Japan drones find cabin swallowed by sinkhole with ‘person inside’

At least one person’s remains could be inside a truck cabin swallowed by a sinkhole in Japan and found inside a sewer pipe after two weeks of search, a fire department official said on Wednesday.

The body of a truck’s missing 74-year-old driver could be inside the cabin that got sucked into a chasm near Tokyo, officials said, confirming that drone images have captured what is likely a “person”. The truck slipped into the sinkhole two weeks ago near the Japanese capital city.

It is unclear if the body is that of the missing driver.

“After experts analysed photos taken with a drone, they said there’s a cabin of a truck in the photos and they can’t rule out the possibility that what appears to be inside is a person,” local fire department official Tomonori Nakazawa said, reported AFP.

A lorry was swallowed after the sinkhole surfaced at an intersection in the city of Yashio during morning rush hour on 28 January.

The sinkhole is now 40m (131ft) in diameter, officials said. It is believed to be caused by a sewer rupture. The rescuers were able to pull out the truck’s loading platform from the sinkhole but were unable to reach the cabin which had the driver.

The Mainichi reported that sediment likely flowed into the heavily corroded pipe, laid about 33ft underground, creating a hollow beneath the road, which collapsed under the weight of passing vehicles.

Nearly 30 hours after the collapse, the driver remained trapped in the vehicle as sand and mud filled his seat, according to Japan’s Nippon TV.

Rescue workers initially heard the driver responding to their calls, but soon lost contact.

However, rescuers were unable to enter the 5m-wide sewer pipe where the truck cabin was last seen due to the continuous water flow and high levels of hydrogen sulphide gas, Mr Nakazawa said. The sinkhole was initially sized at 10m wide and 5m deep.

However, it merged with another nearby sinkhole and has since quadrupled in size. The efforts to rescue the man had to be suspended as further cave-ins at the sinkhole made the area highly unstable.

The authorities called off the search inside the sinkhole on Sunday to focus on the nearby sewer pipe where the truck’s cabin was spotted, reported Kyodo News.

It will take at least three months to build a temporary bypass pipe to stop the water flow, according to governor Motohiro Ono of Saitama prefecture.

The rescue team will have to wait for the completion of the bypass before moving in to access the truck cabin, he said on Tuesday.

Five families living in the vicinity of a sinkhole in Japan have been told to evacuate as the crater continued to expand, days after swallowing a truck along with its driver. More than a hundred residents living within a 50m radius of the hole had already been moved out in the week incident took place.

Man jailed for raping wife freed as marital rape not a crime in India

A man jailed for raping his wife after she accused him in a dying statement has been freed by a judge, on the grounds husbands in India cannot be prosecuted for marital rape.

The 40 year-old man was convicted of charges of rape, “unnatural” sex, and culpable homicide not amounting to murder for his wife’s death, and jailed for 10 years in 2019.

He had been arrested two years earlier after his wife, a minor, made a dying declaration saying that she was forced to have sex with him and suffered injuries as a result. She was admitted to hospital and died the same day, according to the legal media outlet Live Law.

However, the Chhattisgarh High Court has now overturned that conviction citing the country’s laws on forced sexual acts within marriage, and ordered his immediate release from prison.

The single judge bench of justice Narendra Kumar Vyas said that “if the age of wife is not below age of 15 years then any sexual intercourse or sexual act by the husband with his wife cannot be termed as rape under the circumstances, as such absence of consent of wife for unnatural act loses its importance”. This appears to be at odds with a landmark Supreme Court ruling in October 2017 that raised the age of marital rape from 15 to 18.

The defence also argued before the high court that there was no legally admissible evidence against the accused and the conviction was based only on the woman’s dying declaration.

The counsel further disputed her cause of death, contending that the original trial “overlooked statements from two witnesses who testified the woman had suffered from piles since her first childbirth which caused bleeding and abdominal pain”, the Times of India reported.

Last year the Indian government opposed calls to classify non-consensual sexual acts within marriage as rape, arguing the move could have an impact on conjugal relationships and ‘disturb the institution of marriage’.

The federal Home Ministry told the Supreme Court that while a husband does not have the right to violate his wife’s consent, labelling such an act “rape” would be “excessively harsh and therefore disproportionate”.

Why a China deal has strained New Zealand’s ties with the Cook Islands

A historic visit to China by the prime minister of the Cook Islands has strained ties with New Zealand, the prime benefactor of the small self governing South Pacific island nation.

Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown’s Beijing visit this week – the first by leader of the nation in a decade – has sparked concerns over China’s expansion plans in the region.

Cook Islands and China are set to ink a strategic partnership agreement in the coming days. It is a deal that Wellington said was done without properly consulting it despite the two nations’ constitutional ties.

A spokesperson for New Zealand’s foreign ministry said it expected the Cook Islands government to fully consult Wellington on any major agreements it planned to enter that could “have major strategic and security implications”.

This has caused tensions between the neighbours who are about to complete 60 years of a free association agreement this year that allows Wellington to have influence over the foreign policy of the island state among other key national issues.

On the other hand, Beijing is seen to be firming the diplomatic ties it has with its development partner Cook Islands since 1997.

A collection of 15 small islands and atolls, Cook Islands has a population of 15,000 and a large exclusive economic zone. It has been self-governing in free association with New Zealand, its largest source of aid. The arrangement allows Cook Islanders to hold New Zealand citizenship and passports and to work and live in New Zealand.

New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxon said he expected transparency and consultation with Cook Islands.

“Under our constitutional arrangements, we expect, you know, in matters of defense and security to be transparently discussed between partners. That’s all we’re asking for here,” Mr Luxon said.

New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters said he had repeated in a phone call to Mr Brown that he should discuss with New Zealand the contents of the so-called Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and other agreements that the Cook Islands’ prime minister intends to sign in China.

“This lack of consultation is a matter of significant concern to the New Zealand government,” Mr Peters’ office said over the weekend.

The key themes of the Joint Action Plan for Comprehensive Strategic Partnership include trade cooperation, climate, tourism, and infrastructure.

Mr Brown said the joint partnership will help expand economic opportunities “while ensuring our sovereignty and national interests remain at the forefront”.

The details of this deal between Cook Islands and China “will be agreed upon” during Mr Brown’s trip, he said. However, the deal will not involve security or defence matters, Mr Brown said

The Cook Islands leader said: “We value our partnership with New Zealand and we expect the same respect.

“Disagreements, although difficult, are an inevitable part of international relations but they should never define the entirety of our engagement,” Mr Brown said, denying any dispute.

Mr Brown said the two countries have remained in touch, describing the engagement as “consistent, respectful and open”.

He also backed the Cook Islands’ right to chart its own path as a self-governing country.

The Chinese foreign ministry said that it was ready to work with the Cook Islands to “achieve new progress” and that both the nations – New Zealand and the Cook Islands – remain Beijing’s important partners.

China insisted that the visit is not meant to conspire against anyone in the South Pacific.

“The relationship between China and the Cook Islands is not directed against any third party and should not be subject to or disrupted by any third party,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Monday.

China has been expanding its growing influence in the Pacific in recent years, including its security agreement with the Solomon Islands in 2022, raising eyes in the US and its allies in the region.

A larger footprint in the South Pacific region will help boost China’s military presence and strategic alignment against smaller neighbours like Taiwan in the event of a full-scale military escalation.

For example, China’s security agreement with the Solomon Islands allows for Chinese police presence on the islands, purportedly for training the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, the closest the country has to an army.

Beijing has been using its economic weight and diplomatic heft in the South Pacific in what critics say is a push to reduce the influence of the US and its allies and give itself access to mineral resources, fisheries and global stature.

Sydney nurses suspended for threatening to ‘kill Israeli patients’

Two nurses in Sydney are facing a criminal investigation for antisemitism after claiming in a social media video that Israeli patients in Australia will be denied treatment or killed.

The New South Wales health workers have been stood down at the Bankstown Hospital after allegedly declaring that they would kill Israeli patients if they had to treat them.

One nurse, who falsely claimed to be a doctor, even suggested he had killed Israeli patients, 9News reported.

The incident comes amid a wave of antisemitic attacks targeting Jews in Australia in the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza. Recent months have seen attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars belonging to Jews across the country as well as the discovery of a caravan carrying explosives and a list of Jewish targets in Sydney.

The nurses, wearing their uniforms, engaged in a conversation on video chat platform Chatruletka with Jewish content creator Max Veifer. After learning that Mr Veifer was from Israel, one of the nurses said if patients from the country came to their hospital, she would not treat them.

“I won’t treat them, I’ll kill them,” she said.

The other nurse, a man, said: “Eventually you’re going to get killed and you’re going to go to (hell).”

“It’s Palestine‘s country, not your country,” the woman nurse said. “One day your time will come … you will die the most disgusting death.”

The man added: “You have no idea how many Israeli … came to this hospital and … I send them to (hell).”

Mr Veifer shared the conversation on his TikTok page and it quickly sparked outrage.

“This morning Bankstown Police Area Command launched an investigation into the video that has circulated widely on social media,” the New South Wales police said in a statement.

“Officers attached to Strike Force Pearl have now taken carriage of the investigation. NSW Health believes they have identified the individuals involved and are currently assisting detectives with their investigation.”

According to Australian media, the TikTok video was sent to NSW health minister Ryan Park at 7.20am local time and the nurses were stood down by 10am. Mr Park apologised to the Jewish community for the “vile, disgusting act” and sought to reassure them they would continue to get “first class” care in Australian hospitals.

Federal health minister Mark Butler condemned the video saying that every health professional was obliged to care for “whomever comes before you”.

“The idea that you would single out a particular group in our community and indicate you would not care for them runs against every single principle in our healthcare system. At a time of unprecedented antisemitism in our country, this is a particularly sickening video,” he said.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese called the video “sickening and shameful” and said it was driven by hate. “These antisemitic comments … have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia,” he said in a post on X.

He added: “They have rightly been referred to the NSW Police for criminal investigation. Individuals found to have committed criminal antisemitic acts will face the full force of our laws.”

Australia last week passed anti-hate crime laws under which a Nazi salute in public, among similar offences, will be punishable by a mandatory jail sentence of 12 months to six years.

Man who threw puppy into sea given 15 days in Thai jail

A Myanmar national has been sentenced to 15 days in prison in Thailand on animal abuse charges after he was filmed repeatedly throwing a puppy into the sea, an animal welfare organisation said.

Thi Ha Aung, 19, sparked outrage in the country after a video of him throwing a puppy into the sea in late 2023 went viral on social media.

He told police that he and his friend were at a beach in the southern province of Chumphon when he caught a dog and threw it into the sea. He said the two of them were drunk at that time.

The Chumphon Provincial Court sentenced him to 15 days in prison without parole, according to Watchdog Thailand Foundation (WDT), an animal welfare non-governmental organisation, according to The Nation.

The immigration bureau said it has revoked the visa of the Myanmar national and was preparing to deport him back after the conclusion of his sentence.

The disturbing video of the incident showed the black puppy desperately struggling to swim back as the man laughed as he hurled it back again and again into the deep waters.

The dog reportedly survived the assault.

WDT then shared a wanted message on its Facebook page for the man and filed a police complaint against him for animal torture.

The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau tracked him, who surrendered and confessed that he was the person who threw the dog.

The man apologised to the people and asked for forgiveness for his “reckless” behaviour which was influenced by his friend filming the video.

Last year, a Thai drama faced investigation and boycott calls over the allegation of animal abuse after a cat was shown convulsing on the ground.

Activists accused the makers of “The Empress of Ayodhaya” of sedating the cat to show it has been poisoned and eventually died in the episode.

Television channel One31 said in a statement that the cat was sedated for the scene and that its owner was present. The sedation was done under the care of experts from an animal modelling agency, according to The Bangkok Post.

DeepSeek is trying to erase our genocide from history, Uyghurs warn

DeepSeek has had a meteoric rise in the growing world of AI, becoming a strong competitor to US rival ChatGPT.

But for Xinjiang’s Uyghurs, who are facing an alleged genocide, the rollout of China’s newest chatbot was just another way to remove their 12 million people from history.

“The Chinese government is trying to erase the Uyghur people by employing AI to mislead the public,” Rahima Mahmut, who fled China in 2000, told The Independent.

Ms Mahmut, who has not heard from her family for eight years, and learnt her brother was locked up in a mass-internment camp for two of those, had reason for concern.

The “world-leading AI assistant”, as it describes itself, was designed to give “helpful and harmless responses” and has been downloaded over three million times worldwide.

But when asked “are the Uyghurs facing a genocide”, the chatbot asserted the claim was a “severe slander of China’s domestic affairs” and “completely unfounded”.

“We firmly oppose any country, organisation, or individual using so-called human rights issues to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” it said.

For Ms Mahmut, “so-called human rights issues” meant fleeing her hometown of Ghulia after seeing her neighbours and friends locked up en masse in 1997.

She was escaping Beijing’s “strike hard” campaign which saw thousands of arrests, as well as executions, in response to a growing separatist movement across Xinjiang.

Since then, the US, UK, Canada and Netherlands have accused China of committing genocide in the region, where millions of Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, live.

The declarations followed several reports that found evidence of China sterilising women, interning people in camps, and separating children from their families.

In 2018, a UN human rights committee claimed China was holding up to a million people in “counterextremism centres” in the northwestern province.

Dr Adrian Zenz, a leading expert in Beijing’s Xinjiang policies, said China was doing this to “eradicate” the Uyghurs as an ethnic group and extinguish their dream of independence.

“They are culturally and religiously very different to the rest of China, they are a Turkic people, not Chinese, which is a problem for Beijing,” Dr Zenz told The Independent.

In the 1990s, Uyghurs saw their Turkic neighbours like Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan gain independence from Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union.

This inspired a wave of nationalism across Xinjiang, and Uyghurs began talking about greater autonomy from Beijing, Dr Zenz said.

“This spooked the Chinese authorities, so they started to crack down on Uyghur society,” he said.

The crackdown initially included shutting down mosques, arresting religious leaders and flooding Xinjiang with migrant Han-Chinese workers.

These policies led to a vicious cycle of violence and today’s policies which have seen China accused of genocide, Dr Zenz explained.

China has claimed the campaign, and ongoing crackdown, was needed to prevent terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism.

DeepSeek said China was committed to the “social harmony” and “sustained development” of Xinjiang.

Zumretary Arkin, 31, has not heard from her family since 2017, and like many Uyghurs, is aware her relatives are frequently detained and interrogated.

So to see DeepSeek rewrite her homeland’s history was “deeply worrying” to her and, like Ms Mahmut, she said it represented a new way for China to erase Uyghur history.

“This sort of technology is replacing Google. It is where people go for research and information. This is deeply worrying,” Ms Arkin told The Independent.

“We have to remember DeepSeek is controlled by the Chinese government, and they are using it as another way to erase the Uyghur people,” she said.

Dr William Matthews, who researches China’s technological rise, said Beijing’s censorship of DeepSeek should be “extremely concerning” to us all.

“This app adds to China’s ability to spread censorship around the world. It should be concerning to us all as it becomes a popular platform,” he told The Independent.

“It is directly linked to the interests of the Chinese state. There is an inherent danger in something like this.

“These apps are extremely powerful and influential and will become the way we find out information.”

Ms Mahmut, who now spends her time in London making Uyghur music while reflecting on the slow strangulation of her culture, said: “The assertion that the claim of Uyghur genocide is ‘completely unfounded’ is not only false. It is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities who have been subjected to horrific atrocities.”

The Independent has contacted DeepSeek for comment.

Tesla opens $200m battery factory in China despite trade war tensions

Tesla launched a new $200m battery factory in Shanghai, expanding its footprint in China even as tensions escalated between Washington and Beijing over trade.

The Megapack facility, located near Tesla’s existing carmaking Gigafactory in the Lingang Free Trade Zone, is its first energy storage gigafactory outside the US.

It’s the latest strategic move by the company to strengthen its energy storage business in one of its most critical markets despite geopolitical frictions.

Spanning approximately 200,000sqm, the Shanghai Megapack plant is designed to produce up to 10,000 Megapack units annually, equivalent to about 40GWh of energy storage capacity.

Each Megapack, an advanced lithium-ion battery system, can store over 3,900KWh of electricity, enough to power roughly 3,600 homes for an hour. The plant is expected to ramp up production by mid-2025, with initial units aimed at both domestic and international markets.

Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, who is spearheading the changes in government functioning in Washington, did not attend the launch on Tuesday.

This expansion highlights Tesla’s deepening investment in China, the world’s largest energy storage and electric vehicle market, amid the backdrop of a stage trade war.

The move comes shortly after the US imposed new tariffs on Chinese imports, prompting retaliatory measures from Beijing on American goods, including automobiles.

Tesla’s presence in China hasn’t been without controversy. The company has faced scrutiny over its handling of consumer complaints, with incidents involving alleged product defects drawing public and governmental attention. Despite these challenges, Tesla remains a dominant player in China’s EV and energy sectors.

The Shanghai Megapack factory is expected to bolster Tesla’s position in the global energy storage market, which is projected to grow significantly as countries shift towards renewable energy. The factory’s output will support large-scale energy projects, such as grid stabilisation and renewable energy integration, addressing the increasing demand for reliable, clean energy solutions.

Podcaster awarded by Modi in trouble with police over incest joke

Indian podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia, known online as BeerBiceps, has landed in legal trouble over coarse comments he made on a comedy show.

Allahbadia, 31, recently appeared on an episode of YouTube comedy show India’s Got Latent, helmed by comedian Samay Raina. On the show, he asked a contestant: “Would you rather watch your parents have sex for the rest of your life or join in once to make it stop?”

The show itself is a play on popular reality TV series India’s Got Talent. Each episode features a different set of celebrity judges and Raina as the sole constant, focuses on humour that is often called out on social media for being “crass”, and uses abusive language.

Several videos of Allahbadia’s question went viral on social media almost immediately, with most reactions calling his statement offensive and crude.

Allahbadia started out as a fitness and lifestyle content creator in August 2015 before moving to podcasting in 2019. The online influencer has over nine million followers on three Instagram accounts, and over 18 million subscribers on his YouTube channels.

He has interviewed celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even Indian ministers like former education minister Smriti Irani, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, external affairs minister S Jaishankar, and former Delhi chief minister Atishi.

In March 2024, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi awarded Allahbadia the ‘Disruptor of the Year’ prize at the first edition of the National Creators Award.

One of the first reactions came from journalist and lyricist Neelesh Misra, who called out the judges for “zero sense of responsibility” and social media platforms for rewarding such content.

“Meet the perverted creators who are shaping our country’s creative economy. I am sure each one has a following of millions. This content is not designated as adult content – it can be seen with ease even by a child if the algorithm takes him or her there,” he wrote on X. “The creators or the platform have zero sense of responsibility. I am also not surprised at all that four people at the desk – and lots in the audience – celebrated this and had a great laugh. You, the audience, normalised and celebrated this and people like these.”

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed the issue, saying: “I have come to know about it. I have not seen it yet. Things have been said and presented in a wrong way. Everyone has freedom of speech, but our freedom ends when we encroach upon the freedom of others. In our society, we have made some rules, and if someone violates them, it is absolutely wrong and action should be taken against them.”

Congress party member Supriya Shrinate wrote on X: “This isn’t creative. It’s pervert. And we can’t normalise perverse behaviour as cool. The fact that this sick comment met loud applause must worry us all.”

In addition to the backlash on social media, police complaints were filed in financial capital Mumbai and Guwahati city in the northeastern state of Assam against Allahbadia, Raina, an influencer named Apoorva Mukhija who was part of the panel, and India’s Got Latent for promoting obscenity.

While the police in Mumbai are still conducting an inquiry, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shared on X that a First Information Report, the first step in any police procedure on the commission of a cognizable offence, had been filed.

In the wake of the backlash, Allahbadia posted an apology on Monday. “I shouldn’t have said what I said on India’s got latent. I’m sorry,” he said in a video. “My comment wasn’t just inappropriate, it wasn’t even funny. Comedy is not my forte, I am just here to say sorry. Many of you have asked if this is how I want to use my platform. Obviously this is not how I wish to use it. I’m not going to give any context or justification or reasoning behind whatever happened. I am just here for an apology. I personally had a lapse in judgement. It wasn’t cool on my part.

“The podcast is watched by people of all ages, I don’t want to be the kind of person that takes that responsibility lightly and family is the last thing I would ever disrespect.”

The issue continued to escalate, however, with local media reporting that a Mumbai police team visited Allahbadia’s home on Tuesday and Priyanka Chaturvedi, a member of parliament, saying she would raise the issue in the national legislature.

“Any abusive language in the name of comedy content crosses limits is not acceptable. You get a platform, that doesn’t mean that you will utter anything. He is someone with millions of subscribers, every political leader has sat in his podcast. PM has given him an award,” she said.

“As a member of standing committee of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, I will raise this issue.”

The video of the episode featuring Allahbadia was taken off YouTube on Tuesday following a request from the National Human Rights Commission India member Priyank Kanoongo.

“We have taken cognizance upon receiving a complaint against some YouTube channel that they are using abusive language, they are using pervert content on their YouTube channel and through this they are actually polluting young minds,” Mr Kanoongo was quoted as saying by ANI.

“It is against the modesty of women. They are also indulged in some activities which are prima facie violative and they are passing racist comments against some ethnic groups in India.

“So, we have issued a notice to YouTube to take down all these types of content and inform concerned police authorities so that they can start penal action against these persons.”

The chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Vijaya Rahatkar, urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to issue guidelines for streaming platforms amid “the increasing prevalence of obscene content”.

The Independent has reached out to Allahbadia and Raina for comment.

As the issue continued to gain steam, the tone of the criticism changed, with many people questioning the hullabaloo over a YouTuber’s comments while several media and political personalities make hate speech with no punishment.

“What is being done today in the name of dank comedy is pure nonsense. The only purpose is to shock and disgust audiences for views which is having a disastrous impact on the moral development of our youth,” YouTuber Dhruv Rathee said.

He added, however, that state interference “is not the solution as it may usher in a harsh censorship regime. Instead, we need to pressurize content creators to make better content”.

“It’s getting more and more bizarre. Now, Mumbai police has landed at Ranveer Allahbadia house as FIRs are filed against him across the country. Doesn’t the outrage factory have better things to do? The guy has apologised. Do any of our serial hate speech makers ever do that? One of them has just won an assembly seat in Delhi by a huge margin in fact. Time to take a chill pill! And for the cops to actually catch the real criminals around us!” asked veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.