Asian Insider, Jan 20: Rescue shaft offers hope for trapped Chinese miners; Jack Ma emerges

Hi all,

In today's bulletin: Beginning of a new chapter in American politics; efforts to rescue gold miners raise hopes; Thailand to file royal defamation complaint against Thanathorn; Jack Ma re-emerges; Indian state seeks to change name of dragon fruit to avoid Chinese association, and more.

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President-elect Joe Biden, 78, is set to be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States just after noon (1am Thursday Singapore time) in Washington, in front of a small number of attendees.

With this, he will become the oldest US president in history and he takes charge at a crucial time, with the country facing deep political divides, a battered economy, the pandemic and the world looking to America for leadership.

Deeply emotional as he left Delaware for Washington on Tuesday (Jan 19), Mr Biden brought up the history-making nature of the election. It will see Ms Kamala Harris, a black woman of South Asian descent inaugurated as vice-president, 12 years after he took office as vice-president to Mr Barack Obama, the nation's first black president.

"Don't tell me things can't change. They can, and they do," he said.

Meanwhile, in his final hours at the White House, outgoing President Donald Trump granted clemency to former White House aide Steve Bannon as part of a wave of pardons and commutations. Mr Trump will not be staying for the swearing-in-ceremony as is customary when the handover of power takes place at the White House.

Rescuers were trying hard to widen a communication shaft to be able to rescue a group of Chinese gold miners trapped deep underground for the past 10 days, as flood waters continued to rise.

Contact has been made with 11 miners at one location 540m below the surface while another miner, apparently alone, is trapped a further 100m away.

In all, about 22 miners got trapped hundreds of metres underground at the Hushan mine near Qixia city in east China's Shandong province, following an explosion on Jan 10 that sealed off the entrance.

Some of the trapped miners, however, are in critical condition while the whereabouts of the remaining 10 miners is not known.

Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society is set to file a criminal complaint against opposition politician Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit for defaming the country's monarchy, on Wednesday.

This would make it the most high-profile lese majeste case in the country since a wave of protests last year, with people demanding reforms.

The case against Mr Thanathorn still has to be revealed but reports hinted it could be about criticism of the government's vaccine strategy. It comes two days after the opposition politician questioned the government's reliance on a company owned by the Crown Property Bureau, which is under the King's personal control.

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma appeared in public for the first time after keeping away from the limelight for several weeks, following a crackdown on companies he co-founded. But it wasn't immediately clear where he was speaking from.

Tianmu News, a news portal under Zhejiang Online, a government-backed news website, on Wednesday reported the meeting where Mr Ma met 100 rural teachers. Mr Ma addressed hundreds of teachers as part of an online conference that he used to host previously to recognise their efforts.

While his appearance led to the biggest stock market rally for the Alibaba group in six months, questions remained about the future direction of the group.

Newly appointed Covid-19 vaccine minister Taro Kono denied reports that the government would vaccinate the majority of the population ahead of the Olympics this year, scheduled to begin in late July. "Oh no, NHK, please don't go around making vaccination roll-out schedules like that. It's bogus," he said on Twitter. Japan is currently facing a third wave of infections.

China's capital Beijing imposes partial lockdown, banning 1.6 million people from leaving the city.

Indian state Gujarat changes dragon fruit's name to avoid Chinese link: The government in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat has decided to change the name of dragon fruit to remove its association with China. State chief minister Vijay Rupani said it's new Sanskrit name will be kamalam.

Anwar claims MPs have asked King to reverse emergency: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim claimed today that the majority of MPs have asked the King to reverse royal assent for the government's seven-month-long state of emergency which began last week, in a virtual press conference.

Foreigners without face masks punished with push-ups in Bali: Foreigners caught not wearing face masks on the Indonesian resort island of Bali are being subjected to an unusual punishment: push-ups. Video footage circulating on social media shows tourists in T-shirts and shorts being made to do the exercise in sweltering tropical heat as masked security officials stand over them.

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Shefali