Gabrielle Reyes

A criminal court in Alexandria, Egypt, sentenced a man to death on Wednesday after finding him guilty of murdering a Coptic Christian priest in the Mediterranean port city in April, Africanews reported on Thursday. The unidentified man stabbed Coptic Christian Priest Arsanios Wadid, 56, to death while Wadid accompanied young people from his parish along the Sidi Bishr district of the Alexandria Corniche, a seaside promenade, on April 7. Passersby immobilized the killer shortly after witnessing his stabbing of Wadid and handed him over to local police. Wadid’s official title was the “Priest of the Church of the Virgin Mary and Mar Boulos.” He presided […]

Mozambican state health authorities declared a “public health emergency” on Wednesday in an effort to contain a case of wild poliovirus confirmed in a child in the nation’s western Tete province days earlier, the state-run Mozambique News Agency (AIM) reported on Thursday. “Faced with this situation, and as international health regulations recommend, we must declare a public health emergency, and strengthen measures of surveillance, and vaccination against polio,” Mozambique National Director of Public Health Quinhas Fernandes told reporters at a press conference in Maputo, Mozambique’s national capital, on May 18. Mozambican health officials confirmed the case of “wild poliovirus type 1,” the […]

Tokyo police arrested a senior official of Japan’s Finance Ministry named Ono Heihachiro on Friday for allegedly “hitting and kicking” a fellow passenger while aboard a moving train, Japan’s Jiji Press reported, noting police sources claimed Ono was “heavily drunk” at the time of the alleged incident. Officers of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department detained Ono, 56, around 12:30 a.m. on May 20 (local time) for allegedly assaulting a passenger on a train traveling the “Tokyu Denentoshi Line connecting Shibuya Station in Tokyo and Chuo-Rinkan Station in neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture,” Kyodo News reported. “Ono was captured around the train ticket gate at Sakura-shinmachi Station in […]

China’s military deployed its “most powerful bombers” to conduct drills near Taiwan on Wednesday just 48 hours before U.S. President Joe Biden embarked on a six-day East Asia tour on Friday in what observers believe may have been a show of defiance against Washington’s support of Taipei’s sovereignty, China’s state-run Global Times reported on Thursday. China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) “sent its most powerful bombers” to conduct exercises over the West Pacific Ocean on May 18, according to the newspaper. The fighter aircraft joined a PLA Liaoning aircraft carrier group, which has staged near-daily drills in the area since at least […]

The Taliban recently dissolved Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission along with four other departments established by the country’s former, U.S.-backed government, Khaama Press News Agency reported on Tuesday citing an original report by Reuters. A Taliban official confirmed to Reuters on May 16 that the group chose to dissolve five Afghan governmental departments due to a financial deficit. The five departments included the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), the National Security Council, the Human Rights Commission, the Independent Commission for Overseeing the Implementation of the Constitution (ICOIC), and the General Secretariats of the Afghan loya jirga, or grand assembly. “Because these departments were […]

A massive sandstorm blew through Iraq on Monday, forcing daily life to shut down in Baghdad and causing breathing difficulties in at least 4,000 people who sought medical treatment in hospitals nationwide, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. “At least 4,000 people were admitted to hospital needing treatment for respiratory difficulties,” Iraq’s Health Ministry spokesman, Seif al-Badr, told AFP on May 16. AFP correspondents across Iraq reported thick layers of orange dust covering buildings, and entering some, across the country’s cities on Monday, including central Baghdad (the national capital), southern Najaf (a Shiite shrine city), and northern Sulaimaniyah (in the Kurdistan Region). Iraq’s federal […]

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced on Monday that his nation had “run out” of petroleum-based fuel during a national address in which he predicted that the next two months will be “the most difficult ones of our lives,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. “We have run out of petrol. … At the moment, we only have petrol stocks for a single day,” Wickremesinghe said on May 16. The prime minister revealed his government had likewise run out of foreign currency reserves needed to pay for three oil shipments on vessels docked outside Colombo’s harbor on Monday and “14 essential medicines,” […]

North Korea documented six deaths from the Chinese coronavirus on Friday amid an “explosive” outbreak of the disease that infected 18,000 people in the country on Thursday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. “On May 12 alone, some 18,000 persons with fever occurred nationwide and as of now up to 187,800 people are being isolated and treated,” KCNA wrote in an English-language report published May 13. The article further revealed that six people had died from the Chinese coronavirus in North Korea as of Friday, with at least one of the deaths linked to the omicron variant of the […]

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters on Wednesday he was “ready to hit the ground running” following a presumed victory in the 2022 Philippine presidential election earlier that same day. Marcos Jr. secured 58.74 percent of votes in the 2022 Philippine presidential election as of May 11 with 98.32 percent of precincts reporting, according to an unofficial tally by the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC). Marcos Jr.’s vote count on Wednesday was double the number for his closest rival in the race, current Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo. The Philippine presidential election, part of a broader general election, took place on May 9. […]

A 13-year-old boy was recently forced to live alone at his family’s apartment home in China’s Kunshan city for 66 consecutive days after his parents visited neighboring Shanghai for medical treatment in late February and became trapped in the city when it was locked down to contain its latest epidemic of the Chinese coronavirus, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Monday. “The boy’s parents travelled to Shanghai on February 28 to seek medical treatment for his father and were only allowed to return to their home in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, eastern China, at the end of April,” the newspaper reported […]

Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of Beijing’s Chaoyang district publically named 45 local businesses on Monday that allegedly violated the city’s anti-Chinese coronavirus measures in recent days, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Tuesday. “Chaoyang district officials … issued a public notice on social media site WeChat on Monday evening [May 2] listing 45 companies they said had not complied with Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus] measures and restrictions,” the newspaper reported on May 3. The notice claimed the offending businesses included “restaurants that offered dine-in services despite a ban since Sunday [May 1], while others had staff that were not […]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday to meet Saudi leaders for bilateral talks, marking his first visit with the Kingdom’s rulers since 2017, the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday. Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz received Erdoğan at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah on the evening of April 28. Following an official reception ceremony and banquet welcoming the Turkish president to Jeddah, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held a meeting with Erdoğan. .Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Receives Turkish President#spagov pic.twitter.com/weR8aadxiD — […]

Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday adopted a motion to designate some of Russia’s recent military actions against Ukraine as “genocide,” Canada’s Global News website reported. Heather McPherson, a far-left Canadian Member of Parliament (MP), “put forward a motion following question period seeking unanimous consent from all parties to recognize the [alleged] atrocities [by Russia against Ukraine] as a ‘genocide,’” Global News relayed on April 27. The news website confirmed that the “motion was adopted,” while clarifying that a parliamentary motion “is not binding and does not carry direct consequences under broader international law, where the definition [of genocide] is laid […]

Liang Wannian, the head of a Chinese coronavirus “response expert panel” for China’s National Health Commission, “stood firm” on Friday regarding her panel’s belief that Shanghai should remain under a city-wide lockdown to contain a local outbreak of the disease, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. “China’s senior adviser on the country’s Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus] response has sought to justify the prolonged lockdown and control measures in Shanghai, citing its large population and widespread community transmission,” the SCMP reported on April 29. Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of Shanghai’s government ordered all 25 million-plus of the city’s residents to […]

The parliament of the Central African Republic (CAR) passed a bill last week legalizing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as official forms of currency, CAR’s presidency announced Wednesday. “A bill governing the use of cryptocurrency was adopted unanimously by parliament last week,” Reuters quoted Obed Namsio, the chief of staff of CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera, as saying in a statement issued on April 27. “The president supports this bill because it will improve the conditions of Central African citizens,” Namsio told Reuters on April 27. CAR’s presidential office statement described the new legislation as “a decisive step toward opening up new opportunities for our […]

The incoming government of South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said Thursday it plans to compensate 5.51 million small business owners for losses suffered as a direct result of the previous administration’s punishing business hour curfews, imposed regularly for two years as part of Seoul’s anti-Chinese coronavirus regulations. Yoon’s transition team chief, Ahn Cheol-soo, announced on April 28 “a 100-day road map that aims to fully compensate the pandemic-hit small business owners,” the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported. “Ahn said 5.51 million small businesses suffered an estimated 54 trillion won (US$42.4 billion) worth of damage in the past two years due to the […]

China’s government indicated on Wednesday it plans to ease Shanghai’s Chinese coronavirus lockdown one day before suggesting it might impose a lockdown on Beijing, according to Chinese state media reports. Shanghai’s municipal government on April 27 “decided to take what epidemiologists said was ‘a major step toward lifting the lockdown’ to ease restrictions in areas where COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] infections were stamped outside the quarantined areas,” the state-run Global Times reported. Shanghai’s daily new cases of the disease have steadily declined over the past week, according to the newspaper, which relayed the following: In official figures released Wednesday [April 27], Shanghai […]

A court in eastern China’s Ningbo city sentenced U.S. citizen Shadeed Abdulmateen to death on Thursday for the intentional homicide of his former girlfriend, a 21-year-old Chinese citizen, in June 2021, the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) reported. The Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court assigned Abdulmateen a capital punishment on April 21 after convicting him of the “premeditated” murder of a Chinese woman identified only by her surname, Chen. The Ningbo court described Abdulmateen’s murder of Chen as a “revenge killing,” allegedly prompted by his anger over Chen’s decision to end their romantic relationship in May 2021. The court divulged gruesome details […]

The Sunni jihadist Taliban terrorist organization claimed on Tuesday that it shuttered all secondary girls’ schools across Afghanistan in March because their existence allegedly violated sharia, or Islamic law, Afghanistan’s Khaama Press news agency reported on Wednesday. “[G]irls’ schools in Afghanistan have problems with Sharia law, the curriculum is in opposition to Sharia law and jurisprudence, and … the way Afghan girls would go to schools was in opposition with Sharia and Afghan culture/tradition [sic],” Taliban leader Moulayee Rahmatullah Najib told reporters at a press conference on April 19 as quoted by Khaama Press. Najib spoke in response to a journalist’s question […]

Taiwan’s government-funded Chinese Television System (CTS) accidentally broadcast a running news ticker on Wednesday morning falsely declaring Chinese forces had launched a military invasion of New Taipei City, the Taipei Times reported on Thursday. The Taiwanese public broadcaster CTS allowed mock alerts intended for an upcoming disaster drill in New Taipei City to enter its text feed for a running news ticker at the bottom of its 7:00 a.m. news bulletin on April 20. The text included alarming messages, such as, “Communist forces strike New Taipei City with guided missiles.” “Naval vessel explodes, facilities, ships damaged at Port of Taipei,” read […]

Militants of the outlawed Nigerian separatist group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) perpetrated a deadly armed attack on both Nigerian soldiers and civilians on Easter Sunday in southern Nigeria’s Imo state, Nigeria’s Premium Times online newspaper reported on Tuesday. Armed members of the IPOB attacked the Ihioma community in Imo state’s Orlu Local Government Area on April 17, killing an unspecified number of Nigerian civilians and troops. “The gunmen … were said to be on a manhunt for members of Ebubeagu Security Network, who reportedly arrived in the area last Saturday [April 16],” according to the Premium Times. […]

Twin bomb blasts targeted a boys’ secondary school in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, killing at least six people and wounding roughly 24 others, the Kabul-based Tolo News reported. Two bombings caused by improvised explosive devices occurred in quick succession outside the Abdul Rahim Shahid boys’ high school on the morning of April 19, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday. The first explosion detonated as students were leaving morning classes and the second went off a short time later, as emergency medical crews were attempting to respond to the first bombing. “An official familiar with the matter […]

China’s ruling Communist Party strategically labeled expanding nationwide Chinese coronavirus restrictions over the weekend as “temporary controls of social activities” after some residents in certain affected cities, such as Xi’an, reportedly “panicked” after first learning of the restrictions, China’s state-run Global Times acknowledged Saturday. The government of central China’s Xi’an on April 15 ordered all 13 million-plus residents of the city to observe “temporary controls of social activities” from April 16 through April 19 to contain a fresh local outbreak of the Chinese coronavirus. Xian’s municipal “anti-epidemic command center” issued a press release announcing the lockdown on the night of April 15, […]

Police in western India’s Maharashtra state recently arrested four men for allegedly “gang-raping” a Bengal monitor lizard, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Thursday, noting an official for the Maharashtra Forest Department confirmed the group’s arrest on Wednesday. The incident allegedly took place inside Maharashtra’s Sahyadri Tiger Reserve and “came to light days after the four accused were booked for illegally entering Chandoli National Park, which is part of the reserve, with one of them carrying a gun for hunting,” a spokesman for the Maharashtra Forest Department told reporters on April 13. Local police originally detained the four men on […]

Violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus broke out across the Indian states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand on Sunday during local observances of a Hindu religious festival, prompting authorities in two of the three states to impose curfews or gathering bans later Sunday, the Times of India reported on Monday. Communities across Hindu-majority India held celebrations on April 10 to honor the birth of the Hindu lord Ram, or the physical incarnation of the top Hindu deity Vishnu. In the Gujarat municipality of Himmatnagar, local Muslim residents reportedly began hurling stones at a Ram procession, triggering mass violence. The Indian news […]

Police in southern Sri Lanka’s Galle city found a 43-year-old man “dead in the driver’s seat” of his vehicle on Monday after he had waited in a gasoline line “for hours” amid Sri Lanka’s dire fuel shortage, the local News First website reported. “Police said that the person had arrived at the filling station around 3.30 AM this morning to purchase Diesel for a Lorry [sic],” News First relayed on April 11. “Police further said he was found dead in the driver’s seat after waiting in line for hours,” the outlet added. The man was the fifth person confirmed by Sri Lankan […]

Indonesia has experienced a shortage of palm cooking oil in recent weeks, caused, in part, by Russia’s latest war with Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday. “In recent months, the price of crude palm oil used has surged by up to 40 percent, the result of a confluence of factors, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which supplies the majority of Europe’s sunflower oil. With the Ukrainian sunflower oil supply disrupted by the conflict, demand for other oils like palm oil has soared,” Al Jazeera explained on April 7. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil. Despite its […]

Pakistan’s parliament voted to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan in a “no-confidence” vote early Sunday, with 174 of the parliament’s 342 members voting for his ouster, according to the BBC. The vote came after a verdict by Pakistan’s Supreme Court Thursday ruling against his administration’s dismissal of the planned “no-confidence” vote. Khan had advised Pakistan President Arif Alvi to dissolve Pakistan’s National Assembly according to Article 58 of the Pakistan Constitution on April 3, though Pakistan’s Supreme Court additionally overturned this move in its April 7 ruling, ordering the parliament to reconvene on Saturday. Khan said on Friday he was “saddened by” but […]

Shanghai, one of the wealthiest cities in the world, is currently experiencing food shortages due to stringent lockdown measures designed to contain its ongoing Chinese coronavirus outbreak, the Global Times reported on Thursday. Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of Shanghai confirmed on April 7 anecdotal reports that many of the city’s 26 million residents were being forced to ration their personal food supplies while confined to their homes. Shanghai’s entire populace has been under stay-at-home orders since April 5, though the city’s authorities first began sealing off residential communities on March 28. Shanghai Vice Mayor Chen Tong on Thursday admitted […]

Birth rates across nine Chinese provinces and autonomous regions decreased in 2021, the state-run Global Times reported on Wednesday. “As of Sunday [April 3], 23 provinces and autonomous regions in China had released demographic data on birth rate for 2021. The data showed that nine provinces experienced a natural negative increase in population in 2021,” according to the Chinese state-run newspaper. The nine provinces and regions included Hebei (which surrounds China’s national capital, Beijing), Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Shanxi, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, and Heilongjiang. “Among them, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi all registered negative natural population growth rates for […]

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a video released online on Tuesday in which he praised an Indian Muslim woman for defiantly shouting, “allahu akbar,” to a group of Hindu nationalists in southern India’s Karnataka state in February, the Indian Express reported on Thursday. Al-Zawahri addressed the February 8 Karnataka incident during a roughly nine-minute video posted online on April 5 by As-Sahab, which is the official media wing of al-Qaeda, an international jihadist terror organization. “Zawahiri’s reference to a contemporary issue has also confirmed that he is alive, contrary to suggestions that he had died of natural causes in 2020,” the Indian […]

Sri Lankan police officers “assaulted” a group of Sri Lankan soldiers on Tuesday after the servicemen approached Sri Lanka’s parliament building in Colombo in an aggressive manner as part of an unannounced visit, Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday. Other Sri Lankan and regional outfits confirmed the incident, noting that the army officers were reportedly masked and unidentified as members of the armed forces, so police did not appear to intentionally attack the military. “A group of masked soldiers holding assault rifles drove through the crowd on unmarked bikes at a protest near Parliament, in which children, women and the elderly […]

Almost all of the Sri Lankan government’s Cabinet — apart from the nation’s president and prime minister — resigned from their posts on Sunday amid Sri Lanka’s worsening economic crisis, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Monday. “All 26 ministers in the Cabinet aside from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa submitted letters of resignation at a late-night meeting,” Sri Lanka Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told reporters on April 3. Sunday’s Cabinet reshuffle cleared the way for Sri Lanka’s president to appoint new Cabinet ministers on Monday or simply reappoint established members to new positions. Al Jazeera […]

Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of Shanghai “admitted” on Thursday they have been “inadequately prepared” for the city’s latest epidemic of the Chinese coronavirus, China’s state-run Global Times reported. “Shanghai was ill prepared for the latest surge in infections, had not developed sufficient knowledge about the highly contagious Omicron variant, and its control measures have not been up to speed,” Ma Chunlei, the secretary-general of Shanghai’s government, told reporters at a regular press conference on March 31. Ma added that Shanghai’s municipal government “accepts criticism and vowed to improve.” Shanghai’s government issued an edict on March 27 requiring one-half of […]

A nurse based in Shanghai, China, died on Wednesday from an asthma attack after she was denied treatment at a local hospital because the facility’s emergency room was temporarily closed in compliance with an anti-epidemic protocol designed to curb Shanghai’s latest Chinese coronavirus epidemic, China’s state-run Global Times reported Friday. The nurse’s tragic and preventable death occurred on March 23. The newspaper detailed the incident on March 25, writing: Zhou Shengni, a nurse who worked at the Shanghai East Hospital, who had an asthma attack at home on Wednesday, died after delayed treatment. At 7 pm Wednesday, Zhou’s family members took Zhou […]

Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Qin Gang rejected the notion Uyghurs are suffering “human rights abuses” in China’s western Xinjiang region on Sunday during a live interview with CBS’s Face the Nation. “There’s no such … human rights violation in Xinjiang,” Qin said on March 20. The Chinese diplomat’s remark came less than one week after Voice of America (VOA) reported Turkish government authorities denied the citizenship applications of Uyghur refugees fleeing genocide by China in Xinjiang last year on the grounds they allegedly posed risks to Turkey’s “national security.” VOA, a U.S. government-funded broadcaster, did not specify precisely when the citizenship […]

An estimated 14,000 Russians have fled to Turkey since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last month, Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News reported on Monday. “Some 14,000 Russians have fled to Turkey in just three weeks after the conflict in Ukraine broke out because of what they describe as deteriorating conditions in their country,” the publication reported on March 21. “Russian and Ukrainian citizens are not required to have a visa to enter Turkey and can stay for up to three months in the country,” according to the Hürriyet Daily News. The newspaper interviewed a 23-year-old Russian citizen named Ana who […]

A nine-month pregnant woman living in Singapore recently alleged she was “pushed to the ground” and “kicked” by Singaporean government employees assigned to monitor social distancing at a local park after she confronted the people for their suspicious behavior, Singapore’s Mothership digital news platform reported Thursday. The alleged physical assault took place on March 8 around 6:00 pm local time while the woman, her husband, and their two children enjoyed an evening together at a local park. The woman posted an account of the incident to her Facebook page on March 16. The Mothership reviewed the woman’s statement and relayed highlights […]

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Sunday that Ankara “will not join the sanctions some Western countries have imposed on Russia” over its latest war with Ukraine, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported. Asked by reporters at a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey, on March 13 about the Turkish government’s “stance regarding sanctions against Russia,” Cavusoglu responded. “We believe that the sanctions will not resolve the problem.” Cavusoglu spoke at a press conference held at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. The annual summit took place this year from March 11 to March 13 and included the attendance of “2000 guests […]

Recent commercial satellite images of North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, which the communist regime claimed it had destroyed in 2018, suggest the center has resumed construction activities for the first time since, the Associated Press (AP) reported Tuesday. The news agency analyzed satellite photos of Punggye-ri taken on March 6 by Planet Labs PBC that appeared to show “two new structures … built to the site’s south between February and early March.” Planet Labs PBC is an Earth-imaging company based in San Francisco, California. The Colorado-based Maxar Technologies took separate satellite photos of Punggye-ri on March 4 that seemed to show […]

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday her staff recorded 304 deaths caused by military airstrikes in northern Ethiopia since November 2021 “apparently carried out by the Ethiopian Air Force.” Bachelet’s allegation implies Ethiopia’s federal government supported lethal air attacks on its own civilians over the past four months. Ethiopia’s envoy to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Mahlet Hailu Guadey, dismissed Bachelet’s statement on March 7, saying it “was at variance with the facts on the ground,” according to Reuters. “Ethiopia abides by its national and international human rights obligations,” Mahlet said. Ethiopia’s […]

 A 70-year-old man attacked the chairman of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Song Young-gil, with a hammer during a campaign stop in Seoul on Monday, causing Song to suffer injuries to his head requiring stitches, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported. “Song was campaigning in Seoul’s Sinchon area for Wednesday’s presidential election when the assailant came up to him from behind and struck him in the head several times with a hammer wrapped in a black plastic bag,” Yonhap reported on March 7. “Song was rushed to a nearby hospital with bleeding from his head and received stitches,” […]

The hashtag “#IStandWithPutin,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was among the trending topics on Twitter in India on Thursday, China’s state-run Global Times reported on Friday. “As of Thursday [March 3], #IStandWithPutin had become a trending topic on Twitter in 12 countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the US, Australia, Pakistan, Canada, the UK and India, and ranked 25th in global trends,” the propaganda newspaper reported on March 4. The Chinese news site guancha.cn revealed “#IStandWithPutin” was the top trending Twitter topic in India, Kenya, and Nigeria on March 3. A report by the Hindi news channel India TV on March […]

New Zealand police cleared an anti-vaccine mandate protest outside New Zealand’s parliament building in Wellington on Wednesday after its participants resisted federal calls to disperse for nearly four weeks, Wellington’s Dominion Post reported. Video footage of the security operation captured by New Zealand’s Stuff news site showed dozens of police officers marching in riot gear through protester encampments set up on the grounds of New Zealand’s parliament building on March 2. Several police officers were seen in eyewitness videos tearing down individual tents with their bare hands. New Zealand police ordered the “towing [of] vehicles” belonging to participants of the nearly […]

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it restarted all of its domestic plants in Japan following a two-day-long production halt caused by a cyberattack on the computer system of a Toyota parts supplier, Kyodo News reported. “Toyota restarted its 14 plants using a makeshift production data system connected to Kojima Industries Corp., as it is expected to take one to two weeks for the supplier to restore its computer network,” according to the Tokyo-based news agency. Kojima Industries Corp. experienced “computer server trouble” on February 26. The plastic parts maker later detected the presence of “a virus and a threatening message” on its […]

Several Russian celebrities — who operate within Russia’s largely state-owned entertainment industry — risked a potential exposure ban by state media this week through their public protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, Fortune magazine reported. “Russia’s entertainment industry is largely state-owned, and while no celebrities have criticized [Russian President Vladimir] Putin by name, their outcry could lead to bans from any exposure on state media,” the business-focused magazine observed on February 24. Russian pop star Valery Meladze denounced Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine through a video message he shared with his 50,000 Instagram followers on February 24. “Today something happened […]

Chinese nationals in Kyiv, Ukraine’s national capital, are facing heightened “security risks” amid Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine this week, China’s state-run Global Times reported Thursday. The Chinese Embassy in Kyiv issued a notice on February 24 in anticipation of Beijing’s need to organize the return of an estimated 6,000 Chinese nationals living in Ukraine, mainly in the cities of Kyiv, Lvov, Kharkov, Odessa, and Sumy. “Given the rapidly deteriorating situation in the country, Chinese nationals and companies are facing high security risks. For this reason, the embassy is preparing charter flights and asked all Chinese nationals to voluntarily register,” the notice […]

Russian police arrested 700 protesters Thursday who were urging leader Vladimir Putin to end his assault on Ukraine, the Agence-France Presse (AFP) reported citing independent monitors. Protests erupted throughout the country after Putin announced in the early morning hours of Thursday what Ukrainian officials are calling a full-scale invasion of their country. Opposition activists rapidly began organizing social media calls for assemblies against the war. Russian celebrities also took to social media to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hours earlier, the Moscow Times reported. “Pop stars, late-night television hosts and film directors have been posting black squares to Instagram in protest of […]

China’s state-run Global Times on Tuesday compared the Donbas region of Ukraine, currently overrun by two Russian-backed separatist entities, to the sovereign state of Taiwan, urging the G7 member countries to grant “unwavering support” to a Chinese invasion of the island. The remark, published through the Global Times‘ Twitter account – which the propaganda outlet possesses despite a blanket ban on Twitter in China – was a response to mounting criticisms of Russian leader Vladimir Putin who announced on Monday that he would recognize the separatists of Donetsk and Luhansk, Ukraine, as two sovereign states. Putin ordered Russian “peacekeeping” troops into the Ukrainian […]

The governments of China and Russia are developing an agreement that would see Beijing purchase 100 million metric tons of coal from Moscow, the Kremlin announced on Friday. “[A]n intergovernmental agreement with the People’s Republic of China is being developed, and the figure is 100 mln tonnes [of coal],” Sergey Mochalnikov — the Head of Department of Foreign Economic Cooperation and Fuel Markets Development at the Russian Energy Ministry — told reporters on February 18. “In the coming years, consumers should receive as much coal as they need,” Mochalnikov said. “Russian coal exports have very good prospects due to reduced supply on […]

Government officials ordered the demolition on Tuesday of a 20-foot tall Jesus statue in Gokunte — a Christian village in southern India’s majority Hindu Karnataka state — resulting in the giant sculpture allegedly “smashed to pieces” by the laborers tasked with the teardown, the British Asian Christian Association (BACA) reported on Friday. The incident took place on the morning of February 15 after a local district administration official arrived in Gokunte along with a demolition team and roughly 40 police officers to pull down the Christian statue. Eyewitness video footage of the teardown published by BACA on Friday shows a laborer operating a […]

Suzhou, a Chinese industrial hub located 49 miles west of Shanghai, shut down 15 of its highway entrances on Tuesday as city officials scrambled to contain a local Chinese coronavirus epidemic. “On Tuesday it [Suzhou] closed 15 highway entrances and required drivers and passengers leaving through others to have proof of negative test results within 48 hours,” Reuters reported on February 15. Suzhou began restricting travel out of the city on Monday when local Chinese Communist Party officials forbade all of Suzhou’s residents from leaving the community for nonessential reasons. The decision came after health authorities allegedly detected just eight new […]

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on Monday to allow Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva to continue competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics after a urine sample she submitted in December 2021 tested positive for trimetazidine, an anti-angina drug the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibits athletes from using both in and out of competition. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) imposed a provisional suspension on Valieva on February 8 upon learning of her positive test result. Valieva challenged this action, resulting in RUSADA lifting the provisional suspension on February 9. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), WADA, and International Skating Union […]

The number of people using heroin under Kabul’s notorious Pul-e-Sukhta bridge — long synonymous with hard drug use — has increased since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021, people living near the bridge told Deutsche Welle (DW) on Thursday. “Locals say heroin use centered around this infamous Kabul bridge has worsened under the Taliban,” Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on February 10. “In this place, four or five people die every night under this bridge,” an unidentified man told DW. He referred to the Pul-e-Sukhta bridge, which spans the polluted Kabul River in the Afghan national capital’s western region. “The […]

Police in Fredericton, the capital of Canada’s New Brunswick province, told reporters on Thursday they “are not going to tolerate” any blocking of roads in the “downtown core” during an anti-coronavirus-restriction protest planned to take place in the city on Friday, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported. Fredericton Police Chief Roger Brown told CBC extra police officers from around New Brunswick province will convene in the capital on Friday when a rally against oppressive pandemic policies is expected to begin outside the state legislature building in downtown Fredericton. “We are not going to tolerate trucks in the downtown core in any […]

An “unidentified man” allegedly punched a South Korean diplomat on a Manhattan sidewalk on Wednesday night in New York City, causing the South Korean to suffer a broken nose, the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) reported on Friday. A South Korean diplomat, who is stationed at South Korea’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations (U.N.), “was punched in the face by an unidentified man in what police described as an ‘unprovoked’ attack at around 8 p.m. on Wednesday near Koreatown in Manhattan,” KBS reported on February 11. The assailant reportedly fled the scene. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said Thursday […]

All high schools and colleges across Southern India’s Karnataka state were shut down on Thursday as part of a three-day suspension of classes ordered by state officials after minority Muslim Karnataka students protested bans on wearing Islamic veils at Karnataka learning institutions imposed by the Hindu majority state in recent days. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on February 8 announced a three-day shutdown of all Karnataka secondary schools and colleges lasting from February 9 through February 11. The state leader said Thursday he may extend the school closure for an undetermined amount of time. “I’ll hold a meeting with Primary and Secondary […]

Eyewitness video footage published by the New Zealand Herald on Wednesday shows police officers dragging a naked female protester by her hair before handcuffing and arresting the woman for her participation in an anti-coronavirus vaccine mandate rally in front of the New Zealand parliament building in Wellington. “Two police officers have been filmed dragging a naked female protester by her hair at Parliament grounds today,” the New Zealand Herald reported on February 9. “Footage sent to the Herald shows the officers dragging the naked woman from the protest crowd,” the newspaper revealed. “The woman is pinned to the ground and handcuffed,” […]

Argentine President Alberto Fernández laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Mao Zedong in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Saturday, China’s state-run Global Times reported Monday. The Global Times cited an original report on the “floral offering” by the Casa Rosada, or the office of the Argentine presidency. The office described Fernández as having “laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1945 until his death in 1976,” while visiting Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on February 5. Mao Zedong led the fight to turn China communist from 1945 to 1949. Mao established the People’s Republic of […]

The Bangladeshi Education Ministry extended an existing closure of its public and private schools this week through February 20 citing concerns about the spread of coronavirus, “raising eyebrows” among some observers as the decision coincided with the federal government’s easing of gathering restrictions for non-essential business events, such as trade fairs thronged by thousands of people, the Associated Press (AP) reported Thursday. “We’ve decided to keep schools and other educational institutions closed until February 20,” Bangladeshi Education Minister Dipu Moni told reporters on February 2. Bangladesh’s federal government announced the country’s latest coronavirus school closure on January 21, initially saying it […]

Russian leader Vladimir Putin praised Russian athletes on Friday for their participation in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing – who are playing despite a massive doping scandal resulting in Russia being officially banned from the Games. Putin himself is banned from the event, but was present at the Opening Ceremonies as a personal guest of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, a loophole in the ban. Athletes in the Games are playing as part of the Russian Olympic Committee due to an ongoing doping penalty issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). They cannot fly the Russian flag or play the national […]

Kenya Airways says it plans to stop transporting monkeys on behalf of a Mauritius-based primate farm after a recent such shipment suffered an escape of four cynomolgus macaques while in transit in Pennsylvania to a U.S.-based laboratory that uses the animals as subjects of science experiments, Africanews reported Monday. Africanews based much of its January 31 report on an original article published by the PhillyVoice on January 28, which itself cited a letter to the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) written by Kenya Airways Chairman Michael Joseph as its information source. Joseph told PETA it plans […]

Some Afghans starving amid the dire economic fallout resulting from the Taliban’s seizure of the country’s government last August have been forced to sell their “children and kidneys” in desperate bids to earn money for food, Sky News reported Friday. “In our first few days in Herat, we’ve met whole families who’ve sold their kidneys so they can eat,” the British news outlet reported on January 28 after sending journalists to Afghanistan in recent days. “In one case, three brothers and their two sisters told us they flogged [sold] their organs for around £1,150 [$1,583] apiece to buy food for the […]

Rwanda issued a federal mandate this week requiring all citizens and residents of the country to show proof of full Chinese coronavirus vaccination before they are allowed into any public spaces or events, Rwanda’s New Times newspaper reported Thursday. “All citizens and Rwandan residents are required to get fully vaccinated in order to access public spaces and events,” the newspaper relayed on January 27, citing a Rwandan government edict issued after a meeting on the matter on January 26. Thursday’s announcement further urged Rwandans and people living in the country to “when eligible, get booster shots” of Chinese coronavirus vaccines. A “booster […]

Rival ethnic tribes in Indonesia’s West Papua province clashed in the early morning hours of Tuesday, sparking a nightclub fire that burned 17 people “alive,” BenarNews reported, adding that an 18th victim died from stab wounds sustained in the fighting. The incident began just before dawn on January 25 in the West Papua port city of Sorong after “members of the Pelauw tribe attacked and killed a 20-year-old ethnic Kei man in Sorong,” BenarNews reported, citing local police and officials. “Friends of the victim immediately chased the perpetrators, to retaliate,” Sorong Police Chief Ary Nyoto Setiawan said on Tuesday, adding that the vengeful group […]

Chinese Communist Party officials locked down much of the city of Sanhe, which borders Beijing, on Wednesday — just nine days before Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics — after detecting a new Chinese coronavirus infection in a Sanhe resident who commutes to Beijing daily, the Global Times reported. After confirming Sanhe’s new coronavirus patient on the morning of January 26, local Communist Party authorities issued edicts to “suspend all bus lines and close communities” within seven regions of the city. “Seven towns, districts and streets in the city have been categorized as ‘controlled areas’ or ‘prevention areas,’ including Yanjiao town, […]

New statistics released by India’s federal government suggest the Chinese coronavirus death toll for some states was nearly nine times greater than officially documented during a period spanning March 2020 to January 19, 2022, the Hindu reported on Sunday. According to the newspaper’s January 23 report, “6,14,211 claims of compensation for deaths due to COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] were filed in 20 [Indian] States against the reported death toll of 4,29,872 in those States.” Southern India’s Telangana state “reported only 3,993 deaths but received 28,969 compensation claims,” according to the Hindu, meaning its coronavirus death toll may have been over seven times greater […]

China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) sent a fleet of 39 aircraft into the southwest corner of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Sunday, Taiwan News reported, noting the incursion marked the highest number of PLAAF planes to enter Taiwan’s ADIZ in a single day since October 2021. The PLAAF ordered “24 Shenyang J-16 fighter jets, 10 Chengdu J-10 fighters, one Xi’an H-6 bomber, two Shaanxi Y-9 electronic warfare aircraft (Y-9 EW), and two Shaanxi Y-8 electronic intelligence spotter planes (Y-8 ELINT)” to fly through the southwest corner of Taiwan’s ADIZ on January 23 a short distance northeast of Taiwan’s […]

The South Korean tech company Samsung recently pulled an online advertisement showing a hijabi Muslim woman supporting her drag queen son after intense criticism from residents of Singapore, the ad’s target audience, Agence France-Press (AFP) reported on Friday. Samsung said this week it chose to remove the video advertisement “from all public platforms” because it “may be perceived as insensitive and offensive” to some members of the Singaporean public, AFP reported on January 21. “We acknowledge that we have fallen short in this instance,” the tech giant wrote in a Facebook post. The commercial in question featured a hijab-clad Muslim woman using Samsung […]

A trial court in northern Pakistan’s Rawalpindi city sentenced a 26-year-old Muslim woman to death on Wednesday for blasphemy against Islam after finding her guilty of “sharing images deemed to be insulting to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and one of his wives” via the instant messaging application WhatsApp, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday. “The blasphemous material which was shared/installed by the female accused on her status [on WhatsApp messaging platform] and the messages as well as caricatures which were sent to the complainant are totally unbearable and not tolerable for a Muslim,” Judge Adnan Mushtaq wrote in his verdict in the case […]

The navies of Iran, China, and Russia launched a three-day joint maritime drill on Friday in the northern Indian Ocean designed to signal a “common future” between the three nations, Iranian Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajoldini told Iranian state television. The naval drills will take place across a 6,600-square-mile stretch of the northern Indian Ocean including the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, according to reports this week by Iranian state media. “The purpose of this drill is to strengthen security and its foundations in the region, and to expand multilateral cooperation between the three countries to jointly support world peace, […]

The number of women of childbearing age — between 15 and 49 years old — in China decreased in 2021 by 5 million, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Monday. NBS director Ning Jizhe said “2021 saw about 5 million fewer women of childbearing age (between 15 and 49) than in the previous year,” while discussing China’s latest population data at a press conference on January 17. Ning said the drop in the number of childbearing-aged women in China was the “main cause” of a related decrease in the number of newborns recorded in the country in 2021. “Other factors included […]

The Norwegian Nobel Committee issued a rare statement on Thursday suggesting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed — who won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize in part for ending a war between Ethiopia and Eritrea — “has a special responsibility” to end an ongoing civil war within Ethiopia, the Nobel Peace Center reported on Friday. “As Prime Minister and winner of the Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed has a special responsibility to end the conflict and help create peace,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee wrote in a statement issued January 13. The committee referred to a civil war between Ethiopian federal troops based in Addis Ababa […]

The Philippine federal government this week ordered local governments across Metro Manila to begin enforcing a public transportation ban on all people not vaccinated against the Chinese coronavirus, meaning anyone who cannot provide proof of coronavirus vaccination may not board buses, trains, boats, or planes in the Philippine national capital region, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Thursday. The Philippine Department of Transportation [DOTr] instructed all mayors across Metro Manila — which contains 17 cities, including Manila — to start enforcing the “no vaccination, no ride/no entry” policy in a federal edict issued on January 11. “All concerned attached agencies and sectoral offices […]

A court in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian sentenced three former employees of a local cargo handling company to roughly four years in prison last week after convicting them of violating anti-coronavirus protocol at their place of work and subsequently causing a local outbreak of the Chinese coronavirus, the Global Times reported on Tuesday. “The three defendants, two surnamed Fu and one surnamed Zhang … were sentenced to jail for the crime of violating the rules of prevention and treatment of infectious disease,” the Chinese state-run newspaper revealed on January 11. The court additionally fined the company that employed the […]

An 84-year-old Indian man who allegedly received 11 doses of Chinese coronavirus vaccines over the past year by using multiple identification cards assigned to him has threatened to commit suicide if prosecuted for misleading the Indian Health Service, the Times of India reported on Wednesday. Brahmdeo Mandal — who is a resident of Bihar, a state in eastern India — has allegedly received 11 to 12 doses of coronavirus vaccines on purpose over the past 12 months by deceiving health administrators in his local community of Puraini. “Mandal used multiple ID cards to obtain Covid [Chinese coronavirus] vaccine shots on purpose […]

A two-meter section of China’s Great Wall in northwestern Gansu province collapsed in recent days after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the area, China’s state-run Global Times reported on Monday. The natural disaster rattled China’s Qinghai province around 1:50 am on January 8. The quake’s vibrations extended beyond Qinghai to Gansu, a neighboring province, where they brought down a section of the Great Wall dating to Imperial China’s Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). “After the strong seism, authorities organized an inspection of local cultural relics and discovered the collapse site,” the Global Times reported of the damaged Great Wall section on January 10. “A […]

More than 500 pedestrians and bicyclists were admitted to hospitals across Tokyo between Thursday and Friday for injuries caused by “slipping and falling due to ice and snow on the streets” after the Japanese national capital region experienced its heaviest snowfall in four years, Kyodo News reported on Saturday. “A total of 525 people, aged between less than 1 year old and 100, were taken to hospitals in the capital, including a woman in her 60s who suffered severe injuries,” the Tokyo Fire Department confirmed on January 8. In Saitama Prefecture, which neighbors Tokyo, 140 people sustained injuries from January 6 […]

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Friday advertised an upcoming raffle via social media in which it plans to give away a stone taken from the Galwan Valley in northern India’s Ladakh state to “10 lucky netizens,” China’s state-run Global Times reported. The PLA’s Western Theater Command announced the raffle on January 7 through a notice posted by its official Sina Weibo account. Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging platform often likened to Twitter. The blog post detailed the command’s plans to “randomly choose 10 lucky netizens from those who reposted the notice and send them a stone from the Galwan […]

Thousands of South Africans celebrated Christmas in Johannesburg and Cape Town this week — visiting seasonal light displays, shopping, and frequenting bars and nightclubs — Reuters reported on Friday, noting the festivities took place in spite of South Africa’s recent caseload surge of omicron, the new Chinese coronavirus variant. “In Johannesburg, thousands … have turned out to enjoy the light displays that have filled the upmarket Melrose Arch shopping precinct with flashing reindeer, glittering giant teddy bears and glowing Christmas trees,” the news agency detailed on December 24. “Everyone’s out here partying,” tourist Jason Smuts told Reuters on the evening of […]

The governments of at least 12 countries worldwide have vowed to impose various restrictions on Christmas or New Year’s festivities in an effort to curb Chinese coronavirus transmission over the winter holiday season. The mandates include limits on the number of people allowed to gather in public or private, bans on dancing and alcohol sales, and vaccination or testing requirements for public and private get-togethers or domestic travel. Some countries have canceled public celebrations of either Christmas or New Year’s (or both). Read on to learn which governments have ordered a crackdown on merriment and togetherness this yuletide. Malaysia A man […]

Madagascar Police Minister Gen. Serge Gellé told reporters on Tuesday he swam for 12 consecutive hours in the Indian Ocean from Monday night through Tuesday morning until he reached a shore near Madagascar’s Mahambo town after he survived a helicopter crash that left him stranded in the sea, Sky News reported Thursday. “I am alive, I arrived safely in Mahambo and I am grateful to all fishers and villagers of Mahambo, also to the [local] hotel manager, Mr. Jason,” Gellé said in a video recorded by an unidentified Mahambo local on the morning of December 21. C’est avec une profonde tristesse […]

Chinese Communist Party officials locked down the entire city of Xi’an on Thursday after reportedly just 143 of the community’s 13 million residents tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus over the past two weeks, China’s official state-run press agency, Xinhua, reported. Xi’an’s government announced a citywide stay-at-home order on the afternoon of December 22 that went into effect for an indefinite amount of time on December 23. The city will allow “one family member to do grocery runs every two days” during the lockdown period, according to the Wall Street Journal. Xi’an municipal officials “urged residents not to leave town unless they […]

Jihadist Fulani terrorists killed at least 45 largely Christian Tiv farmers in central Nigeria’s Nasarawa state in recent days, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed Tuesday. Buhari’s spokesman issued a statement on his behalf on December 21 expressing the president’s “grief over the heart-wrenching murder of 45 farmers and scores injured following renewed hostilities in … Nasarawa State.” Armed Fulani herdsmen launched attacks on Nasarawa farmers of the Tiv ethnic group from December 17 through December 19. The violence ensued over the recent killing of a Fulani kinsman in Nasarawa, which the cattle herders blamed on local Tiv farmers, according to Agence […]

An independent café owner in the South Korean port city of Incheon announced plans on Tuesday to remain open 24 hours in the coming days to protest state-mandated business curfews designed to curb Chinese coronavirus transmission, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported. “We plan to operate 24 hours despite the government imposed business restriction,” the café announced in a written notice posted to its front window on December 21. “The business explained its accumulated debt came to 1 billion won (US$840,000) in the past year and has to continue operating as normal due to the absence of government compensation,” according to Yonhap. […]

Local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in Zhejiang, a province neighboring Shanghai, ordered residents to “limit family gatherings to ten people” on Monday in an effort to contain the province’s surging Chinese coronavirus caseload, the online magazine Sixth Tone reported. “Sun Liming, deputy director of Zhejiang Health Commission, said the province will implement strict control over social gatherings, cultural events, and conferences,” according to Sixth Tone. “Officials are urging residents to limit family gatherings to 10 people, while restricting indoor entertainment venues and restaurant dining to a 50 percent capacity.” Shanghai’s local Communist Party committee oversees Sixth Tone’s operation through the […]

Bucheon, South Korea, will begin using an artificial intelligence (AI)-based facial recognition software in January designed to cull images from CCTV cameras and locate, track, and contact trace Chinese coronavirus patients, Reuters reported Monday. “The system uses an AI algorithms and facial recognition technology to analyse footage gathered by more than 10,820 CCTV cameras and track an infected person’s movements, anyone they had close contact with, and whether they were wearing a mask,” Reuters reported on December 13. The news agency cited an official proposal for the project submitted by Bucheon to South Korea’s Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology […]

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday dismissed reports that Australia plans to stage a “diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in February as “political posturing” by revealing “China hasn’t invited any Australian government official” to attend the Games and adding “no one would care whether they come or not.” “China hasn’t invited any Australian government official to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics. In fact, no one would care whether they come or not, and Australian politicians’ political stunt for selfish gains has no impact whatsoever on the Olympics to be successfully held by Beijing,” Chinese Foreign Ministry […]

Ukrainian soldiers stationed along Ukraine’s border with Russia in the eastern Donbass region told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on Tuesday they “don’t believe a [Russian] invasion is coming” to the region as speculated by Western media in recent weeks. Source link

New Zealand announced Tuesday it will not send representatives at the ministerial level to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, in February because the “logistics of travel” during the coronavirus pandemic “are not conducive” to such a trip, though Wellington said its diplomats may still attend the Games. The leftist New Zealand government emphasized the pandemic – not widespread concerns about China’s rampant human rights atrocities – were behind the decision. New Zealand Minister of Sport and Recreation Grant Robertson told reporters on December 7 that Wellington “had decided in October it would not send any Government ministers to the Winter […]

Parents in South Korea have expressed “anger” in recent days against a looming federal mandate that will require children aged 12 to 17 years to provide proof of vaccination against the Chinese coronavirus to enter public spaces “frequented by students, including cram schools, internet cafes, and public study rooms” starting in February, Yonhap reported Monday. South Korea’s federal government announced on December 3 it would expand an existing coronavirus “vaccine pass” system to include anyone above the age of 12, beginning in February. The edict requires school-age children and teenagers “to present a certificate of vaccination against COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] or a […]

The United Nations (U.N.) said Wednesday it “deferred” a decision on allowing Afghanistan’s Taliban entry to the intergovernmental organization’s General Assembly, effectively denying the group U.N. membership for now. The Taliban had requested a change in Kabul’s representation at the U.N. after seizing control of Afghanistan on August 15 by deposing the country’s U.S.-backed government. “The Taliban want to replace the ambassador representing the former Afghan government, Ghulam Isaczai, who has asked to keep his UN seat,” Deutsche Welle recalled on December 2. “Instead, they have appointed Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, who served as a Taliban spokesman during peace negotiations, for the […]