New Zealand’s prime minister Tuesday issued a lockdown in the country’s largest city, Auckland, after the first new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 in 102 days were discovered there.At a news conference in Wellington, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, along with New Zealand’s director-general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, announced Auckland will be moved to level three restrictions until midnight on Friday after the four cases were discovered in one household.  She said the cases came from an unknown source and involve different workplaces.  The level three restrictions mean people will be asked to stay at home, while bars and many other businesses will be closed.Ardern added the rest of the country will be raised to Level 2 through Friday, meaning that mass gatherings will be limited to 100 attendees and people would need to socially distance.Bloomfield said the infections were confirmed after a person in their 50s went to their doctor Monday with COVID-19 symptoms and was swabbed twice, testing positive both times.  Six other people in the person’s household were then tested, with three more positive results.Until Tuesday, the only known cases of the virus in New Zealand were 22 travelers who had recently returned from abroad and were being held in quarantine.The country has been praised globally for its virus response. 
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North Korea continues to see historic levels of rainfall, further threatening an economy already battered by a coronavirus-related lockdown.  Torrential rains have flooded hundreds of North Korean homes and wiped out vast swaths of rice fields in the country’s agricultural heartland, according to state media, intensifying worries about a poor harvest and food supply shortage. The Korean Peninsula has seen a much longer than usual monsoon seasons this year. The rains are expected to continue for much of the week.  South Korea has seen 49 consecutive days of rain — the longest streak on record. The downpours have caused landslides and floods in the South that have killed at least 42 people.  In the North, the extent of the damage is not precisely known. State media said Friday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a flood-hit village in North Hwanghae province, where 600 hectares of rice fields and more than 900 homes were inundated or destroyed. Hwanghae is the North’s most important rice-producing province. North Korean officials appearing on state TV have warned that rivers in both Hwanghae and the nearby province of Gangwon could overflow, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The rains are already more intense than in 2007, when North Korea saw some of its worst floods, according to a briefing by South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations.A part of a park near the Han River are flooded due to heavy rain in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 9, 2020. The safety ministry said the Seoul area and the southern region are expected to receive more heavy rain on Sunday.“Their agricultural system is fragile, but they have had floods many times before,” says Peter Ward, a specialist in North Korea’s economy and PhD candidate at the University of Vienna. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it had a significant impact on the harvest.” North Korea is particularly vulnerable to flooding. It lacks adequate infrastructure and suffers from widespread deforestation, which resulted in part from people cutting down trees for fuel or firewood or to clear land for farming.  The floods come as North Korea steps up its anti-coronavirus efforts. Last month, North Korea locked down the southwestern city of Kaesong, after warning that a defector from the South may have brought the virus across the border.  North Korea has reported no confirmed coronavirus cases, even as it carries out strict measures to keep the disease from spreading. North Korea’s Red Cross has mobilized 43,000 volunteers who “have been working alongside health teams and authorities to prevent Covid-19 as well as helping communities to be prepared to evacuate and reduce disaster risks in their areas, including protecting homes from flooding and landslides,” according to a statement from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “DPRK Red Cross volunteers are providing relief, including tarpaulins, kitchen sets, quilts, hygiene kits and water containers to support 2,800 of the most at risk families in North Hwanghae and (Gangwon) provinces, as well as Kaesong City, also while keeping people safe and preventing COVID-19,” the statement added. North Korea formally closed its borders due to coronavirus concerns in late January, shortly after the outbreak was first reported in neighboring China. The lockdown has resulted in plummeting economic activity with China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner. That has put even more strain on an economy already held back by international sanctions.  In a statement last week, research firm Fitch Solutions said it expected North Korea’s economy to contract by at least 8.5% in 2020, “not only due to a suspected domestic outbreak, but also due to the negative impact the disease will have on the external sector.”North Korea’s secretive government does not consistently release its own economic data. Instead, outside organizations try to estimate North Korea’s economic figures, in part based on numbers from South Korea’s central bank or Chinese customs data. 
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Yumi Hogan, who as Maryland’s first lady helped the state secure a half-million coronavirus tests from her native South Korea, is working behind the scenes to secure donations from the Asian American communities in Maryland to fight against the virus.   
 
Asian Americans in Maryland donated to the state government about 560,000 pieces of personal protective equipment, including masks, hand sanitizers, face shields and medical gowns. Their donations were part of the “Maryland Unites” initiative launched in March by Governor Larry Hogan, to receive donations and volunteers from the private sector.   
 
In an interview with VOA’s Korean service Thursday, Yumi Hogan said, “I think [the donations] were the result of the special relationship I maintained with the Asian communities. Through the donations, the Asian communities proved they can play an important role.”   
 Capitalizing on networks  
 
Among the donors is Chiling Tong, the president of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship. Tong worked with Eugenia Henry, the Baltimore Chapter president of the Global Federation of Chinese Business Women Association, to mobilize community members and donate 40,000 surgical masks and 10,000 face shields to Maryland.   
 
Tong told VOA in an interview that the donations were aimed at showing appreciation to Maryland’s nurses and doctors working on the front lines. She also said her ties with Yumi Hogan played an essential part in making the donation decision.   Maryland governor Larry Hogan and first lady Yumi Hogan are seen with guests on Lunar New Year’s day, Jan. 16, 2020. (Courtesy – Executive Office of the Governor)“We are absolutely inspired by first lady Yumi Hogan. She cares about people all the time; her leadership has been fully focused on saving lives during this pandemic. She also informed us about what PPE the state of Maryland needs, how the state can accept and distribute them, which was very helpful for donors,” Tong said.  South Korean heritage  
 
On April 18, a chartered 777 Korean Air flight landed at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to deliver 500,000 coronavirus tests, marking the first time a Korean passenger plane landed at the airport.   
 
Two days later, in a press conference outside Maryland Government House, Governor Larry Hogan said, he purchased the test kits from South Korea because he couldn’t secure them from the Trump administration. Governor Hogan said “We have been doing everything in our power to acquire more tests from the federal government. Unfortunately, we have also had to compete with every state in America in our attempts to procure tests from every domestic producer in the U.S. and from sources around the globe.”
 
Hogan also called his wife “a champion” saying the deal would not have come together if it weren’t for her, who made a personal plea to South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Lee Soo Hyuk in her native language. President Trump criticized Governor Hogan’s purchase of test kits from South Korea, saying he “could’ve saved a lot of money” if he called Vice President Mike Pence instead.
But Yumi Hogan still remembers the day the test kits arrived with great excitement and emotions.   
 
“When we brought coronavirus test kits from South Korea, I was deeply moved, because we brought the kits straight from South Korea [to BWI]. Just like my dream, a direct flight is possible. I was so happy,” Yumi Hogan recalled.Maryland’s first lady Yumi Hogan signs a sister-state agreement with South Jella province in 2017. (Courtesy – Executive Office of the Governor)Maryland’s first lady also led a business delegation to South Korea in 2017, and during the trip signed a sister-state agreement between Maryland and South Jeolla province.   
 
She also brought a Korean plant called “Jjok,” also known as Asian Indigo, to Baltimore to introduce Korea’s natural dye culture.   
 
Yumi Hogan is an artist, an abstract painter drawing nature using Sumi ink on Hanji paper, made from Korean trees.  
 
Art is what connected her with Larry Hogan, 20 years ago, when they first met at an art show. They married in 2004.   
 
“He is proud to be called ‘the son-in-law of the Korean people,’ ” Yumi Hogan said of her husband. She said he “loves Korean culture and loves spicy Korean food” and tells her to use more gochugaru, or chili flakes.  
 As Maryland’s first lady  
 
Yumi Hogan emphasized that she is not a politician but a mother, and that’s how she defines her role as the first lady of Maryland.  
 
“Even with a great legal system and administrative system, there are still many people who need attention and care. Children, women, people with disabilities, and financial difficulties, especially single mothers. I want to comfort them and spend time with them. I want to embrace them with the heart of a mother,” she said.  
 
Yumi Hogan said she is particularly affected by children without parents, as she, the youngest of eight children, was raised in a big family. She also pays special attention to pediatric patients, providing them art therapy through her nonprofit YUMI C.A.R.E.S.
 
Yumi Hogan was raised on a chicken farm in Korea and moved to America in the late 1970s with her first husband. She had three daughters before divorcing and moving to Maryland. In 2015, she became the first Asian American first lady in Maryland and the first Korean American first lady in any state.
 
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Hong Kong media tycoon and staunch democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was one of seven people arrested Monday on charges of violating the new national security law imposed by China. The newspaper Apple Daily, which is published by Lai’s Next Digital company, said the 72-year-old Lai was taken from his home on suspicion of colluding with a foreign country.  The newspaper also said that at least one of Lai’s son’s was also arrested.  Hong Kong police said seven men between the ages of 39 and 72 were arrested, but did not identify the men.   Hours after Lai’s arrest, more than 100 police officers raided the headquarters of Lai’s Next Digital company.  The newspaper live-streamed the raid on its website, showing officers roaming the newsroom as they rummaged through reporters’ files.  The newspaper said Lai was led through the newsroom in handcuffs during the raid. Lai is the highest-profile figure targeted by the new law since it went into effect in July.  Under the new security law, anyone in Hong Kong believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted.   Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily, speaks during an interview to response national security legislation in Hong Kong, China, May 29, 2020.Lai was already facing legal jeopardy for his pro-democracy activism.  He was one of 15 activists arrested earlier this year and hit with seven charges, including organizing and participating in unauthorized assemblies and inciting others to take part in an unauthorized assembly.  He and three other activists are also facing charges for “inciting” people to participate in an unauthorized rally in June to commemorate the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy students in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.   Lai has also come under fire in Beijing after meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington in July of last year to discuss Hong Kong’s political crisis.  The Chinese foreign ministry lambasted the meeting as a “foreign forces’ intervention.”    China’s tightening grip on Hong Kong has become a major issue in the worsening relations between Beijing and Washington, along with trade, technology, the Trump administration’s growing outreach to Taiwan, and its accusations against Beijing over the coronavirus outbreak, which was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.   Beijing sanctioned 11 Americans Monday, including Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, in response to U.S. sanctions imposed last week on Lam and 10 other Hong Kong officials, including the city’s current and former police chiefs, accusing them of suppressing the city’s political freedoms. The new law was imposed by Beijing in response to the massive and often violent pro-democracy demonstrations that engulfed the financial hub in the last half of last year, and is the cornerstone of its increasing grip on the city, which was granted an unusual amount of freedoms when Britain handed over control in 1997.    Hong Kong authorities last month disqualified 12 pro-democracy candidates, including prominent activist Joshua Wong, from running for legislative seats in elections that had initially been scheduled for September. Lam has since announced a one-year delay to the elections, citing a surge of coronavirus cases. Four young activists between the ages of 16 and 21 who belonged to a disbanded pro-independence group were arrested nearly two weeks ago  on secessionist charges.   
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An idea is percolating in Vietnam as it fights COVID-19: “send in the robots.”  The pandemic has brought artificial intelligence (AI) more of a spotlight as nations around the world look for uses, from combing data for clues to predict an outbreak, to robot waiters that reduce human contact. In Vietnam, which has reported remarkably low infection and death figures, the possible uses are still being tested. They include chatbots to dispense information, face recognition technology, predictive mapping, and software to combat rumors about the disease.  For instance, FPT Corp., the nation’s biggest telecommunications and software company, introduced a web application that uses automation to assess COVID-19 risk. How it works: Vietnamese go to the Corona Check website and enter data on where they have been recently. The app then cross references that with data on the location, timing, and quantity of cases nationwide to calculate the odds someone has come into contact with the coronavirus.  “Our AI system is continuously updating data to improve itself,” Tran Hoang Giang, the FPT Software vice president, said. “Currently it could predict the probability of coronavirus infection with 90% accuracy. But it’ll get even better as more people submit self-assessments on the web.” The process is helped in part by the fact that Vietnam, which has had 841 COVID-19 cases this year, publishes uniquely detailed, anonymized data on patients’ movements so that others can check if they went somewhere at the same time as an infected person. For instance, one record showed the times that a patient had gone to a mall, a cafe, and a market. Warning system The work on machine learning sends a good message, according to FPT chairman Truong Gia Binh.   “Not only tech enthusiasts in developed countries but also young, talented Vietnamese have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and research about AI,” he said. Vietnam has also joined in on a popular AI strategy globally to map out many data points that might predict where the next cluster of COVID-19 cases will occur. The data points can number in the dozens and may not seem directly related, such as weather, density in a shopping center, or popular Google searches. However, taken together, the right data can correlate with disease outbreaks and serve as a warning system that detects risks before humans do.  In addition to models that assess the threat of a disease, Vietnam has a COVID-19 map that is paired with news articles, which are updated through automation software to dispel misinformation. The Southeast Asian nation has taken a hard line against pandemic rumors, which could prove deadly and in other nations have encouraged unscientific home remedies. Telemedicine  Beyond machine learning, COVID-19 is also spurring more interest in another emerging technology called telemedicine. For instance, the company Doctor Anywhere now has physicians assessing Vietnamese patients for signs of the disease via video consultations, which are also conducted in Thailand and Singapore.  All of this is part of Industry 4.0, a term for the latest advancements that are supposed to help economies move to the next stage of development. Vietnam expects these advances to help it recover from the pandemic, too. “AI is considered a core technology for Industry 4.0 that has implications for post COVID-19 healing,” Chu Ngoc Anh, the Minister of Science and Technology in Vietnam, said. His government is working with Australia, which said last week it donated 650,000 Australian dollars “to find new ways to use AI as Vietnam recovers from COVID-19.” The money will fund things like a contest in which programmers submit competing ideas to put machine learning to use. “In the face of the global pandemic, it [innovation] has become more important than ever,” Robyn Mudie, the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, said.  She added: “This AI initiative is a great example of how new technology can be adapted quickly to respond to Vietnam’s emerging needs.” 
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The United Nations warns COVID-19 poses a critical threat to hundreds of millions of indigenous people worldwide.   To mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling on countries to respond to their needs and to respect their cultural, social and political rights.  
Many of the more than 476 million indigenous people around the world now live in remote locations.  Their traditional way of life and distance from heavily populated areas have largely insulated them from many diseases commonly circulating.  However, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres notes that throughout history, indigenous peoples have been decimated by diseases brought from elsewhere, to which they had no immunity.  Unfortunately, the coronavirus is following the same trajectory.   FILE – Indigenous people from Yanomami ethnic group are seen, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease, at the 4th Surucucu Special Frontier Platoon of the Brazilian army in municipality of Alto Alegre, state of Roraima, Brazil, July 1, 2020The U.N. chief says the inequalities, stigmatization and discrimination to which indigenous peoples are subjected are helping to spread the coronavirus through their communities.  He says limited access to healthcare, clean water and sanitation makes it difficult to contain the disease.    “Indigenous peoples work primarily in traditional occupations and subsistence economies or in the informal sector,” he said. “They have all been adversely affected by the pandemic.  Indigenous women, who are often the main providers of food and nutrition for their families, have been particularly hard hit with the closures of markets for handicrafts, produce and other goods.”    The U.N. reports COVID-19 has infected more than 70,000 indigenous people in the Americas, the epicenter of the pandemic.  Among them, it says are nearly 23,000 members of 190 indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin.  More than 1,000 have lost their lives.   The Amazon and other tropical forests that are home to indigenous peoples have suffered environmental damage and economic deprivation.  Guterres says these people are at the forefront in demanding environmental and climate action to protect their precious reserves. FILE – In this file photo United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters during the 33rd African Union (AU) Summit on Feb. 8, 2020, in Addis Ababa.“Lapsed enforcement of environmental protections during the crisis has brought increasing encroachment on indigenous peoples’ territories by illegal miners and loggers.  Many indigenous people have been victims of threats and violence, and many have lost their lives in the face of such threats,” he said.     The United Nations says indigenous peoples will have a better chance of tackling the coronavirus if they can exercise their rights to self-government and self-determination.   The world body is calling for universal respect and protection of their inalienable rights.      
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Chinese tech giant Huawei is running out of processor chips to make smartphones because of U.S. sanctions and will be forced to stop production of its own most advanced chips, a company executive says, in a sign of growing damage to Huawei’s business from American pressure. Huawei Technologies Ltd., one of the biggest producers of smartphones and network equipment, is at the center of U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and security. The feud has spread to include the popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok and China-based messaging service WeChat. Washington cut off Huawei’s access to U.S. components and technology including Google’s music and other smartphone services last year. Those penalties were tightened in May when the White House barred vendors worldwide from using U.S. technology to produce components for Huawei. Washington also is lobbying European and other allies to exclude Huawei from planned next-generation networks as a security risk. Production to stopProduction of Kirin chips designed by Huawei’s own engineers will stop September 15 because they are made by contractors that need U.S. manufacturing technology, said Richard Yu, president of the company’s consumer unit. He said Huawei lacks the ability to make its own chips.  “This is a very big loss for us,” Yu said Friday at an industry conference, China Info 100, according to a video recording of his comments posted on multiple websites.  “Unfortunately, in the second round of U.S. sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until May 15. Production will close on September 15,” Yu said. “This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips.”  More broadly, Huawei’s smartphone production has “no chips and no supply,” Yu said.  Yu said this year’s smartphone sales probably will be lower than 2019’s level of 240 million handsets but gave no details. The company didn’t immediately respond to questions Saturday. Spying a concernHuawei, founded in 1987 by a former military engineer, denies accusations it might facilitate Chinese spying. Chinese officials accuse Washington of using national security as an excuse to stop a competitor to U.S. tech industries. Huawei is a leader among emerging Chinese competitors in telecoms, electric cars, renewable energy and other fields in which the ruling Communist Party hopes China can become a global leader. Huawei has 180,000 employees and one of the world’s biggest research and development budgets at more than $15 billion a year. But, like most global tech brands, it relies on contractors to manufacture its products.  Huawei became the world’s top-selling smartphone brand in the three months ending in June, passing rival Samsung for the first time because of strong demand in China, according to Canalys. Sales abroad fell 27% from a year earlier.
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TikTok reacted to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring U.S. companies and individuals from doing business with its parent company, ByteDance, by threatening to take legal action and urging its U.S. users to lobby on its behalf.  Trump ordered sweeping bans late Thursday prohibiting U.S. companies from doing business with ByteDance and Tencent, the owner of the messenger app WeChat. The executive orders targeting the Chinese companies go into effect in 45 days.  “We are shocked by the recent Executive Order, which was issued without any due process,” ByteDance said in a statement released Friday.  The company suggested that the executive order was illegal and that it might be challenged in court. “We will pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and our users are treated fairly — if not by the Administration, then by the U.S. courts,” the company said.  In the meantime, Tencent responded by saying it was evaluating the situation. “The company is reviewing the potential consequences of the administrative order in order to fully understand its impact,” Tencent said in a brief statement issued through Hong Kong Stock Exchange.  In addition to its hugely popular messaging feature, WeChat also links to finance and other services. It claims that the app has more than 1 billion users.  The Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns that the Chinese social media services could provide American users’ personal information to the Chinese government. Both companies have said they do not share their data with the Chinese government.  The twin executive orders Thursday added new contention to growing U.S.-Chinese conflict over technology and security. The Chinese foreign ministry accused Washington of “political suppression” and said the moves would hurt American companies and consumers.  “The United States is using national security as an excuse, frequently abuses national power and unreasonably suppresses companies of other countries,” Wang Wenbin, a ministry spokesman, said.  Wang, who did not mention TikTok or Tencent by name, said China strongly opposed the move but gave no indication of how Beijing might retaliate.  The Trump administration has previously threatened to shut TikTok down if it remains under the ownership of Beijing-based ByteDance.  According to a memo sent Monday by Chief Executive Officer Zhang Yiming, ByteDance is exploring all possibilities to ensure that its subsidiary can continue operating in the United States. Without naming Microsoft directly, the company said Friday, “We even stated that we could sell our U.S. business to a U.S. company.”  The statement ended by calling on its 100 million U.S. users to put pressure on the Trump administration.  “As TikTok users, creators, partners and family members, you have the right to express your opinions to all levels of lawmakers, including the White House government,” the statement said.   
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The United States has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s pro-China government leader and other Hong Kong officials for allegedly suppressing freedom in the former British colony.  The Treasury Department announced the sanctions against Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other government leaders on Friday, the latest in a series of moves the Trump administration has taken against China amid rising tensions over the coronavirus and trade disputes. The sanctions are aimed at penalizing Beijing for curtailing anti-government demonstrators in Hong Kong. There was no immediate response from Hong Kong or Beijing. FILE – Protesters hold up blank papers during a demonstration in a mall in Hong Kong on July 6, 2020, in response to a national security law which makes political views, slogans and signs advocating Hong Kong’s independence or liberation illegal.Hong Kong citizens have enjoyed civil liberties that don’t exist in mainland China since Britain relinquished control of the territory to China in 1997. Earlier this year, however, China imposed a new national security law that undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy, drawing criticism from pro-democracy activists and Western countries. “The recent imposition of draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong has not only undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy, it has also infringed on the rights of people living in Hong Kong,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.   In addition to Lam, the sanctions target Hong Kong’s current and former police chiefs and eight other officials for orchestrating a campaign to curtail political liberties in the territory. The penalties also freeze any U.S. assets the Hong Kong officials hold and generally prohibits Americans from conducting business with them. Because of a surge in coronavirus cases, Lam recently announced a one-year delay to a legislative election in which pro-democracy activists hoped to win a majority of the seats. The U.S. denounced the postponement, declaring it was another move by China to undermine democracy in Hong Kong. 
 
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Protesters in Thailand are pressing on with their demands for the dissolution of parliament, new elections and changing the constitution.Leaders said Friday they would step up pressure on the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha if it failed to act on changes.”(Our demands) are clear enough for the government to hear and follow,” said protest leader Tattep Ruangprapaikitseree. “To set up a committee to have hearings is like an act. It’s like a show with no meaning. Is it to buy time? They think that we will disappear. They believe that we will fade away. So, they set up this committee to buy time. But the fact is we want real change. We want to send our demands to those with powers to make decisions, not to some rubber stamp committee.”Meeting in front of Bangkok’s iconic Democracy Monument, eight leaders of the Free People Movement, formerly known as Free Youth, announced plans for a big rally on August 16.Protesters held signs reading: “Constitution needed to be amended. Democracy must come from the people” and “We don’t hate our nation. We hate dictatorship. No coup.”Prayuth said early this week he will consider protester’s demands, but protest leader Tattep suggested the premier’s statement was just a delaying tactic, as the prime minister is unlikely to agree to dissolve parliament or call new elections.After more than five years of relative calm since a military coup in 2014, anti-government protests have erupted again, mostly on school and university campuses in the capital Bangkok and other Thai cities.Protesters, majority of them young people, are highly dissatisfied with the current administration.A former army chief, Prayuth first took power in 2014, then held a tight grip on it through the 2019 elections, widely seen as manipulated in his favor. 
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Days of torrential rain have pounded South Korea, closing parts of highways, officials said.  Authorities issued a rare flood alert Thursday near a key bridge in the city of Seoul.The Han River Flood Control Office said its alert issued near one of its bridges is the first such measures since 2011.South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports the Han river reached a record level of 11.3 meters, submerging the Jamsu Bridge linking the southern and northern parts of the city.The swollen river also forced the flood control office to cut off access to riverside roads in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood and other areas. Officials said riverside parks have been flooded.The rainfall stopped near that Han River bridge late Thursday, but the flood alert remains effective, according to the agency.South Korea’s interior ministry said landslides and floods killed 16 people, left 11 missing, and at least 1,600 are displaced from their homes.Yonhap reports in the hardest hit provinces more than 5,000 houses and facilities were reported flooded or damaged. More than 8,000 hectares of farmland have been inundated.
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Australia’s recent shift to a more combative stance against China will tighten political and military coordination among U.S.-allied nations that want to check Beijing’s maritime expansion, analysts said this week.Canberra broke its neutral stance toward China with harsh pledges and comments in May, June and July due to a series of problems with the communist government, despite brisk trade ties. In particular, Australia openly backed the United States last month by sending the United Nations a letter that described Beijing’s sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea as illegal.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested in a speech Wednesday that his country would work more closely with India, Japan and the United States – an ally already so close that a Chinese newspaper in May quoted a netizen calling Canberra a “dog” of Washington.Those four countries belong to a group dubbed the Quad, which formed in 2007 to discuss security issues in Asia, including China’s activities. Specialists predict more from the Quad, this time galvanized by Australia, even though the United States normally leads.“It appears at least from the Australian end that Australia is sort of trying to take a significant directive role rather than a follower role,” said Stuart Orr, professor of management at Deakin University in Australia.’Concrete action’On Wednesday, Morrison, addressing an Indo-Pacific security forum, noted the June Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with India. The partnership calls for meetings at least once every two years between defense ministers. Morrison added Wednesday that Australia reached a memorandum of cooperation in July to work with Japan on space cooperation and said Australia planned to take “concrete action to support our Pacific and Southeast Asian friends and family.” Japan and India have their own bitter territorial issues with China.The U.S. and Australian governments have cooperated for decades on resisting foreign governments that Washington dislikes. Now the U.S. side is embroiled in a trade dispute with China. Both Western countries resent China for suspected technology-related crimes and want the Asian country investigated as the source of the coronavirus.Australia proposed in May a formal inquiry into the Chinese origins of the pandemic and a month later Morrison said his country had been the target of a “state-based” cyber-attack. Beijing called the June remark a smear.Compared to other countries worried about Beijing, “I think Washington and Canberra are on the same page of the book about the problems with China,” said Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo.“I think that they have a much stronger sense of unity about confronting China in a smart way,” he said.None of the Quad countries claims the South China Sea, but all of them see it as a pivot point for Chinese expansion past its land borders and recall Beijing as a Cold War foe.Fish, energy reserves, shipping lanesChina vies for sovereignty over the contested sea with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. All five rival claimants have weaker militaries and less infrastructure on the sea’s hundreds of tiny islets than does China. Claimants prize the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea for fish, energy reserves and shipping lanes.Officials in Beijing cite historical usage records to defend their claim over about 90 percent of the sea.“China would at least have to be wary and at the same time it would have to be more concerned about Australia and the U.S. leading or sort of spearheading what they would likely see as rather unwelcome prospects of greater external interest and perceived meddling in the South China Sea,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.India may hope to build up the Quad amid its military standoff with China near a disputed land border, London media organization India Inc. suggested in a commentary after Morrison met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Australia’s leadership role in the Quad could mean more joint naval exercises that anger China, scholars believe.Japan and Australia joined the USS Ronald Reagan and a strike group last month for joint exercises southeast of China.U.S.-Australia military exercises will gain speed, especially if they involve Japan, India, and traditional pro-U.S. European allies such as France and the United Kingdom, said Carl Thayer, Southeast Asia-specialized emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.’Moral standpoint’Southeast Asian states, despite overlapping South China Sea claims with Beijing, have shown less enthusiasm than have Quad countries toward Australia’s new assertiveness. Some, such as Brunei and the Philippines, receive aid and investment from China. Their negotiating bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, hopes for an eventual maritime code of conduct with Beijing.However, they welcome the Quad’s activities from a “moral standpoint,” Koh said.Australia and Vietnam, the most outspoken maritime claimant, issued a joint statement last year to express “serious concerns about developments in the South China Sea, including land reclamation and militarization of disputed features,” a likely reference to Chinese activity.Expect Australia eventually to step up engagement with Vietnam, Thayer said.
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