Aquarium visitors say they feel cheated by ‘whale shark’

Aquarium enthusiasts in China were left shocked when they discovered that a much-hyped giant whale shark on display was, in reality, a robot.

The Xiaomeisha Sea World in Shenzhen reopened its doors on 1 October to feature the star shark after being shut for five years for renovations.

During its week-long trial run, the sea park spread over 60,000sqm attracted around 100,000 visitors who each paid £30 to enter the aquarium. But, much to their disappointment, the majestic shark swirling around in the large tank turned out to be a manmade imitation.

Some of the livid visitors demanded a refund while others took to social media to lambast the marine park. “The venue is not large enough and even the whale shark is artificial,” said one of the visitors, according to the New York Post.

“By 3pm, people were already demanding refunds.”

The Sea World defended itself saying it had spent millions of Chinese yuan to construct the robotic shark to adhere to Chinese laws that ban the trade of whale sharks. In 2019, China banned shark finning along with the deliberate catching of sharks in the open seas.

The Sea World claimed that their intention was never to “catfish” visitors. “Even though it’s for the sake of animal protection, I’d rather they didn’t have one at all than show a fake one,” a Chinese social media user said, according to the Post.

A company in Shenyang announced in August that it had produced the world’s first intelligent robotic whale shark that could swim, float, dive, open and close its mouth. The bionic shark was nearly five metres long and weighed 350kg, state media CGTN reported.

The shark could be operated remotely and came equipped with features such as programme-controlled swimming and multi-joint bionic propulsion. The robot could swim at a maximum speed of 0.7m per second and dive 20m deep, according to CGTN.

In the past, Chinese zoos have painted dogs to look like pandas. Some visitors at the Shanwei Zoo in Guangdong province this year realised they were not looking at pandas when the animals began panting and barking. In a visitor’s video, one of the “pandas” was visibly panting while resting on a rock while another clip had a panda with a long tail strolling about.

Another zoo in eastern China’s Jiangsu province charged visitors £2.22 for a new exhibition featuring “panda dogs”.

Asian country court recognizes misogyny as motive for hate crime

A South Korean court for the first time explicitly recognized misogyny as a motive for hate crime amid a growing “anti-feminist” movement in the East Asian country.

The Changwon District Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s sentencing of a man to three years in jail for aggravated assault, destruction of property, and obstruction of business. The court ruled that the man’s actions “were rooted in baseless hatred and bias against women”, The Korea Herald reported.

The man in his 20s was arrested last November for attacking a woman he perceived to be a feminist because she had short hair. “Since you have short hair, you must be a feminist. I’m a male chauvinist, and I think feminists should be punished,” the man had said, according to the South Korean police. He reportedly kicked and punched the woman who was working at a convenience store in Jinju in the South Gyeongsang province.

He also assaulted a customer, a man in his 50s, who tried to intervene. “Why are you not taking my side? She is a feminist,” the accused allegedly told the customer.

The accused continued the assault until he was stopped by police after they arrived on the scene to find him in a drunken state.

The woman suffered serious ligament injuries and hearing impairment while the male customer suffered fractures to face and shoulder. The attacker hit him with a chair.

The accused later pleaded guilty but claimed he was in a state of “mental and physical weakness”.

“The defendant repeatedly declared ‘feminists deserve to be hit’ while attacking the female clerk and questioned the intervening male victim by asking, ‘Why aren’t you siding with a fellow man?’ indicating a misogynistic motive,” the court said.

South Korean women wearing short hair have been targeted by men who consider them to be feminist, a term often confused with misandry.

When archer An San won three gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, men back home were busy criticising her short hair. To counter the growing criticism of Ms An online, many South Korean women, including politicians and celebrities, posted messages and photos of their own cropped hair to support the athlete.

South Korea ranks poorly for gender equality among advanced nations.

The country has the worst gender pay gap among OECD countries and is consistently ranked at the bottom on the Economist’s Glass Ceiling Index, which assesses the extent to which women experience equal treatment in the workplace.

South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, 62, disavowed the label of a feminist when he was running for office. He had previously insinuated that feminism was responsible for the abysmal birthrate, which is currently the world’s lowest and has left the Asian country facing demographic collapse.

Jets scrambled to escort Air India Express plane after bomb threat

Singapore’s military scrambled two fighter jets after an Air India Express plane bound for the Changi airport received a bomb threat, the latest in a string of apparent hoaxes that have disrupted journeys for hundreds of passengers from India this week.

The threat to the flight from the Madurai airport in India’s south was sent by email to Air India Express on Tuesday, Singapore’s defence minister Ng Eng Hen said.

“Two of our F-15SGs scrambled and escorted the plane away from populated areas, to finally land safely at Singapore Changi airport at around 10.04pm tonight,” he said.

“Our Ground Based Air Defence system and Explosive Ordnance Disposal team were also activated. Once on the ground, the plane was handed to the Airport Police,” he said.

Mr Ng said an investigation was ongoing.

According to flight tracker Flightradar24, the Air Indian Express plane took off from the Madurai airport at about 1.54pm local time and was due to land in Singapore at about 8.50pm. It only landed at 10.04pm after a delay of over an hour.

Singapore police said it was alerted to the bomb threat at around 8.25pm local, about three hours after the flight had taken off.

But “no threat items were found” after the plane landed and was searched.

“The police take security threats seriously and will not hesitate to take action against those who intentionally cause public alarm,” police said.

This was only the latest flight from India to have a bomb scare this week.

At least 10 flights received hoax bomb threats through email and social media messages in 48 hours from Monday to Tuesday, Indian media reported.

One of these, an Air India flight from Delhi to Chicago, was forced to make an emergency landing at a remote Canadian airport.

The AI127 flight carrying 211 passengers was diverted to the Iqaluit airport and underwent a security check before leaving for Chicago on Tuesday.

The day before, an Air India flight from Mumbai to New York with 239 passengers onboard was diverted to make an emergency landing in Delhi.

Air India did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent. But the airline said on social media that another of its flights bound for Chicago had landed in Canada as a precautionary measure on Tuesday following a security threat posted online.

“Air India notes that it, and other local airlines, have been subject to a number of threats in recent days,” it said. “Though all have subsequently been found to be hoaxes, as a responsible airline operator all threats are taken seriously.”

Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, is yet to make a statement.

Inmate who killed Japanese psychic found dead in Hawaii prison cell

A Hawaii inmate convicted of the 1994 murder of a Japanese psychic and her son was killed in prison, authorities have said.

Staff at the Halawa Correctional Facility in Aiea, outside Honolulu, found Raita Fukusaku, 59, bleeding on the floor of his cell with head and neck trauma early on Monday, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“It was determined that the victim had been assaulted and stabbed by his cellmate, a 38-year-old male,” Honolulu police said in a public information bulletin.

The cellmate was immediately removed and placed in a holding unit, the corrections department said.

Authorities were still investigating on Tuesday. The Honolulu medical examiner’s office had not yet released a cause of death.

Fukusaku was the first Japanese national to be extradited to the United States and convicted of murder, Hawaii News Now reported.

He was serving a prison sentence for two counts of second-degree murder.

He was found guilty in 1995 of killing Kototome Fujita and her son Goro Fujita, according to KITV, which reported that Kototome Fujita was found shot in her penthouse and that her son was found dead in his car in a parking structure of a Waikiki hotel. The condo unit and Goro Fujita’s car were set on fire.

Myles Breiner, Fukusaku’s former attorney, told KHON-TV he never had any problems in the 30 years he’s been in prison.

“He wasn’t gang-related, he seemed to rise above all that. He got along with all the staff,” Breiner said. “I’m not satisfied with the fact that this occurred. This should not have occurred.”

Monsoon flooding closes schools and offices in India’s IT hubs

Schools, colleges and government offices were shut Wednesday in parts of southern India as heavy monsoon rains triggered severe flooding.

The worst-hit cities included Chennai and Bengaluru, the country’s industrial and information technology hubs. Power cuts and flight cancellations caused disruption, and thousands of residents prepared for more downpours over the next 48 hours.

The June-September monsoon season has receded in northern parts of the country. However, the northeast monsoon has brought heavy rains to coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and southern Karnataka state. At least 33 people died last month in rains and floods.

Residents of the high-security Poes Garden area in Chennai, where top politicians, industrialists and celebrities live, woke up to severe flooding following overnight rains. Television images showed people struggling through traffic congestion in knee-deep floodwaters.

The India Meteorological Department said that winds of 60 kph (37 mph) were expected to lash the southern region until Thursday.

The Tamil Nadu state government said more than 200 boats and disaster response teams have been deployed and schools, colleges and government offices were closed.

Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in South Asia. Scientists and weather forecasters have blamed climate change for heavier rains in recent years.

King Charles visit to Australia to be met by anti-monarchy protests

Protests against the monarchy will meet the King on his first tour of Australia as its head of state.

Charles and Queen Camilla begin a five-day visit to Australia on Friday, the King’s first long-haul overseas trip since his cancer diagnosis.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has a long-held aim of holding a referendum on breaking ties with the British monarchy and his country becoming a republic.

But the plans were put on hold after Australians over whelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to Indigenous people in a referendum held last year.

The Royal visit will be marked by Graham Smith, chief executive officer of the UK organisation Republic, leading small symbolic demonstrations in the Australian capital of Canberra and Sydney next week.

During the visit Charles will meet colleagues Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer, named as Australians of the year 2024, in recognition of their pivotal work on melanoma, one of Australia’s most common cancers.

Mr Smith said: “I’m in Australia to talk about why the UK should ditch the monarchy and to challenge the royal PR machine.

“I’m not here to tell Australia to become a republic, but to talk to Australians and the British press about the growing republican movement in the UK and the huge failings of the British monarchy.

“The message is simple: Charles does not speak for us, he does not represent us, he should go home.”

Other highlights of the Australian visit will see the royal couple spending time in the capital Canberra meeting leading figures and paying their respects to the country’s fallen, while in western Sydney they will attend a community barbecue – a staple of Australian culture.

The King and Queen will later travel to Samoa for a four-day state visit and join world leaders who are taking part in a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which the monarch will open.

Charles, who is head of the Commonwealth, has held “pre-CHOGM” calls with a number of foreign leaders including the King of Malaysia, Julius Maada Bio, president of Sierra Leone, Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema.

Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state, has also called for Commonwealth nations to contribute to the “true cost” of the monarchy which the organisation claims is £500 million a year for the taxpayer.

Official royal accounts released earlier this year revealed the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant, which supports the official duties of the royal family, was £86.3 million in 2023-24.

Mr Smith said: “On a simple ‘user pays’ principle surely every country should pay for their own head of state. We can probably leave the smaller states out of it, but there’s no reason Australia, New Zealand and Canada can’t pay up.”

Following the King’s cancer diagnosis earlier this year, the overseas tour has been curtailed on doctors’ advice, with a visit to New Zealand dropped from the itinerary and other changes made to the programme.

The King will also pause his cancer treatment during the 11 days he is away from the UK.

Dr George Gross, royal historian and visiting research Fellow at King’s College London, highlighted the soft diplomacy deployed by the royals.

He said: “The fact that this tour is going ahead, despite the King’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, shows its importance to further cement the close ties and bilateral relationships of Australia and Samoa with the UK, all the more important given the geopolitical significance of the Indo-Pacific region.

“It is also clear that the planned meetings and engagements centre around many of the issues and causes championed by King Charles III and those of the Queen, from sustainability and biodiversity, to reading and literacy, as well as continuing the King’s work at raising cancer awareness.”

China unveils plans for manned lunar mission and moon research station

China on Tuesday announced its plans for a manned lunar mission that includes building an international space station and exploring habitable planets and extraterrestrial life.

China also aims to put a person on the moon before 2030, which would make it the second nation after the US to do so.

The mid- to long-term development strategy will guide its missions and research initiatives from 2024 to 2050. These initiatives also represent a significant expansion of the country’s space programme over the coming decades.

The unveiled programme aims to “achieve high-quality development in space science, drive breakthroughs in space technology innovation, upgrade space applications, rank among the world’s leading space nations, and establish China as a global leader in space science,” the China Academy of Sciences (CAS), the highest consultancy for science and technology, said in a statement to Global Times.

In recent years, China has built its own operational space station and launched a lunar probe that collected samples from the far side of the moon and returned them to Earth for analysis.

The new strategy includes 17 priority areas organised into five main scientific themes, along with a three-phase timeline for development.

In the first phase, which targets completion by 2027, China will focus on operating the space station, implementing the manned lunar exploration initiative, continuing its lunar exploration programme, and pursuing planetary exploration efforts.

The “manned lunar exploration is a strategic endeavor that promotes the progress of human civilisation and demonstrates the responsibility of a major power”, said Lin Xiqiang, a China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) spokesperson.

The international lunar research station is scheduled for construction during the second phase that is set to run from 2028 to 2035, reports quoted Ding Chibiao, vice president of CAS, as saying.

The scientists, under the new plan, will explore the celestial bodies in the solar system, exoplanets, and search for extraterrestrial life. Key research areas will focus on the origins and evolution of the solar system, planetary atmospheres, and methods for detecting exoplanets, according to Mr Ding.

The programme also aims to investigate the universe’s origins and evolution, focusing on dark matter, cosmic baryonic matter, and extreme cosmic conditions.

The scientists intend to better understand gravity and the nature of space-time, alongside explorations of the Sun and Earth, reported the Press Trust of India.

The priority areas outlined in the programme include Earth’s cyclical systems, comprehensive observations of the Earth-moon system, space weather monitoring, three-dimensional solar exploration, and heliosphere studies.

In the third phase, running from 2036 to 2050, China will aim to implement five to six major missions, exploring scientific themes of extreme universe, ripples in space-time, panorama of the Sun-Earth system and laws of space, reported the Global Times.

“We have signed agreements with 17 countries and international organizations and are prepared to offer collaboration opportunities at multiple levels and in various forms to our international partners,’’ said Yang Xiaoyu, director of China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) system engineering department.

“We will work with our partners on joint demonstration of overall mission plans, joint design of the International Lunar Research Station, technical cooperation on projects, implementation of overall mission planning, and the sharing of scientific data,” he said.

China’s moon programme is part of a growing rivalry with the US – still the leader in space exploration – and others, including Japan and India. The US is planning to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, though Nasa pushed the target date back to 2026 earlier this year.

The US launched a spacecraft this week on a five and a half year journey to Jupiter, where it will try to study one of the planet’s moons to see if its vast hidden ocean might hold the keys to life.

India and Canada expel diplomats amid row over Nijjar’s assassination

The long-simmering diplomatic dispute between India and Canada dramatically worsened on Monday as both countries expelled each other’s high-ranking officials over the June 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil.

Speaking on live television on Monday following a diplomatically charged day, prime minister Justin Trudeau said India made a “monumental mistake” in supporting criminal activity against Canadians on Canadian soil.

His comments came as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) laid out the first details of stunning allegations against Indian government agents in the country. Canada accused Indian officials of playing a direct role in the assassination of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The allegations by Ottawa have inflamed tensions in the already sour relationship between the two countries which deteriorated last year after Mr Trudeau announced that his government had evidence linking Indian government agents to the killing of Nijjar. The claim sparked a furious reaction from India which denied the allegations.

On Monday, the Indian foreign ministry issued a blistering response, after it received diplomatic communication suggesting that the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats are “persons of interest” in Canada’s investigation.

It said India rejects the “preposterous imputations” and called it the political agenda of the Trudeau government.

Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including India’s high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, and consular officials from the country “in relation to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the Government of India”, said Canada’s foreign affairs department, Global Affairs Canada.

The Indian foreign ministry retaliated by ordering the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats, including acting high commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler.

He was also summoned by India’s External Affairs ministry to protest Canada expelling Indian diplomats.

“It is in the interests of both our countries and the peoples of our countries to get to the bottom of this,” Mr Wheeler told reporters before leaving the foreign ministry.

Analysts say doubling down from both sides over Canada alleging a wider and worsening campaign by the Narendra Modi government to target what it considers anti-India elements could mean a collapse of the relationship for a long time in future.

Calling it an “extraordinary development”, Michael Kugleman, the director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, said “we can’t rule out the possibility of a formal cut off of diplomatic ties”.

“With so much anger on both sides, and with each side doubling down on its position-Canada saying India is committing transnational repression and India saying Canada is sponsoring terrorists-it’s hard to imagine tensions easing anytime soon,” he told The Independent.

Canada’s response is driven by a number of factors, including frustration with New Delhi as well as domestic politics, Mr Kugleman said.

“But it’s also concluded that it’s in the public interest to provide more information about India’s role in transnational repression-perhaps in part prompted by the hope that this will prompt India to ease up on the activities that it claims India is undertaking on Canadian soil,” he added.

Mr Trudeau backed his statements on the RCMP’s unusual release of details of the investigations.

The RCMP said an “extraordinary situation” has compelled it to speak about what it has discovered during its multiple investigations into the involvement of Indian agents in “serious criminal activity in Canada”.

“It is not our normal process to publicly disclose information about ongoing investigations, in an effort to preserve their integrity. However, we feel it is necessary to do so at this time due to the significant threat to public safety in our country,” it said.

It said the law enforcement situation has worsened and they have obtained evidence that demonstrates four very serious issues, including violent extremism, Indian government agents’ alleged link to homicides and violent acts, and interference into democratic processes and use of organised crime.

Mr Trudeau said: “I think it is obvious that the government of India made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians, here on Canadian soil. Whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts, it is absolutely unacceptable.

“No country, particularly not a democracy that upholds the rule of law, can accept this fundamental violation of its sovereignty,” he said.

RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme also addressed a hastily organised conference, saying the team has learned “a significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India”.

Mr Duheme declined to provide specifics, citing ongoing investigations, but said there have been well over a dozen credible and imminent threats that have resulted in police warning members of the South Asian community, notably the pro-Khalistan, or Sikh independence, movement.

Canada‘s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, said India was asked to waive diplomatic and consular immunity and cooperate in the investigation but it refused.

She asked that India‘s government support the ongoing investigation “as it remains in both our countries’ interest to get to the bottom of this”.

She said the violence “actually increased” following the allegations a year ago.

Four Indian nationals have been arrested and charged in Nijjar’s killing. Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia in June 2023.

He was a Canadian citizen born to Indian parents who owned a plumbing business while spearheading the Khalistani movement to demand an independent Sikh homeland within India.

India designated Nijjar a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death had been seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest.