In State of the Union speech, Biden challenges Republicans, weighs in on China
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023
President Joe Biden challenged Republicans to lift the US debt ceiling and support tax policies that were friendlier to middle-class Americans on Tuesday in a State of the Union speech that served as a blueprint for his 2024 re-election campaign.
Assailing oil companies for making high profits and corporate America for taking advantage of consumers, Biden used his prime-time speech to outline progressive priorities of his Democratic Party that are anathema to many Republican lawmakers.
Making his first address to a joint session of Congress since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January, Biden pledged to work with opposition lawmakers even as he sparred with them in the chamber.
Some Republicans heckled and jeered him at times during a speech that lasted some 73 minutes.
Biden took them on, challenging Republicans to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, which must be lifted in the coming months to avoid a default. The White House has said Biden will not negotiate over that necessity; Republicans want spending cuts in exchange for their support.
The president called for reforms in policing after Tyre Nichols, a Black man, died last month after being beaten by officers in Memphis, Tennessee. Nichols’ mother and stepfather were among the guests at the speech.
Highlighting topics that could feature prominently in a re-election campaign, Biden said the economy was benefiting from 12 million new jobs, Covid-19 no longer controls American lives, and US democracy remains intact despite facing its biggest threat since the Civil War.
As a candidate in 2020 and at his inauguration in 2021, shortly after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Biden said he wanted to unify the country. And he stuck to that theme, highlighting a massive infrastructure bill and ribbing Republican lawmakers who opposed it.
Despite his efforts, Biden remains unpopular.
His public approval rating edged one percentage point higher to 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll that closed on Sunday (February 5). That is close to the lowest level of his presidency, with 65% of Americans saying they believe the country is on the wrong track, compared to 58% a year earlier.
Similarly, in the autumn of 2020, when Donald Trump was president, 65% of registered voters believed the country was on the wrong track, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who once served as press secretary for Trump, rejected Biden’s upbeat vision of the country in her Republican response to his address.
Biden aides see the speech as a milestone ahead of the second presidential campaign he is expected to launch in the coming weeks.
Singapore remains the most liveable location in the world
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023
Singapore remains the most liveable location in the world for expatriates from East Asia with an improved liveability score in the past year, as revealed by the latest Location Ratings survey published by global mobility expert, ECA International.
Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in Singapore sooner than in other major locations in Asia, which had a positive effect on Singapore’s liveability score and its attractiveness as a desirable location for expatriates.
“A location’s position in our rankings is influenced by what happens in that location as well as other locations we research,” advised Lee Quane, Regional Director – Asia at ECA International. “Singapore relaxed social distancing restrictions earlier than other locations which facilitated a return to pre-pandemic norms, allowing the country to retain its top position in our rankings and increasing its lead over other locations in terms of liveability.
Furthermore, the gap in liveability between Singapore and locations such as Hong Kong and Shanghai – both of which maintained or even enhanced Covid-19 related restrictions in 2022 – widened during the year, making it an even more compelling destination versus other locations in the region competing for international talent.”
ECA’s Location Ratings system objectively evaluates a host of factors to form an assessment of the overall quality of living in over 500 locations worldwide. Factors assessed include climate; availability of health services; housing and utilities; natural phenomena; isolation; access to a social network and leisure facilities; infrastructure; personal safety; political tensions; and air quality.
Asia Highlights
Hong Kong’s liveability ranking has fallen 15 places to 92nd this past year. This decline is largely due to the impact of Covid-19 restrictions in 2022 and changes in its political environment. In contrast, other Asian locations have seen improvements as restrictions were lifted in the post-pandemic era.
“Hong Kong’s maintenance of its Covid-19 mitigation measures this past year stood in contrast against many of its peers, both regionally and globally,” Quane observed. “Continued quarantine restrictions, the limitation of access to recreational activities and other social distancing measures persisted throughout 2022, which put Hong Kong in a less favourable position compared to other locations. Furthermore, recent legislative council and elections for Hong Kong’s Chief Executive also signalled changes in its political environment, which contributed to the decline in its liveability score and ranking.”
“Likewise, cities in mainland China have all fallen in our rankings due exclusively to the impact of China’s zero-Covid strategy that was maintained throughout most of 2022,” explained Quane.
Asean locations generally improved in scores and rankings in the past year, owing to the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions. Locations across Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines saw a climb in their rankings, while Yangon, Myanmar, is the only Asean location which saw a fall in its ranking owing to the continued deterioration of security circumstances in the country.
“Asean locations followed Singapore’s lead and relaxed their Covid-19 restrictions accordingly. In doing so, they improved their positions in our liveability rankings,” said Quane. “Nonetheless, the impact of these improvements remains largely limited as the gap between Singapore and Bangkok – the second-highest location ranked in the Asean region but ranked 115th globally – indicates a wide disparity within the region that must be narrowed before other locations in Asean can offer similar living standards to the Lion City.”
Elsewhere, major cities in the Asia Pacific have seen significant improvements due to the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. Cities in Australia saw major improvements in their liveability scores, while Auckland, New Zealand, was the biggest riser, climbing up 20 places to become the 4th most liveable location in the world for East Asian expatriates.
Unicef Thailand launches appeal to help children after earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023
Unicef Thailand is launching an emergency appeal to the Thai public to provide urgent assistance for tens of thousands of children and their families who are severely suffering from catastrophic earthquakes that struck the border of Syria and Turkey on February 6.
According to authorities, in the two countries, thousands of people have been killed, including children, with thousands more injured. These numbers are only likely to increase.
“Time is absolutely critical in an emergency like this,” said Kyungsun Kim, Unicef Representative in Thailand. “Unicef is working to provide essential supplies including medical supplies, hygiene kits, blankets, and winter clothes, nutrition to families in need, restore water supplies after water stations were damaged, protect children who have lost or been separated from their families and provide emotional support to traumatized children. It is also working to create child-safe spaces for displaced children and families.”
In Turkey, efforts are currently focused on search and rescue and Unicef is coordinating with the Government, and the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency on the emerging needs linked to the wider humanitarian response. In Syria, Unicef is assessing the impact of the earthquakes and preparing to support the humanitarian response in coordination with partners.
The initial 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit just after 04:00 local time, when many children and families were asleep at home, with a second 7.5 magnitude quake hitting later in the day.
Thousands of homes are likely to have been destroyed, displacing families and exposing them to the elements at a time of year when temperatures regularly drop below freezing and snow and freezing rain are common. Heavy snowstorms have also recently hit parts of Syria and Turkey, with further sub-zero temperatures forecasted.
“The images we’re seeing out of Syria and Turkey are heart-wrenching,” said Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell. “That the initial earthquake happened so early in the morning, when many children were fast asleep, made it even more dangerous, and the aftershocks bring continuing risks. Our hearts and thoughts are with the children and families affected, especially those who have lost loved ones or who have been injured. Our immediate priority is to ensure children and families affected receive the support they so desperately need.”
It is likely that schools, hospitals and other medical and educational facilities will have been damaged or destroyed by the quakes, further impacting children. Potential damage to roads and critical infrastructure will also complicate search and rescue efforts and the wider humanitarian response.
Children in Syria continue to face one of the most complex humanitarian situations in the world. A worsening economic crisis continued localized hostilities after more than a decade of grinding conflict, mass displacement and devastated public infrastructure have left two-thirds of the population in need of assistance. Food insecurity, reliance on unreliable and alternative water sources protection concerns, and high levels of school dropouts are acute.
Waterborne diseases pose another deadly threat to children and families affected. In Syria, a cholera outbreak declared on 10 September 2022 quickly spread across the country, with children especially vulnerable.
To make a donation:
Online donation: http://www.unicef.or.th/syria Bank transfer: Bangkok Bank 201-3-01324-4 SMS: Type UNICEF send to 4712225, to donate THB 100
Scoot’s first Pokémon-themed Pikachu Jet landed at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Tuesday.
Scoot, a low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, is the first carrier in the Asean region to launch an exclusive design in collaboration with The Pokémon Company, the Japan-based firm responsible for the media franchise.
Check out the jet-powered cuteness of Thailand’s new arrival:
Syria insists earthquake aid go through Damascus, citing sovereign rights
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday that any outside assistance for earthquake victims must be done in coordination with Damascus and delivered from within Syria, not across the Turkish border.
“I think I answered it very clear yesterday. I said ‘cross line’ is available. The Syrian government is ready to help to support any countries who wanted to provide the shelters, the food supply, the medications to the Syrians,” Syrian ambassador Bassam Sabbagh told reporters.
Damascus has long opposed the humanitarian operation that has delivered aid into Syria from Turkey, saying assistance should be delivered from inside Syria.
When pressed by reporters if the urgent need for the earthquake response might change that requirement, Sabbagh said it was a matter of sovereignty.
“It’s not that we consider, it’s the international law. It is the UN charter. So don’t characterize it as this is a position of Syria. It is a position of each and every country who are keen to maintain sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. So it’s a principle,” said Sabbagh.
Many Syrians sheltering in the rebel-held northwest fear this would once again put their fate in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad‘s hands.
Aid flows from Turkey to northwest Syria have temporarily stopped due to the fallout of a devastating earthquake, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday, leaving aid workers grappling with the problem of how to help people in a country fractured by war.
The cross-border aid operation overseen by the United Nations since 2014 has been crucial to Syrians who fled Assad’s rule during the conflict, bypassing the territory he controls.
There was no clear picture of when the aid – upon which some 4 million people depend – would resume.
“We continue to use the Bab al-Hawa crossing as the transhipment hub is actually intact. However, the road that is leading to the crossing has been damaged and that’s temporarily disrupted our ability to fully use it,” said United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday.
The quake that struck in the early hours of Monday has killed more than 7,900 people in Syria and Turkey.
Some 1,220 died in northwestern Syria, with many more believed to be trapped under the rubble in a region where people were already heavily dependent on aid before the disaster.
A similar number of people have been killed in government-held areas, according to the government.
Aid already positioned in the northwest will likely be rapidly depleted, aid officials said.
The Damascus-based Syrian Red Crescent said on Tuesday it was ready to deliver aid across Syria, including to opposition areas.
Rescuers work against time as Turkey-Syria quake death toll passes 7,800
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023
Rescuers worked against time in harsh winter conditions on Tuesday evening, trying to dig people out of the rubble of collapsed buildings as the death toll from Turkey and Syria’s devastating earthquake jumped to more than 7,900.
Turkish authorities say some 13.5 million people were affected in an area spanning roughly 450 km (280 miles) from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, and 300 km from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south.
Syrian authorities have reported deaths as far south as Hama, some 250 km from the epicentre.
Monday’s (February 6) magnitude 7.8 quake, followed hours later by a second one almost as powerful, toppled thousands of buildings including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks, injured tens of thousands, and left countless people homeless in Turkey and northern Syria.
Rescue workers struggled to reach some of the worst-hit areas, held back by destroyed roads, poor weather and a lack of resources and heavy equipment. Some areas were without fuel and electricity.
As the scale of the disaster became ever more apparent, the death toll looked likely to rise considerably. One U.N. official said thousands of children may have died.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces. But residents in several damaged Turkish cities voiced anger and despair at what they said was a slow and inadequate response from the authorities to the deadliest earthquake to hit Turkey since 1999.
Wringing their hands in stunned silence, Adana’s elderly were preparing to spend their second night on the wooden floors and worn sofas of a school-turned-shelter after the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey this week.
They fled on foot with almost nothing, helped by younger neighbours or relatives. Their children and teenage grandchildren dashed back into their now unstable homes for absolute essentials, mostly a few blankets and medicine packets.
In this city in southern Turkey, the elderly now sat in wool hats in a chilly school auditorium – where at least temperatures were warmer than for those camping out around bonfires or in their cars outside.
The tremor that struck in the early hours of Monday (February 6) has killed at least 6,300 people across Turkey and Syria.
Kemal, 86, and his 60-year-old daughter had clutched onto each other as they wobbled down the four storeys of their shaking building – with only his walker in tow so he could make it to the school on foot.
“I wasn’t afraid for myself, I was worried about my daughters,” recounted Kemal, his legs lifted onto a second chair and tucked under a blanket to stay warm.
He was surrounded by his three daughters and their children – several generations of displaced.
One daughter said she had clambered back into their apartment to get the medications to treat illnesses in his heart, back and blood. She told Reuters she kept thinking she was dying.
Koca Halil Budak – in his 80s – said he had survived an earthquake at age 8 and was lucky to have made it through his second, which struck when he was visiting his son in Adana.
“I tried to hold the cupboard, it was shaking… My son said ‘dad don’t be afraid,’ so we got dressed and went outside,” Budak said – also surrounded by his wife and their children.
Crowds chanted ‘God is great’ as White Helmet rescue workers pulled out earthquake survivors from the rubble in Idlib, Syria on Tuesday.
Aid officials voiced particular concern about the situation in Syria, already afflicted by a humanitarian crisis after nearly 12 years of civil war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday the United States remained ‘focused’ on aid and relief efforts in Turkey following a deadly earthquake that killed thousands across a swathe of Turkey and neighbouring northwest Syria.
A day earlier, Blinken, the Biden administration’s top diplomat, spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu by phone to aid in rescue and recovery operations.
Washington has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team and is in the process of deploying two urban search and rescue teams from Virginia and California that are expected to comprise 79 people each, the US Agency for International Development said.
USAID DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) personnel boarded a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft headed for Turkey on Monday to help in the rescue efforts after a devastating earthquake hit Turkey and Syria.
Earlier Air Force members from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron helped to load bulks of supplies onto the US Air Force plane to aid operations after the worst earthquake to hit the region in almost a century.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power offered condolences to the people of Syria and Turkey and said the United States was “committed to supporting the recovery effort from this earthquake in an urgent manner.”
Turkish leader declares emergency as Turkey-Syria quake death toll passes 6,300
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces devastated by two earthquakes that killed more than 5,400 people and left a trail of destruction across a wide area of southern Turkey and neighbouring Syria.
A day after the quakes hit, rescuers working in harsh conditions struggled to dig people out of the rubble of collapsed buildings.
As the scale of the disaster became ever more apparent, the death toll looked likely to rise considerably. One United Nations official said it was feared thousands of children may have been killed.
And residents in several damaged Turkish cities voiced anger and despair at what they said was a slow and inadequate response from the authorities to the deadliest earthquake to hit Turkey since 1999.
“There is not even a single person here. We are under the snow, without a home, without anything,” said Murat Alinak, whose home in Malatya had collapsed and whose relatives are missing. “What shall I do, where can I go?”
Monday’s magnitude 7.8 quake, followed hours later by a second one almost as powerful, toppled thousands of buildings including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks.
Tens of thousands of people were injured or left homeless in cities in Turkey and northern Syria.
Winter weather has hampered rescue and relief efforts and made the plight of the homeless even more miserable. Some areas were without fuel and electricity.
Aid officials voiced particular concern about the situation in Syria, already afflicted by a humanitarian crisis after nearly 12 years of civil war.
Erdogan on Tuesday declared the 10 Turkish provinces affected as a disaster zone and imposed a state of emergency there for three months. This will permit the government to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms.
The government will open up hotels in the tourism hub of Antalya to temporarily house people impacted by the quakes, said Erdogan, who faces a national election in three months’ time.
The death toll in Turkey had risen to 4,544 people, Erdogan said. In Syria, the toll was at least 1,782, according to the government and a rescue service in the insurgent-held northwest of the country.
Turkish authorities say some 13.5 million people were affected in an area spanning roughly 450 km (280 miles) from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, and 300 km from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south.
Syrian authorities have reported deaths as far south as Hama, some 250 km (155 miles) from the epicentre.
“It’s now a race against time,” World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva. “Every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive diminishes.”
Across the region, rescuers toiled night and day as people waited in anguish by mounds of rubble clinging to the hope that friends, relatives and neighbours might be found alive
In Antakya, capital of Hatay province bordering Syria, rescue teams were thin on the ground and residents picked through debris themselves. People pleaded for helmets, hammers, iron rods and rope.
One woman, aged 54 and named Gulumser, was pulled alive from an eight-storey building 32 hours after the quake.
Another woman then shouted at the rescue workers: “My father was just behind that room she was in. Please save him.”
The workers explained they could not reach the room from the front and needed an excavator to remove the wall first.
Turkish authorities say more than 12,000 search and rescue personnel are working in the affected areas, along with 9,000 troops. Some 70 countries and sending personnel, equipment and aid.
But the sheer scale of the disaster is daunting.
“The area is enormous. I haven’t seen anything like this before,” said Johannes Gust, from Germany’s fire and rescue service, as he loaded equipment onto a truck at Turkey’s Adana airport.
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said 5,775 buildings had been destroyed in the quake and that 20,426 people had been injured.
In Geneva, Unicef spokesperson James Elder said: “The earthquakes…may have killed thousands of children.”
Syrian refugees in northwest Syria and in Turkey were among the most vulnerable people affected, Elder said.
In the Syrian city of Hama, Abdallah al Dahan said funerals for several families were taking place on Tuesday.
“It’s a terrifying scene in every sense,” said Dahan, contacted by phone. “In my whole life I haven’t seen anything like this, despite everything that has happened to us.”
Mosques opened their doors to families whose homes were damaged.
Syrian state news agency SANA said at least 812 people were killed and 1,449 people injured in the government-held provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, Idlib and Tartous.
At least 900 people were killed in Syria’s opposition-held northwest and 2,300 injured with the toll expected to “rise dramatically”, the White Helmets rescue team said.
“There are lot of efforts by our teams, but they are unable to respond to the catastrophe and the large number of collapsed buildings,” group head Raed al-Saleh said.
Time was running out to save hundreds of families trapped under the rubble of buildings and urgent help is needed from international groups, he said.
A U.N. humanitarian official in Syria said fuel shortages and the harsh weather were creating obstacles.
“The infrastructure is damaged, the roads that we used to use for humanitarian work are damaged,” U.N. resident coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told Reuters from Damascus.
At Turkey’s Iskenderun port, hundreds of shipping containers were ablaze, shutting down operations and forcing freight liners to divert vessels to other ports. The maritime authority said the fire was a result of earthquake damage.
In Turkey’s Malatya, where snow lay thick on the ground, people expressed their frustration at what they said was the lack of help as they searched for the missing.
With no specialist equipment or even gloves, they tried to pick through the wreckage of homes crumpled by the force of the earthquake.
“My in-laws’ grandchildren are there. We have been here for two days. We are devastated,” said Sabiha Alinak.
“Where is the state? We are begging them. Let us do it, we can rescue them. We can do it with our means.
Japanese wearable beanbag lets you chill out anywhere, anytime
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023
The Shinjuku Marui main department store in Tokyo has only just opened for the day, and there’s already a customer lying on the floor.
“It makes you a little heavy around the middle, but it’s good fun,” Japanese tea house designer, Ryuji Baba, says, patting the wearable beanbag he’s trying on at a pop-up booth inside the department store.
While the beanbag‘s onion-shaped goofy style made it a hit on Japanese social media earlier this month, the main goal was relaxation, according to Shogo Takikawa, a representative of the beanbag’s manufacturer, Takikou Sewing.
“This concept was born out of the idea of a cushion that would allow you to totally let go, any time, anywhere. You can put this on and chill out in your living room, or loads of other places, that’s why we created it,” Takikawa said.
The wearable beanbag comes in three sizes – one for children, a medium and a large, which sells for about 15,800 yen (120 USD).
While the Covid-19 pandemic drove many in Japan to spend more time at home, the company says the pandemic was not the spark behind the concept of a wearable beanbag. Instead, the idea came about almost by accident, after a prototype version became popular among staff at a company event.
“It wasn’t made specifically for this purpose, but of course, during the Covid pandemic there was this kind of nesting (behaviour), people spending a lot more time at home, and so we had the idea to make this time spent at home a little more fun and relaxing,” Takikawa said.
Yuu Matsuzaki, a product buyer for the Marui department store, said the wearable beanbag could prove a seasonal hit in Japan, where many homes typically lack central heating.
“It was lighter than I thought, but it’s warm,” she said while sitting on top of the beanbag. “I think in winter you’d feel pretty toasty after putting this on.”
Thailand ranked 10th most powerful nation in Asia despite falling score
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023
Thailand remains the 10th most powerful nation in Asia, according to the 2023 Asia Power Index published by Australia’s Lowy Institute on Sunday.
The Land of Smiles retained its position in the index despite falling 0.4 points from last year.
“Thailand’s strongest measure is economic relationships, where it places seventh, the result of its integration into regional supply chains and strong investment relationships with Asia Power Index countries,” said the institute.
Thailand’s lowest rankings are for military capability and future resources, where it places 14th in both categories.
Lowy also said Thailand improved most in the future resources and diplomatic influence categories. However, in cultural influence, traditionally the country’s strongest category, Thailand dropped two places to eighth due to declining tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The United States and China are still the most powerful nations on the Asian continent, scoring 80.7 and 72.5 out of 100, respectively, putting them in the superpowers category (70+).
Middle-power nations in Asia are led by Japan (37.2), followed by India, Russia, Australia, South Korea, and Singapore, which scored 25.1.
A score over 10 denotes middle powers, which also include Indonesia (19.4), Thailand (18.7), and Malaysia (18.0).
The Asia Power Index scores 26 countries’ comprehensive power using a weighted average across eight thematic measures: Economic capability, military capability, resilience, future resources, economic relationships, defence networks, diplomatic influence and cultural influence.
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