Prime minister trying to secure tournament’s future at Commonwealth summit in Samoa
Keir Starmer will try to find a host country for the 2030 Commonwealth Games this week as ministers try to shore up the tournament’s future.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said Starmer wanted to see “a successful Commonwealth Games from 2030” and would spend time at this week “talking to partners about who may be interested in taking that forward”.
Continue reading...President’s comments at Brics summit are ambiguous, however, US says it has evidence of movement of troops who could fight in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has sidestepped claims that North Korea has sent soldiers to Russia, insisting that it was up to Moscow how to run its mutual defence clause with Pyongyang.
Speaking at the close of the Brics summit in Kazan on Thursday, he accused the west of escalating the Ukraine war and said it was “living an illusion” if it thought it could inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
Continue reading...Starmer under pressure from Caribbean countries at Commonwealth talks but is refusing payments or apology
Keir Starmer has opened the door to non-financial reparations for the UK’s role in the transatlantic enslavement, as he came under pressure from Commonwealth leaders to engage in a “meaningful, truthful and respectful” conversation about Britain’s past.
While Downing Street insists that the wider issue of reparations is “not on the agenda” of this week’s Commonwealth heads of government (Chogm) gathering in Samoa, No 10 has accepted it is likely to be referenced in the end-of-summit communique.
Continue reading...Mech Dara, charged with incitement, freed on bail after video of him apologising to country’s leaders appears
Mech Dara, one of Cambodia’s most prominent journalists, known for exposing the country’s billion-dollar scam industry, has been released on bail after a video of him apologising to the country’s leaders appeared in pro-government media.
Dara was arrested last month while travelling with his family, and charged with incitement over social media posts.
Continue reading...Official hails discovery ‘of great significance’ on Port Island, with remains of as yet unknown species to go on display in shopping district on Friday
Hong Kong officials say they have discovered dinosaur fossils in the city for the first time, on a remote and uninhabited island.
The fossils were part of a large dinosaur from the Cretaceous period, about 145m to 66m years ago, the government said in a statement. They will need to conduct further studies to confirm the species of the dinosaur.
Continue reading...The child’s mother and another woman, aged 22 and 37, were also arrested as part of joint investigation by police in Australia and Manila
A 33-year-old Sydney man has been charged with child sexual abuse offences against a boy living in the Philippines and is facing 10 years in prison.
Australian federal police officers were given information in September about a man in Australia who was allegedly engaging in the live online child sexual abuse of the boy, which was allegedly being facilitated by the child’s mother.
Continue reading...Russian president’s goal to de-dollarize world economy alarms members that do not want bloc to turn against west
Vladimir Putin has opened the expanded Brics summit by issuing a call for an alternative international payments system that could prevent the US using the dollar as a political weapon.
But the summit communique indicated that little progress had been made on an alternative payment system.
Continue reading...Campaign targets wordplay and memes that are often used by people to get around censorship controls
China’s internet regulators have launched a campaign cracking down on puns and homophones, one of the last remaining ways for citizens to safely discuss sensitive subjects without recriminations or censorship.
The “clear and bright” campaign is targeting “irregular and uncivilised” language online, particularly jokes, memes, and wordplay, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the ministry of education announced this month.
Continue reading...Police say it is unclear if 17 missing passengers are still alive or wounded, and may be hiding in bushes or sheltering with neighbouring clans
At least seven people were killed and more than a dozen remain missing after gunmen ambushed a public bus and shot passengers in Papua New Guinea’s Enga province.
The shooting took place in Enga’s Lagaip district on Tuesday afternoon. More than 20 passengers were on the bus when men armed with high-powered weapons “set up an ambush and fired shots indiscriminately” into the vehicle, highland western end assistant police commissioner Joseph Tondop said in a statement on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Seoul signals its most proactive position towards arming Ukraine to date
South Korea is considering directly supplying weapons to Ukraine as evidence increases that North Korean soldiers are preparing to assist Russia in its war against Ukraine.
South Korea’s spy agency (NIS) said last week that North Korea had shipped 1,500 special forces personnel to Russia’s far east for training and acclimatising at local military bases for future combat alongside Moscow’s troops in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Rahima Mahmut, in exile in the UK, ‘disappointed’ at failure to describe Beijing’s crackdown on minority as genocide
A leading Uyghur activist has accused the Labour government of “falling behind” its allies in failing to stand up to China, after ministers backtracked on plans to push for formal recognition of the country’s treatment of the minority group as genocide.
Speaking after David Lammy’s first visit to China as UK foreign secretary, the human rights activist Rahima Mahmut, who has lived in exile in the UK since 2000, said she had hoped there would be a shift in UK policy once the party came into power, including following the US in declaring a continuing genocide in Xinjiang.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Lee Hsien Yang says Singapore is no ‘paradise’ after fleeing authoritarian regime that his older brother inherited and still holds sway over through their revered father’s legacy
A senior member of the family that has dominated Singapore since independence has been granted asylum in the UK after fleeing what he says was a campaign of persecution.
In an exclusive interview, Lee Hsien Yang told the Guardian the authoritarian regime founded by his father turned on him as he endorsed the opposition following a family rift.
Continue reading...Intelligence builds that members of Pyongyang’s special forces are in Russia preparing for combat as munitions are also shipped
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, got to the point in his presidential address last night: “Another state,” he said, was “joining the war against Ukraine”. He was referring to the growing intelligence that shows elite soldiers from North Korea are in Russia preparing to join what has become a fight that, in effect, extends all the way across Asia.
The effect will be greater than the numbers believed to be involved. On Friday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that 1,500 members of Pyongyang’s special forces had crossed the border to Vladivostok in Russia’s far east to begin training and some degree of participation in the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Seoul demands immediate withdrawal of elite soldiers reportedly helping Russia in its war against Ukraine
South Korea has summoned the Russian ambassador to Seoul to protest “in the strongest terms” about the reported dispatch of thousands of North Korean troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.
The first vice-foreign minister, Kim Hong-kyun, told the Russian envoy, Georgy Zinoviev, that the participation of North Korean troops in the war violated UN resolutions and demanded their immediate withdrawal, South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Continue reading...Dunedin airport boss says the move is designed to keep traffic flowing in drop-off zones and enable ‘others to have hugs’
Hugging your loved ones goodbye could land you in trouble at a New Zealand airport should your embrace linger too long.
The international airport in Dunedin, a city in the South Island, has introduced a three minute cap on cuddles, as part of a broader effort to improve safety and keep traffic flowing at its drop-off zone.
Continue reading...Internet chatter and Oklahoma arrest of alleged would-be IS attacker indicate terror group’s planning
After the FBI arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma planning an election day shooting on behalf of the Islamic State, the terrorist organization re-entered what has become one of the most chaotic news cycles leading up to a November vote.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City admitted to investigators he and a co-conspirator expected to die as IS martyrs as they opened fire on crowds on election day, according to charging documents.
Continue reading...After Han Kang’s Nobel award and South Korean cinema hits, Penguin publishes new English edition of maxims by Lee Seong-bok in wake of US success
A collection of wise maxims written by a 72-year old poet, calmly setting out illuminating advice to other poets, is the latest and perhaps most unlikely book to benefit from a surge in demand for South Korean literature.
“Kick against words like you would kick back on a swing. You’ve got to feel as if the soles of your feet are touching the sky,” suggests Lee Seong-bok in his hit title Indeterminate Inflorescence.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary discussed China’s treatment of Uyghurs and support of Russia as well as ‘areas of cooperation’
David Lammy pressed his Chinese counterpart on human rights concerns and China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during talks in Beijing, the Foreign Office has said.
The foreign secretary had been under pressure to take a tough line on a range of human rights issues with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, when the pair met on Friday during Lammy’s first visit to China since taking office.
Continue reading...One in six workers has engaged a firm to hand in notice for them, as younger workers reject traditional work ethic
Mari was just two months into her new job when she decided she had had enough. The position at an online bank in Tokyo, found through a staffing agency, had looked like a perfect fit for the 25-year-old, a member of Japan’s legions of temporary workers.
But she quickly became despondent. “On my first day they gave me a thick manual to read, and when I went to my boss with questions he said: ‘What the hell are you asking me that for?’”
Continue reading...Russian navy ships reportedly transferred 1,500 forces to Vladivostok, where they are being trained
South Korea’s intelligence agency said on Friday that North Korea had dispatched troops to assist Russia in its war against Ukraine, a development that could intensify the standoff between North Korea and the west.
In a statement on its website, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Russian navy ships transferred 1,500 North Korean special operation forces to the port city of Vladivostok between 8 and 13 October who were now undergoing training.
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