Meanwhile, In Asia ...

Quite a bit happening:

South Korea raised its typhoon-alert to its highest level on Monday as approaching Typhoon Hinnamnor forced flight cancellations, the suspension of some business operations and the closure of schools.

Heavy rain and strong wind pounded the south of the country as the typhoon approached from the south at a speed of 33 km per hour (20.5 mph). Hinnamnor is expected to make landfall southwest of the port city of Busan early on Tuesday, after reaching the holiday island of Jeju on Monday.

President Yoon Suk-yeol said he would be on emergency standby, a day after ordering authorities to do their best to minimise damage from the typhoon.

 

(Sidebar: if this had been Justin, he would be on his third vacation this month.)

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An activist said he has again flown huge balloons carrying COVID-19 relief items and an anti-North Korea placard across the tense inter-Korean border, despite the North’s recent warning of a deadly attack over his activities.

Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, said the 20 balloons launched from a South Korean border town on Sunday carried 20,000 masks and tens of thousands of Tylenol and Vitamin C tablets.

He said one of the balloons carried a placard with a message that reads “Let’s eradicate Kim Jong Un and (his sister) Kim Yo Jong," along with their photos. He said no other propaganda statements were carried by the balloons.

For years, Park has floated helium-filled balloons with numerous, small anti-Pyongyang leaflets with harsh criticism of the Kim family’s authoritarian rule in North Korea. But he’s recently changed his cargo to masks and other health products amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 

Japan will have to up its game even further:

Japan has protested to Russia over multinational military exercises being conducted on Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, and is seriously concerned about shooting drills by Russian and Chinese warships off Japan's northern coast, an official said Monday.

Beijing has been increasing its military cooperation with Moscow, and has been taking part in the multinational “Vostok 2020” drills since late August at a number of locations in Russia's far east.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno criticized Russia for holding exercises on two of the four disputed islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, in the Kuril chain off Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido. It was not clear whether China was part of the exercises on the disputed islands.

He said Japan’s Defense Ministry spotted six Russian and Chinese warships firing machine guns into the Sea of Japan about 190 kilometers (118 miles) west of Cape Kamui on Hokkaido on Saturday.

“Japan will continue to monitor the movements of these ships with serious concern, and will take all possible measures to conduct warning and surveillance activities in the waters surrounding Japan,” Matsuno said at a news conference.

 

 

Because of course it does:

Sri Lanka will not accept any international investigation imposed by the U.N. Human Rights Council into alleged rights abuses during the country's long civil war, an official said Monday.

Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Sabry said the government is willing to engage with the international community in seeking closure for human rights issues, but that any solution should conform with the country's Constitution.

“Any external mechanism, external evidence gathering mechanism, charging citizens outside the country, getting hybrid judges to come and hear the cases, all these are against the Constitution. So we can’t agree to that,” he said.

The statement is a retraction of President Ranil Wickremesinghe's earlier stance when he was prime minister. In 2015 he co-sponsored a resolution agreeing to a joint investigation of alleged abuses with participation by Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defense lawyers, authorized prosecutors and investigators.

Wickremesinghe is currently supported in Parliament by lawmakers loyal to his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was a defense official during the war and holds hard-line views on the U.N.'s role on Sri Lanka.

 

 

This can't be good:

Reports are coming out of China that indicate it may be on the brink of becoming more unstable. This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Country Garden, one of China’s largest real-estate developers, saw a 96% decline in profit for the first half of the year. The property market in the Communist country has entered a severe depression, as other real estate firms also meltdown in real-time.

Protests have started over frozen bank accounts and mortgage payments for unfinished homes. In China, people get a loan and begin paying the mortgage before their home is built. Sometimes construction can take years. China is also facing a once-in-a-century drought that shut down manufacturing in the Sichuan province, which is home to over 110,000 manufacturing plants.

As the economy stalls and dissatisfaction rises, the nation is heading into its twice-a-decade leadership congress in October. After lifting the rules on presidential term limits, China watchers anticipate President Xi Jinping intends to take an unprecedented third term. To accomplish this, the CCP must quell unrest. Some observers believe repeated COVID-19 lockdowns had more to do with suppressing communication and dissent ahead of the election than the virus.