Ships, helicopters and planes traverse thousands of kilometres of icy continent in complex, multinational medical evacuation
Australia and China have collaborated on a mission to medically evacuate an Australian expeditioner from Antarctica with help from the United States.
The operation took five days, used ships, helicopters and planes, and covered thousands of kilometres of the icy continent.
Continue reading...Some 53 vessels have been waiting offshore for more than four weeks while coal ships from other countries have delivered their loads
More than 50 Australian coal ships are still stranded off China’s coast, held up by a Chinese government import ban, despite the country facing coal shortages and one of its worst power blackouts in years.
China has rejected suggestions that its October ban on Australian coal has contributed to the coal shortage but the ban has been linked to higher domestic prices. Analysts have said that under the current circumstances any incoming coal would help.
Continue reading...Inspired by Xi Jinping’s ‘operation empty plate’, new law means restaurants will be able to charge patrons for leaving leftovers
Xi Jinping’s war on waste is set to be enshrined in law, with the submission of draft legislation to China’s highest legal committee recommending large fines for businesses that enable or promote wasting food.
In August the Chinese leader said the amount of food wasted nationally was shocking and distressing, declaring in a speech that: “waste is shameful and thriftiness is honourable”.
Continue reading...Joint Russia and China patrol over the Pacific signals stronger military ties between Moscow and Beijing
Japan and South Korea have scrambled fighter jets to track Russian and Chinese bombers which flown a joint patrol mission over the western Pacific in a show of increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Beijing.
The Russian military said a pair of its Tu-95 strategic bombers and four Chinese H-6K bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Mission involving two Russian and four Chinese aircraft signals stronger military ties between Moscow and Beijing
Russian and Chinese bombers have flown a joint patrol mission over the western Pacific in a show of increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Beijing.
The Russian military said a pair of its Tu-95 strategic bombers and four Chinese H-6K bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Step would allow Tehran to come back into compliance with deal, so long as US sanctions were lifted
EU foreign ministers have agreed not to set fresh preconditions on a revival of the Iran nuclear deal, believing Tehran and Washington should be able to come back into full compliance with the agreement without at this stage needing to accept to extend or strengthen it.
The step removes one of the potential roadblocks to Iran coming back into compliance with the existing deal, so long as the US lifts its sanctions and complies with UN resolutions.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Law said he chose UK in hope of ‘sounding an alarm’ over threats to democracy in Europe from China
Opinion: I left for London so I could tell Britain truth about China
The Hong Kong activist Nathan Law has applied for asylum in the UK, six months after fleeing his home on the eve of the national security law coming into force.
Law revealed in an opinion article for the Guardian on Monday that he had submitted a refugee claim to the UK government. He said he had chosen Britain in the hope he could “sound an alarm” over threats to democracy in Europe from the Chinese Communist party.
Continue reading...Judges’ decision appeared to rely on government accounts of violence at protest rallies in 2019
Hong Kong’s court of final appeal has reinstated a full ban on wearing masks at public gatherings, ruling in favour the government’s use of colonial-era laws.
The decision overturns the ruling by an appeal court in April, which found the ban, made unilaterally by the city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, at the peak of 2019’s protests, was partly unconstitutional in that it could not be declared for lawful public gatherings. It also upheld the constitutionality of using the colonial-era ordinances for the first time in half a century.
Continue reading...Software could be used to identify videos filmed and uploaded by Uighur person, says IPVM
The Chinese tech company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd offered facial recognition software to clients which can identify the face of a Uighur person, according to a report.
The US-based surveillance industry research firm IPVM said on Thursday it had found the detection technology in Alibaba’s Cloud Shield service, which offers content moderation for websites.
Continue reading...Unmanned Chang’e-5 probe returns to Earth after first mission in four decades to collect lunar samples
An unmanned Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the moon returned safely to Earth early on Thursday (local time) in the first mission in four decades to collect lunar samples, the Xinhua news agency said.
The capsule carrying the samples collected by the Chang’e-5 space probe landed in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua said, quoting the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The director of CNSA, Zhang Kejian, declared the mission a success, Xinhua added.
Continue reading...Plus: aircrew driver tests positive for coronavirus in Sydney, and heavy rain and flash flooding forecast for northern NSW. Follow the latest updates
• Aircrew driver tests positive for Covid in NSW
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A severe weather warning has been issued for Wagga and much of the Riverina for flash flooding this afternoon.
Severe thunderstorms have been forecast for the entire region, all the way from Hay in the west, right across to the east coast, and from the Queensland border down to Tumbarumba.
⚡SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING⚡ for HEAVY RAINFALL. Warning current for much of central and eastern NSW and the ACT.
2hr Obs: 92mm @ Lismore.
30min Obs: 26mm @ Glen Alice, 25mm at Mt.Werong & 22mm @ Lake Burley Griffin.
⚠️Warnings: https://t.co/30woSZ6O2x#ifitsfloodedforgetit pic.twitter.com/L8OXMiSlAz
Victoria police commissioner Shane Patton has sought to differentiate between the police approach during the Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne in early June and anti-lockdown protests that were broken up during the second wave, with many more fined.
Patton told a Victorian parliament Covid-19 committee on Wednesday that at the time of the BLM protest, the spread of Covid was not as big as it was later on in the second wave, and there weren’t the severe restrictions at the time that were seen later – in June, groups of up to 20 people could assemble.
We eventually made a decision to reluctantly allow that Black Lives Matter to go ahead, because of the emotion that was in the community, because of the emotion that was being displayed across the world.
And that’s what we did.
Continue reading...Security expert claims Chinese surveillance may have affected tens of thousands of Americans
China appears to have used mobile phone networks in the Caribbean to surveil US mobile phone subscribers as part of its espionage campaign against Americans, according to a mobile network security expert who has analysed sensitive signals data.
The findings paint an alarming picture of how China has allegedly exploited decades-old vulnerabilities in the global telecommunications network to route “active” surveillance attacks through telecoms operators.
Continue reading...Nanaia Mahuta says Canberra and Beijing ‘will have to be willing to come together and concede in some areas’
New Zealand’s new foreign minister has said the country could help negotiate a truce between Australia and regional heavyweight China with the two nations caught in an escalating trade and diplomatic spat.
Nanaia Mahuta said on Tuesday that hosting the high-profile Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next year presented an opportunity for New Zealand to bring both parties to the table.
Continue reading...Forced labour much more widespread than initially thought in China region that supplies a fifth of the world’s cotton
More than half a million people from ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang have been coerced into picking cotton, on a scale far greater than previously thought, new research has suggested.
The Xinjiang region produces more than 20% of the world’s cotton and 84% of China’s, but according to a new report released on Tuesday by the Center for Global Policy there is significant evidence that it is “tainted” by human rights abuses, including suspected forced labour of Uighur and other Turkic Muslim minority people.
Continue reading...From December 2019, when an unknown virus was found in China, to the release of vaccines for Covid-19 – here are the points where momentum shifted
From December 2019, when an unknown virus was found in China, to the release of vaccines for Covid-19, it has been an extraordinary year. Here’s how the momentum shifted
Continue reading...Our foreign correspondents reflect on the practical and cultural importance of fluency in a country’s native tongue
During the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in China, people described to us deeply personal and traumatic experiences – losing their parents, suffering the death of a child, being harassed and intimidated for trying to speak out. Having these conversations in Mandarin was important not just for capturing nuance and detail but for a sense of empathy.
Continue reading...Trials have claimed 86% efficacy, but Peru has suspended tests because of ‘an adverse event’ and there is concern about lack of transparency
Read all our coronavirus coverage here
Trials in the United Arab Emirates have shown that China’s Sinopharm vaccine has 86% efficacy. So what is the Chinese treatment, where is it being trialled and will it challenge the vaccines being developed in western countries?
Continue reading...Boosted iron ore prices due to anxious markets are likely to help federal budget’s bottom line, Deloitte says
Australia’s losses from trade tensions with China are being offset by rising iron ore prices, according to new analysis, which also predicts the Morrison government will announce a smaller budget deficit than originally forecast.
Deloitte Access Economics said Chinese government moves against wine, beef, barley, lobsters and thermal coal have cost Australia money “but we’ve more than made that up in overall terms thanks to iron ore – and the taxman will be a considerable beneficiary of that”.
Continue reading...The 72-year-old media tycoon was charged under China’s draconian new security law on Friday
The Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai has been denied bail, after being charged with colluding with foreign entities under the city’s new national security law.
Lai, who marked his 72nd birthday in jail this week, appeared in court on Saturday handcuffed to a chain around his waist, and led by a police officer.
Continue reading...When Chinese scientists alerted colleagues to a new virus last December, suspicion fell on a Wuhan market. What have health officials learned since then?
Maria van Kerkhove was staying with her sister in the US for the Christmas holidays, but checking her emails. As always. Every day there are signals of potential trouble, said the World Health Organization virologist who was to become a household name and face within weeks.
“There’s always something that happens at Christmas time. There’s always some alert, or a signal of a suspected case. The last several years it’s been Mers [Middle East respiratory syndrome] – a suspect case travelling to Malaysia or Indonesia or Korea or somewhere in Asia from the Middle East. So there’s always some kind of signal. There’s always something that happens,” she said.
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