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.
World leaders urge action to avoid 'doomsday' climate future
World leaders at the COP26 conference made impassioned pleas on Monday (Nov 1) for action to save the world from devastating climate impacts, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson likening climate change to a doomsday device in a James Bond film.
"It's one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now," Mr Johnson told the conference, referencing a digital clock out of a spy movie that "ticks down remorselessly to a detonation that will end human life as we know it".
About 120 leaders are attending the talks and will be making speeches on Monday and Tuesday as negotiations get under way on a deal to prevent increasingly severe weather disasters, slow the pace of sea level rise and accelerate a green energy revolution. - Straits Times
Kedah flood situation worsens with Kubang Pasu the latest district affected
The flood situation in Kedah worsened following several hours of heavy rainfall yesterday, forcing over a dozen flood evacuees in Baling to return to relief centres while Kubang Pasu became the latest district hit by the disaster.
Kedah Civil Defence Force Disaster Management Committee Secretariat chief Mohd Muaz Mohd Yusof said as at 8am today, 526 people were seeking shelter at eight flood relief centres in Baling, Kubang Pasu, Kota Setar, Pendang and Pokok Sena districts.
Muaz said in Baling, 15 evacuees from five families who had returned home yesterday, had to head back to the relief centres at SK Siong and SK Tunku Putera after their homes were flooded early today. - New Straits Times
A third of schools reopen at start of the second semester
About 34% of public schools nationwide resumed onsite learning on the first school day of the second semester on Monday.
Education Minister Treenuch Thienthong revealed that around 12,000 out of 35,000 schools welcomed students back on Monday after a long period of learning at home due to Covid-19, while several more will reopen their doors on Nov 15.
Ms Treenuch said the ministry had not set a target for how many schools should resume onsite learning, and it is up to the readiness of each institution. - Bangkok Post
Taguig opens Covid-19 vax program to minors
The coronavirus vaccination rollout to the rest of the pediatric population aged 12 to 17 years in Taguig City begins Tuesday.
This means that minors belonging to this age group, who do not have comorbidities, may now receive their life-saving shots, accompanied by their parents and guardians, at the city's mega vaccination hubs.
In an advisory, the city government said vaccination for minors is done exclusively at the Lakeshore Hall from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Bonifacio High Street from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. - Philippine News Agency
Businesses returning to operation up 30 per cent
The number of newly-established enterprises surged in both quantity and registered capital last month compared to the previous month.
The number of enterprises returning to operation increased by 29.8 per cent month-on-month.
Specifically, the whole country had 8,233 newly-established enterprises last month, with registered capital of VND108.6 trillion (US$4.75 billion) and 58,800 employees, an increase of 111.2 per cent in quantity, 73.9 per cent in registered capital and 17.9 per cent in terms of the number of employees compared to September. - Vietnam News
PM outlines four factors that led to Kingdom’s full reopening
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday, during the launch of the vaccination campaign for children aged five years old at the Peace Palace, said that his decision to reopen the country was based on four factors.
He explained that the first factor is the fact that around two million Cambodian people were vaccinated with the booster dose. As a result of the vaccination campaign, resistance against Covid-19 among the Khmer people is very high, helping to cut down the mortality rate of the pandemic.
Regarding this factor, Mr Hun Sen recommended that people not just count on the vaccines that the government bought for them, they must observe precautions against the pandemic everywhere, and at all times. - Khmer Times
Soldiers abduct 19 villagers in southern Shan 'to use as human shields'
Junta soldiers abducted 19 people from a village in southern Shan State last week, blindfolding them before leading them away to be used as human shields, local resistance fighters said.
The residents were taken from the village of Kathea on Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Pekhon chapter of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) told Myanmar Now.
Many of Kathea’s 450 residents fled the village two days earlier after junta shells exploded at a drug rehabilitation clinic where people were sheltering during a clash between the military and a coalition of fighters from the PDF and the Karenni National Defence Force (KNDF). - Myanmar NOW
Indonesia largest among developing nations to pursue energy transition
Indonesia is one of the few countries and the largest among the developing countries to take concrete steps to realize a just and affordable energy transition, a Finance Ministry official has said.
“This shows a strong signal of Indonesia’s seriousness to address the risk of climate change,” Chief of the Fiscal Policy Board at the Finance Ministry Febrio Kacaribu said in a written statement released on Monday.
The Indonesian Government will optimize its active involvement in various international forums, including the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to set an example to other countries and catalyze cooperation in mitigating and overcoming the impact of climate change through concrete action, he said. - AntaraNews.Com