Politics

A volcano explodes in Indonesia, killing at least ten people.
5Nov By Stuart WhiteNo Comments

A volcano explodes in Indonesia, killing at least ten people.

At least 10 people have been killed after a volcano erupted in eastern Indonesia in the early hours of Monday, officials have said. Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, located on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province, erupted at 23:57 local time, according to the Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMG). Hadi Wijaya, a PVMG spokesperson, said fiery lava and rocks had hit the villages about 4km (two miles) from the crater, burning and damaging residents' houses. According to local officials, the eruption has affected seven villages. PVMG said fires had "occurred in residential areas due to the ejection of incandescent material" from the volcano. It has raised the status of the volcano to the highest alert level, warning that a 7km (four-mile) ...
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Expectations for China’s NPC meeting and important Hang Seng Index levels
1Nov By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

Expectations for China’s NPC meeting and important Hang Seng Index levels

China’s NPC meeting in focus next weekChina's top legislature, the 14th NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), will convene for its twelfth session from 4-8 November 2024, the week of the US presidential election. Why is the meeting important?Weak economic conditions have forced Chinese authorities into rescue mode lately, as time is running short for them to meet their 5% gross domestic product (GDP) growth target this year. China’s Q3 GDP pointed to a 4.6% year-on-year expansion, marking the slowest annual growth rate since Q1 2023. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also projected China’s economy to grow by 4.8% this year, falling short of its 5% target. This seems to raise the pressures for a final year-end push by Chinese authorities, following policymakers’ assertions that they
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What will happen to Ishiba and the LDP following their crushing defeat in the polls in Japan?
28Oct By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

What will happen to Ishiba and the LDP following their crushing defeat in the polls in Japan?

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba insisted on Monday he would not step down and reached out to potential political allies following the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s resounding defeat in the lower house election. Analysts were surprised at the scale of the party’s poor performance and said the election outcome on Sunday would be fatal to the fortunes of Ishiba and the LDP. Most of them projected that Ishiba would no longer be in post by the time of upper house elections in July. Only elected head of the party on October 1, Ishiba could be in office shorter than even former Japanese prime minister and LDP chief Sosuke Uno, according to analysts. Uno was in power for just 68 days in 1989 after revelations of his affair with a geisha forced him to resi
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Following a sudden election, Japan’s politics experience an unusual dose of turmoil.
28Oct By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

Following a sudden election, Japan’s politics experience an unusual dose of turmoil.

Japanese elections are normally steady and boring affairs - but this snap election was neither. The dramatic vote follows a political funding corruption scandal that was revealed last year, which implicated senior lawmakers and cabinet members from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), tarnishing its image and angering the public. It was the perfect storm - a scandal that saw dozens of LDP lawmakers investigated over pocketing millions of dollars in proceeds from political fundraisers, while households struggled with inflation, high prices, stagnant wages and a sluggish economy. In the end, a furious and tired electorate sent a strong message in Sunday's vote, punishing the LDP at the ballot box. And it was a stunning blow: a party which had ruled Japan almost cont...
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Sri Lankan Tamil Politics: A New Script?
28Oct By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

Sri Lankan Tamil Politics: A New Script?

Tamil politics in Sri Lanka has entered uncharted territory. The cracks in Tamil politics had been evident for some time but with the September 21 presidential elections, it has broken into fragments. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake received little support from the Tamil electorate but so did the candidate endorsed by the Tamil Nationalist Alliance’s (TNA) leadership (Sajith Premadasa), the so-called common Tamil candidate fielded in a challenge to the TNA (Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanenthiran) and the incumbent candidate (Ranil Wickremesinghe). Breaking with a long tradition of electoral loyalty to the leadership, the Tamil vote is thus comprehensively split. This impedes bargaining positions on cardinal Tamil grievances and aspirations. Yet the present political moment also opens new o
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AL is unable to make a political return in Bangladesh: BNP
28Oct By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

AL is unable to make a political return in Bangladesh: BNP

BNP senior leader Mirza Abbas on Monday said the deposed Awami League will not be able to stage a comeback in Bangladesh politics if BNP and Jamaat remain united. Speaking at a memorial meeting, he said that BNP is willing to rebuild the country alongside its longstanding ally, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, in the days ahead. “We must strive for a unity so that we can rebuild this country beautifully. Let’s work we both work together for the sake of the nation. Together, we will adorn the country,” he said, reports UNB. Abbas made the remarks during a discussion organised by the Dhaka south city unit of Jamaat at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, in memory of those killed on that day in 2006 with oars and sticks. Abbas, a BNP standing committee member, claimed that altho
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Chinese government officials phone women and encourage them to have children.
28Oct By Grace TsoiNo Comments

Chinese government officials phone women and encourage them to have children.

Chinese grass roots government workers, who spent decades imposing strict birth control policies, are now calling up women in their neighbourhoods to urge them to get pregnant amid China’s demographic crisis. When Jane Huang picked up the phone to answer a call earlier this month, her first response to the person on the end was to laugh. “[Hello!] Is that Ms Huang? Sorry to disturb you. I am from your sub district office, are you pregnant now?” Huang, a 35-year-old working mother of one son who lives in the southeast coastal province of Fujian, said the overly enthusiastic social worker even asked about the timing of her most recent period and offered to give her a reminder call when it was “the right time” to conceive another baby. “I laughed so hard when I told my husba
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Biden Aids in the Battle Against Middle East Wars Ahead of the U.S. Election
26Oct By Stuart WhiteNo Comments

Biden Aids in the Battle Against Middle East Wars Ahead of the U.S. Election

It is not where the Biden administration wants to be less than two weeks before the U.S. presidential election. Israeli attacks with American-made bombs continue to wipe out Palestinian families in Gaza. The war in Lebanon is expanding. And Israel and Iran’s exchanges of direct attacks could escalate, following Israeli airstrikes on Iranian military sites early Saturday. With many progressive voters and Arab and Muslim Americans in battleground states furious at President Biden for his unwavering support of Israel’s offensives since the devastating Hamas assault last year, U.S. officials had been desperate for some way to prod the Middle East toward stability. Then came Israel’s Oct. 16 killing of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, which Biden officials saw as a fresh o
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Trump and Harris are two representatives of American politics in West Asia.
26Oct By Stuart WhiteNo Comments

Trump and Harris are two representatives of American politics in West Asia.

In the United States, voters do not directly elect the president. Instead, the Electoral College determines the final result of the elections. Thus, a candidate can win by securing a majority of electoral votes even if they do not achieve a majority of the popular vote. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, with each state having a specific number of representatives based on its population. Currently, seven states remain in contention, and victory in these "swing states" could determine the ultimate outcome of the elections. The candidate who manages to gather 270 electoral votes will be declared the winner. One of these "swing states" is Michigan, home to over 300,000 residents of North African or Middle Eastern descent. Traditionally, these voters have leaned Democratic,...
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The New Japan-Taiwan Relations and the Change in Japanese Politics
25Oct By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

The New Japan-Taiwan Relations and the Change in Japanese Politics

Ishiba Shigeru last month won the race to become the next Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president, and thus the next prime minister of Japan. His ascendancy marked a major break. For more than 20 years since the Mori Yoshiro administration, the Seiwa Political Analysis Council (or Seiwa Kai for short, the faction of the former prime minister and LDP heavyweight Abe Shinzo) has been at the center of LDP politics. Excepting the period during which the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) held power, every Japanese government this century has either come from the Seiwa Kai or has governed with the faction’s support. Although the Seiwa Kai is now formally dissolved, it still does exist, more or less, as a group within the LDP, and the results of this election mean that for
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