“Expectations are low and probably won’t be fulfilled anyway.” That was the brutal if prescient pre-summit prediction of William Reinsch, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The two-day gathering in Papua New Guinea was almost five years in the making, cost untold millions of US dollars and required the deployment of at least one battleship and three cruise liners.

And after all that, leaders came away with little more than three family photos and a loud shirt unlikely to be worn again.

The grouping was born three decades ago as a way of promoting trade liberalisation. But that cause has fallen out of vogue and Port Moresby was little more than a different venue for another China-US bunfight.

For the first time ever, the leaders failed to produce a joint summit declaration — usually a technocratic exercise in fudging differences, overstating agreement and promising great things to come.

It is a heartbreaking result for host Papua New Guinea, which was making its debut on the international stage — at no insignificant cost.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s government — not much larger than a municipal authority in most developed countries — visibly struggled with hosting such an enormous enterprise.

It dealt with more than 21 delegations, each numbering in the dozens if not hundreds who needed to be fed, housed and watered and ferried round a city not exactly designed for armour plated motorcades.

Papua New Guinea officials forgot to provide lighting for a leaders’ photo opportunity, outside, at night and at another they put their own flag upside down.

– ‘Big show’ –

They also suffered enormous pressure from much more powerful countries. Chinese officials on one occasion reportedly demanded that hundreds of red flags for Xi Jinping’s state visit be kept up.

In another instance, the police had to be called to prevent officials from Beijing storming the foreign minister’s office. China denies the incident.

But the summit’s failure was hardly the fault of rookie stagecraft. Skipping the leaders’ scheduled coffee break on the last day wasn’t going to provide enough time to sort through the defining strategic rivalry of our time.

“I feel sorry for Papua New Guinea, this was their big show’ said Euan Graham, executive director of La Trobe Asia, describing a diplomatic minnow caught in the crossfire of the world’s two largest economic and military powers.

Papua New Guinea did benefit from the rivalry and chequebook diplomacy of the two powers, winning new investments in energy, electricity and infrastructure.

O’Neill, like other small power leaders, also got images of himself mixing with global big hitters. That will elevate his stature at home and may help when election time comes round.

Executive director of the APEC secretariat, Alan Bollard said the organisation was about more than the annual shindig.

“APEC is more than just a leaders’ meeting, but a place for economies to incubate ideas throughout the year,” he told AFP.

US officials hope that next year will bring Trump’s return, but it may matter little if protectionist and nationalistic trends persist and the United States and China continue butting heads.

“APEC’s founding vision was already fraying,” said Graham. “But the failure to agree a communique is a final death knell for a pan-Asia-Pacific trade framework.”

The Christian founders of “White”, Luke and Carla Burrell, said they did not feature gay weddings in their magazine as they had “no desire to create a social, political or legal war”.

In a farewell blog on Saturday, the couple said they were targeted by activists because of their stance and forced to “pick a side”.

As a result, several advertisers withdrew their sponsorship making their publication “no longer economically viable”, the pair added.

Australian MPs late last year voted in favour of changing the Marriage Act after decades of inaction amid political wrangling.

The shift followed a contentious nationwide voluntary postal vote in support of legalising same-sex marriage.

Nearly 80 percent of eligible voters took part in the poll and almost 62 percent of those who voted chose “yes” on their ballots.

To placate the right wing of the conservative ruling coalition the government then commissioned a report into religious protections.

Parts of the review, which called for faith-based schools to legally be allowed to discriminate against gay students and teachers, were leaked last month.

It sparked a public backlash and led the government to introduce a bill to prevent sexuality-based discrimination in schools.

“We, kampung Sumur residents, reject the presence of LGBT groups”, states a banner put up in front of the boarding house on Saturday. The neighborhood unit (RT) head, who is reportedly a member of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), was collecting signatures from residents to expel the waria, said Rere Ayu Wulandari, 23, one of the seven people affected, using a local term for transgender people.

(Courtesy of Rere Ayu Wulandari/-)

Rere said they had been accused of prostitution. The boarding house is home to eight people; the eight room being occupied by a midwife, Rere said, adding that many more transgender people resided in the area.

“We have never broken any rules. We always abide by the regulations set in the neighborhood, including not receiving any guests,” Rere told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. “Our landlady defends us, but now she is being called an atheist and disgusting and [blamed for] stirring up social tension.”

Rere has stayed in the boarding house for the past five years; some of her friends have lived there for 10 years or longer and have never been threatened until now. “We have not been physically abused so far, but we do not know what will happen,” she said.

Yulianus Rettoblaut, a well-known rights activist that leads the Indonesian Waria Communication Forum (FKWI), lamented the situation. She attributed the threats to rising anti-LGBT sentiment in the country particularly ahead of the presidential and legislative elections next year, as anti-LGBT statements have been employed by politicians to get votes.

“Our [state ideology of] Pancasila guarantees equal justice for all, but we all know transgender people always face discrimination,” she said. Yuli suggested that Rere and her friends seek assistance from rights groups, such as the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) or Human Rights Watch (HRW) to make sure they got justice.

HRW researcher Andreas Harsono said the local residents could not trespass onto their private lives, as long as the landlady did not mind their presence.

Apom Store, a lifestyle shop selling witty products that showcases the quirky side of Malaysian culture, has released a line of Christmas gifts showing a bespectacled rotund man on the run.

There are T-shirts featuring a caricature in the likeness of Low donning a Santa hat with the words “Spend it like you stole it” while another says “Lari Party Jholly Repeat”.

In line with the spirit of Christmas, a red and white mug says “Jho! Jho! Jho! Tis the season of giving… back”.

Two other mugs summarise the notorious life of the fugitive businessman with “Drink it like you stole it” and “Money, Party, Jholly, Repeat”.

In this age of social media, sending Christmas cards may no longer be in vogue.

But a Jho Low-inspired festive greeting that reads “Wishing you a Billion dollar Christmas!” in the front and “Spend it like you stole it” inside the card might just reverse the trend.

There are other Christmas gifts with similarly mischievous quotes in the form of coasters, a tote bag, and a “Finding Jholly” book similar to the popular children’s book “Where’s Waldo”.

“Finding Jholly” is an illustrated game where readers have to spot the mascot dressed in a black and white stripped prison guard from a busy scene.

And just like the real life events that it has inspired, the book is about “a nationwide search adventure”.

The Chinese delegates “tried to barge in” to Rimbink Pato’s Port Moresby office Saturday, in an eleventh-hour bid to influence a summit draft communique, but were denied entry, three sources with knowledge of the situation told AFP.

“Police were posted outside the minister’s office after they tried to barge in,” one source privy to summit negotiations told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The diplomatic incident came with tensions already high at a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders that has been overshadowed by a spat between the United States and China.

Pato had refused to meet with the delegates, according to a source, who said: “It’s not appropriate for the minister to negotiate solo with the Chinese. The Chinese negotiating officials know this.”

The minister himself sought to downplay the incident, telling AFP: “There wasn’t an issue.”

The Chinese delegation has yet to comment publicly on the incident but was set to hold a news conference later Sunday.

APEC nations usually agree on a joint statement but officials are struggling to bridge deep divides on trade policy and admit that a formal communique may not be issued.

This is not the first time Chinese officials have been involved in a tense incident at a regional meeting.

At the Pacific Islands Forum in September, Nauru’s president demanded China apologize after its delegation walked out of a meeting when the host refused to let an envoy speak until island leaders had finished.

“They’re not our friends. They just need us for their own purposes,” President Baron Waqa said at the time.

While western culture tends to label cat sounds as “meow,” the Japanese label them as “nyao” or “nyaa.” A cat named Chobimaru had other things in mind when it went up to its owner and started going “loliloliloliloliiiiloli,” as reported by SoraNews24.

Twitter user LLR (@llritotomohiro) shared the odd behavior through a video tweet on Nov. 12. It turned out it wasn’t the first time Chobimaru went “loliloli” instead of “nyaa.” He wrote, “Chobimaru is talking again…. Scary.”

Video : Weird cat cries out ‘loliloli’ instead of ‘meow’

Rather than sounding cat-like, Chobimaru could be mistaken as some drunk person attempting to do a chant to summon some dark power into being. Chobimaru’s loud sniffing in between his “lolilolis” could even be heard, which could add to the confusion of “what” exactly was making the weird sound.

The clip has been viewed over 3.4 million times and other Japanese Twitter users were equally weirded out. One commenter wrote, “Sounds to me like he’s trying to cast a magic spell.”

Fellow cat owners who had similar experiences noted that whenever their cats sounded weird, it was usually a warning of incoming trouble. LLR thanked the commenters for their concern and reported that Chobimaru returned to normal after the cat had its fill of chanting “loliloli.”

Whatever it was that prompted Chobimaru’s chanting, it would be safe to say that most cat owners can just chalk it up to the wonderfully weird and mysterious ways of their feline overlords (pets).