The Times - UK (2022-05-27)

32 Friday May 27 2022 | the times

Wo r l d

Oklahoma adopts

strictest abortion ban

United States The strictest

abortion ban in the US has been

signed into law in Oklahoma,

making it the first state to

effectively outlaw all access to a

termination. Kevin Stitt, the

Republican governor, signed the

bill into law on Wednesday. The

law bans all abortions except

when necessary to save the life of

the mother, or in cases of rape or

incest where the crime has been

reported to police. The bill is

modelled on a law passed in

Texas last year, which allows the

public to sue doctors or clinics

who assist with abortions. If

successful, the state will cover

their legal fees and award up to

$10,000 in damages.

Powerful earthquake

shakes southern Peru

Peru An earthquake that rocked

southeastern Peru had a

magnitude of 7.2, the United

States Geological Survey said. It

stuck at 7am near the town of

Azangaro, about 50 miles from

the Bolivian border, and its focus

was at a depth of 135 miles. The

Peruvian authorities said no one

was killed or injured in the quake,

which was also felt in areas of the

southwest bordering Chile. (AFP)

Cancer six sue over

Fukushima radiation

Japan A court in Tokyo began

hearing the first group lawsuit

over illness allegedly caused by a

radiation leak from the

Fukushima nuclear power plant

in 2011. Six people who were aged

between 6 and 16 when an

earthquake and tsunami wrecked

the plant’s cooling systems are

seeking nearly £3.9 million from

the operating company after

developing thyroid cancer. (AP)

Singer Shakira to face

music in tax-fraud trial

Spain The Colombian singer

Shakira lost her appeal to avoid

trial for alleged tax fraud.

Prosecutors claim that the

45-year-old pop star failed to pay

up to €14.5 million in tax on

earnings in 2012-14, when she was

living in Catalonia. Her lawyers

say that she did not move to

Spain until 2015. A court in

Barcelona upheld a decision made

in 2021 that she should be tried.

Lost patient, 75, falls

through clinic ceiling

Germany A 75-year-old man who

had been missing for 12 hours

from a clinic in Heidelberg was

found when he crashed through

the ceiling of the surgery wing.

After being fitted with a neck

brace for a spinal injury, Kurt K

became confused and wandered

off. He got lost in the catacombs

then climbed a ladder into the

supply shafts about ten metres up

and fell down the next day.

Rare elephant mother

and baby found dead

Indonesia A critically endangered

Sumatran elephant and her

unborn calf were found dead

from suspected poisoning next to

a palm plantation in the

Sumatran province of Riau. A

local conservation official said the

25-year-old mother was “close to

giving birth” after her 22-month

pregnancy. The World Wildlife

Fund said that only 2,400-2,800

of the elephants were left. (AP)

The governments of China and Austra-
lia have begun an intense diplomatic
race to win over the countries of the
South Pacific, as Beijing’s rivalry with
the US and its allies spreads into one of
the most remote but most strategically
sensitive regions of the globe.
Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minis-
ter, landed in the Solomon Islands, the
first of eight Pacific and southeast
Asian nations he will visit during a ten-
day tour. Penny Wong, Australia’s new-
ly appointed foreign minister, flew to
Fiji in an explicit effort to block Beijing’s
attempts to increase its influence in the
region.
The new Labour government of
Anthony Albanese has set itself the
task of reversing what it regards as Aus-
tralian neglect of the tiny Pacific island
nations, whose poverty and small pop-
ulations make them politically insignif-
icant, but which could become crucial
bases in any future Asian conflict.
“We need to respond to this because
this is China seeking to increase its
influence in the region of the world
where Australia has been the security
partner of choice since the Second
World War,” Albanese said. “We need
to step up, not step back, which is what
occurred under the former govern-
ment.”
Wang arrived in Honiara, the Solo-
mons’ capital, after the leak of a Chi-

China and Australia vie

to dominate South Pacific

Karaoke club

for MPs hits

wrong note

Thailand

George Styllis Bangkok

Thailand’s new parliament building,

the largest in the world, has been criti-

cised after it was revealed that the com-

plex would house a karaoke room and

ballroom for its members.

Reporters were taken on a tour of the

recreational parliamentary club at the

Sappaya-Sapasathan on Monday.

Among the facilities revealed were a

running track and golf driving range.

Plans to shift the country’s legislation

three miles to the Sappaya-Sapasathan

were first approved in 2008 by a previ-

ous administration amid complaints of

overcrowding at the former building.

The project, a layered glassy complex

with a pagoda at its centre, was beset by

delays and overspending. It was initial-

ly estimated to be completed in less

than three years and at a budget of

14 billion baht (about £325 million) but

was finally completed last year at a cost

of 22.9 billion baht.

Padipat Suntiphada, an MP with the

opposition Move Forward Party, called

the club’s lavishness unacceptable and

demanded a review into the building,

Thai PBS television station reported.

Addressing Chuan Leekpai, the

House speaker, on Wednesday he said

that despite the abundance of recrea-

tional facilities there were still no

proper places for mothers to feed their

babies and not enough rooms for

officials to work in.

ment Vision, would be broader still. It

would introduce training programmes

by Chinese police officers, and political

exchanges “between governments, leg-

islatures and political parties”.

It would also promote co-operation

on data networks, cybersecurity and

customs, potentially opening up oppor-

tunities for Chinese technology com-

panies, such as Huawei, which is ex-

cluded from the US. The draft proposes

joint plans for fisheries and the estab-

lishment of the controversial Confucius

Institutes — cultural centres that are

regarded by some critics of China as

serving as bases for propaganda.

The plan has been proposed to seven

of the countries that Wang will visit this

week and next — the Solomons, Kiri-

bati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and

Papua New Guinea, as well as the Cook

Islands, Niue and Micronesia. He will

also visit East Timor.

In a letter to fellow leaders, Panuelo

described the plan as “the single most

game-changing proposed agreement in

the Pacific in any of our lifetimes”. His

country, Micronesia, has security

arrangements with the US.

He wrote: “The practical impacts...

of Chinese control over our communi-

cations infrastructure, our ocean terri-

tory and the resources within them,

and our security space, aside from

impacts on our sovereignty, is that it

increases the chances of China getting

into conflict with Australia, Japan, the

United States and New Zealand.”

nese proposal for wide-ranging co-op-

eration on policing, the internet, fishing

and education, which has divided Paci-

fic governments.

David Panuelo, the president of the

Federated States of Micronesia, has

urged his fellow leaders to reject the

document, arguing that it would shack-

le them to China and “threatens to

bring a new cold war era at best, and a

world war at worst”.

China’s rapidly growing military

power and ambition is obvious in its

construction of bases on disputed islets

in the South China Sea, its claims to

islands controlled by Japan and its de-

termination to reunite with Taiwan, by

force if necessary. But as well as assert-

ing itself in the waters around it, China

is beginning to challenge the US as a

Pacific power. Chinese submarines and

surface ships pass regularly through the

straits separating the Japanese islands

to roam the western Pacific.

More discreetly, the Chinese govern-

ment and its state-owned companies

are engaged in a stealthy campaign of

influence-building among Pacific gov-

ernments, offering development loans

and practical expertise in building,

mining and forestry.

Wang is expected to sign a previously

agreed security agreement with the

Solomons that, among other conces-

sions, would allow Chinese police to

assist with security on the islands. The

new draft proposal, the China-Pacific

Island Countries Common Develop-

China
Richard Lloyd Parry Asia Editor

ZEPPET

One man

and his

£12,500

dog suit

A

Japanese

man has

fulfilled his

ambition of

becoming

an animal after

spending two million

yen (£12,500) on a

costume of a collie

(James Callery writes).

Toko-san

commissioned Zeppet,

a company that

provides costumes for

films and TV

advertisements, to

make his outfit.

“I made it a collie

because it looks real

when I put it on,”

Toko-san told the

Mynavi media site. “I

thought a big animal

close to my size would

be good, so I decided

to make it a dog.”

He continued on

Twitter: “I ordered a

costume! Thanks to

you, I was able to fulfil

my dream of

becoming an animal!

There are restrictions,

but you can move.

However, if you move

too much, it will not

look like a dog.”

A Zeppet employee

told Mynavi it was

difficult to make a

man appear canine as

the structure of the

skeleton was very

different. “We spent a

lot of time studying

how to make it look

like a dog,” he said.

While some praised

the costume, others

lampooned it, with

one YouTube viewer

commenting: “No

matter how much

money you spent, you

won’t be a real dog.”

The collie

costume took

40 days to

make and lets

Toko-san move