Politics

Beta unleashes rain, floods on Texas coast

Bloomberg Tropical Storm Beta was flooding southeastern Texas as it grinds along the coast, pounding it with heavy rain before meandering toward Louisiana. Beta was expected to stall inland over Texas on Tuesday and then move slowly northeastwards, according to an advisory from the National Hurricane Center at 5 am New York time. The storm was about 35 miles (56 ...

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India’s lower house of parliament passes key labour reform bills

Bloomberg India’s lower house of parliament approved a set of long overdue labour legislations that aim to attract investment and make it easier for companies to do business in the South Asian nation. The new bills include the industrial relations code that will allow companies with as many as 300 workers to fire them without seeking prior government approval, a ...

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China brings Xinjiang-style mass labour to Tibet

Bloomberg China is instituting a mass labour system in Tibet similar to the one in neighboring Xinjiang, the Jamestown Foundation said, despite intensifying global scrutiny of Beijing’s policies toward ethnic minorities. Tibet has since last year introduced policies promoting “the systematic, centralised, and large-scale training and transfer of ‘rural surplus labourers’” to other parts of Tibet and other regions, the ...

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China’s rejection of Taiwan buffer zone ups risk of clash

Bloomberg China is ratcheting up the risk of military confrontation in the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing seeks to deter Taipei from continuing to deepen ties with the US and other like-minded democracies. People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft repeatedly breached the median line between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland last week, in the latest of a series of military exercises in ...

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Philippines not to follow China over disputed sea row

Bloomberg The Philippines’ top diplomat said the country would not follow China’s stance of keeping Western powers — including the US — out of the disputed South China Sea. The South China Sea Code of Conduct that Southeast Asian nations are crafting with Beijing won’t lead to western countries’ exclusion from the waters, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said on ...

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Mali names Bah N’Daw as its interim leader

Bloomberg Mali’s transition committee appointed retired army Colonel Bah N’Daw as the nation’s interim leader, a month after seizing power in a military coup. Junta leader Assimi Goita will assume the role of vice president, the National Committee for the Salvation of the People said in a statement on its Facebook page on Monday. N’Daw, a former defense minister, will ...

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Top court fight galvanises final sprint of Trump-Biden race

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s plans to name a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this week offer Joe Biden the chance to galvanise newly energized Democrats, while providing the president a fresh battle in a culture war he’s waged for four years. Early reaction to Ginsburg’s death suggests Biden stands to gain more politically from the sudden vacancy, as ...

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Thailand removes plaque critical of monarchy

Bloomberg Thai authorities removed a plaque proclaiming Thailand “belongs to the people, not the monarchy” a day after protesters installed it during a rally that drew tens of thousands of people seeking greater democracy. The Fine Arts Department and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration removed the plaque, and the cultural heritage agency also filed a complaint against the protesters for breaking ...

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Myanmar locks down biggest city over virus

Bloomberg Myanmar locked down most of Yangon province, home to its largest city, for two weeks to contain a record surge in coronavirus infections ahead of the general elections scheduled for November. The strict stay-at-home order from Monday bars more than one member of a family venturing out for shopping and curbs travel from Yangon township to other cities except ...

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Thai activists call for strike as thousands protest monarchy

Bloomberg Thailand’s anti-government protesters, emboldened by their biggest demonstration since the 2014 military coup on September 19, called for a general strike next month as the movement challenges long-held taboos including questioning the monarchy’s powers. Organisers of the rally handed a list of demands to a representative of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s Privy Council on Sunday, and installed a plaque on ...

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