21/07/2025

MONDAY | JULY 21, 2025

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Malaysian Paper

/thesundaily /

Japan heads to polls in key test for prime minister

HK hit by strong winds as typhoon skirts pass HONG KONG: The city was battered by strong winds and heavy rain yesterday as Typhoon Wipha skirted along China’s southern coast, with fallen trees and collapsed scaffolding spotted across the city. Wipha was located about 140km to Hong Kong’s southwest as of 5pm (5pm in Malaysia), according to the city’s weather observatory. Hong Kong’s highest tropical cyclone warning, T10, was in effect for about seven hours but was downgraded to the third-highest T8 warning at 4.10pm as Wipha departed the city. “Gale to storm force southeasterly winds are still affecting parts of the territory,” the observatory said. Neighbouring casino hub Macau issued its own typhoon warning shortly after noon, with authorities suspending all public transport services. China’s Hainan and Guangdong provinces were earlier put on high alert, according to Xinhua news agency. In Hong Kong, more than 250 people sought refuge at government-run temporary shelters. Officials said they received more than 450 reports of fallen trees and a handful of flooding reports, including at a main thoroughfare in the Wong Tai Sin district. A representative from Hong Kong’s Airport Authority earlier said about 500 flights had been cancelled due to the weather, while about 400 flights were scheduled to take off or land later in the day. Authorities suspended classes at all day schools and daycare centres. Local trains offered limited services while operations in open sections were suspended. Wipha also brought heavy rains and flooding to the Philippines, where two people have been reported missing, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. – AFP SYDNEY: Australia’s island state of Tasmania appeared yesterday to be heading for a minority government as vote counting continued after an election that did not produce a clear winner. The conservative Liberal government was on track to win more seats than the main Labor opposition in the new parliament but would probably fall short of a majority after Saturday’s election, the Australian Broadcasting Corp projected. The Liberals’ strong performance under Jeremy Rockliff, premier since 2022, follows a heavy defeat suffered at May’s national election, which returned Anthony Albanese-led Labor for a second term with an increased majority. Saturday’s vote showed Tasmanians have “no confidence in the Labor party to form the government and they have voted to re-endorse our Liberal government”, Rockliff said in televised remarks from the state capital of Hobart. The result for Labor, on track to win nine seats of a possible 35, was shaping as the party’s worst-ever result in Tasmania, The Guardian Australia newspaper said. State Labor leader Dean Winter said yesterday the result was disappointing for the party, but he did not concede defeat. The election was triggered by a no-confidence vote against Rockliff initiated by Labor on concerns about public debt and plans to privatise assets. It came less than two years after the state’s most recent poll, in which a majority eluded the Liberals. The only Australian state to elect its lower house on the basis of proportional representation, Tasmania has a long history of minority governments. – Reuters Tasmania on track for minority govt

States or face punishing tariffs. Such import levies could squeeze the economy and further pressure the government to give financial relief to households already reeling from inflation, including a doubling of rice prices since last year. With an eye on a jittery government bond market, LDP has called for fiscal restraint and rejected opposition calls for major tax cuts and welfare spending to soften the blow. Ishiba’s administration lost its majority in the more powerful lower house in October. That was LDP’s worst showing in 15 years, roiling financial markets and leaving the prime minister vulnerable to no-confidence motions that could topple his administration and trigger a fresh general election. “LDP has been running the government without resolving anything,” said Kaoru Kawai, a 59-year-old novelist who voted for the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Ruled by LDP for most of the post-war period, Japan has so far largely avoided the social division and fracturing of politics seen in other industrialised democracies. – Reuters

foreigners,” said Yu Nagai, a 25-year-old student who said he voted for Sanseito. “When I look at the way compensation and money are spent on foreigners, I think that Japanese people are being disrespected,” Nagai said. Voting ends at 8pm (9pm in Malaysia), when media are expected to project results based on exit polls. A poor showing by the coalition could shake investor confidence in the world’s fourth-largest economy and disrupt critical trade talks with the United States, analysts said. Ishiba may have to choose between making way for a new LDP leader or scrambling to secure the backing of some opposition parties with policy compromises, said Rintaro Nishimura, an associate at the Asia Group in Japan. “Each scenario requires LDP and Komeito to make certain concessions, and it will be challenging, as any potential partner has leverage in the negotiations.” After the election, Japan faces an Aug 1 deadline to strike a trade deal with the United

TOKYO: Japanese voters headed to the polls yesterday in a tightly contested upper house election that could unleash political turmoil, with rising prices and immigration concerns threatening to weaken Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s grip on power. Opinion polls suggest Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and coalition partner Komeito may fall short of the 50 seats needed to retain control of the 248-seat upper house of parliament in an election in which half the seats are up for grabs. The polls show smaller opposition parties pushing for tax cuts and increased public spending are set to gain, among them the right-wing Sanseito, which vows to curb immigration, oppose foreign capital inflows and reverse gender equality moves. “I am attending graduate school but there are no Japanese around me. All of them are o Ruling coalition may lose control of upper house

A convenience store building slipping into a river in Gapyeong county yesterday. – YONHAP/AFPPIC

South Korea weather disaster death toll rises to 14 SEOUL: Two people have died and an another two were missing in the South Korean resort town of Gapyeong yesterday, after a landslide engulfed houses and flooding swept away vehicles during a storm. This brings the nationwide death toll to 14, with 12 people missing since the storm began on Wednesday. the government to find ways to swiftly designate areas hit hard by recent heavy rains as special disaster zones. Such zones are entitled to government support for damage recovery and relief to those affected. The government launched an interagency recovery support team earlier yesterday. city of Sejong, saying the government will shift its focus from responding to the rains to recovering from the damage. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok gave instructions to Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung to visit the southern county of Sancheong and draw up support measures, his office said. Sancheong has accounted for a large portion of the casualties.

“The Interior Ministry, other relevant ministries and the affected local governments will fully mobilise all available resources and carry out swift emergency restoration work,” Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters in the central

The storm is likely to ease today and be followed by a heatwave, the government weather forecaster said. The heavy rainfall, which had earlier lashed southern parts of South Korea, moved north overnight, it said. President Lee Jae Myung has instructed

The prime minister further instructed the interior minister to visit the affected regions today and console the residents while coming up with detailed support plans. – Agencies