Chinese woman ‘detained for wearing Japanese kimono’

Police allegedly questioned her for hours after accusations of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’

A Chinese woman said she was detained by police for hours and accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for wearing a Japanese kimono and taking photos in a city street.

The woman was wearing the kimono and a wig while cosplaying as a popular character from the manga series Summer Time Rendering. She was taking photos in Suzhou when she and her photographer were approached by a police officer, according to video filmed and shared to social media.

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Canstruct loses lucrative Nauru offshore processing contract to US prisons operator with controversial record

Management and Training Corporation is set to take over running Australia’s immigration regime on the island

Canstruct has lost the lucrative contract to run Australia’s offshore immigration regime on Nauru with the Brisbane firm to be replaced by a US-headquartered private prisons operator that has a controversial past.

Sources have told the Guardian that Canstruct’s current contract, set to end on 30 September, will not be renewed and from 1 October “facilities, garrison, transferee arrivals and reception services” will be run by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) Australia.

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New Zealand Labour MP suspended for breaching ‘sense of trust’, says Ardern

Suspension of Gaurav Sharma for party rule breaches comes after he made allegations of bullying within the party

New Zealand’s Labour party has suspended MP Gaurav Sharma over what the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said were “repeated breaches” of caucus rules in the past week.

Ardern had called an emergency caucus meeting on Tuesday afternoon, where it was unanimously agreed to suspend Sharma, who has recently made widespread allegations that he and others had experienced bullying within the party.

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Japan beachgoers warned to steer clear of dolphins after spate of attacks

A single dolphin thought to have injured at least six people at beaches in Fukui prefecture, with one person requiring 14 stitches

Beachgoers in Japan are being urged to stay away from dolphins following a spate of attacks thought to involve a single animal that have left at least six people with minor injuries.

The cetacean – believed to be an adult Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin – has bitten several swimmers at three beaches in Fukui prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast since the end of July.

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Oil prices hit lowest level since Ukraine invasion on China growth fears

Chinese recovery from lockdowns shows signs of fizzling out as central bank cuts interest rates

Global oil prices have dropped amid concerns over weaker growth in the Chinese economy caused by repeated Covid lockdowns and a downturn in the property sector.

A barrel of Brent crude fell by about 5% to below $94 (£78) on Monday, hitting the joint lowest levels since the Russian invasion of Ukraine as traders reacted to weaker figures from the world’s second-largest economy.

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China sanctions Taiwan officials and stages new military drills after US lawmakers’ Taipei visit

Beijing carries out ‘combat drills’ and acts against seven individuals for allegedly supporting Taiwan independence

China has sanctioned senior Taiwanese officials and staged a new round of military drills around Taiwan in response to a brief visit to the island by a delegation of bipartisan US lawmakers. The arrival of the lawmakers took place after the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to the island.

On Monday, Chinese state media announced seven individuals had been sanctioned for allegedly supporting Taiwan independence, including Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US, Hsiao Bi-khim, the head of Taiwan’s national security council, Wellington Koo, and Lin Fe-fan, the deputy secretary general of the governing Democratic Progressive party.

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Japanese nurseries’ take-home dirty nappy rule perplexes parents

Survey reveals common practice is seen as ‘strange’ by parents handed child’s soiled nappies to take home

Waiting lists for Japanese nurseries are finally falling, but many parents have found that securing one of the coveted places comes at a price – taking home their child’s soiled nappies.

A survey has shone a light on the common but rarely discussed practice, with about 40% of towns and cities in Japan saying they demand the guardians of their infant clientele take their used nappies with them.

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Japan ministers visit war shrine as South Korea calls for end to historical tensions

Japan PM Fumio Kishida sends offering but stays away from Yasukuni, which honours dead including class-A war criminals

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, sent a ritual offering to a controversial war shrine on Monday – the anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the second world war – as one of its wartime victims, South Korea, called for an end to historical tensions.

Kishida apparently decided to stay away from the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo to avoid antagonising South Korea and China, but three of his ministers have made the pilgrimage in recent days.

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Marshall Islands, haven from Covid for two years, gets 3,000 cases in space of weeks

Pacific country had recorded no community transmission of the virus until last week, and healthcare is struggling to cope

After dodging the Covid-19 pandemic for two years, the Marshall Islands is grappling to control the spread of infections, which have tripled since the first community transmissions were detected a week ago.

The number of positive cases in the north Pacific nation, which has a population of about 60,000 people, has skyrocketed to more than 3,000 cases with four Covid-linked deaths and seven hospital admissions.

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China’s economy slows unexpectedly as Covid outbreaks and property crisis bite

Retail sales and industrial output lower than forecast, with fears that China could miss its annual growth target for first time since 2015

China’s economy unexpectedly slowed in July, with factory and retail activity squeezed by Beijing’s zero-Covid policy and a property crisis, while the central bank surprised markets by cutting key lending rates to revive demand.

July’s industrial output grew 3.8% from a year earlier, slightly down from 3.9% in June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. That compared with a 4.6% increase expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

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Dutton says he was not aware of Morrison’s secret ministries – as it happened

Ed Husic pushes for ‘brain regain’

Industry minister Ed Husic will this week host a series of five roundtable meetings with science and technology leaders in the lead-up to the federal government’s jobs summit, in a bid to kickstart what he called “brain regain” – attracting Australia’s bright minds working overseas to return home, to combat the so-called “brain drain”.

These discussions will also include ways to increase the representation of women and people of diverse backgrounds in skilled occupations. One of my priorities is on “brain regain” – encouraging Australian researchers and innovators to return home. I am interested to hear ideas on how this can be best achieved.

I can’t emphasise strongly enough that this is the start of engagement with these industry sectors. After the jobs and skills summit I will continue the work with industry leaders to ensure we apply practical solutions to accelerate Australia’s pathway to high-skilled, high-value economy.

He’s applied for a job and that’s coming with a significant degree of scrutiny, as it should do. That’s part of the territory if you’re going to put yourself forward for those roles.

If he felt the need to protect the environment from offshore drilling for gas off Sydney’s northern beaches and he felt he needed to swear himself in as minister, that’s something I support.

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US congressional delegation visits Taiwan on heels of Pelosi trip

Five-member group including a senator will meet president and attend banquet hosted by foreign minister

A US congressional delegation has arrived in Taiwan, days after China held military drills around the island in retaliation for the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit.

The five-member delegation, led by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and attend a banquet hosted by the foreign minister, Joseph Wu, during the visit, according to Taiwan’s foreign ministry.

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Revealed: Indonesian workers on UK farm ‘at risk of debt bondage’

As farms look further afield for labour, investigation finds Kent pickers saying they struggle to pay fees charged by unlicensed brokers

Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.

Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.

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‘My family need my support to eat’: how Indonesians came to work on a Kent farm

Drawn to the prospect of a job abroad, people such as Banyu signed up to a language course. From there, their debts to brokers grew

Sitting in a caravan in the hot Kent countryside, Banyu’s face is etched with worry. It is July and he is less than a month into a job picking fruit at Clock House farm near Maidstone, which supplies strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruit to leading supermarket chains.

He says he arrived from Indonesia this summer £5,000 in debt to an unlicensed broker in Bali, handing over the deeds to his family home as surety. He only has a six-month visa for the picking season and is scared that the work is not as lucrative as he hoped.

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Tropical storm Meari unleashes heavy rains on Japan

Warnings of floods and mudslides on Honshu island south-west of Tokyo as storm heads towards the capital

Tropical storm Meari unleashed heavy rains on Japan’s main Honshu island as it headed northward towards the capital, Tokyo, according to Japanese weather officials.

The national meteorological agency said Meari made landfall in Shizuoka prefecture south-west of Tokyo on Saturday afternoon, bringing sudden heavy rains and blasting winds to a widespread area and prompting warnings about mudslides and flooding.

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Xi Jinping faces stumbling blocks, as crucial Communist party meeting looms

At a time when he wants to project stability, China’s president is grappling with a long-term crisis over Taiwan, a faltering economy and ongoing Covid outbreaks

Having presided over a grand celebration of the party’s centenary and suppressed mass Covid outbreaks last year, China’s president, Xi Jinping, told his countrymen and women in his 2022 New Year address that the Chinese nation was “making confident strides on the path toward the great rejuvenation”.

But so far, the Year of the Tiger has been full of stumbling blocks. First, the draconian Covid lockdowns in major cities such as Xi’an and Shanghai, the commercial capital, sparked outcry and disrupted global supply chains. Then the economy showed signs of a serious slowdown, leading to growing unemployment among the young. Xi’s “no limit” partnership with Vladimir Putin also made China a target of western criticism.

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US and Chinese officials discuss Biden-Xi meeting amid Taiwan friction

Two leaders raised possibility of in-person encounter when they last talked by phone in late July, US official confirms

US and Chinese officials have been discussing a face-to-face meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, amid a significant escalation in friction over Taiwan.

Kurt Campbell, the coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs in Biden’s national security council, confirmed on Friday that the two leaders had raised the possibility of an in-person meeting when they last talked by phone in late July “and agreed to have their team’s follow up to sort out the specifics”.

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Weather tracker: deadly floods in South Korea and drought in China

While Seoul experienced torrential downpours, rainfall levels are down in China’s Yangtse River basin

Extreme flooding in South Korea this week submerged streets, cars and buildings, as torrential downpours brought more than a month’s worth of rainfall in the space of a few days. Between Monday and Wednesday a cumulative total of 525mm – a little over 20 inches – was recorded in Seoul.

At least nine people are confirmed to have died from the floods and many more are reported injured or missing. High rainfall rates and flooding during the monsoon season in South Korea is common, with average rainfall of up to 10mm a day and 250mm in the month of August. However, this week rainfall accumulations far exceeded these typical conditions.

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Australian-born judge released from immigration detention in Kiribati, after being held overnight

David Lambourne, who serves on the high court of Kiribati, was detained on Thursday after a failed attempt by the Kiribati government to deport him

Kiribati’s Australian-born high court justice David Lambourne was released from immigration detention on Friday night, with the government belatedly complying with an order from the country’s court of appeal.

The court had ordered Lambourne’s release on Friday morning, after he was detained on Thursday following the government’s unsuccessful attempt to deport him, contrary to court orders.

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US and allies should move to protect ‘freedom of navigation’, says Taiwan envoy

Kelly Wu-Chiao Hsieh called for operations to uphold the ‘median line’ in the Taiwan Strait in response to China’s military exercises

The US and its allies should jointly respond to China’s live ammunition drills designed to intimidate Taiwan by holding “freedom of navigation” operations in the Taiwan Strait, Taipei’s official representative to the UK has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, Kelly Wu-Chiao Hsieh also called on the UK to uphold the principles of rules-based international order and forge closer trade and security investment relations with Taiwan. He welcomed the decision of the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to condemn the unprecedented Chinese military exercises in the wake of the visit of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to the island, the most senior US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years.

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