These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
Get up to speed with what’s happening in the fastest growing region in the world.
Stay informed with The ASEAN Post.
Singapore, Hong Kong scrap travel bubble due to different Covid-19 strategies
Singapore and Hong Kong will no longer launch the long-delayed travel bubble for quarantine-free travel between the two cities.
Transport Minister S. Iswaran said on Thursday (Aug 19): "Both sides are focused on keeping our populations safe and minimising the risk of imported cases.
"But our strategies differ, with Singapore now taking steps to becoming a Covid-19-resilient nation. Against this backdrop, my Hong Kong counterpart, Secretary Edward Yau, and I have discussed and concluded that we will not be able to launch or sustain the air travel bubble in its present form."
Mr Iswaran said Singapore and Hong Kong remain committed to facilitating travel between each other, given that both cities are financial and aviation hubs with close ties.
However, Hong Kong is tightening its border control measures on Friday, with vaccinated travellers from Singapore and other places deemed to be of medium-risk of
infection having to serve a 14-day quarantine, instead of seven days. - Straits Times
Cops arrest 31 at 'candlelight vigil' for Covid victims for illegal assembly
Police arrested 31 people for allegedly taking part in an illegal assembly at Dataran Merdeka tonight. They were there for a "candlelight vigil" and memorial service for those who died of Covid-19.
The rally organised by Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat (SSR), the same group which organised the #Lawan rally last month, was scheduled to start at 8pm.
However, it was learnt that the organisers decided to call off the event at the eleventh hour.
Nevertheless, some people turned up as they were unaware that the gathering was called off.
Police detained 17 men and 14 women and took them to the Dang Wangi headquarters about 8.40pm.
Among those who are currently in police custody are #Lawan organiser Mohammad Asraf Sharaf, Undi18 co-founder Qyira Yusri and Misi Solidariti founder, Sarah Irdina Mohamad Ariff. - New Straits Times
Covid cases top 1m
There were 240 new Covid-19 fatalities and 19,851 new cases over the past 24 hours as the total cases in the country exceeded 1 million, according to the Public Health Ministry.
There were 19,526 cases in the general population and 325 among prison inmates.
Over the past 24 hours, 20,478 Covid-19 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals.
Since April 1, around when the third wave of Covid-19 began, there have been 980,847 Covid-19 patients, 768,379 of whom have recovered.
Since the pandemic started early last year, there have been 1,009,710 Covid-19 cases, 795,805 of whom recovered.
The death toll was at 8,732 the third wave and 8,826 from the beginning of the pandemic early last year. - Bangkok Post
PNP Covid-19 death toll climbs to 99
A police officer assigned in Cebu City is the latest Philippine National Police (PNP) coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) fatality, raising its death toll to 99.
Citing reports from the PHP Health Service, PNP chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Friday said the latest fatality is a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel who died on Aug. 18 due to acute respiratory failure secondary to Covid-19.
"On August 11, said patient experienced mild symptoms of Covid-19 and immediately underwent an RT-PCR (reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction) test which yielded a positive result," he added.
As of Friday, the PNP Health Service also recorded 179 recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries to 31,178 out of a total of 33,034.
Another 123 new cases jacked up the active case tally to 1,757. - Philippine News Agency
Teachers nationwide prepare for new school year
Teachers across the country are actively preparing for the new school year in the midst of the COVID pandemic.
Teachers in charge of second-grade and sixth-grade classes will start teaching students following a new general education programme, issued by the Ministry of Education and Training.
The new programme focuses on student activities to develop their competence, and aims to reduce the pressure on students. The new curriculum has fewer subjects and cuts the number of learning hours at school. Schools will have more time for outdoor and entertainment activities for students.
Ninh Thi Tinh, a teacher in Thanh Son District, the northern province of Phu Tho, said she and her colleagues had received an online training course on how to teach students following the new programme via the learning management system of the ministry. - Vietnam News
PP curfew over: Bans on gatherings, high-risk businesses still on
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday decided to end the “campaign to strengthen measures to combat and prevent the spread Covid-19” after 21 days, but advised the capital-provincial administrations to continue to implement practical health measures.
In a statement, Mr Hun Sen said the government decided to end the campaign because effort to strengthen the prevention and control measures of Covid-19 throughout
the country for the past 21 days had been smooth and achieved positive results, helping control and delay the spread of large-scale communicable disease in the community of Delta variant.
In fact, the development of the situation over the last two weeks shows that the community-to-human transmission rate of Covid-19 and the moderate Covid-19 infection rate, as well as the mortality rate of the disease, have steadily declined, he said.
He noted that the recovery rate has also risen, despite the increasing number of Covid-19 and Delta variant in the community that has now spread to the capltal and 23 provinces. - Khmer Times
AA leader says group is 'monitoring' Myanmar military as fears of renewed conflict grow
The Arakan Army (AA) is “monitoring” the activities of the Myanmar military amid concerns about the stability of a ceasefire in Rakhine State, according to the group’s leader.
In an interview with the US-based media outlet Arakkha on Sunday, the AA’s military chief, General Twan Mrat Naing, said that the regime appears to be reacting to moves by the armed group and its political wing, the United League of Arakan (ULA), to establish its own judiciary and other administrative functions in the state.
“From our point of view, we are doing what we should do. Without understanding this, the junta’s army is intensifying its activities and posing threats, so we are carefully monitoring their activities,” he said.
The ULA/AA, which announced earlier this month that it would begin adjudicating legal cases submitted by members of the public, has increased its influence in Rakhine State substantially since entering into a ceasefire with the military late last year.
In response, the junta has moved to reassert its control by imposing new restrictions on the pretext of containing the spread of Covid-19, after the ULA/AA issued stay-at-home orders of its own in late July.
More concerning, however, have been the regime’s moves to strengthen its forces in the northern part of the state since the second week of August, which have raised fears among local civilians of a return to open hostilities.
Since the coup in February, Rakhine State has seen little of the unrest that has gripped most of the rest of the country. This has given rise to speculation that the AA has been working with the regime to discourage anti-coup activities in the state. - Myanmar NOW
Over 56 million Indonesians have taken first COVID shot
At least 56,045,931 Indonesians have received their first COVID-19 vaccine shots as of Thursday afternoon, the COVID-19 Response Task Force has reported.
According to data from the task force, the number of people receiving their first dose increased by 853,437 on Thursday compared to the previous day.
Meanwhile, 965,180 people received the second dose, taking the total number of fully vaccinated people to 30,363,525.
Overall, Indonesia is seeking to vaccinate 208,265,720 citizens to build herd immunity against the coronavirus under the nationwide vaccination drive rolled out on January 13, 2021.
Earlier, President Joko Widodo had said that the government is targeting to administer 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of August 2021. He had also urged regions across the country to intensify vaccination drives in order to achieve the target of administering 50 million doses in seven weeks. - AntaraNews.Com