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Two explosions outside Kabul airport killed at least 60 people and wounded at least 140 on August 26, 2021, according to an Afghan health official. A suspected suicide bomb exploded at the Abbey Gate, a main entrance to the airport, and one other blast took place near a hotel in the vicinity, Pentagon press secretar…
A suspected suicide bomb exploded outside Kabul airport on August 26, 2021. A Taliban official said children were among the at least 13 people killed.
The once-bustling Hua Ta Khe market in the Thai capital Bangkok is all but deserted as the nation struggles with its worst wave of Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. Video shot on August 24, 2021, showed no customers in the waterside marketplace that is normally a bustling with tourists.
China’s first Universal Studios Resort is set to open on September 1, 2021, with invited guests the first batch of visitors to be welcomed at the soft launch. The 50 billion yuan (US$7.7 billion) resort is the world’s largest Universal Studios. It had been due to open in May, but the official launch was delayed by t…
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The Paralympic Games are officially under way in Tokyo after more than a year’s delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Team Hong Kong is hoping to add to its 40 gold medals from previous Paralympic Games, with Elaine Wu Siu-ling, Hong Kong Paralympic Committee Chef de Mission saying the delay may work in favour of Hong…
Naruo Ono is the owner of the rice shop Kome no Zoto Yoshimiya in Japan. Years ago, he came up with the gift idea of “rice babies”– rice bags that come with the face of a newborn baby printed on them and weighing the same as the infant. Rice babies have been a popular gift option during the Covid-19 pandemic as a wa…
Tokyo welcomed the beginning of the Paralympics on August 24, 2021, with fireworks. Organisers said the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium was attended by about 3,400 members of team delegations, other guests of honour and members of the media. But no spectators were allowed inside as part of Japan’s efforts to…
According to China’s National Health Commission, more than 1.94 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had been administered as of August 22, 2021. The country has reported no local infections for the first time since the start of the latest outbreak in mid-July, sparked by the Delta variant in multiple provinces. Wi…
A cafe in central Tokyo is using robots to serve customers. But they’re not being controlled by anyone at the cafe. Instead, disabled staff are directing them remotely. The robots - all named OriHime - feature cameras, a microphone and a speaker to allow their controllers to communicate with customers, without havin…
President Tsai Ing-wen got her first shot of Taiwan’s domestically developed coronavirus vaccine on August 23, 2021.
Celebrations for the Hungry Ghost Festival in Hong Kong are resuming in August 2021, after being cancelled the previous year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival is held annually on the seventh month of the lunar calendar. It is believed that the gates of hell open for restless …
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said current data indicates that Covid-19 booster shots are not needed for now. The WHO official was speaking at a press conference on August 18, 2021, the same day that US President Joe Biden announced that his administration will recommend Am…
New Zealand entered a national lockdown on August 18, 2021, after a man in Auckland tested positive for Covid-19. It was the country’s first new case in six months. Schools, offices and all businesses other than essential services are shut across the country for an initial period of three days, while Auckland itself…
The explosion of a fuel tank in Lebanon’s northern region of Akkar killed at least 28 people on August 15, 2021. Many of the victims were in a crowd gathered near the tank clamouring for petrol. The military had seized the facility as part of its efforts to curb hoarding in the wake of the central bank scrapping fue…
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resigned on August 16, 2021, after tendering his resignation to the country’s king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah. Muhyiddin stood down after 15 members of parliament from the Umno party withdrew their support from the ruling coalition government, Perikatan Nasional alli…
Amid the spread of the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant, one city in Indonesia has an unusual solution for self-isolating people who test positive for Covid-19. A passenger ship, the KM Umsini, has been turned into an isolation facility off the coast of Makassar for patients with mild symptoms. Patients r…
Amid Thailand’s largest Covid-19 outbreak, volunteer medical workers, such as Chayaphon Satondee are racing to save coronavirus victims. He is part of a volunteer group in Bangkok that helps critically ill patients who are isolated at home. With only less than seven per cent of its population fully vaccinated, Thail…
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The popular dating app Tinder is being used by a German animal shelter to find homes for unwanted pets. According to the Munich Animal Shelter, more pets have been abandoned since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and during the summer holiday. Profiles have been created for 15 of the shelter’s most eligible pets o…
It’s not only humans who have had to maintain their physical and mental well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic. A zoo in eastern Thailand has devised a daily regimen to ensure their resident penguins stay mentally and physically fit. Deprived of regular human contact, the penguins have been enjoying quality time ou…
The Indonesian city of Surabaya has a new volunteer on the streets to help with the Covid-19 pandemic – a robotic helper made from discarded household appliances. The “Delta Robot” was the brainchild of a local official and university professors, who envisioned it as a way to entertain residents of Tembok Gede, a su…
Giant pumps in water-treatment plants in Singapore are converting sewage into drinkable water. The resource-stressed island nation has long relied on water from Malaysia since the 1960s. According to the country’s water agency, recycled waste water can meet 40 per cent of Singapore’s water demand, a figure that’s ex…
Canadian businessman Michael Spavor has been sentenced by a Chinese court to 11 years behind bars on espionage charges. Canadian observers criticised the ruling on August 11, 2021, as “hostage diplomacy” in retaliation for the arrest of a top Huawei executive. Spavor is one of two Canadians arrested in 2019, weeks a…
Cathay Pacific Airways has reported a HK$7.6 billion (US$977 million) loss in the first half of 2021. The city’s flagship airline said on August 11, 2021, that it continued to be disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as virus variants further hold back its core business – passenger travel. Cathay has been cutting cost…
China has seen a rise in Covid-19 infections in the eastern city of Yangzhou, where officials attribute the surge to the Delta variant and possibly a spread of cases from the nearby city of Nanjing, which had a similar outbreak two weeks earlier. Nanjing responded with pandemic-related travel restrictions, which are…
The controversy surrounding Tokyo 2020 was immense, but once the pandemic-delayed Games began, it was all about the athletes and the magical moments the Olympics created. Now there are fewer than eight months to go before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing kick off. So, what can Chinese officials learn from their J…
A Malaysian man has again failed in his bid to evade pandemic travel rules by swimming across the Penang Strait. The first attempt by the 28-year-old in July 2021 landed him in hot water for violating travel bans. His second try on August 2 was made aboard a styrofoam raft, which failed to get him very far and ended…
Thai protesters were met with tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with police in the capital Bangkok on August 7, 2021. Protesters are calling for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to quit over the government’s sluggish roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines amid Thailand’s worst coronavirus outbreak. They are also demandi…
A devastating third wave of Covid-19 infections has been sweeping across Myanmar since July 2021. The country reported 34 consecutive days of more than 3,000 daily cases as of August 8. Its health care system, decimated following the February military coup, is struggling to cope with the latest surge. Medical worker…
Taliban fighters have seized five provincial capitals, including the key city of Kunduz, as of August 6, 2021. Afghan forces have vowed to retake the fallen cities, which include Zaranj, Sheberghan, Taloqan and Sar-e-Pul. Government forces have countered with help from US air strikes, but one operation ended hitting…
The closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on August 8, 2021, echoed the restraint of a Games that was transformed by Covid-19. Inside the Olympic bubble, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach thanked Japan for rising above the difficulties of hosting the delayed Tokyo 2020 event in the midst of a sp…
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The Australian government gave provisional approval for the use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine on August 9, 2021, with the first million doses expected to arrive in September. With only 22 per cent of its population fully vaccinated, Australia’s vaccination rate is currently ranked one of the lowest among Organisatio…
A 14-year-old Chinese diver obliterated the competition at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre with her three perfect-10 scores to capture a gold medal in dominant fashion in the Olympic 10m platform final on August 5, 2021. Quan Hongchan, the youngest member of China’s team at the Tokyo Games, racked up a stunning overall sc…
Indonesia’s Covid-19 death toll surpassed 100,000 on August 4, 2021, as the Southeast Asian country continues to struggle with an exponential surge in cases driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, which has also contributed to a global milestone of 200 million infections. The number of cases and deaths inv…
John Winkler II was dying of heart failure when doctors came to his hospital bedside, offering a chance to prolong his life. The HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device, or HVAD, could be implanted in Winkler’s chest until a transplant was possible. The heart pump came with disclaimers of risk, but Winkler wanted to fig…
Concerns about the strain on Olympics host city Tokyo’s medical system grew after Japan reported a record of more than 14,000 daily Covid-19 cases on August 4, 2021, despite a declining death rate and acceleration in the pace of vaccinations. Among the new infections in the Japanese capital were 31 Games-related cas…
A year after a deadly blast flattened a large area of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, survivors including Shady Rizk are still haunted by the trauma of the disaster. The August 4, 2020, explosion, reportedly caused by the ignition of highly explosive materials stored at the city’s main port, killed more than 200 peopl…
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Superstar gymnast Simone Biles has made her return to the Olympic Games, claiming a bronze on the beam. But China’s Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing outperformed Biles with near-flawless routines to earn them the gold and silver medals. This was the US superstar’s first taste of competition in Tokyo since standing down…
