Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Hong Kong police have formally banned this week’s vigil for the Tiananmen Square massacre, citing Covid-19 measures.
The move had been expected, especially after the Hong Kong government extended its ban on public gatherings in groups larger than eight, but the announcement confirms that for the first time since the Chinese military killed untold numbers of protesters on 4 June 1989, there will be no commemorative event.
UK ministers have been accused of not taking seriously the threat posed to black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) Britons by Covid-19, after it was reported that the release of an official review of the issue had been delayed over fears of potential civil unrest.
According to Sky News, officials are concerned about the effect the publication could have amid global anger over the death of George Floyd, an African American man who pleaded for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the Covid-19 pandemic began, reported no new asymptomatic cases for the first time on Sunday, according to Chinese health officials.
Mainland China reported 16 new cases overall on Sunday, the highest daily number in three weeks. All were reported as imported cases – 11 in Sichuan province, three in Inner Mongolia, and two in Guangdong.
Cross-party initiative reflects concern response to China’s imposition of security laws cannot be left to Donald Trump
Britain must take the lead in co-ordinating the international response to China’s efforts to impose draconian security laws in Hong Kong, seven former Conservative and Labour UK foreign secretaries have come together to declare.
Bosnia’s state court has ordered the release of a regional prime minister and two other men suspected of corruption in connection with the import of defective ventilators for coronavirus patients.
The court of Bosnia-Herzegovina said their detention was unnecessary, and turned down the prosecution’s requests to detain the three men for 30 days.
Senior public health officials have made a last-minute plea for ministers to scrap Monday’s easing of the coronavirus lockdown in England, warning the country is unprepared to deal with any surge in infection and that public resolve to take steps to limit transmission has been eroded.
The Association of Directors of Public Health said new rules, including allowing groups of up to six people to meet outdoors and in private gardens, were “not supported by the science” and that pictures of crowded beaches and beauty spots over the weekend showed “the public is not keeping to social distancing as it was”.
China has effectively torn up the treaty it signed with the Thatcher government – yet the UK’s response is feeble
To understand how wide Beijing now casts its security net in Hong Kong, consider the case of Martin Lee. Now in his 80s, Lee is a distinguished barrister, a politician and a lifelong defender of civil liberties. He has never committed an act of violence or advocated that others do so.
Last month, in an early sign of what was coming, Lee was arrested at his home. Fourteen other prominent Hong Kong citizens were taken into custody that day and charged with taking part in illegal demonstrations. He has pointed out that he was already facing 14 similar charges in mainland China, and had the extradition law that triggered last year’s protests in Hong Kong been adopted he could have been sent for trial in China under a system that not even the Chinese Communist party’s (CCP) most generous supporters could describe as adequate. The CCP regards rule of law and separation of powers as threats to its power. Law, for the party, is one instrument among many that can be used to eliminate opponents – who can be anyone from dissenting public intellectuals to prominent businessmen.
Criticism follows the US president accusing Beijing of breaking its word over Hong Kong for imposing national security laws
Senior Hong Kong government officials have criticised moves by Donald Trump to strip the city of its special status in a bid to punish China for imposing national security laws on the global financial hub.
Speaking hours after Trump said the city no longer warranted economic privileges and some officials could face sanctions, security minister John Lee told reporters on Saturday that Hong Kong’s government could not be threatened and would push ahead with the new laws.
Home Office decision infuriates Chinese government and could risk backlash among traditional Tory voters
The Home Office appears to have dramatically widened the pool of Hong Kong citizens that will be eligible to apply for UK citizenship, implying millions may be able to apply if China presses ahead with plans for draconian new security legislation in the territory.
The UK government’s decision has infuriated the Chinese government, and could risk a backlash among traditional Conservative voters opposed to immigration.
Web searches for emigration rose ten-fold after news came through about China’s approaching national security laws
As China’s parliament approved controversial national security legislation for Hong Kong, many local residents were selling assets, dumping shares and planning to move abroad while welcoming possible US sanctions.
Many Hong Kongers say they are shocked and overwhelmed with anger and helplessness as they see their freedoms being eroded and fear their city will descend into a police state. But many also say they welcome the US’s response and possible sanctions.
Chinese couples seeking a divorce must first complete a month-long ‘cooling-off’ period according to a new law passed on Thursday
Chinese couples seeking a divorce must first complete a month-long “cooling-off” period according to a new law passed on Thursday that has stirred a national debate over state interference in private relationships.
In an effort to lower divorce rates, China’s legislature approved a law that requires couples filing for separation to wait 30 days before their request can be processed. The measure, which was previously a recommendation implemented in some provinces, was met with widespread opposition when lawmakers first sought feedback last year.
Beijing describes US efforts to raise controversial security law with UN as ‘pointless’
Beijing has responded with defiance to international criticism of its Hong Kong national security law, threatening countermeasures against the UK and the US and describing Washington’s efforts to raise the issue at the UN security council as “pointless”.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab threatens to change status of British national (overseas) passport holders
The UK will extend visa rights for as many as 300,000 Hong Kong British national (overseas) passport holders if China continues down the path of imposing repressive security laws on the former British colony, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said.
The move, which appears in outline to stop short of giving the BN(O)s a right of abode, is a response to growing Conservative backbench pressure on the Foreign Office to do more to help Hong Kong citizens fearful that China is about to extinguish their independence and political freedoms.
Beijing says the legislation is meant to stop subversion, terrorism and secessionism as well as foreign interference that could endanger national security. In the aftermath of the increasingly violent mass protests last year, China’s government has said such laws are urgently needed to plug Hong Kong’s “national security loophole”. The legislation will be written in Beijing and directly added into Hong Kong’s de facto constitution, known as the basic law.
Decision says Meng Wanzhou’s alleged actions in the US would be considered a crime in Canada, a key condition for extradition
A Canadian judge has dealt a major blow to a senior Huawei executive’s attempts to evade extradition to the United States, ruling that the high-profile case against Meng Wanzhou can proceed.
The British Columbia supreme court justice Heather Holmes ruled on Wednesday that the alleged actions of Meng would be considered a crime in Canada – a key condition for extradition to proceed.
US will end special trade relations with Hong Kong, which could seriously impact the territory’s economy
The US has announced it will no longer treat Hong Kong as autonomous for trade and economic purposes, as China prepares to impose a new security law that would drastically limit civil liberties in the territory.
The US decision could have a serious impact on the Hong Kong economy, which has been used by Beijing as a portal for dealings with the outside world – particularly if its financial sector is hit by sanctions as a result of the move.
Thousands of Chinese troops reportedly move into sensitive areas along Himalayan frontier
Tensions between China and India over their Himalayan border have escalated, with China accused of moving thousands of troops into disputed territory and expanding a military airbase in the region.
Thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops are reported to have moved into sensitive areas along the eastern Ladakh border, setting up tents and stationing vehicles and heavy machinery in what India considers to be its territory.
Beijing’s attempts to bring the territory to heel since handover have resulted in pushback and protest
Beijing’s rubber-stamp parliament is to vote to move forward with a national security law for Hong Kong, in an unprecedented push that many fear will result in silencing critics of the government in the territory.
The legislation, which would bypass the semi-autonomous territory’s legislature as well as widespread opposition to such measures, comes on Thursday after years of controversial government-proposed measures aimed at bringing Hong Kong more in line with Beijing’s wishes.
In total the coronavirus government support for UK workers has come to £21.8bn, if you add together the money paid for furloughed employees and income support for self-employed workers.
More than 10m British workers have been given some form of income support, if furlough numbers are added to those who have claimed self-employed support*.
More struggles for the British property sector:
British Land, which owns shopping centres including Sheffield’s Meadowhall and Drake Circus in Plymouth, has written down the value of its retail portfolio by more than a quarter due to the impact of the coronavirus.
Longest official mourning period in Spain’s democracy; unrest grows in UK PM’s party over Dominic Cummings lockdown breach; WHO says Americas are new Covid-19 epicentre. Follow the latest updates
There have now been 118,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the 54 nations of Africa, according to the World Health Organization’s regional office for the continent.
So far, about 48,000 people in Africa who have tested positive for the virus have recovered, while 3,500 have died, according to the latest updated from WHO African region on Wednesday morning.
Over 118,000 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent - with more than 48,000 recoveries & 3,500 deaths. View country figures & more with the WHO African Region COVID-19 Dashboard: https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTgpic.twitter.com/W1hbvugno1
Hi, this is Damien Gayle taking the reins of the live blog now, bringing you the latest headlines and stories, and the best of the Guardian’s coverage, from the coronavirus pandemic around the world.
If you have any comments, tips or suggestions for coverage please drop me a line, either via email to damien.gayle@gmail.com, or via Twitter direct message to @damiengayle.
Tom McCarthy writes that one of the key problems facing American efforts to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis is the population’s aversion to vaccines.
Only about half of Americans say they would get a Covid-19 vaccine if available, according to a poll, as a top US government scientist tempered claims by Donald Trump that the United States would be able to invent, manufacture and administer hundreds of millions of vaccine doses by the end of the year.
Further to our story at 20.29, data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the United States has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past a grim milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, Britain, which has recorded more than 37,000 Covid-19 deaths.