Indonesian rescue teams flew helicopters stuffed with food to remote flood-hit communities Saturday as the death toll from the disaster jumped to 60 and fears grew about the possibility of more torrential rain. 
 
Tens of thousands in Jakarta were still unable to return to their waterlogged homes after some of the deadliest flooding in years hit the enormous capital region, home to about 30 million. 
 
In neighboring Lebak, where half a dozen people died, police and military personnel dropped boxes of instant noodles and other supplies into remote communities inaccessible by road after bridges were destroyed. 
 
“It’s tough to get supplies in there … and there are about a dozen places hit by landslides,” Tomsi Tohir, the police chief of Banten province, where Lebak is located, told AFP. “That is why we’re using helicopters although there aren’t any landing spots.” 
 
Local health center chief Suripto, who goes by one name, said injured residents were flowing into his clinic. 
 
“Some of them were wounded after they were swept away by floods and hit with wood and rocks,” he said. People queue up to receive food at an aid distribution point for those affected by the floods in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 4, 2020.Around Jakarta, more than 170,000 people took refuge in shelters across the massive urban conglomeration after whole neighborhoods were submerged. 
 
Torrential rains that started on New Year’s Eve unleashed flash floods and landslides. 
 
Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said Saturday that two people were also killed after flash floods and landslides hit a village in North Sulawesi on Friday. 
 
The agency said Saturday that the total death toll had climbed to 60 with two people still missing. 
 
“We’ve discovered more dead bodies,” said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Agus Wibowo. ‘Trauma healing’ Jakarta shelters filled up with refugees, including infants, resting on thin mats as food and drinking water ran low. Some had been reduced to using floodwater for cleaning. 
 
“We’re cleaning ourselves in a nearby church but the time has been limited since it uses an electric generator for power,” said Trima Kanti, 39, from one refuge in Jakarta’s western edges. Rescuers search for missing people at a village affected by a landslide in Cigudeg, West Java, Indonesia, Jan. 4, 2020.In hard-hit Bekasi, on the eastern outskirts of Jakarta, swamped streets were littered with debris and crushed cars lying on top of each other — with waterline marks reaching as high as the second floors of buildings. 
 
On Friday, the government said it would start cloud seeding to the west of the capital — inducing rain using chemicals sprayed from planes — in the hope of preventing more rain from reaching the city region. 
 
Water has receded in many areas and power was being restored in hundreds of districts. 
 
The health ministry has said it deployed 11,000 health workers and soldiers to distribute medicine, hygiene kits and food in a bid to stave off outbreaks of hepatitis A, mosquito-borne Dengue fever and other illnesses, including infections linked to contact with dead animals. 
 
Visiting hard-hit Lebak, Muhadjir Effendy, coordinating minister for human development and cultural affairs, said the government would help rebuild destroyed schools and construct temporary bridges, while offering assistance to victims. 
 
“We’re also asking for [nongovernmental organizations] to help with trauma healing,” Muhadjir told reporters Saturday. Electrocution, drowning Around Jakarta, a family that included a 4- and a 9-year-old died of suspected gas poisoning from a portable power generator, while an 8-year-old boy was killed in a landslide. 
 
Others died from drowning or hypothermia, while one 16-year-old boy was electrocuted by a power line. A man navigates an inflatable boat at a flooded neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 4, 2020.Jakarta is regularly hit by floods during the rainy season, which started in late November. But this week marked Jakarta’s deadliest flooding since 2013 when dozens were killed after the city was inundated by monsoon rains. 
 
Urban planning experts said the disaster was partly due to record rainfall. But Jakarta’s myriad infrastructure problems, including poor drainage and rampant overdevelopment, have worsened the situation, they said. 
 
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has announced a plan to move the country’s capital to Borneo island to take pressure off Jakarta, which suffers from some of the world’s worst traffic jams and is fast sinking because of excessive groundwater extraction. 
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Businesses in Vietnam face a cash shortage that is preventing as much as $24 billion that could be invested in the nation’s $250 billion economy, according to a study by PwC Vietnam.The financial services company analyzed the 500 businesses in Vietnam with the highest revenue that have been listed on both the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange and the Hanoi Stock Exchange for the last four years or more. PwC Vietnam analysts said that those companies’ “cash conversion cycle” has increased, meaning that they have to wait longer from the start of the business cycle, when they first make their investments, until those investments start to pay off in the form of revenue.“We continue to see cash flows being sacrificed to attain top line targets in Vietnam, which is not sustainable for businesses in the long run,” said Mohammad Mudasser, who leads the working capital management practice at PwC Vietnam. “Managing operating working capital is a cross-functional responsibility,” he added.Vietnam Turning into Medical Tourism Destination for Dental, Cosmetic CareTop line refers to revenue, while bottom line refers to profit.To sacrifice cash for the sake of revenue targets usually means that companies are willing to make an initial cash investment, often to buy inventory that can be sold for revenue. However the long cash conversion cycle suggests that there are some inefficiencies along the way, such as longer wait times between billing a customer and actually collecting the payment.While there is no perfect business cycle, the PwC Vietnam study suggests companies in Vietnam could tackle some inefficiencies to unlock further potential in the already fast growing economy.In 2018 Vietnam had one of the highest cash conversion cycles in Asia, at 67 days, which is an increase of two days compared with 2017, according to PwC Vietnam. That compares with an average in Asia of 58 days, and in particular 64 days in neighboring Thailand and 54 in Malaysia. That means those other Southeast Asian countries are able to turn their investments into cash sooner than Vietnam does.One reason that companies do not want to have such a long cycle is that it makes them more vulnerable to debt. When they have to wait a longer time to receive payment from customers, some companies go into debt to cover their expenses.“The fast-growing companies had significantly higher short term debt growth, indicating risks to the sustainable growth of these companies,” PwC Vietnam, a consulting company that sells tax and accounting services, said in a press release.If the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank increases interest rates in the coming year, as some economists are expecting, emerging markets, such as Vietnam, could follow. That would increase borrowing costs for companies, increasing their vulnerability to debt.In turn that could limit the economy’s potential. The Asian Development Bank estimates that Vietnam’s gross domestic product grew by 6.9% in 2019 and will grow by 6.8% in 2020.PwC Vietnam looked at the inventory, expenses, and outstanding invoices of the 500 listed companies that it analyzed. Based on that, it estimated there was $24 billion “trapped in net working capital.”However it estimated that only a fraction of that capital could be released, $11 billion, because some of the capital has to stay in the business cycle. Analysts said inventory and outstanding invoices, known as accounts receivable, where the best bet for improving efficiency. That could mean that too much inventory is being held, or that companies are waiting too long to be paid by customers.
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Wildfires are burning out of control in southeastern Australia.Thousands of people have already fled their homes but some have waited too long.The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has advised those who have not evacuated areas at risk that, “It is too late to leave.  Seek shelter as the fire approaches.”Late Saturday evening, Victoria had 14 fires rated at emergency or evacuation warning levels, while New South Wales, home to more than 100  fires, had 11 emergency fires.CNN reported that fire officials said Saturday three fires combined overnight in Victoria and are now larger than Manhattan in New York City.Army reservists have been called in to assist the firefighters. Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said this is the first time the reservists have been called up to help combat fires “in living memory and, in fact, I believe for the first time in our nation’s history.”Andy Gillham, the incident controller in the Victorian town of Bairnsdale, told Reuters that this has been an exceptional fire season.  “In a normal year, we would start to see the fire season kick off in a big way around early January and we’re already up towards a million hectares of burnt country. This is a marathon event and we expect to be busy managing these fires for at least the next eight weeks,” he said.
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Australia’s prime minister called up about 3,000 reservists as the threat of wildfires escalated Saturday in at least three states with two more deaths. Strong winds and high temperatures were forecast to bring flames to populated areas including the suburbs of Sydney.Scott Morrison said 23 deaths have been confirmed so far this summer, including the two in a blaze on a highway on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia. “We are facing another extremely difficult next 24 hours,” he told a televised news conference. “In recent times, particularly over the course of the balance of this week, we have seen this disaster escalate to an entirely new level,” Morrison said. He also confirmed that his scheduled visits to India and Japan later this month have been postponed. He was to visit India Jan. 13-16 and Japan immediately afterward. Morrison came under fire for taking a family vacation in Hawaii as the wildfire crisis unfolded in December. “Just around half an hour ago the governor general signed off on the call-out of the Australian Defense Force Reserve to search and bring every possible capability to bear by deploying army brigades to fire-affected communities,” he said.Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said this was the first time that reservists have been called out “in this way in living memory and, in fact, I believe for the first time in our nation’s history.” Firefighters tackle a bushfire in thick smoke in the town of Moruya, south of Batemans Bay, in New South Wales, Jan. 4, 2020.Firefighting aircraftThe government has committed 20 million Australian dollars ($14 million) to lease four fire-fighting aircraft for the duration of the crisis, and the helicopter-equipped HMAS Adelaide was deployed to assist evacuations from fire-ravaged areas.The fire danger increased as temperatures rose to record levels across Australia, surpassing 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) in the capital Canberra and 48 C (118 F) in Penrith, in Sydney’s western suburbs.New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said her state was facing “another terrible day” and called on people in areas threatened by the fires to leave while they can.“I’m pleased to say that we’ve never been as prepared as we are today for the onslaught we’re likely to face,” Berejiklian told reporters. “All of the major road networks are still open but we can’t guarantee that beyond the next few hours. So there are still windows for people to get out.”NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian attends a news conference at Rural Fire Service Headquarters in Sydney, Jan.4, 2020.Fire ‘virtually unstoppable’The deadly fire on Kangaroo Island broke containment lines Friday and was described as “virtually unstoppable” as it destroyed buildings and burned through more than 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) of Flinders Chase National Park. While the warning level for the fire was reduced Saturday, the Country Fire Service said it was still a risk to lives and property.New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers warned the fires could move “frighteningly quick.” Embers carried by the wind had the potential to spark new fires or enlarge existing blazes.Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fizsimmons said the 264,000-hectare (652,000-acre) Green Wattle Creek fire in a national park west of Sydney had the potential to spread into Sydney’s western suburbs.He said crews have been doing “extraordinary work” by setting controlled fires and using aircraft and machinery to try to keep the flames away. Fitzsimmons called on residents and tourists in the path of the fires to evacuate as soon as possible.“Our message has been to make sure you leave yesterday,” he said. “Leaving it until today is cutting it fine. The sooner you make that decision the better and I would say do it now. Don’t leave it any longer because the window will shrink and will shrink very quickly.”Evacuees are transported, Jan. 2, 2020, in an amphibious vehicle from Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia.Hundred-plus fires, half out of controlMore than 130 fires were burning in New South Wales and at least half of those were out of control. Temperatures in parts of the state are expected to soar in the mid-40s C (about 113 F) amid strong winds and low humidity.A total of 48 fires were burning across almost 320,000 hectares (791,000 acres) in Victoria state and conditions were expected to worsen with a southerly wind change.“We still have those dynamic and dangerous conditions, the low humidity, the strong winds and, what underpins that, the state is tinder dry,” Victoria Emergency Services Commissioner Andrew Crisp said.Thousands have already fled fire-threatened areas in Victoria, and Crisp urged more people to leave.“If you might be thinking about ‘I can get out’ on a particular road close to you, well there’s every chance that a fire could hit that particular road and you can’t get out,” he said.Victoria police reported heavy traffic on major roads and praised motorists for their patient and orderly behavior.The early and devastating start to Australia’s summer wildfires has burned about 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land and destroyed more than 1,500 homes. That’s more acres burned in Australia than any one year in the U.S. since Harry Truman was president.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently indicated the road to denuclearization has come to an end, but experts say he left a door open for diplomacy with the U.S. in his statements Wednesday.”Kim Jong Un’s speech suggests that the DPRK [North Korea] is no longer interested in holding out the possibility of even an illusory commitment to denuclearization,” said Evans Revere, a former State Department official during the George W. Bush administration, which also negotiated with North Korea.Kim said, “If the U.S. persists in its hostile policy toward the DPRK, there will never be the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and the DPRK will steadily develop necessary and prerequisite strategic weapons for the security of the state.”Revere said Kim’s stance on denuclearization was “the latest manifestation” of what North Korea has been saying for years.Earlier in December, North Korea’s U.N. ambassador, Kim Song, said denuclearization was off the table. This file picture taken and released on July 4, 2017 by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (2nd R) inspecting the test-fire of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14.Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said, “Kim is setting the stage for a strategic choice to be a full-fledged nuclear state, which is Pyongyang’s longtime goal, 40 years in the works, and then blame the U.S. for its hostile policy.”Manning said North Korea might continue “the facade of diplomacy” while perfecting its missiles and nuclear arsenal and that denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang were unlikely to make progress.”At this point, after 25 years of diplomatic efforts, it is delusional to keep saying there is one last chance,'” Manning said.  “I see no evidence Kim has any intention of dismantling his nuclear weapons program.”North Korea promised it would denuclearize in hopes of obtaining sanctions relief at the start of talks with the U.S. in 2018.  At the failed Hanoi summit held in February 2019, Kim proposed partial denuclearization in exchange for eliminating sanctions.U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.President Donald Trump rejected the offer in Hanoi, and Pyongyang has responded with multiple missile launches since May in what many observers see as an effort to pressure the U.S. to soften its stance.Now, Kim is signaling he no longer hopes to obtain sanctions relief from the U.S.Even so, Bruce Klingner, former CIA deputy division chief of Korea and current senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said Kim was clinging to hopes that sanctions would disappear.Klingner said Kim “left the door to negotiations open the tiniest of cracks” by stating that North Korea’s denuclearization and weapons development were “contingent on a dramatically altered U.S. policy.”North Korea views internationally imposed sanctions as hostile acts. It also views joint military drills the U.S. holds annually with South Korea as a threat. Kim voiced opposition to both sanctions and joint exercises in his statements.”Under such conditions” of continued joint drills and sanctions, Kim said, North Korea will drop a self-imposed moratorium placed on its nuclear and long-range missiles.”There is no ground for us to get unilaterally bound to the commitment any longer,” Kim said.Klingner expects North Korea will continue to take provocative actions in hopes of extracting concessions from the U.S.”Pyongyang will go up the escalation ladder, either incrementally or immediately, but in a manner to maximize impact and diplomatic leverage,” he said.  “The Trump administration should ratchet up pressure on North Korea and foreign enablers of its prohibited nuclear and missile programs.”
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