China Sea have risen over the past year with Manila accusing Beijing of taking dangerous actions against its boats and lodging multiple diplomatic protests.

Second Thomas Shoal, known as Anyungin Shoal by the Philippines and Ren’ai Jiao by China, lies about 200km (124 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000km from China’s southern Hainan Island.

The Philippines is one of several Southeast Asian countries that claim parts of the South China Sea, while Beijing claims the waters almost in their entirety.

In 2012, China seized control of Scarborough Shoal after a months-long standoff, and the Philippines took its case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which found China’s claims had no legal basis.

Beijing has ignored the ruling.



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China sets 5 percent growth target for 2024 amid economic headwinds | Economy

Beijing sets one of its lowest targets in decades amid property crisis, slowing exports and population decline.

China will set an economic growth target of about 5 percent for 2024, one of its lowest in decades.

China’s rubber-stamp National People’s Congress (NPC) is set to officially unveil the target on Tuesday as the world’s second-largest economy is facing serious headwinds.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will deliver his maiden work report outlining policy goals for the year as the Chinese economy grapples with multiple challenges including a property crisis, slowing exports, geopolitical tensions with the United States, population decline, huge debt and record youth unemployment

Beijing’s growth target, outlined in official documents seen by multiple media outlets, matches last year’s target of about 5 percent.

China’s economy officially grew 5.2 percent in 2023, its weakest performance in decades excluding the COVID-19 pandemic downturn.

The annual gathering is being closely watched by investors for announcements to shore up confidence in the economy.

International investors have been pulling out of China at record rates, with $68.7bn worth of corporate and household capital flowing out of the country last year.

Analysts have tempered expectations of sweeping measures to boost the economy due to Beijing’s aversion to broad-based social spending.

Li’s speech on Tuesday comes after officials announced that the premier would not hold a news conference at the end of the legislature’s annual session for the first time since 1993.

The move has been seen as a further example of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to concentrate control in the hands of the ruling Communist Party.

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As Vietnam bids to be chip leader, energy and labour woes stand in the way | Technology

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – On a sunny California afternoon in late September, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh took a tour of Silicon Valley, cosying up to officials at semiconductor firms Synopsys and Nvidia.

A little over a month earlier in Hanoi, Pham tasked four government ministries with increasing the number of Vietnamese engineers capable of working in semiconductor production by the tens of thousands.

Government efforts to make Vietnam an attractive option for chip investment have continued in the new year.

Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat last month told local media that authorities had put tax incentives in place for high-value-added products such as semiconductors.

Dat said the country wanted to welcome a “wave” of investment by collaborating with other ministries and tech corporations to boost research and draw talent to the semiconductor sector.

Vietnam has set its sights on becoming a leading player in the global supply chain for semiconductors – the wafer-thin integrated circuits essential to modern technology.

As Hanoi and a bevvy of nations align on the need to de-risk from China amid intensifying geopolitical tensions, the Southeast Asian nation appears to have momentum on its side in its bid to rival the dominance of Taiwan and South Korea.

Yet Vietnam faces obstacles, too, including a limited pool of skilled labour and energy insecurity in the country’s tech manufacturing hub in the north.

The global push to diversify semiconductor supply chains is in step with Hanoi’s development aims, said Le Hong Hiep, a senior fellow at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute who formerly worked as an official at Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The semiconductor industry is seen as a very important industry that can help Vietnam transform its economy and turn Vietnam into a developed and high-income economy by 2045,” Hiep told Al Jazeera.

“In terms of timing and the strategic setting, it’s favourable for Vietnam to develop the industry now.”

On the surface, Vietnam’s chip ambitions seem to be flourishing amid an influx of foreign capital.

Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang has described Vietnam as the company’s ‘second home’ [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

During a visit to Hanoi in early December, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang called Vietnam the chip giant’s “second home”, pledged to expand partnerships with local firms and set up a base in the country, according to local media reports.

Nvidia, whose market capitalisation last week surpassed $2 trillion, says it has invested $12m in the country so far.

A Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment on Nvidia’s future operations in Vietnam when contacted by Al Jazeera.

Vietnam has about 5,000 engineers trained in semiconductors but will need as many as 20,000 in the next five years, according to the US-ASEAN Business Council.

“When companies look at Vietnam, it looks really good on paper but when they actually have to go through and look to see if there is sufficient electricity, what’s the infrastructure and most importantly, what are the human resources like… I don’t think Vietnam is going to be the producer that it thinks it is,” Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, DC who focuses on Southeast Asia, told Al Jazeera.

Vietnamese authorities are aware of workforce shortcomings and are leading a push to train more engineers, said Nguyen Thanh Yen, a principal engineer at the Hanoi branch of the Korean chip design company CoAsia SEMI.

“The government is now aggressively planning dedicated programmes to boost up the number of semiconductor engineers,” Yen told Al Jazeera.

Semiconductors were a centrepiece of the historic upgrade in relations between Vietnam and the United States announced in September, when the two countries agreed to a comprehensive strategic partnership – the highest tier in Hanoi’s diplomatic hierarchy.

“We’re deepening our cooperation on critical and emerging technologies, particularly around building a more resilient semiconductor supply chain,” US President Joe Biden said during a September 9 joint press conference with Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

US chip companies appear to be aligning with Washington’s agenda.

Arizona-based Amkor started operations at a $1.6bn chip factory in northern Vietnam this October, while Delaware-headquartered Marvell announced in May that it would establish a semiconductor design centre in the country.

Samsung is investing $3.3bn to manufacture semiconductor components in Vietnam [Kham/Reuters]

South Korean firms are also joining the rush. Samsung, Vietnam’s largest investor, announced in August 2022 that it would invest $3.3bn to manufacture semiconductor components in the country.

Hana Micron Vina, which specialises in chip packaging and memory products, is building a second factory in Vietnam and plans to invest $1bn in the country by 2025, according to a Nikkei Asia report.

Chip firms are “all competing for this very small, tight labour market,” Abuza said. “[Vietnam] is going to have to increase their rate of engineers by like five times annually to do this.”

Others such as Yen are optimistic about Vietnam’s ability to rise to the challenge.

He said the country excels in math and science and 20 technical universities are starting semiconductor training programmes with the goal of having 50,000 engineers added to the workforce by 2030.

“Vietnam has the advantage of young and hungry human resources,” Yen said. “The fields that help them make money most easily are typically in the technical sectors. Semiconductors are getting hot now.”

Help is also coming from outside.

During his visit to Vietnam, Biden announced $2m in seed funding for training in Vietnam’s semiconductor industry.

Europe could be next to get involved, said Bruno Sivanandan, the co-chairman of the Digital Sector Committee at the European Chamber of Commerce Vietnam.

“There may be partnerships with academies in Europe to support the education of Vietnamese workers,” Sivanandan told Al Jazeera. “Vietnam has such a huge potential that is not yet realised, so the big players are looking to Vietnam.”

Still, Vietnam may not have the luxury of time with regional challengers vying for investment.

Hiep at ISEAS said Malaysia and Singapore were formidable competitors and Indonesia and Thailand were also pursuing the sector.

“Everybody is looking for opportunities to establish their presence in the global chip supply chain,” Hiep said. “It is a very, very competitive Industry.”

Vietnam relies heavily on hydro-dams for its electricity needs [Getty Images]

Energy insecurity is also a challenge.

During Vietnam’s hottest summer to date last year, northern locales experienced intermittent blackouts. In early June, the weather was so sweltering during a Hanoi power outage that some families sought refuge in a mountainous cave near the city centre.

For several weeks, factories in industrial parks in northern Vietnam went dark for hours at a time during the afternoons.

“They had to stop operations because there was no energy in the middle of the day for about four or five hours,” a Ho Chi Minh City-based individual working in the energy sector told Al Jazeera, asking for his name to be withheld as he had not been cleared by his company to discuss the topic.

“Samsung and other Korean factories – they were in a huge crisis because they had to stop their factories completely because of the lack of electricity.”

After the outages, authorities launched an investigation into EVN, the country’s state-run electricity provider. Officials ultimately disciplined 161 EVN personnel over the power shortages.

Northern Vietnam is heavily dependent on hydropower dams, which can dry up during the hottest months of the year when demand is at its highest. Infrastructure is outdated and the country “lacks the grid capacity and the power resources to deal with the problem”, the energy sector employee said.

“We should have invested in the power transmission and power resources in the North of Vietnam many years ago but EVN, they fell behind,” he said.

“In the north of Vietnam, [factories] will face a huge problem in relation to energy security.”

Energy is also a concern for European investment.

Under the terms of the European Union’s trade deal with Vietnam, European companies doing business with the country must abide by increasingly stringent regulations on carbon emissions, which could pose problems as long as Vietnam relies heavily on coal.

“To do business with Europe, you need to fulfil those requirements on carbon emissions,” Sivanandan said. “If we apply this to the semiconductor industry, this is going to be a barrier.”

Abuza said there is a considerable gap between Vietnam’s potential and the reality on the ground.

“These chip factories and server farms and all the high-tech stuff Vietnam wants to do really relies on very steady electricity and they just don’t have it,” he said. “Vietnam has amazing potential for investors but there is so much they have trouble resolving.”

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