Today’s news: John Lee celebrates 27 years since Hong Kong’s return to China, Beijing gives away two pandas. Five dead in Zamboanga fireworks warehouse explosion. New banknotes in Japan with larger numbers to help seniors and tourists. 110 new languages on Google Translate, including Cantonese and Punjabi.
MYANMAR-GIAPPONE
Four supermarket chain executives, including a Japanese official from the Aeon Orange joint venture, were arrestati in Myanmar on charges of selling rice at inflated prices as the war-ravaged country’s ruling junta struggles to stabilize the economy. Authorities said they arrested 11 people, including rice traders and officials from mills and retailers, accusing them of inflating prices by 31% to 70% above prescribed levels. Tokyo declared that it is working to obtain the release of its citizen as soon as possible.
HONG KONG-CHINA
Hong Kong celebrates today 27 years since the return to the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China. Local government chief John Lee took the opportunity to trumpet the passage of a new national security law in March, which he said would be a “sharp sword” against the “small minority” that “jeopardizes” the one country, two systems formula. To mark the anniversary, Beijing announced that it would gift Hong Kong with a new pair of pandas and that non-Chinese permanent residents of Hong Kong and Macau would be allowed to enter mainland China without a visa.
PHILIPPINES
Five people, including a four-year-old boy, were killed in a massive explosion at a warehouse pyrotechnic material in Zamboanga in the southern Philippines. The explosion blew a 20-meter crater, dismantled the walls of the warehouse and sent debris raining down on a nearby beverage factory, a grain and flour warehouse and homes in the area. The city’s disaster management office confirmed the death toll and said 38 others were injured in the accident, eight of them seriously.
SRI LANKA-RUSSIA
Sri Lanka has asked Russia for compensation for the 17 citizens killed during the war in Ukraine who were recruited by deception, raising the question of the payment of adequate sums to the families of the fallen and wounded, and the return of the others, during the visit to Moscow by a delegation led by Colombo’s deputy foreign minister, Tarak Balasurya.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Il Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund has launched a $1.5 million partnership to support young conservationists. The organization – an umbrella organization of one of the world’s largest oil producers – said the funds will provide financial support over the next three years to those fighting to protect and preserve the environment and wildlife in developing countries.
JAPAN
Japan to start issuing on July 3 new banknotes which it says uses a world-first cutting-edge holography that makes portraits of historical figures appear to be rotating in 3D on the banknotes, in an anti-counterfeiting measure. In the first design change in 20 years, the 10,000-yen, 5,000-yen and 1,000-yen notes will have their denominations printed larger than current versions, so that all people, regardless of age and nationality, can recognize them more easily.
ASIA
On the service of Google Translate have been inserted 110 new languagesthanks to the contribution of generative artificial intelligence. The number of available languages has thus risen to 244. The new languages include Cantonese, Punjabi, and several languages of the native peoples of the Volga region of Russia and other minor Russian peoples such as Udmurt, Bashkir, Chuvash, Lugovo-Mariyskaya, Buryat, Chechen, Komi, Ossetian, Tuvinian, Chukotskaya, Yakutskaya, and one of the Sami languages.
