Fireworks Factory Explosion, the World’s Fastest Footballer, and Real-Life Unicorns: The VICE Evening Bulletin

Indonesia News

A Devastating Explosion Killed Dozens of Workers at a Fireworks Factory
A fireworks warehouse owned by PT Panca Buana Cahaya Sukses in Tangerang, Banten, blew up this morning. Out of 103 workers, 26 have been found dead and 43 were severely injured. The rest are still missing. The police said that the death toll may rise. An eyewitness said the victims were having difficulties opening the locked warehouse door.—Kompas

A Pusamania Borneo’s Player is Dubbed The Fastest Footballer in the World
Terens Puhiri, 21, became a viral sensation overnight. A video of a goal scored by the Pusamania Borneo’s player’s was uploaded to Twitter and quickly turned into memes and was covered by sports media. In the goal scored against Mitra Kukar, Terens was predicted to have ran at 35.4 km/hour, surpassing Premier League’s Leroy Sane’s record. A CBS Sports columnist called Terens as “a mix of Usain Bolt and Lionel Messi, jacked up on Mountain Dew.” —Coconuts

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Another Indonesian Retailer is Closing Down
Debenhams, a retail brand operating under PT Mitra Adi Perkasa Tbk (MAP), will close all its stores in Indonesia by the end of the year. MAP has also already announced that Lotus department store will close its doors at the end of the month. Online shops are to blame for the poor performance of many retail stores. It’s also reported that millennials prefer to shop at specialty boutiques instead of a department store. Previously, Matahari Pasaraya also decided to call it quits after being outperformed with the online shopping industry. —Katadata & Tirto

International News

Bangladesh Floats Moving Rohingya Refugees to an Island That’s Barely There
Some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have arrived in Bangladesh since violence broke out once again in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, overwhelming the facilities at Cox Bazar’s refugee camps. So some Bangladeshi officials think they have a solution: move them all to an island. The problem? It barely exists.—Quartz

Vietnam Is Running Out of Sand
The Southeast Asian country says it may run out of sand—a vital component in cement—in the next five years. The country has long been in the middle of the region’s sand trade, selling barges full of the stuff to countries like Singapore, often at the expense of riverside communities in neighboring Cambodia.—Straits Times

China’s Latest Blow to Freedom of Expression In Hong Kong: Making It Illegal to Boo the National Anthem
Beijing, increasingly concerned with Hong Kong’s rising independence movement, has pushed through a law that would make it illegal to boo the Chinese national anthem. Pro-democracy figures criticized the law. “If they want people to show genuine respect, then they shouldn’t be encouraging them to fake it,” Wu Chi-wai said.—VOA

Banned Cambodia Daily to Restart as Online-Only Publication
Prime Minister Hun Sen forced the storied English-language daily to shut down with an insane $6.3 million USD tax bill. The attack on the Cambodia Daily came a month after 18 radio stations were forced from the air—including broadcasts by the US-sponsored VOA and Free Asia. Now, the Cambodia Daily says it’s returning, as an online newspaper based abroad.—Phnom Penh Post

Everything Else

We Asked an Expert If the Rain Can Really Make You Sick
If you grew up in Indonesia, then you’ll know not to leave your home when it’s raining outside. But don’t worry, rain water doesn’t actually give you skin diseases, despite what your parents say.—VICE

Unicorns Were Real and Ugly as Hell
New research shows that the Elasmotherium sibiricum, a land mammal originally discovered decades ago, died out approximately 29,000 years ago—meaning those unicorn-like creatures existed alongside humans. They’re not as pretty as we’d like them to be, which is proof that we can’t have everything.—VICE