Feed aggregator

The prominent pro-democracy supporter is accused of foreign collusion under controversial new laws.

President Donald Trump’s end run around Congress on coronavirus relief is raising questions about whether it would give Americans the economic lifeline he claims and appears certain to face legal challenges. Democrats called it a pre-election ploy that would burden cash-strapped states. "When you look at those executive orders ... the kindest thing I could say is he doesn’t know what he’s talking about or something's wrong there,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

The United States’ top health official praised Taiwan’s democracy and response to the coronavirus pandemic during a visit to Taipei on Monday that signals the island’s growing strategic importance to Washington as relations deteriorate with Beijing. Alex Azar, the US health secretary, is the highest ranking official to visit Taiwan since Washington severed official ties with Taipei in 1979 and switched its diplomatic allegiance to Beijing. China has threatened unspecified retaliation for the trip to a state that it claims as its own territory. After touching down on Sunday afternoon, and testing negative for the coronavirus, Mr Azar’s first port of call on Monday morning was to meet Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s newly re-elected president, who he praised for her “courage and vision” in leading a democracy that was an “inspiration” to the world. Mr Azar told Ms Tsai that Taiwan’s response to the coronavirus pandemic had been “among the most successful in the world” and thanked her for providing “needed supplies” globally, including to the US and Pacific Island nations. Ms Tsai responded that she looked for “even more breakthroughs and fruits of cooperation” in dealing with the pandemic and other issues to “jointly contribute to the sustained peaceful development of the Indo-Pacific region.” Taiwan, which has a population of 23 million, has kept Covid-19 cases low at just 480 and 7 deaths, through a combination of strict border controls, quarantine and contact tracing. The US has suffered close to 5.2 million cases and more than 165,000 related deaths.

The frantic voice message to an inmate in Colombia’s notorious La Picota prison came days before powerful former President Álvaro Uribe was up against a court deadline to submit witness testimony in a potentially damaging case against him. “There’s a big man who wants to talk,” Carlos Eduardo López, a tireless Uribe devotee, told the former paramilitary serving a four-decade sentence. Juan Guillermo Monsalve asked for details.

Jimmy Lai is accused of colluding with foreign powers.

During the last two weeks of July, at least 97,000 children in the United States tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a new report released Sunday by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.More than seven out of 10 infections were reported in southern and western states, with the highest percent increase occurring in Missouri, Oklahoma, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 338,000 kids have been infected.The report included data from 49 states, Washington, D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico, but not Texas or any part of New York outside of New York City, meaning the true count is likely higher. The age ranges were not the same in every state; while most considered children to be anyone 17 or younger, Alabama put the age limit at 24, while Utah and Florida put it at 14.In a separate report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a condition related to COVID-19, disproportionately affects people of color. From early March through late July, 570 young people under 20 met the definition of MIS-C, The New York Times reports. Symptoms include fever, pinkeye, muscle weakness, and confusion, and most of the patients were previously healthy. Roughly 40 percent of patients were Latino or Hispanic, 33 percent were Black, and 13 percent were white; 10 died and about two-thirds were admitted to intensive care units.More stories from theweek.com QAnon goes mainstream 4 surprising reasons scientists think asymptomatic coronavirus cases are so common 5 scathing cartoons about Trump's 'it is what it is' COVID response

The Eastern European nation has been led by the same man, Alexander Lukashenko, since 1994.

For years, Yeom Chan-soon was haunted by the cracking sound of a leather belt eating into the flesh of a fellow Korean mine worker being punished for trying to escape from forced labor in Japan. The companies, among the biggest names in Japan Inc., such as Mitsubishi and Mitsui, say such issues were settled by a treaty decades ago. Critics say Japan has failed to fully reckon with those wrongs that date back to the late 1890s and lasted through the colonization of the Korean peninsula, until the end of World War II in 1945.

Why has the United States' highest-level visit to Taiwan for four decades sparked such anger from Beijing? Here is a recap of the key issues surrounding the delicate relations between the US, China and Taiwan. The deep rift between China and Taiwan dates back to China's civil war, which erupted in 1927 and pitted forces aligned with the Communist Party of China against the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) army.

Barr also told a Fox News TV host he was worried that an increase in mail-in voting could lead to a contested presidential election in November, sounding in on an issue often raised by U.S. President Donald Trump. In an interview with conservative pundit Mark Levin, Barr said Democrats had pulled away from classic liberal values and now were akin to the "Rousseauian Revolutionary Party" aimed at destroying the institutions upon which the country was built.

Police in Belarus broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and water cannon as long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko looked set to declare an overwhelming victory in a presidential poll his opponents say was rigged. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk after a state exit poll showed Lukashenko winning just under 80 percent in Sunday's election, with main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya coming second with about seven percent. In the capital Minsk protesters gathered near a central monument late Sunday where they faced off with hundreds of riot police with shields, an AFP journalist and witnesses said.

Hong Kong authorities broadened their enforcement of a new national security law on Monday, arresting media tycoon Jimmy Lai, searching the headquarters of his Next Digital group and carting away boxes of what they said was evidence. Two days after Chinese and Hong Kong officials shrugged off sanctions imposed on them by the U.S., the moves showed China’s determination to enforce the new law and curb dissent in the semi-autonomous city after months of massive pro-democracy demonstrations last year. Next Digital operates Apple Daily, a feisty pro-democracy tabloid that often condemns China's Communist Party government.

The Republican governor tested positive for COVID-19 last week, but subsequent tests came back negative.

A Georgia high school plans to start the week with all classes moving online after nine students and staff tested positive for the coronavirus when the school year opened last week with most students attending classes in-person.

BBC director general Tony Hall has issued an apology after the N-word was used in a news report in July, stating that the outlet would be “strengthening” its guidance on the use of offensive language. The report had covered a racist attack on a United Kingdom National Health Service worker in Bristol, England. The BBC had initially defended the use of the word, stating they felt they needed “to explain, and report, not just the injuries but, given their alleged extreme nature, the words alleged to have been used” in the report. More than 18,600 complained about the use of the word in the reporting. BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Sideman quit over the incident, stating “the action and the defence of the action feels like a slap in the face of our community.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr speaks to Fox News' Mark Levin about how the media is portraying the protests in Portland, Oregon.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been arrested over suspected collusion with foreign forces under the new national security law, his top aide said on Twitter, in what is the highest-profile arrest yet under the legislation. Mr Lai has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing, which imposed the sweeping new law on Hong Kong on June 30, drawing condemnation from Western countries. The new security law punishes anything China considers subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Critics say it crushes freedoms in the semiautonomous city, while supporters say it will bring stability after prolonged pro-democracy protests last year. "Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time," Mark Simon, a senior executive at Mr Lai's media company Next Digital, which publishes local tabloid Apple Daily, said early on Monday on Twitter. Police said on Monday they had arrested 7 people on suspicion of breaching the city's new national security law for offences including collusion with foreign powers. They were all local men, aged 39-72, it said, without naming them. Police said the operation was still ongoing and further arrests possible.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai became the highest-profile person arrested under a new national security law on Monday, detained over suspected collusion with foreign forces as around 200 police searched the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper. Lai, 71, has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing, which imposed the sweeping new law on Hong Kong on June 30, drawing condemnation from Western countries. It "bears out the worst fears that Hong Kong's National Security Law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom", said Steven Butler, the Committee to Protect Journalists' Asia programme coordinator.

Around 850 French passengers who were onboard a coronavirus-riddled cruise ship that was turned away from numerous ports in March have filed a collective suit in Paris with 180 complaints, including manslaughter, against Costa Cruises, their lawyer said Sunday. The class action, which includes complaints from the families of three passengers who died of COVID-19, accuses the Italy-based cruise giant of negligence and various faults during their trip on the Costa Magica. In the absence of stopovers, the crew encouraged the passengers to use the ship's shops, spas, restaurants and casino without sufficiently putting health measures in place -- or informing them there were suspected infections onboard -- the complainants said in their suit.