A cruise ship has run aground in Papua New Guinea (PNG), on its first trip following the death of an elderly passenger in late October.
The Coral Adventurer is currently under investigation for the death of Suzanne Rees, 80, who died on a remote Australian island after being left behind by the ship.
On Saturday, the vessel suffered a “grounding incident” off the eastern coast of Papua New Guinea, around 30km (18 miles) from city of Lae, a spokesperson for the ship said.
All passengers and crew aboard the cruise ship have been reported safe, and initial inspections have not revealed any damage to the hull. Further inspections will take place on Sunday.
In a statement to the BBC, a spokesperson for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said they had not received a distress call from the Coral Adventurer.
It added they were monitoring the situation and would support PNG authorities if necessary.
No decisions have been made about the current 12-day voyage, which was due to finish on 30 December.
There were 80 passengers and 43 crew members aboard the ship at the time of the incident. The 12-day voyage was due to finish on 30 December.
Ms Rees had been hiking on the island with fellow passengers, but broke off from the group for a rest.
The ship left without her and returned several hours later after the crew realised the woman was missing.
A major search operation found her body the following day.
The ship was just two days into a 60-day voyage at the time of Ms Rees’s death. The remainder of the cruise was cancelled with full refunds offered to all passengers.
The CEO of Coral Expeditions, Mark Fifield, said that the company was “deeply sorry that this has occurred” and had offered its full support to the Rees family.
Fifield added that the cruise operator was “working closely with Queensland Police and other authorities to support their investigation”.
AMSA was not able to comment on the status of the investigation, and told the BBC that it was “not in the practice of making the results of its investigations public”.
Myanmar’s military is holding a phased election over the next month
Myanmar is voting in an election widely dismissed as a sham, with major political parties dissolved, many of their leaders jailed and as much as half the country not expected to vote because of an ongoing civil war.
The military government is holding a phased ballot nearly five years after it seized power in a coup, which sparked widespread opposition and spiralled into a civil war.
Observers say the junta, with China’s support, is seeking to legitimise and entrench its power as it seeks a way out of the devastating stalemate.
More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls under a new law which carries severe punishments, including the death penalty.
Polling began on Sunday after reports of explosions in at least two regions of Myanmar.
Three people were taken to hospital following a rocket attack on an uninhabited house in the Mandalay region in the early hours of Sunday, the chief minister of the region confirmed to the BBC. One of those people is in a serious condition.
Separately, more than ten houses were damaged in the Myawaddy township, near the border with Thailand, following a series of explosions late on Saturday.
A local resident told the BBC that a child was killed in the attack, and three people were taken to hospital in an emergency condition.
Voters have told the BBC that the election feels more “disciplined and systematic” than those previously.
“The experience of voting has changed a lot,” said Ma Su ZarChi, who lives in the Mandalay region.
“Before I voted, I was afraid. Now that I have voted, I feel relieved. I cast my ballot as someone who has tried their best for the country.”
First-time voter Ei Pyay Phyo Maung, 22, told the BBC she was casting her ballot because she believed that voting is “the responsibility of every citizen”.
“My hope is for the lower classes – right now, the prices of goods are skyrocketing, and I want to support someone who can bring them down for those struggling the most,” she said.
“I want a president who provides equally for all people.”
The Burmese junta has rejected criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to “return [the country] to a multi-party democratic system”.
After casting his vote at a highly fortified polling station in the capital, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told the BBC that the election would be free and fair.
“I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, a civil servant. I can’t just say that I want to be president,” he said, stressing that there are three phases of the election.
Earlier this week, he warned that those who refuse to vote are rejecting “progress toward democracy”.
Win Kyaw Thu/BBC
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cast his ballot in the capital Nay Pyi Taw
Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures convicted under the law against disrupting polls, which was enacted in July.
They were each handed a seven-year jail term after criticising a film promoting the elections, state media reported.
“There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly,” the United Nations’ top human rights official Volker Türk said.
Civilians are “being coerced from all sides”, Mr Türk said in a statement on Tuesday, noting that armed rebel groups have issued their own threats asking people to boycott the polls.
The military has been fighting on several fronts, against both armed resistance groups who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic armies which have their own militias. It lost control of large parts of the country in a series of major setbacks, but clawed back territory this year following relentless airstrikes enabled by support from China and Russia.
The civil war has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more, destroyed the economy and left a humanitarian vacuum. A devastating earthquake in March and international funding cuts have made the situation far worse.
All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under opposition control presents a huge logistical challenge for holding an election.
Voting is set to take place in three phases over the next month in 265 of the country’s 330 townships, with the rest deemed too unstable. Results are expected around the end of January.
There is not expected to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, not all constituencies will go to the polls, making it difficult to forecast a possible turnout.
Six parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will contest only at the state or regional levels.
Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy, which scored landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been banned. Suu Kyi and many of the party’s key leaders have been jailed under charges widely condemned as politically motivated, while others are in exile.
“By splitting the vote into phases, the authorities can adjust tactics if the results in the first phase do not go their way,” Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts told the Myanmar Now news agency.
Ral Uk Thang, a resident in the western Chin state, believes civilians “don’t want the election”.
“The military does not know how to govern our country. They only work for the benefit of their high-ranking leaders.
“When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party was in power, we experienced a bit of democracy. But now all we do is cry and shed tears,” the 80-year-old told the BBC.
Western governments, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while regional bloc Asean has called for political dialogue to precede any election.
Russia’s financial system is reportedly coming under more strain as Moscow’s war on Ukraine nears the end of its fourth full year.
The White House is seeking to revive peace talks this weekend with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky due to meet President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday. Russian forces stepped up their bombardment of Ukraine ahead of the meeting, but prolonged fighting presents risks for the economy.
“A banking crisis is possible,” a Russian official told the Washington Post recently on condition of anonymity. “A nonpayments crisis is possible. I don’t want to think about a continuation of the war or an escalation.”
Russia’s economy was surprisingly resilient in the face of severe Western sanctions after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. That’s as China and India were eager to snap up cheap Russian oil, keeping the Kremlin’s coffers full and providing revenue for its military.
But more recently, energy prices have slumped while Europe and the U.S. have tightened sanctions. Oil and gas revenue has tumbled 22% in the first 11 months of the year, and Reuters estimated that December proceeds are on pace to sink nearly 50%.
To cover the shortfall in energy revenue, Moscow has tapped its sovereign wealth fund. But that is running out now too, so the government has resorted to raising more revenue via tax hikes.
Meanwhile, a tight labor market and high inflation have forced the central bank to keep interest rates high, and recent easing has failed to prevent spending declines in several consumer categories.
With companies feeling the squeeze of high rates and weaker consumption, Russian data show unpaid wages nearly tripled in October from a year ago to more than $27 million, with the Post adding that furloughs and shorter workweeks are also becoming more common.
As a result, more consumers are having trouble servicing their loans. Given the headwinds, the Russian official warning of a banking or nonpayment crisis isn’t the first of its kind.
In June, Russian banks raised red flags on a potential debt crisis as high interest rates weigh on borrowers’ ability to service loans. Also that month, the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs warned many companies were in “a pre-default situation.”
And in September, Sberbank CEO German Gref, one of Russia’s top banking chiefs, said the economy was in “technical stagnation,” following his warnings in July and August that growth was close to zero.
The Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, a state-backed Russian think tank, said this month the country could face a banking crisis by next October if loan troubles worsen and depositors pull out their funds, according to the Post.
“The situation in the Russian economy has deteriorated markedly,” wrote Dmitry Belousov, head of the think tank, in a note seen by the Financial Times. “The economy has entered the brink of stagflation for the first time since early 2023.”
