Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.
People walk around a fallen tree near a beach on Lantau Island in Hong Kong after being hit by strong winds from Super Typhoon Yagi on September 6, 2024. /CFP
Super Typhoon Yagi, the 11th typhoon of this year, made landfall in south China's Hainan Province on Friday afternoon, according to the province's emergency management headquarters. The typhoon, packing winds exceeding 234 kilometers per hour, hit the coast of Wengtian Township in Wenchang City at 4:20 p.m. The storm killed at least 16 people in the Philippines this week, forcing thousands of people to flee to safer ground. China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region also reported fallen trees and flooding. Vietnam said it was closing four airports in the north on Saturday because of the storm.
Doctors stage a rally against the government's medical policy in Seoul, South Korea, March 3, 2024. /CFP
South Korea started deploying military doctors to hospital emergency rooms on Wednesday to deal with staff shortages sparked by a seven-month-old walkout by junior doctors. A total of 15 military doctors were sent to five hospitals, including Seoul's Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said in a briefing. An additional 235 military doctors will be made available to medical centers across the country by next Monday. Meanwhile, South Korea's presidential office said on Friday it was open to revising a plan to increase medical school admissions, which triggered months of protests by doctors nationwide. "The discussion on medical school quotas can start from scratch if the medical community presents a reasonable suggestion," a statement from the office said.
Representational picture: A spinning wheel on a roulette table in Malta, April 11, 2018. /Reuters
Thailand's new government will move ahead with plans to introduce casinos after a public hearing showed strong support for creating a big entertainment complex offering gambling, a senior official said on Thursday. Casinos and most forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand.
The conclusion of a public hearing conducted online over a bill to establish a "mega entertainment complex" housing a casino showed 80 percent of participants agreed with the plan, Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said.
Vials of the JYNNEOS smallpox and monkeypox vaccine are placed on a table during a clinic offered by the Pima County Department of Public Health at Abrams Public Health Center in Tucson, Arizona, U.S., August 20, 2022. /Reuters
In Singapore, vaccinations against mpox will be given free to healthcare workers who are at the highest risk of exposure to the disease, and the shots will also be given to close contacts of confirmed cases, according to Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on Wednesday. Jynneos, a live, non-replicating vaccine, will be offered free. Singapore's current supply of Jynneos is sufficient based on this vaccination strategy, and the Ministry of Health will continue to monitor the situation, the minister said. "Mpox is a troublesome virus which we can manage."
Farmers place packaged kimchi cabbages on a container at the Anbandeogi village's kimchi cabbage field in Gangneung, South Korea, August 22, 2024.
South Korea's famous kimchi is falling victim to climate change, with scientists, farmers and manufacturers saying the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage that is pickled to make the dish is suffering due to rising temperatures. Napa cabbage survives in cooler weather and is usually planted in mountainous regions where temperatures during the key growing summer season once rarely rose above 25 Celsius. Studies show that warmer weather brought about by climate change is now threatening these crops, so much so that South Korea might not be able to grow napa cabbage one day due to the intensifying heat. "We hope these predictions don't come to pass," plant pathologist and virologist Lee Young-gyu said.
"Cabbage likes to grow in cool climates and adapts to a very narrow band of temperatures," Lee said. Describing the effect of higher temperatures on the vegetable, Lee Ha-yeon, who holds the designation of "Kimchi Master" from the Agriculture Ministry, said on Tuesday that the heart of the cabbage "goes bad, and the root becomes mushy. If this continues, then in the summertime, we might have to give up cabbage kimchi."
(Cover: A man looks up on the promenade at Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong as Super Typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern coast of China. September 5, 2024. /CFP)