Hundreds protest southern China COVID-19 lockdowns

Hundreds protest southern China COVID-19 lockdowns
Under the policy, thousands of residents can be locked down over just one positive case in their housing complex. (File/AP)
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Updated 15 November 2022
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Hundreds protest southern China COVID-19 lockdowns

Hundreds protest southern China COVID-19 lockdowns
  • City officials launched mandatory mass testing in nine districts last week

BEIJING: Protesters in southern China clashed with police in a rare display of public opposition to anti-COVID measures, videos posted online showed, after lockdowns in the area were extended over a surge in infections.
Videos circulating on social media since Monday night and verified by AFP showed hundreds taking to the street in the industrial metropolis of Guangzhou, some tearing down cordons intended to keep locked-down residents from leaving their homes.
A few scuffled with officials in hazmat suits.
“No more testing,” protesters chanted, with some throwing debris at police.
Another video shows a man trying to swim across a waterway that separates the affected district of Haizhu from the neighboring area, with passers-by suggesting the man was trying to escape the lockdown.
The district of more than 1.8 million residents has been the source of the bulk of Guangzhou’s COVID-19 cases.
Officials announced the first snap lockdown there in late October, targeting dozens of residential neighborhoods.
And on Monday, a lockdown order covering nearly two-thirds of the district was extended until Wednesday night.
City officials launched mandatory mass testing in nine districts last week, as daily case numbers rose above 1,000.
The megacity of more than 18 million people reported nearly 2,300 cases on Tuesday, most of them asymptomatic.
China is the only major economy sticking to a zero-Covid strategy to stamp out virus clusters as they emerge, but swift and harsh lockdowns have battered the economy.
Under the policy, thousands of residents can be locked down over just one positive case in their housing complex.
But a torrent of lockdown-related scandals — where residents have complained of inadequate conditions, food shortages and delayed emergency medical care — have chipped away at public confidence in the policy.
Dozens of people took to the streets in southern tech hub Shenzhen in September after officials announced a snap lockdown over a handful of COVID cases.
And earlier this year, a gruelling two-month lockdown in Shanghai — the world’s third most populous city with more than 25 million residents — saw widespread food shortages, deaths due to lack of access to medical care, and scattered protests.
On Friday the government announced some relaxation of the measures, cutting quarantine times for inbound travelers and scrapping the requirement to identify and isolate “secondary close contacts” — those who may have come into contact with infected people.


UK to charge five Bulgarians with spying for Russia

UK to charge five Bulgarians with spying for Russia
Updated 21 September 2023
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UK to charge five Bulgarians with spying for Russia

UK to charge five Bulgarians with spying for Russia
  • The charges relate to alleged offenses that took place between August 2020 and February 2023, the CPS added

LONDON: Five Bulgarian nationals suspected of spying for Russia will be charged with conspiracy to conduct espionage, UK prosecutors said Thursday.
Three men and two women “will be charged with conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state,” the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.
The charges relate to alleged offenses that took place between August 2020 and February 2023, the CPS added.
Orlin Roussev, 45, Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, Katrin Ivanova, 31, Ivan Stoyanov, 31, and Vanya Gaberova, 29, will appear at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Tuesday.
Three of them — Roussev, Dzhambazov and Ivanova — were charged in February with “possession of false identity documents with improper intention,” the CPS said.


Zelensky returns to Washington to face growing dissent among Republicans to US spending for Ukraine

Zelensky returns to Washington to face growing dissent among Republicans to US spending for Ukraine
Updated 21 September 2023
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Zelensky returns to Washington to face growing dissent among Republicans to US spending for Ukraine

Zelensky returns to Washington to face growing dissent among Republicans to US spending for Ukraine
  • Zelensky will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House
  • National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called the Ukrainian president “our best messenger” in persuading US lawmakers to keep vital US money and weapons coming

WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to Washington on Thursday for a whirlwind one-day visit, this time to face the Republicans now questioning the flow of American dollars that for 19 months has kept his troops in the fight against Russian forces.
Zelensky will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House, speak with US military leaders at the Pentagon and stop at Capitol Hill to talk privately with Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate as the world is watching Western support for Kyiv.
It is Zelensky’s second visit to Washington since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and comes as Biden’s request to Congress for an additional $24 billion for Ukraine’s military and humanitarian needs is hanging in the balance.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called the Ukrainian president “our best messenger” in persuading US lawmakers to keep vital US money and weapons coming.
“It’s really important for members of Congress to be able to hear directly from the president about what he’s facing in this counteroffensive,” Kirby told reporters Wednesday, “and how he’s achieving his goals, and what he needs to continue to achieve those goals.”
Biden has called on world leaders to stand strong with Ukraine, even as he faces domestic political divisions at home. A hard-right flank of Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump, Biden’s chief rival in the 2024 race for the White House, is increasingly opposed to sending more money overseas.
As the White House worked to shore up support for Ukraine before Zelensky’s visit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top intelligence officials briefed senior lawmakers behind closed doors Wednesday to argue the case.
But some Senate Republicans walked out of the briefing no more convinced than before about the necessity of spending more on Ukraine. “It’s not close to the end,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said. “What we’re basically told is, ‘Buckle up and get out your checkbook.”’
Since the start of the war, most members of Congress supported approving four rounds of aid to Ukraine, totaling about $113 billion, viewing defense of the country and its democracy as an imperative, especially when it comes to containing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some of that money went toward replenishing US military equipment sent to the frontlines.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who traveled to Kyiv this week, said cutting off US aid during the Ukrainians’ counteroffensive would be “catastrophic” to their efforts.
“That would clearly be the opening that Putin is looking for,” Kelly said Wednesday. “They cannot be successful without our support.”
The political environment has shifted markedly since Zelensky addressed Congress last December on his first trip out of Ukraine since the war began. He was met with rapturous applause for his country’s bravery and surprisingly strong showing in the war.
His meeting with senators on Thursday will take place behind closed doors in the Old Senate Chamber, a historical and intimate place of importance at the US Capitol, signifying the respect the Senate is showing the foreign leader.
But on the other side of the Capitol, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who faces more opposition within his Trump-aligned ranks to supporting Ukraine, is planning a separate meeting with Zelensky, with a smaller bipartisan group of lawmakers and committee chairmen.
“I will have questions for President Zelensky,” McCarthy told reporters before the visit.
The House speaker said he wanted more accountability for the money the US has already approved for Ukraine before moving ahead with more.
And, McCarthy said, he wants to know, “What is the plan for victory?”
In the Senate, however, Ukraine has a strong ally in Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who is out front in pushing his party, and the president, to continue robust support for Kyiv.
McConnell urged Biden before Wednesday’s closed-door briefing to senators to make sure the administration’s top brass puts forward a more forceful case in support of Ukraine so Congress can send Zelensky what’s needed to win the war.
“I sometimes get the sense that I speak more about Ukraine matters than the president does,” McConnell said in a speech Wednesday.


First Ukraine grain ship since Russian blockade reaches Istanbul

First Ukraine grain ship since Russian blockade reaches Istanbul
Updated 21 September 2023
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First Ukraine grain ship since Russian blockade reaches Istanbul

First Ukraine grain ship since Russian blockade reaches Istanbul
  • The Palau-flagged Resilient Africa vessel was carrying 3,000 tons of wheat

ISTANBUL: The first grain ship to sail from Ukraine since Russia reimposed its Black Sea blockade in July reached Istanbul on Thursday, marine traffic monitors said.
Ukrainian officials said the Palau-flagged Resilient Africa vessel was carrying 3,000 tons of wheat when it left Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port on Tuesday.


ICC war crimes tribunal hobbled by hacking incident -sources

ICC war crimes tribunal hobbled by hacking incident -sources
Updated 21 September 2023
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ICC war crimes tribunal hobbled by hacking incident -sources

ICC war crimes tribunal hobbled by hacking incident -sources
  • Two lawyers at the court said it had disconnected most of its systems that can access the Internet

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court is operating under strong limitations on its digital systems after a hacking incident, sources and lawyers who work at the war crimes court said on Thursday.
Two lawyers at the court, and a source close to it who asked not to be identified, said it had disconnected most of its systems that can access the Internet, that employees cannot access email and that employees who are not working on site cannot access documents.
The ICC, based in The Hague, first disclosed a “cybersecurity incident” on Tuesday.


India suspends visas for Canadians as tensions escalate

India suspends visas for Canadians as tensions escalate
Updated 21 September 2023
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India suspends visas for Canadians as tensions escalate

India suspends visas for Canadians as tensions escalate
  • Tensions flared after Canada said it was investigating Indian links to the murder of a Sikh separatist activist on its soil
  • Canadian high commission in New Delhi has decided to ‘temporarily adjust’ staff presence in India

New Delhi: India has suspended visa services for Canadian citizens from Thursday, days after Ottawa accused New Delhi of potentially being behind the assassination of a Sikh separatist activist on its soil.

Tensions flared this week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament that Canadian intelligence agencies were investigating “credible allegations” of a potential link between “agents of the government of India” and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh Canadian citizen who was gunned down by masked men in June.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs rejected the allegation as “absurd” and both India and Canada have since expelled their senior diplomats in reciprocal moves.

The suspension of visa services for Canadian citizens was first announced in a message on the website of BLS International, outsourcing service provider for the Indian government and diplomatic missions worldwide, which said it was “due to operational reasons” and with effect from Sept. 21.

Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, blamed the move on “security threats” faced by India’s high commissioner in Ottawa.

“This has hampered and disrupted his normal functioning. That’s why our high commissioner and consulates are not able to provide visa services,” he told reporters.

“We will keep on reviewing the situation at a regular basis. We will keep on assessing, but for the time being, due to the security situation in Canada and the security situation arising out of the Canadian government’s inaction, the visa process is getting obstructed temporarily, and we have stopped the visa process for the time being.”

The move comes a day after India issued an advisory urging its citizens traveling to or living in Canada to “exercise utmost caution” in view of the “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate crimes and criminal violence in Canada.”

Nijjar was an outspoken supporter of the Khalistan movement, which calls for a separate Sikh homeland in parts of India’s Punjab state.

The movement is outlawed in India, considered a national security threat by the government, and Nijjar’s name appears on the Indian Home Ministry’s list of terrorists.

He was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, which has a significant number of Sikh residents.

Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside Punjab — about 770,000 or 2 percent of its entire population.

The Canadian High Commission in New Delhi issued a statement on Thursday saying that some of its diplomats had “received threats on various social media platforms” and it was assessing its staff presence in India.

“In light of the current environment where tensions have heightened, we are taking action to ensure the safety of our diplomats,” the mission said.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to temporarily adjust staff presence in India.”