Asia Pacific

US President Donald Trump signed an extension just before midnight in Beijing, when a pause on tariffs was set to expire.

United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order extending the China tariff deadline for another 90 days.

The extension came only hours before midnight in Beijing, when the 90 day pause was set to expire, CNBC reported on Monday, citing a White House official.

The White House did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Earlier on Monday, Trump said he has been “dealing very nicely with China” as Beijing said it was seeking positive outcomes.

If the deadline had passed, duties on Chinese goods would have returned to where they were in April at 145 percent, further fuelling tensions between the world’s two largest trading partners.

While the US and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other’s products this year, reaching prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling global trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower tariffs at a meeting between negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland.

But the pause comes as negotiations still loom. Asked about the deadline on Monday, Trump said: “We’ll see what happens. They’ve been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with [China’s] President Xi [Jinping] and myself.”

“We hope that the US will work with China to follow the important consensus reached during the phone call between the two heads of state,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian in a statement.

He added that Beijing also hopes Washington will “strive for positive outcomes on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit”.

In June, key economic officials convened in London as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers again met in Stockholm last month.

Even as both countries appeared to be seeking to push back the reinstatement of duties, US trade envoy Jamieson Greer said last month that Trump will have the “final call” on any such extension.

Ongoing negotiations

Kelly Ann Shaw, a senior White House trade official during Trump’s first term and now with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, said she expected Trump to extend the 90-day “tariff detente” for another 90 days later on Monday.

“It wouldn’t be a Trump-style negotiation if it didn’t go right down to the wire,” she said.

“The whole reason for the 90-day pause in the first place was to lay the groundwork for broader negotiations, and there’s been a lot of noise about everything from soybeans to export controls to excess capacity over the weekend,” she said.

Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official now with the King & Spalding law firm, welcomed the news.

“This will undoubtedly lower anxiety on both sides as talks continue, and as the US and China work toward a framework deal in the fall. I’m certain investment commitments will factor into any potential deal, and the extension gives them more time to try and work through some of the longstanding trade concerns,” he said.

For now, fresh US tariffs on Chinese goods this year stand at 30 percent, while Beijing’s corresponding levy on US products is at 10 percent.

Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10-percent “reciprocal” tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair.

Markets are relatively flat on the news of extension. The Nasdaq is down by 0.07 percent, the S&P 500 is down 0.08 percent. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down by about 0.4 percent at 3:30pm in New York (19:30 GMT).

The IAEA is yet to make a statement about the meeting, which will not include a visit to Iranian nuclear sites.

Iran’s talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be “technical” and “complicated”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said, ahead of a visit by the United Nations nuclear watchdog for the first time since Tehran cut ties with it last month in the wake of the June conflict triggered by Israeli strikes.

Esmaeil Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters on Monday that a meeting may be organised with Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi during the IAEA’s visit, “but it is a bit soon to predict what the talks will result since these are technical talks, complicated talks”.

The IAEA’s visit marks the first to Iran since President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered the country on July 3 to suspend its cooperation with the nuclear watchdog after an intensive 12-day war with Israel. The conflict also saw the United States launch massive strikes on Israel’s behalf against key Iranian nuclear sites.

Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera in an interview last month that his country is prepared for any future war Israel might wage against it, adding that he was not optimistic about the ceasefire between the countries. He confirmed that Tehran is committed to continuing its nuclear programme for peaceful purposes.

He added that Israel’s strikes, which assassinated leading military figures and nuclear scientists, damaged nuclear facilities and killed hundreds of civilians, had sought to “eliminate” Iran’s hierarchy, but “completely failed to do so”.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency on Monday that Massimo Aparo, the IAEA’s deputy director general and head of safeguards, had left Iran. Aparo met with an Iranian delegation, which included officials from the Foreign Ministry and the IAEA, to discuss “the method of interaction between the agency and Iran”.

Gharibabadi said they decided to continue consultations in the future, without providing further details.

The IAEA did not immediately issue a statement about Aparo’s visit, which will not include any planned access to Iranian nuclear sites.

Relations between the IAEA and Iran deteriorated after the watchdog’s board said on June 12 that Iran had breached its non-proliferation obligations, a day before Israel’s air strikes over Iran, which sparked the conflict.

Baghaei, meanwhile, criticised the IAEA’s lack of response to the Israeli strikes.

“Peaceful facilities of a country that was under 24-hour monitoring were the target of strikes, and the agency refrained from showing a wise and rational reaction and did not condemn it as it was required,” he said.

Araghchi had previously said that cooperation with the agency, which will now require approval by Iran’s highest security body, the Supreme National Security Council, would be about redefining how both sides cooperate. The decision will likely further limit inspectors’ ability to track Tehran’s programme that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.

Iran has had limited IAEA inspections in the past, in negotiations with the West, and it is unclear how soon talks between Tehran and Washington for a deal over its nuclear programme will resume, if at all.

US intelligence agencies and the IAEA assessed that Iran last had an organised nuclear weapons programme in 2003. Although Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60 percent, this is still some way from the weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.

US President Donald Trump said last week that Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan was ‘highly conflicted’ because of his ties to Chinese firms.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is due to visit the White House after United States President Donald Trump last week called for his removal.

The executive of the tech giant was set to meet the president on Monday, a source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.

Neither Intel nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.

Tan is expected to have an extensive conversation with Trump while looking to explain his personal and professional background, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which broke the news on Sunday, adding that he could propose ways Intel and the US  government could work together, the paper said.

Tan hopes to win Trump’s approval by showing his commitment to the US and guaranteeing the importance of keeping Intel’s manufacturing capabilities as a national security issue, the WSJ added.

Last week, Trump demanded the immediate resignation of Tan, calling him “highly conflicted” due to his ties to Chinese firms, comments that raised doubts about Tan’s plans to turn around the struggling US chip icon.

It was a rare instance of a US president publicly calling for a CEO’s ouster, and sparked debate among investors.

Tan said he shared the president’s commitment to advancing US national and economic security.

Reuters reported exclusively in April that Tan invested at least $200m in hundreds of Chinese advanced manufacturing and chip firms, some of which were linked to the Chinese military.

Tan, a Malaysian-born Chinese American business executive, was also the CEO of Cadence Design from 2008 through December 2021, during which time the chip design software maker sold products to a Chinese military university believed to be involved in simulating nuclear explosions.

Last month, Cadence agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140m to resolve the US charges over the sales.

Intel’s stock surged ahead of the meeting. The company, which trades under the ticker INTC, is up more than 7.5 percent for the day as of noon in New York (16:00 GMT).

Boxers Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa died following fights on the same card in Tokyo last week.

Japanese boxing officials will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday as the sport in the country faces intense scrutiny following the deaths of two fighters in separate bouts at the same event.

Super featherweight Shigetoshi Kotari and lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa, both 28, fought on the same card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall on August 2 and died days later following brain surgery.

The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC), gym owners and other boxing officials are under pressure to act and will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday.

They are also expected to have talks about safety next month, local media said.

“We are acutely aware of our responsibility as the manager of the sport,” Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, secretary-general of the JBC, told reporters on Sunday.

“We will take whatever measures we can.”

Japanese media highlighted the risks of fighters dehydrating to lose weight rapidly before weigh-ins.

“Dehydration makes the brain more susceptible to bleeding,” the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said.

That is one of the issues the JBC plans to discuss with trainers.

“They want to hear from gym officials who work closely with the athletes about such items as weight loss methods and pre-bout conditioning, which may be causally related (to deaths),” the Nikkan Sports newspaper said.

In one immediate measure, the commission has decided to reduce all Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation title bouts to 10 rounds from 12.

“The offensive power of Japanese boxing today is tremendous,” Yasukochi was quoted by the Asahi Shimbun as telling reporters.

“We have more and more boxers who are able to start exchanges of fierce blows from the first round. Maybe 12 rounds can be dangerous.”

Australia will recognise a Palestinian state in September, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced.

Albanese said on Monday that his government would formally announce the move when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meets in New York.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese said at a news conference in Canberra.

Australia’s announcement comes as Canada, France and the United Kingdom are preparing to formally recognise Palestine at the meeting next month, joining the vast majority of UN member states.

It also comes about a week after hundreds of thousands of Australians marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking a day after the protest, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that “there is a risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise.”

“In relation to recognition, I’ve said for over a year now, it’s a matter of when, not if,” Wong added.

The opposition Liberal Party criticised the move, saying it put Australia at odds with the United States, its closest ally, and reversed a bipartisan consensus that there should be no recognition while Hamas remains in control of Gaza.

“Despite his words today, the reality is Anthony Albanese has committed Australia to recognising Palestine while hostages remain in tunnels under Gaza and with Hamas still in control of the population of Gaza. Nothing he has said today changes that fact,” Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley said in a statement.

“Recognising a Palestinian state prior to a return of the hostages and defeat of Hamas, as the Government has today, risks delivering Hamas one of its strategic objectives of the horrific terrorism of October 7.”

The Australian Greens, the fourth-largest party in parliament, welcomed the move to recognise Palestine, but said the announcement did not meet the “overwhelming calls from the Australian public for the government to take material action”.

“Millions of Australians have taken to the streets, including 300,000 last weekend in Sydney alone, calling for sanctions and an end to the arms trade with Israel. The Albanese Government is still ignoring this call,” Senator David Shoebridge, the party’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, said in a statement.

The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) also criticised the announcement, describing it as a “political fig leaf, letting Israel’s genocide and apartheid continue unchallenged, and distracting from Australia’s complicity in Israeli war crimes via ongoing weapons and components trade”.

“Palestinian rights are not a gift to be granted by Western states. They are not dependent on negotiation with, or the behaviour or approval of their colonial oppressors,” APAN said in a statement.

According to Albanese, Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinians’ right to their own state will be “predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority (PA)”.

These “detailed and significant commitments” include the PA reaffirming it “recognises Israel’s right to exist in peace and security” and committing to “demilitarise and to hold general elections”, Albanese said while announcing the decision.

The PA is a governing body that has overseen parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the mid-90s.

It has not held parliamentary elections since 2006 and has been criticised by some Palestinians for helping Israel to keep tight control over residents in the West Bank.

Albanese said the commitments secured by Australia were “an opportunity to deliver self-determination for the people of Palestine in a way that isolates Hamas, disarms it and drives it out of the region once and for all”.

Hamas has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it fought a brief war against forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

New Zealand to decide on recognition next month

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Monday that his country’s cabinet will make a formal decision on Palestinian statehood in September.

“Some of New Zealand’s close partners have opted to recognise a Palestinian state, and some have not,” Peters said in a statement.

“Ultimately, New Zealand has an independent foreign policy, and on this issue, we intend to weigh up the issue carefully and then act according to New Zealand’s principles, values and national interest.”

Peters said that while New Zealand has for some time considered the recognition of a Palestinian state a “matter of when, not if”, the issue is not “straightforward” or “clear-cut”.

“There are a broad range of strongly held views within our Government, Parliament and indeed New Zealand society over the question of recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said.

“It is only right that this complicated issue be approached calmly, cautiously and judiciously. Over the next month, we look forward to canvassing this broad range of views before taking a proposal to Cabinet.”

Of the UN’s 193 member states, 147 already recognise Palestinian statehood, representing some three-quarters of the world’s countries and the vast majority of its population.

Under its 1947 plan to partition Palestine, the UNGA said it would grant 45 percent of the land to an Arab state, though this never eventuated.

The announcements by Australia and New Zealand on Monday came hours after an Israeli attack killed five Al Jazeera staff members in Gaza City, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to threaten a full-scale invasion of the city in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,430 people, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

Close to 200 people, including 96 children, have died from starvation under Israel’s punishing siege, according to health authorities.

Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa pass away within a day of each other after separate bouts on the same card.

Two Japanese boxers have died from brain injuries sustained in separate bouts on the same card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.

Shigetoshi Kotari, 28, collapsed shortly after completing a 12-round draw against Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) junior lightweight champion Yamato Hata on August 2.

He underwent emergency brain surgery for a subdural haematoma – a condition in which blood collects between the brain and skull – but died on Friday.

“Rest in peace, Shigetoshi Kotari,” the World Boxing Organization (WBO) wrote on social media. “The boxing world mourns the tragic passing of Japanese fighter Shigetoshi Kotari, who succumbed to injuries sustained during his August 2nd title fight.

“A warrior in the ring. A fighter in spirit. Gone too soon. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, team, and the entire Japanese boxing community.”

On Saturday, 28-year-old Hiromasa Urakawa died after suffering the same injury during a knockout loss to Yoji Saito. He had undergone a craniotomy in an attempt to save his life.

“This heartbreaking news comes just days after the passing of Shigetoshi Kotari, who died from injuries suffered in his fight on the same card,” the WBO said in another social media post on Saturday. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and the Japanese boxing community during this incredibly difficult time.”

In response, the Japanese Boxing Commission announced all OPBF title bouts will now be reduced from 12 rounds to 10.

Earlier this year, Irish boxer John Cooney died a week after being taken into intensive care following his Celtic super-featherweight title defeat to Nathan Howells in Belfast.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have held rallies and marches in cities around the world in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, demanding an end to Israeli attacks on the besieged and bombarded enclave as Israel-imposed starvation engulfs the entire population.

In London, the Metropolitan Police said it arrested more than 466 people at a protest on Saturday against the British government’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action.

British lawmakers proscribed Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation in July after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes as part of a series of protests. The group accuses the UK government of complicity in what it calls Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Protesters, some wearing black-and-white Palestinian scarves and waving Palestinian flags, chanted, “Hands off Gaza” and held placards with the message “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

In Turkiye’s Istanbul, thousands of protesters demanded more aid be allowed into the Strip, with organisers calling on the international community to take urgent action to end the humanitarian crisis.

Many also took to the streets in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to protest against the blockade and Western support for Israel, demanding the immediate and unrestricted delivery of aid into Gaza.

Several pro-Palestine rallies were also held across Spain, including in the capital, Madrid, to protest Israeli attacks and the starvation in the enclave. Carrying Palestinian flags, protesters shouted, “End to genocide”.

In Switzerland’s Geneva, thousands gathered at the Jardin Anglais to protest against famine and malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza resulting from the Israeli blockade. The crowd staged a sit-in, shouting in English, French and Arabic to demand an end to international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

Large rallies showing support for those suffering in Gaza have also been held in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

It is the third incident in a few weeks in which Thai soldiers have been injured by mines around the border.

Three Thai soldiers have been injured by a landmine while patrolling the border with Cambodia, according to the army, days after the two neighbours agreed to a detailed ceasefire following a violent five-day conflict last month.

One soldier lost a foot and two others were injured after one of them stepped on a landmine as they patrolled an area between Thailand’s Sisaket and Cambodia’s Preah Vihear provinces on Saturday morning, the Royal Thai Armed Forces said.

One soldier suffered a severe leg injury, another was wounded in the back and arm, and the third had extreme pressure damage to the ear, it said.

There was no immediate comment from Cambodia’s defence ministry.

It is the third incident in a few weeks in which Thai soldiers have been injured by mines while patrolling along the border.

Two previous similar incidents led to the downgrading of diplomatic relations and triggered five days of fighting.

The Southeast Asian neighbours were engaged in deadly border clashes from July 24-28, in the worst fighting between the two in more than a decade.

The exchanges of artillery fire, infantry battles and jet fighter sorties killed at least 43 people.

The clashes halted with a ceasefire on July 28 after United States President Donald Trump warned both sides that he would not conclude trade deals with them if fighting continued.

A meeting of defence officials in Kuala Lumpur ended on Thursday with a deal to extend the ceasefire, and the two sides also agreed to allow observers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to inspect disputed border areas to ensure hostilities do not resume.

Bangkok accused Cambodia of planting landmines on the Thai side of the disputed border that injured soldiers on July 16 and July 23. Phnom Penh denied it had placed any new mines and said the soldiers had veered off agreed routes and triggered old landmines left from its decades of war.

Singapore – As Singapore’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations draw to a close on Saturday night, a huge fireworks display will illuminate the city’s extraordinary skyline.

The numerous skyscrapers and futuristic buildings stand as a tribute to the country’s remarkable development after separating from Malaysia in 1965.

This tiny Southeast Asian state, with a population of just over six million people, has one of the highest rates of wealth per capita in the world. Its advanced economy also attracts workers from across the globe.

The financial hub is famed for its stability, high standard of living, forward-thinking approach and infamous for its centralised style of governance.

While Singapore will bask in some success this weekend, once the flags are taken down and the SG60 merchandise is removed from the shelves, the island-nation will get back to work and begin contemplating its future.

Plans are already in motion to continue Singapore’s growth, with its most famous landmark – Marina Bay Sands – set to house a new fourth tower of hotel rooms in 2029, while a 15,000-seat indoor arena will also be built at the site.

Changi international airport, which was ranked this year as the world’s best for the 13th time, will also gain a fifth terminal by the mid-2030s.

Residents of the “Lion City” clearly have plenty to look forward to, but the road ahead may also contain some potholes.

Al Jazeera has been taking a look at some of the challenges that Singapore could face in the next 60 years and how they might be tackled.

Climate change

As a low-lying island, sitting just north of the equator, Singapore is particularly vulnerable to the threat of a changing climate. The country’s former prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, once described it as a matter of “life and death”.

Rising seas and increased rainfall could lead to flooding, with extreme weather events set to be a more common occurrence.

While the city-state has so far dodged the kind of weather disruption that plagues many of its neighbours, the government is preparing for the worst.

Rising sea levels are of particular concern, with alarming estimates that the waters around Singapore could rise by more than a metre (3.2ft) by 2100.

To counter the threat, plans are being considered to build three artificial islands off the country’s east coast. These areas of reclaimed land would be linked by tidal gates and sit higher than the mainland, acting as a barrier.

Benjamin Horton, former director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said the country could come to a standstill if catastrophic rain were to combine with a high tide.

“If it flooded a lot of the infrastructure in Singapore, closing down MRTs [mass rapid transit], shutting down emergency routes, flooding a power station and the electricity went down – Singapore would be crippled,” Horton said.

The already-sweltering Southeast Asian financial hub will also have to cope with even hotter conditions.

A 2024 government study found that the daily average temperature could rise by up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.

Horton, who is now dean of the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong, said this could impact the country’s economic productivity.

“Singapore is always developing and is reliant on immigrant labour that works outside during the day. Climate change is going to impact that significantly,” he said.

Yet, Singapore, Horton said, has “the potential to be the lead in how you adapt to climate change and to be the leader in coastal protection”.

Demographic time bomb

Singapore’s population is ageing at a rapid rate.

By 2030, it’s estimated that almost one in four citizens will be aged 65 and above.

The life expectancy for a Singaporean born today is a little under 84 years, with residents benefitting from a high quality of life and a world-class healthcare system.

But this demographic shift is set to challenge the city-state over the next six decades.

An ageing population will inevitably require more investment in the medical sector, while the country’s workforce could face shortages of younger workers.

“The resulting strain will not only test the resilience of healthcare institutions but also place significant emotional, physical, and financial pressure on family caregivers,” said Chuan De Foo, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

While the authorities are looking to expand and strengthen healthcare facilities, they are also urging citizens to make better lifestyle choices in order to stay healthier for longer. New marketing campaigns encourage regular health check-ups, allowing for early intervention, while new technology is also being utilised.

“AI-driven tools are being developed to support mental wellbeing, detect early signs of clinical deterioration and assist in diagnosis and disease management,” Foo told Al Jazeera.

Fewer babies

Alongside living longer, Singaporeans – like many advanced Asian economies – are also having fewer babies, adding to the country’s demographic woes.

The fertility rate, which measures the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, fell below 1.0 for the first time in 2023 and shows little sign of increasing.

That figure is even lower than Japan’s fertility rate of 1.15. This week, Japan reported its 16th consecutive year of population decline, with nearly a million more deaths than births in 2024.

Kalpana Vignehsa, a senior research fellow at NUS’s Institute of Policy Studies think tank, said the Singapore government is “swimming against a cultural tide” in its efforts to reverse the decline in births.

“Now is the time for expansive action to make parenting less expensive, less stressful, and most importantly, a highly valued and communally supported activity,” said Vignehsa.

An unstable world

Singapore is renowned for its neutral approach to foreign policy, balancing strong ties with both China and the United States.

But as relations between the world’s two biggest superpowers become increasingly strained, the Lion City’s neutrality could be challenged.

Any pivot towards Washington or Beijing is likely to be subtle, said Alan Chong, senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

He said that this situation occurred during the COVID pandemic, when Washington was not forthcoming with assistance for Asian economies.

“Almost all of Southeast Asia, including Singapore, tilted towards Beijing for economic support without announcing it,” said Chong.

US President Donald Trump’s punitive tariff policy has also caused consternation in the Southeast Asian business hub, which relies heavily on global trade.

Despite the threat from Washington’s increasingly protectionist policies, Chong believes that Singapore is prepared to weather the storm after signing a trade pact in 2020.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership was agreed between 15 mainly Southeast Asian countries, plus major North Asian economies including China, Japan and South Korea.

“It’s a huge insurance against any comprehensive global trade shutdown,” said Chong.

Stability at home

While the international outlook appears increasingly troubled, Singapore’s domestic political scene is set for more stability over the coming years.

The ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) has been in power since the country was formed and shows no signs of losing control.

In May’s election, the PAP, led by new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, won all but 10 seats in parliament with just over 65 percent of the vote.

While the country’s leaders are likely to stay the same in the near-term, Teo Kay Key, research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies Social Lab, said younger Singaporeans will soon want a different style of politics, one that is more open and more participatory.

“They are more likely to favour discussions and exchange of views,” she said.

“There is also a growing trend where the preference is to conduct open discussions, with a more democratic exchange of ideas,” she added.

Nagasaki’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral was rebuilt in 1959 after being almost completely destroyed in the explosion.

Twin cathedral bells will ring in unison in Nagasaki for the first time in 80 years, as the Japanese city commemorates the moment the United States decimated it with an atomic bomb eight decades ago.

Crowds are set to gather at Nagasaki’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral on Saturday morning, as the church’s two bells will ring together for the first time since 1945.

The US dropped an atomic bomb on the southwestern port city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, at 11:02am local time, three days after it dropped a nuclear weapon on Hiroshima.

About 74,000 people were killed in Nagasaki, while 140,000 were killed in Hiroshima.

On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, marking the end of World War II.

The church in Nagasaki, widely known as Urakami Cathedral, was rebuilt in 1959 after it was almost completely destroyed in the monstrous atomic explosion, the hypocentre of which was just a few hundred metres from the religious building. Only one of two church bells was recovered from the rubble.

But, funded by Catholics in the US, a new second bell has been constructed and restored to the tower. It will chime on Saturday for the first time in 80 years at the exact moment the bomb was dropped.

Nearly 100 countries are set to attend this year’s commemorations in Nagasaki.

Among the participants will be a representative from Russia, which has not been invited since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Israel, whose ambassador to Japan was not invited to the memorial last year over the country’s war on Gaza, is also expected to attend.

“We wanted participants to come and witness directly the reality of the catastrophe that a nuclear weapon can cause,” a Nagasaki official said last week.

Spearheading the fundraising campaign for the new church bell was James Nolan – a sociology professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, whose grandfather participated in the Manhattan Project, which developed the US’s first nuclear weapons.

While doing research in Nagasaki, a Japanese Christian told him he would like to hear the cathedral’s two bells ring together once again.

Inspired, Nolan embarked on a yearlong series of lectures about the atomic bomb across the US, primarily in churches, ultimately raising approximately $125,000 to fund a new bell. It was unveiled in Nagasaki earlier this year.

“The reactions were magnificent. There were people literally in tears,” Nolan said.

The cathedral’s chief priest, Kenichi Yamamura, said the bell’s restoration “shows the greatness of humanity”.

“It’s not about forgetting the wounds of the past but recognising them and taking action to repair and rebuild, and in doing so, working together for peace,” Yamamura told the AFP news agency.

Long Moh, Sarawak — William Tinggang throws a handful of fish food into a glass-clear river.

A few seconds pass before movement under the water’s surface begins, and soon a large shoal splashes to the surface, fighting for the food.

He waits for the underwater crowd to disperse before hurling the next handful into the river. The splashing resumes.

“These fish aren’t for us to eat,” explains Tinggang, who has emerged as a community leader in opposing the logging industry in Long Moh, a village in the Ulu Baram region of Malaysia’s Sarawak state.

“We want the populations here to replenish,” he tells Al Jazeera.

As part of a system known as Tagang – an Iban language word that translates as “restricted” – residents of Long Moh have agreed there will be no hunting, fishing or cutting of trees in this area.

Just a few hours’ flight from Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo that contain some of the oldest rainforests on the planet.

It is an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot, and within its Ulu Baram region lies the Nawan Nature Discovery Centre, a community-initiated forest reserve spanning more than 6,000 hectares (23 square miles).

The forest in Nawan is dense and thriving; bats skim the surface of the Baram River, palm-sized butterflies drift between trees, and occasionally, monkeys can be heard from the canopy.

The river remains crystal clear, a testament to the absence of nearby activities.

The community’s preservation effort stands in contrast to much of the surrounding landscape in Sarawak, where vast tracts of forest have been systematically cut down for timber extraction and palm oil plantations.

Conservation groups estimate that Sarawak may have lost 90 percent of its primary forest cover in the past 50 years.

Limiting hunting is one of the numerous ways communities in the region are working together to protect what remains of Sarawak’s biodiversity heritage.

For the community of Long Moh, whose residents are Kenyah Indigenous people, the forests within their native customary lands have spiritual significance.

“Nawan is like a spiritual home,” says Robert Lenjau, a resident of Long Moh, who is a keen player of the sape, a traditional lute instrument which is popular across the state and is steeped in Indigenous mythology.

“We believe there are ancestors there,” says Lenjau.

While most Kenyah people have converted to Christianity following decades of missionary influence in the region, many still retain elements of their traditional beliefs.

The community’s leading activist, Tinggang, believes the forest to have spiritual importance.

“We hear sounds of machetes clashing, and sounds of people in pain when we sleep by the river’s mouth,” he explains.

“Our parents once told us that there was a burial ground there.”

Sarawak’s dwindling forest cover

Sarawak’s logging industry boomed in the 1980s, and the following decades saw large concessions granted to companies.

Timber exports remain big business. In 2023, exports were estimated to be worth $560m, with top importers of Sarawak’s wood including France, the Netherlands, Japan and the United States, according to Human Rights Watch.

In recent years, the timber industry has turned to meeting the rapidly growing demand for wood pellets, which are burned to generate energy.

While logging reaped billions in profits, it often came at the expense of Indigenous communities, who lacked formal legal recognition of their ancestral lands, despite their historical connection to the forest and their deep ecological knowledge of the region.

“In Sarawak, there are very limited options for communities to actually claim native customary land rights,” says Jessica Merriman from The Borneo Project, an organisation that campaigns for environmental protection and human rights across Malaysian Borneo.

“Even communities who do decide to try the legal route, which takes years, lawyers, and costs money, they risk losing access to the rest of their customary territories,” Merriman says, explaining that making a legal claim to one tract of land may mean losing much more.

“Because you’ve agreed – essentially – that the rest [of the land] doesn’t belong to you,” she says.

Even successful community claims may only grant rights to a very small fraction of what Indigenous communities actually consider to be their native customary land in Sarawak, according to The Borneo Project.

This also means that logging companies might legally obtain permits to cut the forest in areas which had been previously disputed.

While timber companies have brought economic opportunities for some, providing job opportunities to villagers as drivers or labourers, many Kenyah community members in the Ulu Baram region have negative associations with the industry.

“We don’t agree with logging, because it is very damaging to the forests, water and ecosystems in our area,” says David Bilong, a member of Long Semiyang village, which is about a half-hour boat ride from Long Moh village.

Both Long Moh and Long Semiyang have dwindling populations, with about 200 and 100 full-time residents, respectively.

Extensive logging roads in the region have increased accessibility for the villages, resulting in younger community members migrating to nearby towns for work and sending remittances back home to support relatives.

Those who remain in the village, or “kampung”, live in traditional longhouses which are made up of rows of private family apartments connected by shared verandas. Here, community activities like rattan weaving, meetings and karaoke-singing take place.

Bilong has played an active role in community activism over the years. For him, deforestation activities have contributed to the undermining of generational knowledge, as physical landmarks have been removed from their lived environment.

“It’s difficult for us to go to the jungle now,” he explains.

“We don’t know any more which hill is the one we go to for hunting,” he says.

“We don’t even know where the hill went.”

For decades, Indigenous communities across Ulu Baram have shown their resistance to logging activities by making physical blockades.

This typically entails community members camping for weeks, or even months, along logging roads to physically obstruct unwanted outsiders from entering native customary territories.

The primary legal framework regulating forest use is the Sarawak Forest Ordinance (1958), which grants the state government sweeping control over forest areas, including the issuance of timber licences.

Now, local communities are increasingly turning to strategic tools to assert their rights.

One of these tools is the creation of community maps.

“We are moving from oral tradition to physical documentation,” says Indigenous human rights activist Celine Lim.

Lim is the managing director of Save Rivers, one of the local organisations supporting Ulu Baram’s Indigenous communities to map their lands.

“Because of outside threats, this transition needs to take place,” Lim tells Al Jazeera.

Unlike official government maps, these maps reflect the community’s cultural landmarks.

They include markers for things like burial grounds, sacred sites and trees which contain poison for hunting with blow darts, reflecting how Indigenous people actually relate to and manage their land sustainably.

“For Indigenous people, the way that they connect to land is definitely a lot deeper than many of our conventional ways,” says Lim.

“They see the mountains, the rivers, the land, the forest and in the past, these were entities,” she says.

“The way you’d respect a person is the way that they would respect these entities.”

By physically documenting how their land is managed, Indigenous communities can use maps to assert their presence and protect their native customary territory.

“This community map is really important for us,” says Bilong, who played a role in the creation of Long Semiyang’s community map.

“When we make a map, we know what our area is and what is in our area,” he says.

“It is important that we create boundaries”.

The tradition of creating community maps in Sarawak first emerged in the 1990s, when the Switzerland-based group Bruno Manser-Fonds – named after a Swiss environmental activist who disappeared in Sarawak in 2000 – began supporting the Penan community with mapping activities.

The Penan are a previously nomadic indigenous group in Sarawak who have now mostly settled as farmers.

Through mapping, they have documented at least 5,000 river names and 1,000 topographic features linked to their traditions, and their community maps have been used numerous times as critical documentation to prevent logging.

Other groups, such as the Kenyah, are following suit with the creation of their own community maps.

“The reason why the trend of mapping has continued is because in other parts of Baram and Sarawak, they’ve proven to be successful,” says the Borneo Project’s Merriman, “at least in getting the attention of logging companies and the government.”

Now, local organisations are encouraging communities to further solidify their assertion to their native customary territories by joining a global platform hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme that recognises Indigenous and community conserved areas, known as the ICCA.

Communities participating in the ICCA are listed on a globally accessible online database, and this international visibility offers a place for them to publicise threats and land grabs.

In Sarawak, the international visibility afforded through ICCA registration could offer an alternative avenue of protection for communities.

Merriman says that another important aspect of applying for ICCA recognition is the process itself of registering.

“The ICCA process is fundamentally an organising tool and a self-strengthening tool,” she says.

“It’s not just about being on the database. It’s about going through the process of a community banding together to protect its own land, to come up with a shared vision of responding to threats and what they want to do to try to make alternative income.”

Safeguarding Indigenous communities in Sarawak also has an international significance, activists say.

As the impacts of climate change intensify in Malaysia and globally, the potential role of Sarawak’s rainforests in climate change mitigation is increasingly being recognised.

“There’s plenty of talk at the state level about protecting forests,” says Jettie Word, executive director of The Borneo Project.

“Officials often say the right things in terms of recognising their importance in combatting climate change. Though ongoing logging indicates a gap between rhetoric and reality,” Word says.

“While mapping alone can’t protect a forest from a billion-dollar timber project, when it’s combined with community organising and campaigning, it’s often quite powerful and we’ve seen it successfully keep the companies away,” she says.

“The maps provide solid evidence of a community’s territory that is difficult to refute.”

China’s President Xi Jinping has told Russia’s Vladimir Putin he is pleased to see Moscow maintain contact with the United States to advance a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

The remarks during a phone call between the two leaders on Friday come after the Kremlin said President Putin would meet US President Donald Trump in the coming days.

During the phone call, Xi said China would maintain its stance on the need for peace talks and a diplomatic solution to the Russia-Ukraine war, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The Kremlin said Putin had called his Chinese counterpart to update him on the latest US-Russia talks, during which Xi expressed support for a “long-term” solution to the Ukraine conflict.

The call between Xi and Putin was their second in less than two months. Putin is expected to visit China in September for events marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The two countries have further bolstered their economic, trade and security cooperation since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which triggered a sharp deterioration in Moscow’s relations with the West.

China has never denounced Russia’s war nor called for it to withdraw its troops, and many of Ukraine’s allies believe that Beijing has provided support to Moscow. Beijing insists it is a neutral party, regularly calling for an end to the fighting while also accusing Western countries of prolonging the conflict by arming Ukraine.

Trump has voiced growing frustration with Putin over the lack of progress towards peace in Ukraine and has threatened to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, including China.

The US president on Wednesday said he could announce further tariffs on China similar to the 25 percent duties he has already imposed on India over its purchases of Russian oil.

In response to those remarks, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday that Beijing’s trade and energy cooperation with Russia was “just and legitimate”.

“We will continue to take reasonable measures to ensure energy security based on our own national interests,” Guo Jiakun said in a statement.

Calls with other allies

Putin and Trump are set to hold talks, although no firm date or venue has been set. Both sides have confirmed preparations for a summit are under way and have suggested that a meeting could take place next week.

China has been mentioned in media reports as a possible venue for the Putin-Trump summit, with speculation that Trump could join Putin there in early September.

The Kremlin also said Putin had spoken to the leaders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and briefed them on talks he held with US envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday.

Putin also discussed Ukraine in a phone call with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday, the Belarusian state news agency BelTA reported.

Indian President Narendra Modi also held a phone call with Putin to discuss the situation in Ukraine and bilateral relations.

“Had a very good and detailed conversation with my friend President Putin. I thanked him for sharing the latest developments on Ukraine,” Modi said on X.

The Indian president added that he looked forward to hosting Putin in India later this year, without specifying the date.

Had a very good and detailed conversation with my friend President Putin. I thanked him for sharing the latest developments on Ukraine. We also reviewed the progress in our bilateral agenda, and reaffirmed our commitment to further deepen the India-Russia Special and Privileged…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 8, 2025

Pause in conflict may be ‘close’

The calls came amid rising hopes for a breakthrough in the Ukraine war, now in its fourth year. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday that a pause in the conflict could be close, after speaking to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Tusk said Zelenskyy was “very cautious but optimistic” and that Ukraine was keen that Poland and other European countries play a role in planning for a ceasefire and an eventual peace settlement.

“There are certain signals, and we also have an intuition, that perhaps a freeze in the conflict – I don’t want to say the end, but a freeze in the conflict – is closer than it is further away,” he told a news conference on Friday. “There are hopes for this.”

Trump’s efforts to pressure Putin into stopping the fighting have so far delivered little progress. Russia’s bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace.

Almost two weeks ago, Trump moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia, as well as introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil, if no Kremlin moves towards a settlement were forthcoming.

The deadline expired on Friday. It was unclear what steps Trump intended to take as a consequence.

Whale songs are far removed from the singing that humans are used to. Unlike our musical sounds, those produced by whales are a complex range of vocalisations that include groans, clicks and whistles and that can sound like anything from the mooing of a cow to the twitter of a bird. These vocalisations can be so powerful that they can be heard as far as 10km (6 miles) away, and can last for half an hour at a time.

But while they may not be exactly dancing material, whale songs are critical for communication: between males and females during mating, or among a school of whales migrating.

For researchers, these complex sounds are a window into whale behaviour, even if humans don’t yet know exactly how to decode them.

The frequency of songs and their intensity can signal various things: an abundance of food, for example. In recent studies, however, researchers have been alarmed to find that blue whales, the largest whales and, indeed, the largest mammals on Earth, have stopped singing at specific times.

Their eerie quietness, scientists say, is a signal that ocean life is changing fundamentally. The most recent study, conducted by scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California in the US and published in February, examined three types of whales. Researchers found that blue whales, in particular, have become more vulnerable to this change.

What have researchers found, and where?

At least two studies between 2016 and 2025 have found similar behaviour: blue whales have reduced their singing for stretches of time.

The first study, conducted in the sea waters between the islands of New Zealand between 2016 and 2018, was led by scientists from the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University in the US. Over that period of time, researchers tracked specific blue whale vocalisations linked to feeding (called D-calls) and mating (called patterned songs).

Researchers used continuous recordings from underwater devices called hydrophones, which can log sounds over thousands of kilometres, and which were placed in the South Taranaki Bight – a known foraging spot for blue whales off the west coast of New Zealand.

They discovered that during some periods, particularly in the warmer months of spring and summer when whales usually fatten up, the frequency and intensity of sounds related to feeding activity dropped – suggesting a reduction in food sources. That decline was followed by reduced occurrences of patterned songs, signalling a dip in reproductive activity.

“When there are fewer feeding opportunities, they put less effort into reproduction,” lead researcher Dawn Barlow told reporters. The results of that study were published in the journal Ecology and Evolution in 2023.

Then, in a study published in the scientific journal PLOS One in February this year, researchers tracked baleen whale sounds in the California Current Ecosystem, the area in the North Pacific Ocean stretching from British Columbia to Baja California. Blue whales are a type of baleen whale, and the study focused on them, alongside their cousins, humpback whales and fin whales.

Over six years starting in 2015, the scientists found distinct patterns. Over the first two years, “times were tough for whales”, lead researcher John Ryan, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, noted in a press statement, as the whales, particularly blue whales, were found to be singing less. Over the next three years, however, all three whale species were back to singing more frequently, the study noted.

Why are blue whales singing less?

Both studies found one main reason for the reduction of whale song: food or, in this case, the lack of it.

It turns out that the research, conducted between 2015 and 2020, captured periods of extreme marine heatwave events that killed off krill, the small shrimp-like animals that blue whales feed on.

Those heatwaves are part of a looming environmental catastrophe scientists have been warning about: ongoing global warming marked by increases in global average temperatures, and caused by high-emission human activities, chief among them being the burning of fossil fuels.

Scientists say the world could soon reach a tipping point at which there will be irreversible change to the planet. Already, 2016, 2023 and 2024 have been recorded as the warmest years ever.

Why are food sources disappearing for whales?

Krill, which blue whales primarily feed on, are highly sensitive to heat and can all but vanish during heatwaves, the studies found. Their movement patterns also change drastically: instead of staying together, as they usually do, krill disperse when it is hot, making them harder for predators like blue whales to find.

Typically, when foraging, blue whales sing to others to signal that they have found swarms of krill. If there is no food to sing about, it makes sense that there will be no singing.

Heatwaves can also trigger harmful chemical changes in the oceans that encourage the growth of toxic algae, which causes poisoning and death to mammals in the oceans and sea birds, researchers have previously found, suggesting that blue whales are also at risk of being poisoned.

In the more recent study in California, researchers found that in the first two years when whales were singing less frequently, there was also a reduction in other fish populations.

Are blue whales more vulnerable than other whales?

The second period of three years witnessed a resurgence of krill and the other fish, along with more whale singing. When krill again declined, blue whales again sang less frequently, while singing from humpback whales continued, the study noted.

“Compared to humpback whales, blue whales in the eastern North Pacific may be more vulnerable due to not only a smaller population size but also a less flexible foraging strategy,” Ryan, the lead author of the California study said in a statement.

“These findings can help scientists and resource managers predict how marine ecosystems and species will respond to climate change,” he added.

It is likely, both studies say, that blue whales need to spend more time and energy finding food when it is scarce, instead of singing.

Are other animals changing their sounds?

Studies have found that climate change is altering the sounds of several other species as well. Nature-related sounds, such as birdsong from certain species, could disappear altogether in some places as warming temperatures alter animal behaviour. For example, some animals might move permanently away from their traditional habitats.

In New York, scientists found that over a century (1900-1999), four frog species changed their calling patterns, which males use to attract females for mating, and which are usually tied to the warming of spring and early summer. Over time, some frogs were calling about two weeks earlier than usual, researchers found, adding that it signified summer was arriving earlier.

Blue Zones are five diverse regions where people live longer and stay healthy into their 90s and 100s. Their secrets? Mostly plant-based diets, daily natural movement, strong social ties, and a clear sense of purpose. These simple, sustainable habits keep people active and resilient. As the modern world faces chronic illness and ageing populations, the Blue Zones offer practical lessons on how we might live longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Anna Katsas – Videographer and content creator
Paola Demurtas – Longevity guide
Luigi Fontana – Director, Charles Perkins Centre Clinic

President Xi Jinping orders ‘all-out’ rescue operations to save the missing people, CCTV says.

At least 10 people have been killed and 33 are missing in flash floods in northwestern China’s Gansu province, according to state media.

“From August 7, continuous heavy rain … has triggered flash floods. As of 3:30pm (07:30 GMT) on August 8, 10 people have died and 33 are missing,” state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered “all-out” rescue operations with “utmost effort” to save the missing people, CCTV said.

Due to the “frequent occurrence of extreme weather”, Xi ordered all regions to “resolutely overcome complacency” and strengthen efforts to identify risks, the broadcaster added.

Footage shared by Chinese fire authorities on the social media platform Weibo showed rescuers guiding people through rushing grey water in a village.

Photos posted by Gansu’s government showed roads covered in silt and large stones.

Record rainfall has lashed China’s north and south in recent weeks in what meteorologists describe as extreme weather linked to climate change.

Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 60 people across northern China, including Beijing, since late July.

Beijing warns Manila to stop ‘playing with fire’ after Marcos signals potential Taiwan conflict involvement.

China has sharply criticised Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr after he suggested his country would be drawn into a potential conflict between China and the United States over Taiwan.

During a state visit to India this week, Marcos said the Philippines’ geographic proximity and the large Filipino community in Taiwan meant the country would be forced to get involved in the event of war.

“If there is an all-out war, then we will be drawn into it,” Marcos told Indian broadcaster Firstpost. “There are many, many Filipino nationals in Taiwan and that would be immediately a humanitarian problem.”

In response, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strongly worded statement on Friday, warning Manila not to “play with fire” and urging it to uphold the one China principle.

“Geographical proximity and large overseas populations are not excuses for interfering in others’ internal affairs,” the statement read.

Tensions between China and the Philippines have intensified in recent years over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Both sides have accused each other of provocations, with altercations at sea involving ramming incidents, water cannon blasts, and clashes involving weapons such as spears and knives.

Beijing continues to assert that Taiwan is part of its territory and a breakaway province, a position Taipei rejects.

China also dismissed Marcos’s justification as undermining both international law and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations charter, saying his comments risk destabilising regional peace and harming the interests of the Philippine people.

Marcos’s trip to India also saw the signing of new security agreements aimed at strengthening defence ties between New Delhi and Manila, including cooperation between both countries’ armies, air forces and navies. Indian warships recently began joint patrols with the Philippine Navy in the contested South China Sea in a move likely to anger China.

In another sign of rising tensions, Philippine officials earlier this week condemned the launch of a Chinese rocket, which they said dropped suspected debris near a western province, alarming residents and threatening local ships and aircraft. No damage or injuries were reported.

The escalating maritime standoff has also increasingly drawn in the United States, which has a mutual defence pact with the Philippines. Washington has reaffirmed its commitment to defend Filipino forces, including coastguard personnel, aircraft and public vessels, should they come under attack anywhere in the South China Sea.

The mosquito-borne virus has crossed the Taiwan Strait from southern China, where confirmed cases of chikungunya top 8,000.

Taiwan has reported its first confirmed case of chikungunya fever, imported from China, where a historic outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus is under way.

Chikungunya has swept through southern China in recent weeks, primarily in the manufacturing hub of Foshan on the Pearl River Delta, with cases rising to more than 8,000. The outbreak is the largest on record, according to Roger Hewson, virus surveillance lead at the United Kingdom’s Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Friday that the chikungunya virus was detected in a Taiwanese woman who had travelled to Foshan and returned to Taiwan on July 30.

It was the first case of its kind detected so far in 2025, though more than a dozen cases have been previously detected and originated in Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

The CDC has raised its travel advisory for China’s Guangdong province, the epicentre of the outbreak, to level 2 out of 3, urging travellers to use “enhanced precautions”.

The virus can lead to high fever, rash, headache, nausea and fatigue lasting up to seven days, and muscle and joint pain that can last for several weeks.

“The outbreak in Foshan and surrounding areas of Guangdong province has unfolded rapidly and at a scale unprecedented for China,” Hewson said in a statement.

The surge is due to limited immunity in China and “environmental suitability” for the virus-carrying Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which breed in stagnant water, he said.

Chinese health authorities have responded with containment strategies ranging from household-level inspections and enforced bed nets, to drone-based fogging and even quarantines, reminiscent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hewson said.

The Associated Press news agency reported that residents of Foshan can be fined as much as up to 10,000 RMB ($1,400) for keeping water in outdoor containers – a popular breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The outbreak follows more than a month of typhoons and heavier-than-usual monsoon rains in China.

Last week, Hong Kong – located some 180km (110 miles) from Foshan – was hit by its worst August rainstorm since records began in 1884.

Chinese state media said despite the historic number of chikungunya cases, the outbreak appears to have finally peaked.

Foshan reported 2,892 local infections from July 27 to August 2, but no severe or fatal cases, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

“The recent surge has been initially contained, with a downward trend in newly reported cases across the province,” Kang Min, director of the infectious disease control institute at the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Xinhua.

Bangkok, Thailand – A surge in rare earth mining in rebel-held pockets of Myanmar supplying Chinese processing plants is being blamed for toxic levels of heavy metals in Thai waterways, including the Mekong River.

China dominates the global refining of rare earth metals – key inputs in everything from wind turbines to advanced missile systems – but imports much of its raw material from neighbouring Myanmar, where the mines have been blamed for poisoning local communities.

Recent satellite images and water sample testing suggest the mines are spreading, along with the environmental damage they cause.

“Since the mining operation started, there is no protection for the local people,” Sai Hor Hseng, a spokesman at the Shan Human Rights Foundation, a local advocacy group based in eastern Myanmar’s Shan state, told Al Jazeera.

“They don’t care what happens to the environment,” he said, or those living downstream of the mines in Thailand.

An estimated 1,500 people rallied in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province in June, urging the Thai government and China to pressure the mining operators in Myanmar to stop polluting their rivers.

Villagers in Chiang Rai first noticed an odd orange-yellow tint to the Kok River – a tributary of the Mekong that enters Thailand from Myanmar – before the start of this year’s rainy season in May.

Repeated rounds of testing by Thai authorities since then have found levels of arsenic and lead in the river several times higher than what the World Health Organization (WHO) deems safe.

Thai authorities advised locals living along the Kok to not even touch the water, while tests have also found excess arsenic levels in the Sai River, another tributary of the Mekong that flows from Myanmar into Thailand, as well as in the Mekong’s mainstream.

Locals are now worried about the harm that contaminated water could do to their crops, their livestock and themselves.

Arsenic is infamously toxic.

Medical studies have linked long-term human exposure to high levels of the chemical to neurological disorders, organ failure and cancer.

“This needs to be solved right now; it cannot wait until the next generation, for the babies to be deformed or whatever,” Pianporn Deetes, Southeast Asia campaign director at the advocacy group International Rivers, told Al Jazeera.

“People are concerned also about the irrigation, because … [they are] now using the rivers – the water from the Kok River and the Sai River – for their rice paddies, and it’s an important crop for the population here,” Pianporn said.

“We learned from other areas already … that this kind of activity should not happen in the upstream of the water source of a million people,” she said.

‘A very good correlation’

Thai authorities blame upstream mining in Myanmar for the toxic rivers, but they have been vague about the exact source or sources.

Rights groups and environmental activists say the mine sites are nestled in pockets of Shan state under the control of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a well-armed, secretive rebel group that runs two semi-autonomous enclaves in the area, one bordering China and the other Thailand.

That makes the sites hard to access. Not even Myanmar’s military regime dares to send troops into UWSA-held territory.

While some have blamed the recent river pollution on the UWSA’s gold mines, the latest tests in Thailand lay most of the fault on the mining of rare earth minerals.

In a study commissioned by the Thai government, Tanapon Phenrat, an associate professor of civil engineering at Naresuan University, took seven water samples from the Kok and surrounding rivers in early June.

Tanapon told Al Jazeera that the samples collected closest to the border with Myanmar showed the highest levels of heavy metals and confirmed that the source of the contamination lay upstream of Thailand in Shan state.

Significantly, Tanapon said, the water samples contained the same “fingerprint” of heavy metals, and in roughly the same concentrations, as had earlier water samples from Myanmar’s Kachin State, north of Shan, where rare earth mining has been thriving for the past decade.

“We compared that with the concentrations we found in the Kok River, and we found that it has a very good correlation,” Tanapon said.

“Concentrations in the Kok River can be attributed about 60 to 70 percent … [to] rare earth mining,” he added.

The presence of rare earth mines along the Kok River in Myanmar was first exposed by the Shan Human Rights Foundation in May.

Satellite images available on Google Earth showed two new mine sites inside the UWSA’s enclave on the Thai border developed over the past one to two years – one on the western slope of the river, another on the east.

The foundation also used satellite images to identify what it said are another 26 rare earth mines inside the UWSA’s enclave next to China.

All but three of those mines were built over the past few years, and many are located at the headwaters of the Loei River, yet another tributary of the Mekong.

Researchers who have studied Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry say the large, round mineral collection pools visible in the satellite images give the sites away as rare earth mines.

The Shan Human Rights Foundation says villagers living near the new mines in Shan state have also told how workers there are scooping up a pasty white powder from the collection pools, just as they have seen in online videos of the rare earth mines further north in Kachin.

‘Zero environmental monitoring’

Patrick Meehan, a lecturer at the University of Manchester in the UK who has studied Myanmar’s rare earth mines, said reports emerging from Shan state fit with what he knows of similar operations in Kachin.

“The way companies tend to operate in Myanmar is that there is zero pre-mining environmental assessment, zero environmental monitoring, and there are none of those sorts of regulations or protections in place,” Meehan said.

The leaching process being used involves pumping chemicals into the hillsides to draw the rare earth metals out of the rock. That watery mixture of chemicals and minerals is then pumped out of the ground and into the collection pools, where the rare earths are then separated and gathered up.

Without careful attention to keeping everything contained at a mine, said Meehan, the risks of contaminating local rivers and groundwater could be high.

Rare earth mines are situated close to rivers because of the large volumes of water needed for pumping the extractive chemicals into the hills, he said.

The contaminated water is then often pumped back into the river, he added, while the groundwater polluted by the leaching can end up in the river as well.

“There is definitely scope for that,” said Meehan.

He and others have tracked the effect such mines have already had in Kachin – where hundreds of mining sites now dot the state’s border with China – from once-teeming streams now barren of fish to rice stalks yielding fewer grains and livestock falling ill and dying after drinking from local creeks.

In a 2024 report, the environmental group Global Witness called the fallout from Kachin’s mining boom “devastating”.

Ben Hardman, Mekong legal director for the US advocacy group EarthRights International, said locals in Kachin have also told his team about mineworkers dying in unusually high numbers.

The worry now, he adds, is that Shan state and the neighbouring countries into which Myanmar’s rivers flow will suffer the same fate as has Kachin, especially if the mine sites continue to multiply as global demand for rare earth minerals grows.

“There’s a long history of rare earth mining causing serious environmental harms that are very long-term, and with pretty egregious health implications for communities,” Hardman said.

“That was the case in China in the 2010s, and is the case in Kachin now. And it’s the same situation now evolving in Shan state, and so we can expect to see the same harms,” he added.

‘You need to stop it at the source’

Most, if not all, of the rare earths mined in Myanmar are sent to China to be refined, processed, and either exported or put to use in a range of green-energy and, increasingly, military hardware.

But, unlike China, neither Myanmar, Laos nor Thailand have the sophisticated processing plants that can transform raw ore into valuable material, according to SFA (Oxford), a critical minerals and metals consulting firm.

The Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar, a local think tank, says Chinese customs data also show that Myanmar has been China’s main source of rare earths from abroad since at least 2017, including a record $1.4bn-worth in 2023.

Myanmar’s exports of rare earth minerals were growing at the same time as China was placing tough new curbs on mining them at home, after witnessing the environmental damage it was doing to its own communities. Buying the minerals from Myanmar has allowed China to outsource much of the problem.

That is why many are blaming not only the mine operators and the UWSA for the environmental fallout from Myanmar’s mines, but China.

The UWSA could not be reached for comment, and neither China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor its embassy in Myanmar replied to Al Jazeera’s emails seeking a response.

In a June 8 Facebook post, reacting to reports of Chinese-run mines in Myanmar allegedly polluting Thai rivers, the Chinese embassy in Thailand said all Chinese companies operating abroad had to follow local laws and regulations.

The embassy also said China was open to cooperating with Mekong River countries to protect the local environment, but gave no details on what that might entail.

Thailand has said it is working with both China and Myanmar to solve the problem.

In a bid to tackle the problem, though, the Thai government has proposed building dams along the affected rivers in Chiang Rai province to filter their waters for pollutants.

Local politicians and environmentalists question whether such dams would work.

International Rivers’ Pianporn Deetes said there was no known precedent of dams working in such a manner in rivers on the scale of the Mekong and its tributaries.

“If it’s [a] limited area, a small creek or in a faraway standalone mining area, it could work. It’s not going to work with this international river,” she said.

Naresuan University’s Tanapon said he was building computer models to study whether a series of cascading weirs – small, dam-like barriers that are built across a river to control water flow – could help.

But he, too, said such efforts would only mitigate the problem at best.

Dams and weirs, Tanapon said, “can just slow down or reduce the impact”.

“You need to stop it at the source,” he added.