Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Dissidents urge united stand against Chinese and look to eastern bloc tactics for inspiration
Prominent Hong Kong democracy activists have responded to China’s crackdown on opposition politicians, student campaigners and tenured academics by considering tactics that would have seemed exaggerated in the open city a few months ago.
The student leader Nathan Law, who was placed on a police “wanted” list just weeks after flying into exile in the UK, said he would cut off all contact with relatives living in his home city, in an apparent bid to protect them from suspicion or pressure.
Proposed deal would see Microsoft take over TikTok in US, insiders say, after president said he would ban video app
China’s ByteDance has agreed to divest the US operations of TikTok completely in a bid to save a deal with the White House, after Donald Trump said on Friday he had decided to ban the popular short-video app, two people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
US officials have said TikTok under its Chinese parent poses a national risk because of the personal data it handles. ByteDance’s concession will test whether Trump’s threat to ban TikTok is a negotiating tactic or whether he is intent on cracking down on a social media app that has up to 80 million daily active users in the US.
Packages marked as ‘earrings’ spark biosecurity concerns and global investigations into origins
There is not much that Jan Goward does not grow in her small Eastbourne garden. “I grow everything,” she says. “I’ve got the exotics: the aubergines, the chillies …”
But some mystery seeds she received in the post this week – ostensibly from Singapore, and marked as stud earrings – will not be joining them.
Arrest warrant issued for campaigner and US citizen Samuel Chu
Britons also among those wanted for ‘incitement to secession’
Hong Kong police have issued arrest warrants for six pro-democracy activists living in exile, the first time the city’s authorities have used a sweeping new law to target campaigners living outside Hong Kong.
They include Samuel Chu, an American citizen who lives in the US, Nathan Law, a prominent campaigner who recently relocated to the UK after fleeing Hong Kong, and Simon Cheng, a former British consular staffer who was granted asylum in the UK after alleging he was tortured in China.
The US is reportedly preparing to take action against the popular short video app over concerns for the security of personal data
Donald Trump on Friday again suggested the US may take action against the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok, floating a potential ban.
“We’re looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on a trip to Florida.
The Hong Kong government has postponed its upcoming elections for one year, citing the growing coronavirus outbreak in the territory but sparking immediate accusations that the pandemic was being used as a pretext to suppress democracy.
The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, announced on Friday she had invoked colonial-eraemergency regulations to delay the 6 September vote to 5 September 2021, saying it was the “hardest decision I have made in the past seven months”,but had the full support of the Chinese central government.
More needs to be done to limit Beijing’s political interference and any short-term damage will be worth it in the long run
This week New Zealand announced it was suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong as a result of Hong Kong’s new national security law. At the same time, NZ changed its policy on military and dual-use goods and technology exports to Hong Kong, subjecting the city to the same as the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The New Zealand government also issued a travel warning to New Zealanders on the risks of travelling to Hong Kong.
In a statement, Wellington said it “can no longer trust that Hong Kong’s criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China.” No explanation was given for the suspension of sensitive technology exports.
Ambassador’s warning comes in response to UK’s special visa offer to Hong Kong citizens
China will not recognise the British national (overseas) passport as a legal travel document, raising the prospect that the 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for the passport will be banned from leaving Hong Kong by the Chinese government.
The warning was made at a press conference by the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, in which he also warned that it was hard to imagine a global Britain that bypassed or excluded China. Decoupling from China would mean decoupling from growth and the future, he suggested.
Three men and one woman are the first political activists to be held since controversial legislation was imposed by Beijing
The arrests of four students in Hong Kong’s first crackdown on political figures after the enactment of a sweeping national security law imposed by China have prompted widespread public outrage.
Tony Chung, 19, the convenor of disbanded pro-independence group Studentlocalism and three other members were arrested late on Wednesday.
Julie Palmer, partner at business advisory and restructuring firm Begbies Traynor, says:
The success of Greggs has been the envy of the high street in recent years, however, even the bakery chain hasn’t been immune to the impact of Covid-19 which has forced its stores to close and eaten away at its top line.
For Greggs, achieving rent reductions from landlords will be first on the tick list, and indeed this has been a priority for many on the high street. But once these costs have been reduced its push to return to success will begin. And given its track record of marketing & PR success with its famous vegan sausage roll, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another high profile campaign on the horizon that captures the sentiment of a nation experiencing seismic change.
Let’s have a look at today’s corporate news. Greggs, Britain’s biggest bakery chain (known for its vegan sausage roll) has warned that sales won’t get back to pre-pandemic levels for as long as physical distancing continues.
But it’s fared better than other retailers: sales are now running at 72% of the 2019 level. All of its 2,050 stores reopened by July, after being forced to close during the Covid-19 lockdown imposed on 23 March. Greggs made a £65.2m loss before tax in the first half, compared with a £36.7m profit a year ago.
The fleet, found just outside a protected zone, raises the prospect of damage to the marine ecosystem
Ecuador has sounded the alarm after its navy discovered a huge fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged vessels some 200 miles from the Galápagos Islands, the archipelago which inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
About 260 ships are currently in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone around the island, but their presence has already raised the prospect of serious damage to the delicate marine ecosystem, said former environment minister Yolanda Kakabadse.
The US consulate general in Chengdu was closed on Monday as Chinese authorities entered through the front entrance to take over the premises. China ordered the closure in response to Washington's order for the Chinese consulate in Houston to be shut.
Troops posted outside building as Chinese authorities take over diplomatic mission
Chinese authorities have taken over the US consulate general in Chengdu, marking the diplomatic mission’s official closure and a new low point in ties between the world’s largest economies.
At dawn on Monday, the American flag outside the consulate was lowered while police held back crowds that had gathered over the weekend to watch. At 10am, the mission was closed, according to China’s foreign ministry.
Annual Gallup survey casts doubt on Mike Pompeo’s claim that the US is ‘perfectly positioned’ to lead the free world in rivalry with China
Germany is the most admired country in the world for the third year running, leaving the US in a tight battle for distant second place with China and Russia, according to a new global leadership poll.
The annual poll, conducted by Gallup, casts more doubt on US secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s claim on Friday that the US was “perfectly positioned” to lead the free world in a new ideological rivalry with the Chinese Communist Party.
‘Provocative test of a weapon-like projectile’ from Russian satellite shows peaceful use of space is under threat, says defence secretary
Britain will boost its ability to handle threats posed by Russia and China in space as part of a foreign, security and defence policy review, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said.
“This week we have been reminded of the threat Russia poses to our national security with the provocative test of a weapon-like projectile from a satellite threatening the peaceful use of space,” Wallace wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, adding that China also posed a threat.
Door forced open after consular staff move out to heckling by anti-communist protesters
A group of men who appeared to be American officials were seen forcing open a back door of the Chinese consulate in Houston as a US closure order took effect at 4pm on Friday.
Australia says China’s claims to disputed islands are ‘invalid’ and are not consistent with UN convention on law of the sea
Australia has declared “there is no legal basis” to China’s territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea, marking an escalation of recent tensions with Beijing and bringing Canberra further in line with Washington.
Beijing is flexing its muscles on multiple fronts but Trump’s retreat from world leadership leaves it ill-placed to helm a fightback
The confrontation between the US and China is gathering pace with each passing week. In the past few days, the Chinese consulate in Houston has been shuttered amid allegations it was a spy hub, and the US mission in the south-western city of Chengdu was closed in retaliation, on similar grounds.
The FBI has started arresting Chinese researchers at US universities with suspected links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), one of whom temporarily took refuge in the consulate in San Francisco, before surrendering.
Move by Beijing comes in response to the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston earlier this week and amid worsening relations between the countries
Beijing has ordered the closure of a US consulate in south-western China, in a move that escalates tensions between the two countries to a new level.
On Friday, China’s ministry of foreign affairs said it had ordered the US consulate in Chengdu, in Sichuan province, to cease all operations. Authorities notified the US of China’s decision to revoke its consent for the consulate to operate, according to a notice on the ministry’s website.
In Xinjiang province, China, more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are being held in 're-education' camps that the government claims are benign vocational centres teaching useful career skills. But former camp detainees have described them as de facto prisons implementing mass brainwashing and obedience to the Communist party. As more evidence emerges of torture, forced sterilisation of women and other methods of population reduction, should the situation in Xinjiang be termed a genocide? The Guardian's Lily Kuo explains