04/07/2025

FRIDAY | JULY 4, 2025

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38 missing after ferry bound for Bali sinks

CHINA ON ALERT AFTER DEADLY FLOODS BEIJING: China’s north and west braced for flash floods and landslides yesterday as annual “Plum Rains” left a trail of destruction and prompted the mobilisation of thousands of rescue workers to pull people from floodwaters. State media said in the town of Taiping in central China’s Henan province on Wednesday, torrential rains caused a nearby river to burst its banks, killing five people in a flash flood and leaving three missing. By yesterday, some trains into the capital Beijing had been suspended while one of the capital city’s airports saw flight delays and cancellations on Wednesday. In China’s province of Guangxi, several buildings slid down hillsides over the last two days after their foundations gave way in waterlogged soil, local media reported. – Reuters NZ BRACES FOR MORE HEAVY RAIN WELLINGTON: The north of New Zealand’s South Island was bracing for more heavy rain yesterday, with a few homes evacuated and local authorities warning of landslides and surface flooding. New Zealand’s Nelson and Tasman regions were hit by heavy rain over the weekend, which caused significant flooding in rural areas and resulted in a local state of emergency being declared to deal with the disaster. Further heavy rain is forecast for the regions as a wild weather system that pummelled Sydney on Tuesday and Wednesday moved towards New Zealand. National weather forecaster Metservice yesterday issued a heavy rain warning for the Nelson and Tasman regions from morning to evening. – Reuters I.S. BLAST KILLS FOUR IN PAKISTAN PESHAWAR: An explosion in northwest Pakistan killed at least four local government officials and police, and injured 11 on Wednesday, an officer told AFP, in an attack claimed by a branch of the Islamic State group. Senior police official Waqas Rafiq said the officials were travelling in a car in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when “the attack happened in a market in Bajaur city”. Hours later, the Islamic State Khorasan extremist group claimed to have detonated an explosives-laden moped that targeted the vehicle. The deadly blast comes four days after 16 soldiers were killed in the same province in an attack claimed by the Pakistan Taliban, which is active in the area. – AFP one Cambodian soldier. When she made a diplomatic call to Cambodian ex-leader Hun Sen, she called him“uncle”and referred to a Thai military commander as her“opponent”, according to a leaked recording, causing widespread backlash. A conservative party abandoned her ruling coalition, sparking the Cabinet reshuffle, accusing her of kowtowing to Cambodia and undermining the military. The Constitutional Court said there was “sufficient cause to suspect” Paetongtarn breached ministerial ethics in the diplomatic spat. – AFP

BR I E F S

In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person. A ferry carrying more than 800 people ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province in 2022 and remained stuck for two days before being dislodged, with no one hurt. In 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on Sumatra island. – AFP

It is unclear if any foreigners were onboard when the ferry sank. Rescuers said they are assessing if there were more people onboard than the ferry’s manifest showed. It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a ferry to differ from the manifest. Marine incidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards and sometimes due to bad weather.

o 23 survivors rescued, four dead: Police chief

HONG KONG: first domestically built aircraft carrier sailed into Hong Kong yesterday, just days after the city marked 28 years under Chinese rule. Commissioned in 2019, the more than 300m Shandong is China’s second carrier and key to the country’s regional ambitions under President Xi Jinping, who oversaw a massive naval buildup that has rattled Asian neighbours. Beijing earlier announced that the Shandong and its escort vessels, which include the destroyer Zhanjiang and frigate Yuncheng , would visit the Chinese finance hub for five days and host “tours and cultural exchange activities”. The flotilla was spotted yesterday morning sailing off the southern China’s DENPASAR: At least four people died and dozens were unaccounted for yesterday after a ferry sank on its way to the resort island of Bali, according to local authorities, that said 23 survivors had been plucked from the water. Rescuers were racing to find 38 missing people in rough seas after the vessel carrying 65 passengers sank before midnight on Wednesday as it sailed to the popular holiday destination from Indonesia’s main island Java. “There are 23 rescued, four dead,” Banyuwangi police chief Rama Samtama Putra told AFP in East Java, where the boat departed. President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, said Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya in a statement yesterday, adding that the cause of the incident was “bad weather”. Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit confirmed the same figures in a statement, and said efforts to reach the vessel were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions that have since cleared up. Waves as high as 2.5m with

coast of Hong Kong island. The Shandong visit comes days after it concluded combat drills in the western Pacific, alongside China’s first aircraft carrier the Liaoning . Both ships are of a modified Soviet design with a distinctive “ski jump” deck for aircraft takeoff. China’s third and more advanced carrier, the Fujian , is undergoing sea trials. Tickets to visit the vessels in Hong Kong were snapped up within minutes on WeChat. “The idea appears to impress upon the Hong Kong public the ruling (Chinese Communist Party’s) quest for building what is termed as the status of a maritime great power,“ said Singapore S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies naval affairs “strong winds and strong currents” had affected the rescue operation, he said. The agency had earlier said 61 people were missing and four rescued, without giving a cause for the sinking. “ KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank about 25 minutes after weighing anchor. The ferry’s manifest data totalled 53 passengers and 12 crew members.” A rescue team of at least 54 personnel, including from the navy and police, were despatched along with inflatable rescue boats, while a bigger vessel was later sent from Surabaya city to assist the search efforts. The ferry crossing from Ketapang port in Java’s Banyuwangi regency to Bali’s Gilimanuk port, one of the busiest in Indonesia, is around 5km as the crow flies and takes around one hour. Four of the known survivors saved themselves by using the ferry’s lifeboat and were found in the water early yesterday, the rescue agency said. It added that the ferry was also transporting 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks.

Family members waiting for updates on the search operation. – AFPPIC

Chinese aircraft carrier arrives in Hong Kong

University of Singapore said China’s latest exercises suggested “both aircraft carriers are ready to engage in more sophisticated operations” but some unknowns remain, including the operational tempo they can bear. In April, the Shandong took part in drills testing the Chinese navy’s ability to “blockade” Taiwan, according to the Eastern Theatre Command. China insists that the self-ruled democracy is part of its territory and has refused to rule out seizing it by force. The Shandong was also reportedly present in Philippine waters in April during a joint US-Philippines military exercise, deepening tensions between Manila and Beijing. – AFP Phumtham earned the nickname “Big Comrade” for his association with a left-wing youth movement of the 1970s, but transitioned to politics through a role in Thaksin’s telecoms empire. In previous Cabinets, he held the defence and commerce portfolios, and spent a spell as acting prime minister after a crisis engulfed the top office last year. Paetongtarn has been hobbled over a long-standing territorial dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, which boiled over into cross-border clashes in May, killing

specialist Collin Koh. The Shandong is the second Chinese aircraft carrier to visit Hong Kong, following a 2017 visit by the Liaoning . China has rapidly upgraded its naval forces as it seeks to expand its reach in the Pacific and challenge a US-led alliance. The US Defence Department said in a December report that numerically, China has the largest navy in the world, with a battle force of more than 370 ships and submarines. Japan authorities said China’s dual-carrier exercise last month was the first of its kind and reflected intentions to improve operational capabilities in distant areas. Chong Ja Ian of the National

Another acting prime minister confirmed in Thailand BANGKOK: Thailand’s deputy premier Phumtham Wechayachai was confirmed yesterday as the new caretaker prime minister, a government statement said. Tuesday when the Constitutional Court suspended Paetongtarn pending an ethics probe that could take months. Power passed to Transport Minister and Deputy Prime Minister comes as the kingdom is battling to revive a spluttering economy and secure a US trade deal averting US President Donald Trump’s looming threat of a 36% tariff. Phumtham is considered a loyal lieutenant to the suspended

Phumtham, 71, is a veteran Pheu Thai Party politician who has long worked with the influential former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the driving force in the current government. Phumtham takes the role following a court order of suspension from duty this week of Paetongtarn Shinawatra. The Southeast Asian nation’s top office was plunged into turmoil on

Suriya Jungrungreangkit, who took office for one day, as the bombshell was dropped in an awkward interim ahead of a reshuffle. Before Paetongtarn was ousted, she assigned herself the role of culture minister in the new Cabinet, meaning she is set to keep a perch in the upper echelons of power. The revolving door of leadership

Paetongtarn and her father Thaksin, the patriarch of a dynasty that has dominated Thai 21st-century politics. Thaksin-linked parties have been jousting with the pro-military, pro-conservative establishment since the early 2000s, but analysts say the family’s political brand has begun to decline.