Top rice supplier India bans some exports
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest rice exporter India has banned some overseas sales of the grain “with immediate effect”, the government said, in a move that could drive international prices even higher. Rice is a major world food staple and prices on international markets have soared to decade highs as theContinue Reading
Repeat offender fined S$4,800 by court for feeding birds 16 times
SINGAPORE: A man who was previously fined by the court for feeding pigeons was again caught for a similar offence.
He threw slices of bread on the pavement and grass verge, and despite being told that it is an offence to feed wildlife without written approval, the man continued to do so on 15 other occasions.
Singaporean V Rajandran, 67, was fined S$4,800 by a court on Friday (Jul 21) for four charges under the Wildlife Act. Another 12 charges were taken into consideration.
Rajandran paid the fine in full. If he did not pay the fine, he would have had to serve 16 days’ jail in default.
The court heard that enforcement officers spotted Rajandran in the vicinity of Aljunied Crescent on the morning of Aug 26, 2022.
Rajandran was feeding birds by throwing slices of bread on the pavement and grass verge.
The officers told him that it was an offence, but he continued to feed birds on another 15 occasions, with the last being in December 2022.
He would buy about S$20 to S$30 worth of bread each time, or take rice from his leftover meals to feed the birds around the Geylang area.
Despite repeated engagement from enforcement officers asking him to stop, Rajandran continued to feed the birds.
The court heard that Rajandran was fined S$450 in February 2018 for flouting the Animals and Birds (Pigeons) Rules. In January 2020, he was fined another S$500 for feeding stray pigeons.
The prosecutor from the National Parks Board (NParks) asked for a fine of between S$4,800 and S$5,600 for Rajandran, noting that he had been convicted of similar offences before and faces 16 charges in total.
He had just been fined S$3,700 earlier on Friday for littering, noted the prosecutor.
Rajandran was unrepresented and listened to proceedings quietly.
When asked if he had anything to say in mitigation, he said: “Nothing to say.”
The offence of intentionally feeding wildlife is punishable by a fine of up to S$5,000 for first-time offenders. Repeat offenders face fines of up to S$10,000.
The Wildlife Act defines wildlife as “an animal that belongs to a wildlife species, and includes the young or egg of the animal”.
Hyunmoo-V missile built for S Koreaâs nuclear ambitions
South Korea has tested a new type of ballistic missile for its new arsenal ships, a move that may have more to do with techno-nationalism and masking its nuclear ambitions than improving its defenses vis-à-vis North Korea.
This month, Defense Post reported that South Korea announced the successful test of the Hyunmoo-V ballistic missile after undergoing trial blasts earlier this year.
Defense Post notes that South Korea plans to begin Hyunmoo-V mass production this year, with an annual capacity of 70 missiles and a production target of 200 units. They will equip the Joint Strike Ship now under development by Hanwha Ocean.
The report notes that Hyunmoo-V is the latest in South Korea’s Hyunmoo ballistic missile family, with a maximum range of 3,000 kilometers and an eight-ton warhead designed to destroy enemy underground command centers, nuclear missile bases and other critical facilities at speeds close to Mach 10.
Defense Post also reports that the Hyunmoo V delivers massive “earthquake power”, which can reportedly trigger tunnel collapses through artificial earthquakes.
Naval News reported this month on South Korea’s Joint Strike Ship, a model of which was unveiled last month at the MADEX exhibition in Busan. That report mentions that the Joint Strike Ship is based on the upcoming KDDX-class destroyer hull and is envisioned to carry as many as 100 missiles.
Naval News notes that while legacy arsenal ship concepts have been criticized for being slow, large and vulnerable targets, the Joint Strike Ship features heavy defensive armament.
That includes two LIG Nex1 Close-in Weapons Systems-II (CIWS-II) at the bow and stern for point defense against short-range missiles and aircraft, and 48 KVLS-I cells loaded with K-SAAM surface-to-air (SAM) missiles for medium-range air defense.
The Joint Strike Ship features an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar on the same I-MAST integrated mast on the KDDX for detection and fire control. The ship also has two MASS chaff decoy launchers for use against missiles and two anti-torpedo decoy launchers on top of its superstructure and aft.
The Joint Strike Ship has a formidable main armament. Naval News reports that it has 32 KVLS-II cells behind the integrated mast amidships, which can hold Haesung-II cruise missiles and new L-SAM versions that have just started development.
The report also says the ship has 15 missile tubes for ballistic missiles, which are thought to be the Hyunmoo-IV-2, a surface ship version of the Hyunmoo-IV.
The Joint Strike Ship also has two erectable stern launchers for the Hyunmoo-V missile, with their placement meaning that the ship would need a resupply vessel to reload at sea.
Asia Times noted in April 2023 that the Joint Strike Ship’s design reflects South Korea’s strategic constraint from officially being prohibited from having nuclear weapons as a signatory to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Seoul is also restrained by a 1991 Joint Declaration with North Korea in which both sides agree not to test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons.
North Korea has blatantly violated the agreement by conducting six nuclear tests since 2006 while so-called Six-Party Talks on its nuclear program have indefinitely stalled.
Given all that, South Korea has been developing conventional deterrents such as aircraft carriers and ballistic missile submarines, and has recently raised the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons.
However, it may be challenging for South Korea to maintain Joint Strike Ships at round-the-clock readiness compared to traditional land-based ballistic missiles. The ships would inevitably be a priority target for North Korean attacks.
Furthermore, South Korea’s large fleet of conventional submarines can launch missiles deep into North Korea’s territory, conducting the same missions as the Joint Strike Ship while being more survivable.
In April 2022, South Korea successfully tested a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the ROKS Dosan Ahn Changho, a missile that analysts say may be too expensive to be used with anything less than a nuclear warhead.
Asia Times reported in June 2022 that South Korea may be planning to build nuclear-powered submarines following an agreement with the US regarding the sharing of small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) technology that has been used in such vessels for decades.
The critical technology could pave the way for Seoul’s longstanding plans to acquire such naval vessels. The publicly announced agreement marked a significant change in US nuclear policy towards South Korea dating back to 1972, which restricts the transfer of sensitive nuclear technology.
South Korea launched a nuclear submarine development program in 2003. It was terminated the following year after it was discovered that its scientists had enriched uranium in 2000, dabbling in a technology that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
That setback notwithstanding, South Korea never gave up its nuclear submarine ambitions, partly driven by fears that the US might not fully come to its defense in a conflict with North Korea.
South Korea’s political and military rationale for acquiring nuclear-powered submarines is unclear given its conventional military overmatch versus North Korea, capable conventional submarine fleet and divergence with the US position regarding China, North Korea’s longtime military ally and economic lifeline.
What is clear is that South Korean political and popular sentiment in favor of having nuclear weapons is steadily rising.
Asia Times reported in January 2023 on South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s announcement that he might consider building tactical nuclear weapons, marking the first time a South Korean leader raised the possibility since 1991.
South Korean public sentiment in favor of acquiring nuclear weapons is running high, with a February 2022 study by the Carnegie Endowment for Regional Peace showing that 71% of the South Korean public favor having nuclear weapons. The same study found 56% of South Koreans support US deployment of nuclear weapons in their country.
Regarding whether South Korea should have an independent nuclear arsenal, the study shows that 67% prefer it, with only 9% opposing the placement of US nuclear weapons in the country.
While South Korea’s Joint Strike Ships and nuclear-powered submarines may make questionable strategic sense, techno-nationalism may be its driving factor in building large warships that are more international prestige symbols than effective combatants.
Given that, South Korea’s deterrent strategy may be to maintain nuclear latency by researching the technologies necessary for a nuclear arsenal, with the Hyunmoo-V a potential delivery system for a nuclear warhead should the contingency arise.
Fintech Salmon sets record for largest Series A debt financing in Philippines with US$20mil facility
Deal positions Salmon as one of SEA’s fastest-growing fintechs
Funds will enable firm to scale lending operations across Philippines
Consumer fintech Salmon announced that it has secured a US$20 million (RM91 million) debt facility from US emerging-markets specialist investment firm Argentem Creek Partners.
In a statement, the startup said this enables it to further scale its…Continue Reading
Australiaâs LNG export regulation imperils China, Japan
On March 30, 2023, Australian Minister for Resources Madeleine King announced sweeping reforms to the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM).
First implemented in July 2017, the ADGSM allows the minister to regulate liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in response to domestic shortages. The revised policy empowers the government to decide to activate the ADGSM every quarter, departing from the previous annual intervention.
While the reforms aim to strike a delicate balance between maintaining domestic supply and safeguarding Australia’s global reputation as a reliable energy supplier, it may also prompt concerns among international LNG buyers.
Australia exported 78.5 million tonnes of LNG in 2021, accounting for one-fifth of the global LNG trade. The nations that are most likely to be impacted by the changes are Japan, South Korea and China — the world’s top three LNG importers, accounting for 21.3%, 20% and 12.6% of the global LNG trade in 2021 respectively.
Japan relies on Australia for 40% of its LNG consumption and is particularly wary of potential supply chain disruptions. The shortened procurement window under the newly revised ADGSM, coupled with uncertainty surrounding the Australian LNG industry’s adaptability to global market shifts, has raised concerns about the stability of Japan’s energy security.
Australia’s quarterly domestic gas supply interventions could pose challenges for Japanese LNG importers in mitigating potential shortfalls because they will need to manage the changes in 90 days, rather than a year.
These concerns arise within the broader context of a changing global energy landscape. While natural gas is widely regarded as a transitional fuel, its flexibility in power generation is crucial, at least until electricity grids are equipped with better storage options to balance out the intermittency of renewable energy sources.
Natural gas also offers lower emissions than coal, making it an attractive option for countries committed to decarbonization.
But the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has injected further complexity into the equation. In response to sanctions, Russia has cut its gas supply to Europe. EU imports of Russian gas in March 2023 were 74% lower compared to the same month in 2021. Europe has shifted its focus from Russian pipeline gas to LNG, triggering a surge in global demand.
LNG prices skyrocketed to unprecedented heights, impacting markets worldwide, before returning to pre-crisis levels. The monthly average prices of Asian LNG surged significantly, rising from US$27.8 per million metric British thermal unit in February 2022 to a historical peak of $54 per million metric British thermal unit in August 2022.
Spot LNG prices soared to a staggering high of $70.50 per million metric British thermal unit in August 2022 as Europe swiftly absorbed all available cargoes in anticipation of the potential loss of all Russian pipeline supplies.
But Asian LNG prices fell to the lowest level in nearly two years due to weak demand from top regional importers and as inventories remained high.
For LNG buyers like Japan, ensuring stable and affordable gas supplies has become an arduous task in the face of such market turbulence. To protect its energy security, Japan continues to hold interest in Sakhalin, Russia’s natural gas project, despite having imposed economic sanctions on the country.
A long-term contract for the Sakhalin project could provide the LNG that Japan urgently requires at a price lower than the market price.
As the world’s leading LNG exporter, LNG price hikes have also directly impacted Australia’s domestic market. In December 2022, the Australian government implemented a temporary price cap on domestic coal at AU$125 (US$84.7) per tonne and natural gas at AU$12 per gigajoule to alleviate the financial burden on domestic consumers.
But the supplies of natural gas to retailers have expectedly dwindled since the implementation of the price cap policy. This situation led to the revision of the ADGSM.
While the ADGSM allows Australia to accelerate its own energy transition while protecting the welfare of consumers, it could also lead to higher emissions, slowing the transition to clean energies elsewhere.
Without access to Australian LNG, at the current technology level, Japan and other major Asian economies are likely to burn more coal.
In the summer of 2022, Japan relied on aging coal-fired power plants to tackle the energy crisis. China experienced a 0.7% decline in natural gas demand in 2022, the first drop since 1982, while coal consumption increased by 4.3% during the same period. This surge in coal consumption hinders global emission reduction efforts and exacerbates environmental concerns.
The spillover effect of Australia’s natural gas security policy underscores the importance of global cooperation in tackling the multifaceted challenges of energy transitions, energy security and international politics.
Australia’s ADGSM reforms serve as a stark reminder of the interconnectedness of global energy markets and the need for cautious and informed decision-making in a rapidly changing world.
As the global energy landscape evolves, policymakers must remain attentive to the ripple effects caused by their decisions.
Xunpeng Shi is Professor and Research Principal at the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney. Edward Sung is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney.
This article was originally published by East Asia Forum and is republished under a Creative Commons license.
Rahul Gandhi: Supreme Court to rule on Congress leader’s political future
Getty ImagesIndia’s top court is set to hear opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case.
The Supreme Court’s decision will determine whether Mr Gandhi can contest national elections next year.
Earlier this month, a court in Gujarat state had dismissed his appeal, saying the conviction was “just and proper”.
Mr Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail for comments about PM Narendra Modi’s surname at an election rally.
But he cannot be arrested until he has exhausted all legal appeals.
He was also disqualified as an MP after the sentencing, so a verdict in his favour from India’s highest court would also reinstate him as a lawmaker.
Mr Gandhi lost his seat in parliament a day after his conviction in March due to a Supreme Court order which says that a lawmaker convicted in a crime and sentenced to two or more years in jail is disqualified with immediate effect.
The Congress has criticised Mr Gandhi’s conviction and accused Mr Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of political vendetta. The BJP has denied this, saying that due judicial process was followed in the case.
The defamation case against Mr Gandhi, brought by BJP lawmaker Purnesh Modi, revolved around comments Mr Gandhi made in Karnataka state in 2019 during an election rally. “Why do all these thieves have Modi as their surname? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi,” he said.
Nirav Modi is a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon while Lalit Modi is a former chief of the Indian Premier League who has been banned for life by the country’s cricket board.
In his complaint, Purnesh Modi alleged that the comments had defamed the entire Modi community. The Modi surname does not denote any specific community or caste and people from the community mostly reside in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Gandhi said that he made the comment to highlight corruption and that it was not directed against any community.
A lower court had granted Mr Gandhi bail to appeal against his conviction, but it’s the stay or suspension of his sentence that’s crucial to reinstating him as an MP.
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Thailand’s Move Forward makes way for Pheu Thai to form next government
BANGKOK: Thailand’s election-winning Move Forward party will let alliance partner, the Pheu Thai party, lead the formation of a government after its prime ministerial candidate failed to get parliament’s backing, a senior official said on Friday (Jul 21). Party secretary Chaithawat Tulathon told a press conference that Move Forward wouldContinue Reading
ZTE leaving Ericsson, Nokia in its 5G dust
TOKYO – Despite campaigns and sanctions against Chinese-made 5G telecom equipment in the US, Europe, Australia, Japan and elsewhere, Chinese telecom giant ZTE’s share price has risen by 61% over the past year while rivals Ericsson and Nokia’s have dropped 30% and 22% respectively.
This surge-plunge comparison can be attributed to China’s greater commitment to building 5G base stations and its focus on the technology’s industrial application, of which China is the world-leading pioneer. ZTE is China’s second-ranking telecom equipment maker after Huawei.
Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia are paying a heavy price for their dependence on the consumer market in an inflationary and rising interest rate environment.
On July 14, Nokia’s shares plunged 9.6%, the biggest fall in two years, and Ericsson’s dipped 8.7% following disappointing company sales and profit announcements for the second quarter and the rest of 2023.
It was the second abrupt drop in Europe’s two leading telecom equipment companies’ shares so far this year. The first was in April in response to weak first-quarter earnings.
Both companies have been laying off workers and otherwise cutting costs in response to weak demand and excessive inventory, primarily in North America. As a result, their customers – mostly telecom service providers – have been forced to cut prices and postpone 5G projects.
On July 14, Ericsson reported a 3% year-on-year increase in sales (-9% excluding newly consolidated investments and changes in foreign exchange rates) and a 62% decline in operating profit (net of restructuring charges) in the three months to June.
Management said this was in line with their expectations. However, it was not in line with market expectations.
On July 20, Nokia reported a 3% year-on-year decline in sales and a 16% decline in operating profit in the three months to June.
Neither company expects much improvement in the second half and both are now hoping for recovery in 2024. India and Southeast Asia are bright spots in their otherwise generally dismal performance.
ZTE, on the other hand, reported a 28.5% year-on-year increase in operating profit on a 4.3% increase in sales in the first quarter of 2023. R&D spending was up, but the cost of goods sold was significantly reduced. As of this writing, ZTE had not yet announced second-quarter results.
At the Mobile World Congress held in Shanghai at the end of June, ZTE introduced its method of building “smart” automated factories connected with 5G industrial private networks.
Called “Industrial Field Network + ZTE Digital Nebula,” it includes centralized production and logistics control, energy management, environmental protection and security.
ZTE works with hundreds of industrial companies on energy-saving, emission reduction, operational efficiency improvement through digital infrastructure and the construction of low-carbon supply chains.
Last February, the company posted on its website an analysis of what is required to take 5G industrial applications from supporting systems to core operations, namely:
Integration of cloud, network and applications: End customers need a one-stop solution that can solve real problems for the core operation and improve efficiency.
Deterministic service assurance: The private network for the core operation needs to provide ultra-low latency and jitter, ultra-high reliability and zero packet loss.
Simplified operation and maintenance: To lower the barriers of 5G private network operation.
“Since the commercial launch of 5G, the application of 5G in vertical industries has developed rapidly, and multiple application cases with commercial feasibility have been incubated,” ZTE said on its website.
“According to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology [MIIT], more than 7,900 5G 2B private networks had been built in China by September 2022, and the effect of 5G empowerment has gradually appeared in many industries such as manufacturing, ports, mines and power grid.”
Product development has been accelerated and production efficiency significantly improved, the company said.
Last March, MIIT set a target of 2.9 million 5G base stations to be installed in China by the end of 2023. At the end of June, the total was 2.94 million – the target reached six months ahead of schedule with about 600,000 units installed in the first half of the year.
All urban areas of any significant size in China are now covered, with the breadth and depth of coverage steadily increasing.
China now has nearly 700 million 5G mobile phone subscribers and more than two billion IoT (Internet of Things) connections to industrial sensors and consumer electronics devices. This has been accomplished since October 2019, when the first 5G services were introduced.
China’s state-run Global Times reports that 5G industrial parks have been set up in Shanghai, Dalian and many other cities. The first 5G IoT industrial park in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region is scheduled to be completed this month.
In 2018, ZTE established its Global 5G Intelligent Manufacturing Base in Binjiang, a district of Hangzhou, to develop and set standards for the technology.
Huawei is pursuing the same strategy as ZTE but on a larger scale. It is not publicly traded so its performance cannot be assessed by stock price performance.
However, Asia Times has reported: “Huawei claims 6,000 contracts to build standalone 5G networks for Chinese businesses, vs. about three dozen in Europe and fewer than 10 in the US.”
Market researcher TrendForce estimates that, by 2026, industrial manufacturing, energy and utilities will account for half the value of the global 5G market. Smart vehicles and consumer electronics will provide nearly a quarter.
This plays directly into China’s strengths as a rapidly automating industrial economy with a strong position in autos and consumer electronics, and a great need to use energy more efficiently.
GSMA, the global mobile network operators association, reports that “Mainland China is the largest 5G market in the world, accounting for more than 60% of global 5G connections at the end of 2022.
“With strong takeup of 5G among consumers, the focus of operators is now increasingly shifting to 5G for enterprises. This offers opportunities to grow revenues beyond connectivity in adjacent areas such as cloud services – a segment where operators in China have recently made significant progress.”
Japan is on a 5G track similar to China’s. NEC, Japan’s leading telecom equipment maker, has seen its share price rise over 25% in the past year, supported by a 28.6% boost in operating profit on a 9.9% increase in sales in the fiscal year ended March 2023 and management’s guidance for higher sales and profits this year.
NEC management says, “The impact of 5G will be felt not only by consumers using mobile phones. The real impact will change the way manufacturers design their plants, the way autonomous vehicles travel more safely, and the way healthcare organizations deliver more advanced and safer treatments.”
In factories, “5G makes real-time processing of a series of actions possible based on linkage between cameras and robots, namely capturing minute defects in articles flowing on the production line with high-definition cameras, identifying their characteristics in real-time with an AI engine and picking up the defective articles with a robot.”
NEC is transforming its own factories into 5G-enabled facilities, perfecting the technology and selling it to outside customers. Unlike the US, Japan never abandoned manufacturing.
On the contrary, it has led the world in factory automation and is making a major contribution to China’s automation as its leading supplier of industrial robots and is now likewise equipping its factories with private 5G networks.
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Inmates recaptured hours after breaking out of jail
PUBLISHED : 21 Jul 2023 at 11:35
KANCHABURI: Two drug detainees broke out of Kanchanaburi Prison on Friday morning, but both have now been recaptured, police said.
According to an initial report, the escape occurred around 8am when the two male inmates, one Thai and the other a Myanmar national, scaled over the barbed wire-topped two-metre-high prison wall.
The Thai man was captured by prison guards shortly after the breakout. The Myanmar national was recaptured at about 10am, after he was seen running into a forest behind the prison.
Prison guards said the two men were not convicted prisoners. They were being held in the prison to undergo a drug rehabilitation programme.
Seah Kian Peng to be nominated Singapore’s new Speaker of Parliament
SINGAPORE: Marine Parade MP Seah Kian Peng will be nominated as Singapore’s new Speaker of Parliament at the next sitting in August, announced the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday (Jul 21). The Speaker’s post became vacant after Tan Chuan-Jin resigned from parliament and the People’s Action Party (PAP) this week over an affair withContinue Reading