Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Prime minister condemns Beijing for linking its 2018 detention of two Canadians with arrest of Huawei executive
Beijing’s linking of its detention of two Canadians in China to the arrest of a Chinese executive in Vancouver shows it does not understand the meaning of an independent judiciary, Justin Trudeau said on Thursday.
Campaigners object to Beijing’s proposed laws against ‘treason and subversion’, which follow months of protests
Beijing’s parliament has announced that it will discuss controversial national security laws for Hong Kong in a dramatic escalation of China’s efforts to place the semi-autonomous territory under its control and curtail pro-democracy protests.
FC Seoul was forced to apologise this week after TV and online viewers spotted about two dozen sex dolls dotted around the stadium during the club’s 1-0 win over Gwangju FC on Sunday.
International praise for Covid response and her rebuilding of traditional Labour support has been astute, but PM must address women’s wellbeing
The gendered dimensions of political leadership during the Covid-19 crisis has achieved global proportions, with headlines claiming that women are doing things differently, and with better results. Much of this is assertion, given Vietnam and Georgia, amongst other countries with male leaders, have also seen successful containment. We have also witnessed some pushback against the policy decisions taken by Belgian prime minister Sophie Wilmès.
Nevertheless, the novelty of women political leaders remains newsworthy, and the media’s go-to international “face’” of those women who have managed this crisis exceptionally well is Jacinda Ardern.
Here is more on US president Donald Trump calling for an in-person G7 meeting.
Donald Trump has said he may seek to revive a face-to-face meeting of Group of Seven leaders near Washington, after earlier canceling the gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic.
New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has suggested employers consider a four-day working week and other flexible working options as a way to boost tourism and help employees address persistent work/life balance issues.
In a Facebook live video Ardern said people had suggested everything from the shorter work week to more public holidays as a means to stimulate the economy and encourage domestic tourism, while the borders remain closed to foreign nationals.
Mao Yin was taken in Xi’an while walking home from nursery with his father in 1988
A Chinese man who was stolen from his family as a toddler has been reunited with his parents after 32 years.
Mao Yin was snatched in 1988 when he was walking home from nursery with his father, aged just two and half. His parents finally embraced him again on Monday afternoon, in the western city of Xi’an, where he was born.
Investigation centres on claims Beijing has spied on EU from Malta’s embassy in Brussels
Malta’s ties to China have come under the spotlight after Belgium’s intelligence services confirmed they have been investigating suspicions that Beijing has been spying from the country’s embassy opposite the European commission’s headquarters in Brussels.
A spokesman for Belgium’s homeland security service, the Veiligheid van de Staat, made the unusual disclosure about the existence of the inquiry after the French newspaper Le Monde reported on the suspected espionage by the Chinese state.
Chinese authorities have sealed off the north-eastern city of Shulan, home to about 700,000 people, after an outbreak of coronavirus, imposing measures similar to those used in Wuhan.
All villages and residential compounds in the city were closed off, and only one person from each household allowed out for two hours every second day for essentials.
Hong Kong has in effect banned an annual vigil for the Tiananmen Square massacre by extending its physical distancing measures for another 14 days.
After two consecutive days without local transmissions of Covid-19, the city state’s authorities announced some restrictions would ease, but those limiting gatherings to a maximum of eight would be extended for another 14 days.
Twenty one more people have died from Covid-19 in the Netherlands, the lowest number reported on a Tuesday since March, taking the total death toll in the country to 5,715.
According to the latest update from the Dutch national institute for public health and the environment (RIVM), a further 108 people tested positive for the virus, the lowest number of new daily infections recorded since 10 March. So far, 44,249 confirmed cases have been reported.
The number of people who have fallen ill due to the novel coronavirus in the Netherlands has been decreasing since the end of March. This is apparent from the decrease in the number of newly reported patients, hospital admissions, ICU admissions and deaths per day.
The number of people who visit their GP because of symptoms that are consistent with the coronavirus is still decreasing. This is evident from figures provided by the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (Nivel).
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus across Africa has passed 86,000, the regional office of the World Health Organization has said.
Unlike in Europe, a widespread outbreak seems yet to happen in Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people. There had been fears that its comparatively limited healthcare infrastructure would be overrun by patients with Covid-19.
Over 86,000 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 33,000 recoveries & 2,700 deaths. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTgpic.twitter.com/t8kU48MI7R
Commissioner of corrections should be held accountable if reports of inhumane treatment prove correct, say rights advocates
International human rights groups have called on Fiji to launch an independent investigation into the commissioner of corrections, Francis Kean, after allegations from former officers that he routinely ordered the beating and mistreatment of prisoners.
The reports, published in the Guardian on Saturday, are based on detailed accounts from four former officers who have since come to Australia and claimed asylum.
If Boris Johnson is mishandling the pandemic, he is not alone. Falsely claiming everything is under control, dodging responsibility, hiding from public view, exploiting the crisis for political gain, mounting artificial distractions and blaming the media: these are common behaviour patterns exhibited by some of the world’s most powerful – and shifty – leaders.
Will they pay a price for their lethal incompetence and cynicism? It’s possible some will, though it may take a while. The pandemic is changing political calculations around the globe. Leaders who looked invulnerable suddenly appear less so. That in turn could shift the strategic calculus and alter the balance of power between countries in ways both unexpected and permanent.
Australia reserves the right to take China to the WTO amid growing trade dispute, Simon Birmingham says
Simon Birmingham has warned China’s “unpredictable” trade interventions may force Australian producers to sell to other markets and diversification is to be encouraged given the “risk” of trade with China.
The trade minister told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday that Australia reserves its right to take China to the World Trade Organisation, and revealed he is still yet to hear back from his Chinese counterpart about the growing trade dispute. He said his call “ought to be returned”.
Tens of thousands of impoverished migrant workers are on the move across India, walking on highways and railway tracks or riding in trucks, buses and crowded trains in blazing heat, Associated Press reports.
Some are accompanied by pregnant wives and young children, braving threats from the coronavirus pandemic. They say they have been forced to leave cities and towns where they had toiled for years building homes and roads after they were abandoned by their employers casualties of a nationwide lockdown to stop the virus from spreading.
On Saturday, at least 23 laborers died in northern India when a truck they were traveling in smashed into a stationary truck on a highway. Last week, a train crashed into a group of tired workers who fell asleep on the tracks while walking back home in western Maharashtra state, killing 16.
The government and charities have tried to set up shelters for them, but their numbers are simply overwhelming, leaving them little choice but to head on a perilous journey home.
Exclusive: Four former prison officers seeking asylum in Australia claim Francis Kean, brother-in-law of Fiji’s PM, ran a brutal campaign of intimidation
Four former prison officers from Fiji are seeking asylum in Australia claiming the prime minister’s brother-in-law, who is the commissioner of the corrections service, routinely ordered the beating and mistreatment of prisoners and at one point ordered them to assault a fellow staff member.
Detailed accounts given to the Guardian by the four officers claim Francis Kean, a powerful figure inside Fiji, waged a brutal campaign of intimidation, coercion, bullying and violence on both prisoners and staff – which human rights campaigners say may amount to torture – with impunity.
Report defends crackdown despite international outrage and allegations of brutality
Activists and legal experts have condemned a report by Hong Kong’s police watchdog that found the force’s response to the city’s protests to be justified and within regulations.
The Independent Police Complaints Council’s report, released on Friday, described the protests as the “most challenging public order situation in a generation”, and said allegations of brutality should not be used as a political weapon.
When I booked my flight home after spending more than two-and-a-half months in Europe, I knew what my journey would entail. With no more direct flights between Paris and Hong Kong, I would have a brief layover in London. I knew that when I landed at the Hong Kong airport, I would be tested and held at a facility for roughly eight hours until my results came back.
In the best case scenario – if I were negative – I would be spending two weeks in home quarantine, my whereabouts tracked by an app and a chunky device worn on my wrist. If I were positive, I would be sent to the hospital.
Village of Atulie’er gained worldwide fame for precarious ladder journey 800 metres up a cliff face
Residents from a famous village perched 800 metres up a cliff are among thousands being relocated by the Chinese government into apartment complexes as part of a national poverty alleviation program.
Atulie’er village in Sichuan province drew worldwide fame in 2016 after images emerged of the residents climbing perilous rattan ladders – some hundreds of years old – up the cliffside to reach their homes.