Category Archives: World News

China criticises ‘malicious hype’ over Qin Gang disappearance

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Foreign ministry spokesperson comments on speculation a day after refusing to answer questions about ex-minister

China’s ministry of foreign affairs has labelled speculation over the whereabouts of Qin Gang as “malicious hype” while continuing to refuse further details about the missing former foreign minister.

At a daily press conference in Beijing, the ministry’s spokesperson, Mao Ning, said China had released information about Qin “in a timely manner”. “We consistently oppose malicious hype of this matter,” she said.

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China may be planning overseas naval bases in Asia and Africa, say analysts

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Beijing believed to be aiming to rival US’s global maritime power and defeat western sanctions, report concludes

China’s military may be planning to build a host of overseas naval bases, as it hopes to protect shipping routes and strengthen its ability to resist sanctions from the US and its allies, analysis has found.

Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Bata in Equatorial Guinea and Gwadar in Pakistan are the three most likely locations for a Chinese naval base to be established in the next two to five years, according to an analysis by AidData, a US-based research institute, published on Wednesday. The report’s authors considered the amount of development financing issued by Chinese state-owned banks to port projects, the strategic value of existing infrastructure and strong relationships with host country governments, among other factors, to come up with a list of eight leading options for future Chinese naval bases.

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Satellite data sheds light on China’s detention facilities in Tibet

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Exclusive: China appears to have expanded use of high-security prisons as tool of repression in Tibet, researchers say

There has been a pattern of increased activity in recent years at high-security detention facilities in Tibet, according to a new study measuring night-time lighting usage, suggesting a potential rise in harsher imprisonments by Chinese authorities.

The report, by the Rand Europe research institute, said the findings added rare new clues about the Chinese government’s “stability maintenance” policies of control in the highly securitised Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), which it described as an “information black hole”.

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US begins sharing Russian war-crimes evidence with Hague court

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Quiet decision ends dispute within Biden administration over ICC cooperation after Pentagon had been accused of obstruction

The Biden administration has said it has begun sharing evidence with the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague on war crimes committed in Ukraine.

The announcement ends a months-long dispute within the administration over the issue, in which the national security council (NSC) and the state department backed cooperation with the ICC, with the Pentagon resisting on the grounds it would imply endorsement of an international court that could one day seek to prosecute US soldiers.

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Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to tax and gun charges amid uncertainty over previous plea agreement – as it happened

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Judge presiding over hearing involving US president’s son said she needed more time to evaluate previous deal

Ken Buck, a Republican representative of Colorado asked Mayorkas about the the China-Mexico fentanyl pipeline that has been entering the country and the rising fentanyl overdose deaths currently plaguing the US.

“The fentanyl killing thousands of Americans every year as a direct result of your dereliction when people die of fentanyl poisoning. It is your fault,” said Buck as he went on to ask Mayorkas what his response would be to the families of fentanyl victims in the US.

“We grieve the loss of any life as a result of the toxicity, the devastation… The challenge of fentanyl is not new. It has been escalating for more than five years…. This is a scourge and all of us have to work together to combat…

I stand by my statement…that China does bear responsibility because many of the precursor chemicals and the pill press equipment that is used to manufacture fentanyl does originate from there. This is a complex problem. We are taking it to the criminals…”

“I see other countries with systems that are more advanced than ours that can match the need for labor with the supply for labor… It is proven that lawful labor pathways cause a reduction in the number of irregular arrivals at our border…”

“We have used our parole authority consistent with the law and consistent with past practices of different administration.”

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UFO hearing key takeaways: cover-up claims and Pentagon denials

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Witness made several startling allegations about the US government and UFOs, but doubts lingered over key testimony

In scenes that felt reminiscent of a science-fiction movie, the US Congress held a public hearing on claims the government is covering up its knowledge of UFOs.

Unsurprisingly, the hearing generated huge interest in the US and around the world as it heard from three key witnesses, including David Grusch, a whistleblower former intelligence official who in June claimed the US has possession of “intact and partially intact” alien vehicles.

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Italian parliament approves bill to criminalise surrogacy abroad

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Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, while IVF is only available for heterosexual couples

The Italian parliament has approved a bill criminalising people who go abroad to have children via surrogacy, a measure described as “a disgrace”.

The bill, passed in the chamber of deputies with 166 votes in support and 109 against, is aimed only at Italians and envisages fines of up to €1m (£856,690) and jail terms of up to two years for those who break it.

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Home Office ordered to change rules that restrict help for trafficking victims

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Court rules all potential victims must be assessed for support, after policy disqualified people with criminal convictions

A high court judge has ordered the home secretary to change a key part of a trafficking policy introduced just months ago.

In an urgent hearing on Wednesday, lawyers representing trafficking victims said they were at risk of human rights violations such as slavery, servitude and forced labour if the policy continued.

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Russia ‘using disinformation’ to imply Sweden supported Qur’an burnings

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Swedish government says ‘Russia-backed actors’ attempting to damage country’s bid to join Nato

Sweden has been the target of a disinformation campaign by “Russia-backed actors” attempting to damage the image of the Nato candidate country by implying it supported recent burnings of the Qur’an, its government has said.

“Sweden is right now the target of influence campaigns, supported by states and state-like actors, whose purpose is to harm Sweden and Swedish interests,” the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, wrote on Instagram on Wednesday.

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‘Everyone is indoors’: life on pause on hottest day of Greek heatwave

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There were few people to be seen in Mystras as temperatures were forecast to reach 46C

“It’s hot,” said Panagiotis Vahaviolos, with some understatement. “So hot it’s a little difficult to move.” On the hottest day of the longest and most intense heatwave to befall Greece since record-keeping began, the restaurateur had sought sanctuary in the shadows to escape the fierce sun.

Neither he, nor anyone else, if they could help it, was moving in Mystras, the settlement beneath the great hilltop fortress that is the country’s most significant Byzantine site. In temperatures nudging 44C, life had come to a standstill. With the exception of holidaymakers who had reached the village’s flag-stoned central square, there were few people to be seen.

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One killed as ship carrying 3,000 cars catches fire off Dutch coast

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Ship’s owner says electric car suspected as possible cause of blaze on vessel travelling from Germany to Egypt

A blaze on a cargo ship carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles off the Dutch coast has killed one person and injured several others, with coastguards warning that the fire could last for several days.

The fire began on Tuesday night on the 199-metre Panama-registered Fremantle Highway, which was en route from Germany to Egypt. Several crew members were forced to jump overboard.

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Niger soldiers announce coup and president’s removal on national TV

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Military group declares ‘end to the regime’, citing ‘deteriorating security situation and bad governance’

Soldiers in Niger say they have removed President Mohamed Bazoum from power, after armed troops earlier blockaded the presidential palace in Niamey, the capital in one of the world’s most unstable nations.

A group of soldiers appeared on the west African country’s national television late on Wednesday, a few hours after the president had been detained.

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China signals ‘business as usual’ in foreign policy with return of Wang Yi

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Mystery surrounds removal of Qin Gang as foreign minister, but one thing is clear: Xi Jinping retains tight control

Wang Yi’s return to the helm of China’s foreign ministry is a reminder that Chinese Communist party elite politics are as opaque and brutal as ever. His predecessor, Qin Gang, was abruptly removed with no explanation on Tuesday after just seven tumultuous months in the job.

The decision provided some closure to the weeks of speculation about Qin’s absence. But although Qin’s personal fate remains unclear – he has still not been seen in public since his final meetings as foreign minister on 25 June – the reinstatement of Wang underlines the fact that Beijing wants to maintain continuity in its foreign policy.

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Cambodia PM Hun Sen steps down and hands over power to son

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Hardline leader announces end of four-decade rule after his party’s landslide victory in election

Cambodia’s authoritarian leader, Hun Sen, has said that he will resign and hand power to his eldest son, after ruling the country for almost four decades.

Under Hun Sen, political opponents have been imprisoned, forced into exile and their parties banned. Just days ago his party claimed a landslide victory after running virtually unopposed in an election that was widely expected to be his last before the succession.

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Ghana abolishes death penalty, with expected reprieve for 176 condemned prisoners

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Country joins growing list of African nations free of capital punishment, but execution remains for high treason

Ghana has become the 29th country in Africa to abolish the death penalty in a move hailed by human rights activists.

The decision means that the 176 people currently on death row, including six women, are likely to have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

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Rumours swirl over dramatic fall of Xi loyalist Qin Gang

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Sacked foreign minister’s rise was linked to his ties to president; his disappearance and dismissal have caused a scandal

The dismissal of Qin Gang, a key Xi Jinping loyalist, from the post of Chinese foreign minister is shaping up to be one of the country’s biggest political scandals in years. Qin spent just seven months in the role, the shortest tenure of any to have served, and mysteriously disappeared from view last month. He was sacked on Tuesday, replaced with his predecessor Wang Yi, and is yet to reappear in public.

Political purgings – if that is what has happened to Qin – are not rare in China. Thousands of officials, including high-ranking political rivals of Xi, have been targeted by anti-corruption campaigns or shuffled out of view – sometimes literally, as in the case of the former president Hu Jintao, who was physically removed from his seat at a Communist party meeting in Beijing last year.

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Malaysian musicians prepare lawsuit against the 1975 over festival cancellation

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Authorities cancelled the Good Vibes festival after frontman Matty Healy criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws, leading musicians and food vendors to seek damages

A group of Malaysian musicians and festival vendors are preparing a class action lawsuit against the 1975 after frontman Matty Healy’s onstage criticism of the government’s anti-LGBTQ+ at the Good Vibes festival saw the entire event cancelled.

On Friday, Healy paused the band’s set at the Kuala Lumpur event to admit that he hadn’t looked into the country’s punitive LGBTQ+ laws before agreeing to perform there. “I don’t see the fucking point, right, I do not see the point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with,” he said.

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Ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra will return to Thailand next month, daughter says

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Influential figure who has spent 15 years in exile is set for comeback at a time of political crisis in homeland

Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has spent more than 15 years in self-imposed exile to avoid legal charges, will return to the country next month, his daughter has said, amid tense political deadlock.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who recently ran as a prime ministerial candidate for Pheu Thai, the party backed by her father, said Thaksin would return on 10 August.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian security service claims responsibility for Crimea bridge blast in October – as it happened

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Domestic intelligence agency claims responsibility for first time for sabotage operation that damaged Kerch Bridge in October 2022

The south of Ukraine is under an air alert again. Suspilne reports it is “due to the activity of Russian aviation in the Black Sea.”

The all clear has sounded across southern Ukraine.

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‘Like a blowtorch’: Mediterranean gripped by wildfires as blazes spread in Croatia and Portugal

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‘There is no magical defence mechanism,’ says Greek prime minister as fires burn in northern Africa and southern Europe

Wildfires were burning in at least nine countries across the Mediterranean as blazes spread in Croatia and Portugal, with thousands of firefighters in Europe and north Africa working in extreme heat to contain flames stoked by high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.

High temperatures and parched ground sparked wildfires in countries on both sides of the Mediterranean, with at least 34 people killed in Algeria, where 8,000 firefighters on Tuesday battled blazes across the tinder-dry north. Fires burned in a total of 15 provinces, leading to the evacuation of more than 1,500 people.

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