Brazil says BYD Chinese workers found in ‘slavery-like conditions’ victims of human trafficking
By Reuters
The Chinese workers found at a construction site for a factory owned by China’s electric vehicle producer BYD in Brazil’s Bahia state are victims of human trafficking, Brazilian labour authorities said on Thursday.
BYD and contractor Jinjiang Group have agreed to assist and house the 163 workers in hotels until a deal to end their contracts is reached, Brazil’s Labor Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement issued after meeting representatives from both firms.
BYD did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to reach Jinjiang for comment outside usual working hours.
However, the companies have questioned the authorities’ assessment, first announced on Monday that the workers were operating under “slavery-like conditions”.
The parties are scheduled to meet again on January 7, according to the statement. A proposed deal by labour prosecutors will be presented to the two firms.
A deal could clear BYD and Jinjiang from an investigation by labour prosecutors, but they could still face scrutiny from labour inspectors and federal prosecutors, who have requested the sharing of the evidence so that “measures can be adopted in the criminal sphere”, the statement said.
Jinjiang said on Thursday Brazilian authorities’ portrayal of their employees as “enslaved” was inconsistent with the facts and that there were translation misunderstandings.
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By Reuters
The Chinese workers found at a construction site for a factory owned by China’s electric vehicle producer BYD in Brazil’s Bahia state are victims of human trafficking, Brazilian labour authorities said on Thursday.
BYD and contractor Jinjiang Group have agreed to assist and house the 163 workers in hotels until a deal to end their contracts is reached, Brazil’s Labor Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement issued after meeting representatives from both firms.
BYD did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to reach Jinjiang for comment outside usual working hours.
However, the companies have questioned the authorities’ assessment, first announced on Monday that the workers were operating under “slavery-like conditions”.
The parties are scheduled to meet again on January 7, according to the statement. A proposed deal by labour prosecutors will be presented to the two firms.
A deal could clear BYD and Jinjiang from an investigation by labour prosecutors, but they could still face scrutiny from labour inspectors and federal prosecutors, who have requested the sharing of the evidence so that “measures can be adopted in the criminal sphere”, the statement said.
Jinjiang said on Thursday Brazilian authorities’ portrayal of their employees as “enslaved” was inconsistent with the facts and that there were translation misunderstandings.
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China’s military launches first amphibious assault ship
By SCMP Reporter
China launches its first 076 amphibious assault ship, with electromagnetic catapult.
More to follow...
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By SCMP Reporter
China launches its first 076 amphibious assault ship, with electromagnetic catapult.
More to follow...
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China’s military tests remote 3D printed parts and drone delivery for battlefield: report
By Yuanyue Dang
The Chinese military is using drones and 3D printing to support the remote maintenance of weapons, a tactic that has been used by the US in the Ukraine war, according to the PLA Daily.
A brigade of the People’s Liberation Army’s Northern Theatre Command Air Force tested remote maintenance technology during an equipment repair drill, the official Chinese military media outlet said on Wednesday. It did not specify when or where the exercise took place.
During the training, soldiers “applied new technologies, methods and equipment such as 3D printing and drones to the entire equipment maintenance process”, the report said.
An equipment maintenance team used a 3D printer to recreate damaged parts at the back end, and then supported the front line using methods such as drone delivery, the report said.
China is competing fiercely with the US-led West in many areas, including technology and the military.
The US is also applying these remote maintenance tactics as it supports Ukraine.
According to the US publication Defence News, after supplying weapons to Ukraine, the US military provided remote maintenance support based in Poland to help Ukrainian frontline soldiers repair damaged weapons in Kyiv’s fight against Moscow’s invasion.
A report by the publication last year said the US military was trying to extend remote maintenance technology to the Indo-Pacific theatre. It quoted a senior general as saying: “It has been a great enabler to the warfight in Ukraine … It’s one of the game changers in a sense.”
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By Yuanyue Dang
The Chinese military is using drones and 3D printing to support the remote maintenance of weapons, a tactic that has been used by the US in the Ukraine war, according to the PLA Daily.
A brigade of the People’s Liberation Army’s Northern Theatre Command Air Force tested remote maintenance technology during an equipment repair drill, the official Chinese military media outlet said on Wednesday. It did not specify when or where the exercise took place.
During the training, soldiers “applied new technologies, methods and equipment such as 3D printing and drones to the entire equipment maintenance process”, the report said.
An equipment maintenance team used a 3D printer to recreate damaged parts at the back end, and then supported the front line using methods such as drone delivery, the report said.
China is competing fiercely with the US-led West in many areas, including technology and the military.
The US is also applying these remote maintenance tactics as it supports Ukraine.
According to the US publication Defence News, after supplying weapons to Ukraine, the US military provided remote maintenance support based in Poland to help Ukrainian frontline soldiers repair damaged weapons in Kyiv’s fight against Moscow’s invasion.
A report by the publication last year said the US military was trying to extend remote maintenance technology to the Indo-Pacific theatre. It quoted a senior general as saying: “It has been a great enabler to the warfight in Ukraine … It’s one of the game changers in a sense.”
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Travellers can take driverless cars from major Hong Kong bridge by end of 2025
By Oscar Liu
Travellers will be able to take driverless vehicles from the Hong Kong checkpoint of the bridge linking it with Zhuhai and Macau to the city’s largest indoor entertainment hub by the end of next year, the Airport Authority has said, with the service set to be expanded to Tung Chung in 2028.
Steven Yiu Siu-chung, the authority’s executive director, said the 16-seat autonomous vehicle travelling at a maximum speed of 40km/h (25mph) could take visitors from the local checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to the 11 Skies complex in just three minutes.
The 11 Skies complex, located in Terminal 2, is part of Hong Kong International Airport’s Skycity.
“The initial phase of this service is scheduled to commence trial operations by the end of 2025, with plans to deploy 26 autonomous vehicles initially. We already have our prototype ready,” Yiu said.
The driverless autonomous transport system will operate on Airportcity Link, a dedicated bridge for vehicles integrated with a pedestrian walkway as part of the HK$100 billion (US$12.9 billion) Airport City project that will be completed in phases between 2026 and 2031.
“We aim to transport 500 people per hour in one direction in the initial phase, with plans to increase this number to 1,000, resulting in a total of 2,000 [passengers per hour] in both directions,” Yiu said.
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By Oscar Liu
Travellers will be able to take driverless vehicles from the Hong Kong checkpoint of the bridge linking it with Zhuhai and Macau to the city’s largest indoor entertainment hub by the end of next year, the Airport Authority has said, with the service set to be expanded to Tung Chung in 2028.
Steven Yiu Siu-chung, the authority’s executive director, said the 16-seat autonomous vehicle travelling at a maximum speed of 40km/h (25mph) could take visitors from the local checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to the 11 Skies complex in just three minutes.
The 11 Skies complex, located in Terminal 2, is part of Hong Kong International Airport’s Skycity.
“The initial phase of this service is scheduled to commence trial operations by the end of 2025, with plans to deploy 26 autonomous vehicles initially. We already have our prototype ready,” Yiu said.
The driverless autonomous transport system will operate on Airportcity Link, a dedicated bridge for vehicles integrated with a pedestrian walkway as part of the HK$100 billion (US$12.9 billion) Airport City project that will be completed in phases between 2026 and 2031.
“We aim to transport 500 people per hour in one direction in the initial phase, with plans to increase this number to 1,000, resulting in a total of 2,000 [passengers per hour] in both directions,” Yiu said.
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In India, call for more babies sparks debate on future of 1.43 billion-strong economy
By Biman Mukherji
A right-wing Hindu leader’s call for families in India to have more children has ignited debate over whether the world’s most populous nation should keep expanding to preserve its demographic edge.
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the influential Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), triggered controversy earlier this month when he argued that India needed to increase its population as couples were having fewer babies.
India’s fertility rate fell from 5.9 children per woman in 1950 to 2.01 currently, based on local media reports. The latest figure is below the generally accepted replacement level of 2.1 – a number below this level typically signals the start of population shrinkage in the long term.
“This decline in population is a matter of concern. Modern population science says that when the [fertility rate] of a society goes below 2.1, that society vanishes from the earth,” Bhagwat said at a community gathering on December 1 in Nagpur, where the RSS is headquartered.
“We need more than two or three [children per family], this is what population science says.”
Experts have cautioned against seeing the fertility rate as a crisis. They say Bhagwat’s comments reflect fears among some Indian leaders that the majority Hindu population could be overtaken by Muslim minorities or that India’s economic performance could soon mirror the slowdown in Japan and China, both of which are ageing due to a continuous decline in their fertility rates.
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By Biman Mukherji
A right-wing Hindu leader’s call for families in India to have more children has ignited debate over whether the world’s most populous nation should keep expanding to preserve its demographic edge.
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the influential Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), triggered controversy earlier this month when he argued that India needed to increase its population as couples were having fewer babies.
India’s fertility rate fell from 5.9 children per woman in 1950 to 2.01 currently, based on local media reports. The latest figure is below the generally accepted replacement level of 2.1 – a number below this level typically signals the start of population shrinkage in the long term.
“This decline in population is a matter of concern. Modern population science says that when the [fertility rate] of a society goes below 2.1, that society vanishes from the earth,” Bhagwat said at a community gathering on December 1 in Nagpur, where the RSS is headquartered.
“We need more than two or three [children per family], this is what population science says.”
Experts have cautioned against seeing the fertility rate as a crisis. They say Bhagwat’s comments reflect fears among some Indian leaders that the majority Hindu population could be overtaken by Muslim minorities or that India’s economic performance could soon mirror the slowdown in Japan and China, both of which are ageing due to a continuous decline in their fertility rates.
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3 dead, 4 injured after tourist bus veers off road, plunges into lake in Norway
By Agence France-Presse
A bus carrying several foreign tourists went off the road and ended up partially submerged in a lake near the Raftsundet strait that separates the Lofoten archipelago from the Norwegian mainland, killing three people and injuring four, police said Thursday.
“Many of the passengers on the bus were foreign nationals,” police said, adding that 58 people were impacted.
Passengers from eight countries were on board: China, France, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore and South Sudan.
The Lofoten archipelago is a popular winter destination to watch the northern lights.
Police said some of the evacuated passengers were brought to a local school while three were transported to hospital by helicopter.
“The weather conditions in the region are bad, complicating rescue operations,” local police said in a statement.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
By Agence France-Presse
A bus carrying several foreign tourists went off the road and ended up partially submerged in a lake near the Raftsundet strait that separates the Lofoten archipelago from the Norwegian mainland, killing three people and injuring four, police said Thursday.
“Many of the passengers on the bus were foreign nationals,” police said, adding that 58 people were impacted.
Passengers from eight countries were on board: China, France, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore and South Sudan.
The Lofoten archipelago is a popular winter destination to watch the northern lights.
Police said some of the evacuated passengers were brought to a local school while three were transported to hospital by helicopter.
“The weather conditions in the region are bad, complicating rescue operations,” local police said in a statement.
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Hong Kong career scheme aims to give disadvantaged youth employment footing
By Winnie Wong
A tattoo artist, 22, and a college dropout, 26, are among the beneficiaries of a career scheme for disadvantaged Hong Kong youth run by an NGO.
The artist, who goes by the name Nok, came from a broken family, dropped out of school at Form Five and was making ends meet as a bartender while learning how to create tattoos.
But he found himself running afoul of the law and ended up in prison for a year for reasons he declined to divulge. While in jail, he dived deeper into tattoo art and honed his drawing skills.
“Unlike the older generation, who associate tattoos with triads, the younger ones see tattoos as a form of artistic self-expression,” he said.
After his release from prison in 2022, Nok returned to the industry, working with a teacher at a studio and dreaming of setting up his own business, even creating tattoos overseas.
“I want to step out of my comfort zone … I hope to become a tattoo artist in different countries, broadening my horizons through tattooing,” he said.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
By Winnie Wong
A tattoo artist, 22, and a college dropout, 26, are among the beneficiaries of a career scheme for disadvantaged Hong Kong youth run by an NGO.
The artist, who goes by the name Nok, came from a broken family, dropped out of school at Form Five and was making ends meet as a bartender while learning how to create tattoos.
But he found himself running afoul of the law and ended up in prison for a year for reasons he declined to divulge. While in jail, he dived deeper into tattoo art and honed his drawing skills.
“Unlike the older generation, who associate tattoos with triads, the younger ones see tattoos as a form of artistic self-expression,” he said.
After his release from prison in 2022, Nok returned to the industry, working with a teacher at a studio and dreaming of setting up his own business, even creating tattoos overseas.
“I want to step out of my comfort zone … I hope to become a tattoo artist in different countries, broadening my horizons through tattooing,” he said.
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2 dead in separate incidents during treacherous Sydney-Hobart yacht race
By Agence France-Presse
Two sailors have died in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney to Hobart blue water classic, organisers said on Friday, while race favourite Comanche was forced to retire.
Both crew members – on Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline – were hit by booms as the yachts were making their way south along the New South Wales coast amid wild weather after setting off from Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.
Other crew tried to revive them, but were unsuccessful.
“As these incidents are being dealt with by the Water Police and all family members are yet to be contacted, we cannot provide further details at this stage,” the race committee said in a brief statement.
“Our thoughts are with the crews, family and friends of the deceased.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the sailors who died.
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By Agence France-Presse
Two sailors have died in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney to Hobart blue water classic, organisers said on Friday, while race favourite Comanche was forced to retire.
Both crew members – on Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline – were hit by booms as the yachts were making their way south along the New South Wales coast amid wild weather after setting off from Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day.
Other crew tried to revive them, but were unsuccessful.
“As these incidents are being dealt with by the Water Police and all family members are yet to be contacted, we cannot provide further details at this stage,” the race committee said in a brief statement.
“Our thoughts are with the crews, family and friends of the deceased.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the sailors who died.
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How should Beijing intervene to save Chinese firms from vicious competition?
By Ji Siqi
Having surrendered their mobile phones, more than 30 executives at the helms of China’s biggest solar manufacturers entered a hotel conference room in a small city in Sichuan province.
There, during a heavily guarded closed-door meeting earlier this month, they signed on to a self-discipline programme aimed at curbing vicious competition that has had a debilitating impact on their industry since last year.
“If you are not self-disciplined today – you keep quoting low prices, and you keep expanding the repetitive production capacity, trying to outlast others – I tell you, you will definitely not be able to outlast your myriad peers. Don’t be naive,” said Qian Jing, vice-president of Jinko Solar – a leading solar-module manufacturer – at an annual solar industry conference one day before the closed-door meeting.
Yet, for all the talk of self-discipline, doubts surrounding the real resolve have yet to dissipate. Among industrial players, it is an open secret that once many of them leave a conference stage, or recollect their phones after a closed-door meeting, it’s the law of the jungle: eat or be eaten. In this case, expand production capacity or see your market position gobbled up.
What is truly a fight to the death among solar companies perfectly underscores one of the major problems facing the world’s second-largest economy, where neijuan, or “involution”, has swept like a storm through all sectors. The term has become tantamount in China to an unsustainable state of intense internal competition that leads to diminishing returns and stagnation.
And with the billowing trend gathering strength, neijuan is wreaking havoc on the broader Chinese economy already in a battered state and in the midst of transforming from its reliance on old growth engines, including real estate, to new ones that are fuelled by hi-tech sectors and advanced manufacturing.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
By Ji Siqi
Having surrendered their mobile phones, more than 30 executives at the helms of China’s biggest solar manufacturers entered a hotel conference room in a small city in Sichuan province.
There, during a heavily guarded closed-door meeting earlier this month, they signed on to a self-discipline programme aimed at curbing vicious competition that has had a debilitating impact on their industry since last year.
“If you are not self-disciplined today – you keep quoting low prices, and you keep expanding the repetitive production capacity, trying to outlast others – I tell you, you will definitely not be able to outlast your myriad peers. Don’t be naive,” said Qian Jing, vice-president of Jinko Solar – a leading solar-module manufacturer – at an annual solar industry conference one day before the closed-door meeting.
Yet, for all the talk of self-discipline, doubts surrounding the real resolve have yet to dissipate. Among industrial players, it is an open secret that once many of them leave a conference stage, or recollect their phones after a closed-door meeting, it’s the law of the jungle: eat or be eaten. In this case, expand production capacity or see your market position gobbled up.
What is truly a fight to the death among solar companies perfectly underscores one of the major problems facing the world’s second-largest economy, where neijuan, or “involution”, has swept like a storm through all sectors. The term has become tantamount in China to an unsustainable state of intense internal competition that leads to diminishing returns and stagnation.
And with the billowing trend gathering strength, neijuan is wreaking havoc on the broader Chinese economy already in a battered state and in the midst of transforming from its reliance on old growth engines, including real estate, to new ones that are fuelled by hi-tech sectors and advanced manufacturing.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
Deadly fight erupts between security forces, Assad loyalists in Syria
By dpa
Fierce clashes erupted on Thursday between security forces of Syria’s transitional government and loyalists of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, as the new rulers struggle to re-establish security in the war-shattered country.
The violence flared after security forces stormed the village of Balqasah, west of Homs province in central Syria, where remnants of the former regime were holed up, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, reported.
The ensuing clashes involving heavy weapons and drones left four members of the security forces dead, the monitor said.
An unspecified number of Assad’s supporters, led by a wanted man known as Shujaa al-Ali, were also killed in the fighting, the observatory said.
Ali is a pro-Iran militiaman in the area, and is wanted in connection with murder and kidnapping cases, according to the UK-based monitor that relies on a network of contacts inside Syria.
Syria’s state news agency SANA confirmed the clashes, saying they had left two security staff dead and 10 others injured.
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By dpa
Fierce clashes erupted on Thursday between security forces of Syria’s transitional government and loyalists of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, as the new rulers struggle to re-establish security in the war-shattered country.
The violence flared after security forces stormed the village of Balqasah, west of Homs province in central Syria, where remnants of the former regime were holed up, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, reported.
The ensuing clashes involving heavy weapons and drones left four members of the security forces dead, the monitor said.
An unspecified number of Assad’s supporters, led by a wanted man known as Shujaa al-Ali, were also killed in the fighting, the observatory said.
Ali is a pro-Iran militiaman in the area, and is wanted in connection with murder and kidnapping cases, according to the UK-based monitor that relies on a network of contacts inside Syria.
Syria’s state news agency SANA confirmed the clashes, saying they had left two security staff dead and 10 others injured.
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Trump vs the Fed: why 2025 could be the year things get ugly
By Nicholas Spiro
Every December, TS Lombard, an economic and financial consultancy, publishes its “bold non-consensus” forecasts for the year ahead. This year, the adviser noted that “it has become increasingly difficult for our readers to discern whether we are joking” and “the distinction between reality and satire is arguably fuzzier than ever before, and there is a very strong possibility that some (or maybe several) of our predictions for 2025 are realised”.
One of TS Lombard’s forecasts is that relations between the US Federal Reserve and the incoming administration of Donald Trump will deteriorate dramatically. It predicts that “the situation reaches a crisis point in August, when the president threatens to ‘call in the army’ and [Fed chair Jerome] Powell unleashes the only force more menacing than the US military – the bond market”.
Such a scenario sounds preposterous, but the unbelievable has become commonplace in the Trump era. His second term does not start for a month, but Trump is already wreaking havoc on global politics. His threat to impose a blanket 25 per cent tariff on all exports from Canada helped precipitate the resignation earlier this month of Chrystia Freeland, the country’s finance minister, triggering a full-blown political crisis.
More worryingly, Trump is putting pressure on Ukraine to quickly accept a peace deal. This could be highly advantageous to Russia, putting European security at greater risk. He has also set his sights on Greenland and the Panama Canal and his new ally and major donor, billionaire Elon Musk, has waded into Germany’s election campaign, expressing support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Not only does Trump want to disrupt US foreign policy, he also believes he has a strong mandate to overhaul the main pillars of the economy. US stock markets have taken comfort from the prospect of deregulation and tax cuts in a second Trump term. Optimism about Trump’s plans to put an end to the tough government scrutiny of the technology sector, especially cryptocurrencies, caused the price of bitcoin to surpass US$100,000 earlier this month.
Bond markets, on the other hand, have responded to Trump’s return to the White House with a sense of foreboding. Since mid-September, when prediction markets began to shift in favour of a Trump victory, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond, which moves inversely to its price, has risen by nearly a percentage point.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
By Nicholas Spiro
Every December, TS Lombard, an economic and financial consultancy, publishes its “bold non-consensus” forecasts for the year ahead. This year, the adviser noted that “it has become increasingly difficult for our readers to discern whether we are joking” and “the distinction between reality and satire is arguably fuzzier than ever before, and there is a very strong possibility that some (or maybe several) of our predictions for 2025 are realised”.
One of TS Lombard’s forecasts is that relations between the US Federal Reserve and the incoming administration of Donald Trump will deteriorate dramatically. It predicts that “the situation reaches a crisis point in August, when the president threatens to ‘call in the army’ and [Fed chair Jerome] Powell unleashes the only force more menacing than the US military – the bond market”.
Such a scenario sounds preposterous, but the unbelievable has become commonplace in the Trump era. His second term does not start for a month, but Trump is already wreaking havoc on global politics. His threat to impose a blanket 25 per cent tariff on all exports from Canada helped precipitate the resignation earlier this month of Chrystia Freeland, the country’s finance minister, triggering a full-blown political crisis.
More worryingly, Trump is putting pressure on Ukraine to quickly accept a peace deal. This could be highly advantageous to Russia, putting European security at greater risk. He has also set his sights on Greenland and the Panama Canal and his new ally and major donor, billionaire Elon Musk, has waded into Germany’s election campaign, expressing support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Not only does Trump want to disrupt US foreign policy, he also believes he has a strong mandate to overhaul the main pillars of the economy. US stock markets have taken comfort from the prospect of deregulation and tax cuts in a second Trump term. Optimism about Trump’s plans to put an end to the tough government scrutiny of the technology sector, especially cryptocurrencies, caused the price of bitcoin to surpass US$100,000 earlier this month.
Bond markets, on the other hand, have responded to Trump’s return to the White House with a sense of foreboding. Since mid-September, when prediction markets began to shift in favour of a Trump victory, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond, which moves inversely to its price, has risen by nearly a percentage point.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
Membership of UK’s anti-immigration Reform party overtakes Conservatives for first time
By Agence France-Presse
Membership of Britain’s upstart anti-immigration Reform UK party has overtaken that of the centre right Conservative Party for the first time, the party said on Thursday.
Party leader and Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage hailed the figure a “historic moment”.
Immigration was a major issue at the ballot box at the UK’s July general election which saw the Conservatives ousted after 14 years in power.
The digital counter on the Reform website showed a membership tally ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the main opposition Conservatives during its leadership election earlier this year.
“The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world,” wrote Farage on X, formerly Twitter.
“Reform UK are now the real opposition.”
Party chairman Zia Yusuf said the milestone showed the long “stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics by the Tories has finally been broken”.
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By Agence France-Presse
Membership of Britain’s upstart anti-immigration Reform UK party has overtaken that of the centre right Conservative Party for the first time, the party said on Thursday.
Party leader and Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage hailed the figure a “historic moment”.
Immigration was a major issue at the ballot box at the UK’s July general election which saw the Conservatives ousted after 14 years in power.
The digital counter on the Reform website showed a membership tally ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the main opposition Conservatives during its leadership election earlier this year.
“The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world,” wrote Farage on X, formerly Twitter.
“Reform UK are now the real opposition.”
Party chairman Zia Yusuf said the milestone showed the long “stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics by the Tories has finally been broken”.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
US says it pushed retraction of famine warning for north Gaza; aid groups are concerned
By Associated Press
A lead organisation monitoring for food crises around the world withdrew a new report this week warning of imminent famine in north Gaza under what it called Israel’s “near-total blockade,” after the US asked for its retraction, US officials told Associated Press. The move follows public criticism of the report from the US ambassador to Israel.
The rare public dispute drew accusations from prominent aid and human-rights figures that the work of the US-funded Famine Early Warning System Network, meant to reflect the data-driven analysis of unbiased international experts, has been tainted by politics.
A declaration of famine would be a great embarrassment for Israel, which has insisted that its 15-month war in Gaza is aimed against the Hamas militant group and not against its civilian population.
US ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew earlier this week called the warning by the internationally recognised group inaccurate and “irresponsible”. Lew and the US Agency for International Development, which funds the monitoring group, both said the findings failed to properly account for rapidly changing circumstances in north Gaza.
Humanitarian and human rights officials expressed fear of US political interference in the world’s monitoring system for famines. The United States embassy in Israel and the State Department declined to comment. FEWS officials did not respond to questions.
“We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs – which are great – and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew said on Tuesday.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
By Associated Press
A lead organisation monitoring for food crises around the world withdrew a new report this week warning of imminent famine in north Gaza under what it called Israel’s “near-total blockade,” after the US asked for its retraction, US officials told Associated Press. The move follows public criticism of the report from the US ambassador to Israel.
The rare public dispute drew accusations from prominent aid and human-rights figures that the work of the US-funded Famine Early Warning System Network, meant to reflect the data-driven analysis of unbiased international experts, has been tainted by politics.
A declaration of famine would be a great embarrassment for Israel, which has insisted that its 15-month war in Gaza is aimed against the Hamas militant group and not against its civilian population.
US ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew earlier this week called the warning by the internationally recognised group inaccurate and “irresponsible”. Lew and the US Agency for International Development, which funds the monitoring group, both said the findings failed to properly account for rapidly changing circumstances in north Gaza.
Humanitarian and human rights officials expressed fear of US political interference in the world’s monitoring system for famines. The United States embassy in Israel and the State Department declined to comment. FEWS officials did not respond to questions.
“We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs – which are great – and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew said on Tuesday.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
