International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
The United States is working a new round of sanctions against North Korea, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Thursday, as Pyongyang forges ahead with banned missile development and signals a possible new nuclear test. “We have a new set of sanctions measures coming forward as we speak,” he told a conference in
China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to “resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces,” following the largest street demonstrations in decades staged by citizens fed up with strict anti-virus restrictions. The statement from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission released late Tuesday comes amid a massive show of force by
(AFP) – Fresh clashes have broken out between police and protesters in a southern Chinese city, part of a wave of Covid lockdown-sparked demonstrations across the country that have morphed into demands for political freedoms. China’s top security body warned late on Tuesday night that authorities would “crack down” on the protests, which are the
Half of the world’s democracies are in a state of decline amid worsening civil liberties and rule of law while already authoritarian governments are becoming more oppressive, an intergovernmental watchdog group said on Wednesday. In its annual report, the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said democratic institutions were being undermined by issues ranging from restrictions on freedom
(AFP) – Chinese security forces on Monday filled the streets of Beijing and Shanghai following online calls for another night of protests to demand political freedoms and an end to Covid lockdowns. People have taken to the streets in major cities and gathered at university campuses across China in a wave of nationwide protests not seen
LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday that the so-called “golden era” of relations with China was over, saying Beijing’s systemic challenge to Britain’s interests and values was growing more acute. In his first major foreign policy speech, Sunak said Britain’s approach to China needed to evolve and Beijing
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, has erupted for the first time in nearly 40 years, US authorities said, as emergency crews went on alert early Monday. Flows of lava remained “contained” within the summit caldera of Mauna Loa, but the eruption could pose a threat to nearby residents should conditions change, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported
Hundreds of demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night as protests over China‘s stringent COVID restrictions flared for a third day and spread to several cities in the wake of a deadly fire in the country’s far west. The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China since President Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago, as frustration mounts over his signature
SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Chinese protesters have turned to blank sheets of paper to express their anger over COVID-19 restrictions in a rare, widespread outpouring of public dissent that has gone beyond social media to some of China’s streets and top universities. Images and videos circulated online showed students at universities in cities including
The BBC said on Sunday one of its journalists in China had been arrested and beaten by police while covering protests against the country’s zero-Covid policy. Hundreds of people took to the streets in China’s major cities on Sunday in a rare outpouring of public anger against the state. “The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of
(AFP) – The death toll from a twin school shooting in Brazil rose to four on Saturday after a teacher wounded in the attack by a 16-year-old shooter wearing Nazi symbols died from her injuries, officials said. Authorities in the city of Aracruz, in Espirito Santo state, had said some of the around 10 wounded,
SHANGHAI, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Protests simmered in Shanghai early on Sunday, as residents in several Chinese cities, many of them angered by a deadly fire in the country’s far west, pushed back against heavy COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic. A fire on Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building
