State media outlets videos with a rousing choral soundtrack show armoured troop carriers purportedly driving to Shenzhen, the south-eastern state that borders Hong Kong. Chinese officials have released a series of threatening statements about Hong Kong's protesters, with one claiming 'terrorism' was emerging in the city on Monday after flights were cancelled
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China’s conduct in Hong Kong comes under cautious scrutiny on Q&A
Panellists debate whether Australia ‘turning a blind eye’ to China’s rising power
As demonstrators shut down Hong Kong’s airport on Monday in protest against police brutality, Chinese official said “terrorism” was emerging in the city.
Meanwhile, on the ABC’s Q&A program, the “people’s panellist” guest suggested he shared China’s view, prompting one of the more cautious political discussions ever held on the show.
Continue reading...Powerful typhoon sweeps away buildings in eastern China – video
Heavy rain swept through eastern China after Typhoon Lekima made landfall in the coastal province of Zhejiang on Saturday. The powerful storm left a trail of destruction after a landslide backed up a river that broke through debris and inundated homes. The death toll from Lekima rose to 44 on Monday morning, according to state media
Continue reading...Closure of Hong Kong airport shines fresh light on protest movement
Disruption on Monday stopped flights to UK, US and Australia and will be felt worldwide
The closure of Hong Kong international airport has shone a fresh global spotlight on the city’s protest movement.
The airport was forced to cancel all remaining passenger flights on Monday – more than 100 – after thousands of demonstrators flooded into the main terminal during the afternoon. The disruption will be felt worldwide, with cancellations including long-haul departures to the US, Australia and the UK.
Continue reading...Ostrich on the loose sprints down busy streets in China – video
A runaway ostrich has been captured on video sprinting down busy streets in Yilong town, Yunnan province, south-western China. In CCTV footage from 2 August, the ostrich, which stands at more than two metres, was seen racing down the streets in the town. After half an hour, the ostrich's owner found it and took it back home
Continue reading...Hong Kong hit by more violence as protests enter 10th week
Police fire teargas and beat demonstrators during fierce clashes across city
Hong Kong has once more descended into violence, with police firing teargas at protesters across the city as mass demonstrations calling for democracy entered their 10th consecutive week.
Clashes with police were particularly intense on Sunday night compared with previous days, as riot police fired teargas into a railway station to disperse crowds and were captured on film beating protesters with batons as they fled down an escalator in another station.
Continue reading...Versace apologises after tops imply Hong Kong and Macau are countries
One of China’s best-known actors, Yang Mi, ends contract over controversy
The luxury fashion label Versace and its artistic director, Donatella Versace, apologised to China on Sunday after one of its T-shirts was criticised for identifying the semi-autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau as countries.
Versace said on its Weibo account that it had made a mistake and had stopped selling and destroyed the T-shirts on 24 July.
Continue reading...Beijing’s new weapon to muffle Hong Kong protests: fake news
China’s media used to ignore the turmoil. Now the state is waging a campaign that could pave the way for intervention
As Hong Kong enters its third month of mass anti-government protests, across the border in China, people are seeing a very different version of events.
On Saturday, as protests entered their tenth weekend and demonstrators and police clashed in Hong Kong, the People’s Daily posted an article on the Chinese WeChat webchat service saying members from “all parts of Hong Kong society” were calling for the “violence to stop”. As peaceful rallies at the Hong Kong airport continued over the weekend, Chinese state media posted videos on Weibo of a tussle between demonstrators and an angry resident yelling: “We just want Hong Kong to be safe”.
Continue reading...Pacific Islands Forum: Tuvalu children welcome leaders with a climate plea
Climate crisis is more than a meeting agenda item in a host country that could be left uninhabitable by rising sea levels
As the leaders of Pacific countries step off their planes at Funafuti airport this week for the Pacific Islands Forum, they are being met by the children of Tuvalu, who sit submerged in water, in a moat built around the model of an island, singing: “Save Tuvalu, save the world.”
The welcome sets the tone for a Pacific Islands Forum meeting that will not only have climate change at the top of the agenda – as it has been for many years – but is being hosted by a country that the UN says is one of the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, which could render it uninhabitable in the coming century.
Continue reading...British government’s Hong Kong intervention riles China
Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, underlines ‘one country, two systems’ in call to Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong chief executive
China has lashed out at the British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, after he spoke to Hong Kong’s leader about protests that have morphed from a campaign against a controversial extradition bill into rolling street demonstrations demanding electoral reforms.
Raab spoke to Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, and stressed the need for “meaningful political dialogue and a fully independent investigation into recent events as a way to build trust” in the territory, the UK Foreign Office said.
Continue reading...Typhoon Lekima triggers landslides and floods in eastern China – video
At least 18 people have been killed and 14 are missing after Typhoon Lekima triggered a landslide in eastern China. More than 1 million people have been evacuated amid widespread transport disruptions after the typhoon made landfall in Zhejiang province with maximum winds of 116mph (187km/h)
Continue reading...Typhoon Lekima: 30 killed in eastern China after landslide
Thousands of flights cancelled as natural dam collapses north of Wenzhou
A powerful typhoon left at least 30 people dead in China, after a landslide backed up a river that broke through debris and inundated homes, state media reported on Sunday.
Another 20 people remained missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said, and more than a million people were evacuated, state broadcaster CCTV has reported.
Continue reading...‘P is for protest’: Hong Kong families take to the streets in pro-democracy rally
Event billed as rally to ‘guard our children’s future’ given permit by authorities, unlike others planned for weekend
Armed with balloons and strollers, several hundred families took to the streets in Hong Kong on Saturday to show support for pro-democracy protests that are now in their third month.
The colourful and calm atmosphere at the rally was a far cry from the increasingly violent confrontations that have marked recent demonstrations by activists calling for greater freedoms in the city.
Continue reading...US calls China ‘thuggish regime’ for targeting American diplomat who met Hong Kong protesters
Anger at release of diplomat’s personal information as Hong Kong police bring back police chief who handled 2014 Occupy protests
A US official has described China as a “thuggish regime” for disclosing personal details about a US diplomat who met student leaders involved in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
The denunciation came as the US became the latest country to issue a travel alert to the territory on Thursday, and Hong Kong’s police force brought out of retirement a senior officer who led the police response to the 2014 Occupy movement.
Continue reading...Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices
Leaked documents show children as young as 16 recruited by Amazon supplier Foxconn work gruelling and illegal hours
Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted in to make Amazon’s Alexa devices in China as part of a controversial and often illegal attempt to meet production targets, documents seen by the Guardian reveal.
Interviews with workers and leaked documents from Amazon’s supplier Foxconn show that many of the children have been required to work nights and overtime to produce the smart-speaker devices, in breach of Chinese labour laws.
Continue reading...Surprise rise in Chinese exports boosts shares in Europe and Asia – as it happened
A degree of calm has returned to world stock markets, after heavy selling earlier this week amid fears that the one-year trade war between the US and China was turning into a full-blown currency war. Washington branded Beijing a currency manipulator after the yuan fell sharply beyond the seven-to-one-dollar mark on Monday. This led to turmoil in financial markets – and US and UK stocks had their worst day this year.
Investors have been cheered today by better-than-expected trade data from China and the stabilisation of its currency. Wall Street has opened higher. In Europe, shares are even further ahead.
On Wall Street, stocks are up after the opening bell, mirroring gains in the UK, where the FTSE 100 index is 0.7% ahead at 7,250.
Gold pulls back after sharpest daily gain in 7 weeks but holds above $1,500 https://t.co/lnRzEbdH4z
Continue reading...Hongkongers stage ‘laser show’ to protest against arrests – video
Protesters in Hong Kong gathered to support the use of laser pointers in demonstrations after a university student leader was arrested for buying and carrying laser pointers. Police had sought to justify the arrest of Keith Fong, head of the Baptist University student union, by showing how one of the lasers could burn through newspaper. Fong was arrested on suspicion of carrying offensive weapons
Continue reading...Free speech and privacy on the wane across the world
Autocratic rule, increased media restrictions and use of mass surveillance affect almost half global population, researchers find
Nearly half the world’s people are living in countries where their freedom of speech and right to privacy are being eroded, researchers have found.
“Strongman” regimes seeking to squash voices of dissent and solidify political power are increasingly monitoring citizens through technology, cracking down on protests and jailing journalists, according to a ranking of 198 countries on issues including mass surveillance and data privacy.
Continue reading...European stock markets rise as US-China standoff eases – business live
- Markets cheered by US assurances, despite weaker yuan
- German industrial slump raises recession fears
- Halifax: UK House prices fall for second month
The pound is declining again today and is trading close to two-year lows versus the dollar and the euro. It is down 0.21% against the dollar at $1.2145, not far from the 31-month low of $1.2080 reached last week. Against the euro, sterling is 0.12% lower at €1.0855, not far from the 23-month low hit yesterday.
The risk of a no-deal Brexit has increased markedly under Boris Johnson’s government. When he became prime minister a fortnight ago, he said he would take Britain out of the EU at the end of October “do or die”. Investors are also fretting about the possibility of a no-confidence vote in the new Conservative government after the summer recess, or an early general election.
There are many key dates ahead for sterling, but the passing of 5 September without a successful of no confidence in the government will in our view be a further important step along the road of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.
The mood in financial markets is still fragile. Oil prices have hit a fresh seven-month low as traders worried about the impact of the US-China trade war on the global economy.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell nearly 2% to $58.57 a barrel earlier this morning and is now trading down 0.2% at $58.82 a barrel. Prices have tumbled more than 20% since hitting their 2019 peak in April.
Hong Kong protests: Australia issues travel alert as China warns of worst crisis since 1997
Australia tells tourists there is a risk of violence between protesters and police or ‘criminally linked individuals’
Australians travelling to Hong Kong have been warned to exercise a “high degree of caution” as China said Hong Kong was facing its worst crisis since the former British colony was handed back in 1997.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) said: “There is a risk of violent confrontation between protesters and police, or criminally linked individuals, particularly at unauthorised protests.” Ireland, the UK, and Japan have all issued Hong Kong travel warnings since July.
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