USA

China’s use of economic sanctions now fail to serve its geopolitical goals
20Jul By Michael SmithNo Comments
USA

China’s use of economic sanctions now fail to serve its geopolitical goals

China's practice of imposing economic sanctions on countries to achieve its own geopolitical goals is nothing new and the regular phenomenon of China bullying others has, in fact, helped other countries to keep several options at bay, said the author of "China's Crony Capitalism", Minxin Pei.Recently, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued an official warning against travel to Australia because of "a significant increase in racist acts and violence against Chinese and Asians in Australia". Two months ago, after Australia had demanded an investigation into the coronavirus outbreak, Beijing imposed an 80 per cent "anti-dumping" tariff on Australian barley, costing Australian 500 million Australian dollars a year.Minxin said Australia is only the latest victim of Chinese bullying....
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US Treasury agrees on loan terms with American, four other airlines
18Jul By News DeskNo Comments
USA, World

US Treasury agrees on loan terms with American, four other airlines

The U.S. Treasury said on Thursday it has agreed on terms for government loans with five U.S. carriers, including American Airlines Group Inc . WASHINGTON: The U.S. Treasury said on Thursday it has agreed on terms for government loans with five U.S. carriers, including American Airlines Group Inc . The Treasury said it had signed letters of intent with American, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines , SkyWest Airlines , and Spirit Airlines under a US$25 billion emergency loan program created by Congress in March. American said in April it expected to apply for a loan from the U.S. Treasury of approximately US$4.75 billion on top of US$5.8 billion in payroll assistance. Treasury separately awarded airlines US$25 billion in payroll assistance bailouts with most of the aid in the form ...
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India says officer, 2 soldiers killed in ‘violent faceoff’ on Chinese border
7Jul By News DeskNo Comments
China, USA, World

India says officer, 2 soldiers killed in ‘violent faceoff’ on Chinese border

NEW DELHI: An Indian officer and two soldiers were killed in a "violent faceoff" with Chinese troops on the contested border, the Indian army said on Tuesday (Jun 16) following weeks of rising tensions and the deployment of thousands of extra troops from both sides. Brawls and face-offs flare on a fairly regular basis between the two nuclear-armed giants over their 3,500km frontier, which has never been properly demarcated, but no one has been killed in decades. The Indian army said that there were "casualties on both sides", but Beijing made no mention of any deaths or injuries as it swiftly laid the blame squarely on India for the incident. "A violent face-off took place yesterday (Monday) night with casualties on both sides. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an office...
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Tibet’s only soccer club folds over altitude dispute
7Jul By News DeskNo Comments
China, USA, World

Tibet’s only soccer club folds over altitude dispute

Tibet's first and only professional soccer team has become the latest in a string of Chinese clubs to fold, following a row over hosting matches in one of the highest cities in the world. Lhasa Chengtou played only two games in the Tibetan capital — which sits at an oxygen-sucking altitude of 3,650 meters — and on both occasions the referee had to suspend play every 15 minutes to let the players breathe bottled oxygen, Xinhua news agency said. The demise of the club, just three years after it was founded, is a blow to the ruling Communist Party's hopes of having a team in the professional leagues to make Tibetans feel more integrated into China. Lhasa Chengtou finished last season 26th of 32 teams in China's third division and had been playing its home matches thousands of kilometers aw...
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Malaysia palm plantations urge government to let foreign workers return
4Jul By Team FPNo Comments
USA, World

Malaysia palm plantations urge government to let foreign workers return

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm plantations have urged the government to let foreign workers return, warning of severe damage to the palm-oil industry if it is not granted an exemption from a hiring freeze. The Malaysian Estate Owners' Association implored the government in a statement on Friday (Jun 26) to consider the survival and sustainability of the sector and let grower companies that have been unable to recruit locally hire foreign workers immediately. The palm oil industry in Malaysia, the world's second-largest producer and exporter of palm oil, faces a worsening of its chronic labour shortage. It relies on foreigners for 70 per cent of its plantation workforce and almost all its field work, especially people from Indonesia and Bangladesh. Thousands have left the plantations f...
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TikTok denies sharing Indian user data with Chinese govt
4Jul By Team FPNo Comments
USA, World

TikTok denies sharing Indian user data with Chinese govt

NEW DELHI: TikTok denied Tuesday (Jun 30) sharing Indian users' data with the Chinese government, after New Delhi banned the wildly popular app in a sharp deterioration of relations with Beijing two weeks after a deadly border clash. "TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and have not shared any information of our users in India with any foreign government, including the Chinese government," TikTok India chief Nikhil Gandhi said in a statement. "Further if we are requested to in the future we would not do so. We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity," he said, adding that it had been invited to a meeting with the Indian government "for an opportunity to respond and submit clarifications". TikTok is owned by C...
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Possibly millions of jobs could be lost if planes stay grounded, Heathrow boss says
4Jul By Team FPNo Comments
USA, World

Possibly millions of jobs could be lost if planes stay grounded, Heathrow boss says

related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. 2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery. LONDON: Hundreds of thousands of jobs, if not millions, could be lost in Britain if aviation is not able to resume quickly, the chief executive of London's Heathrow Airport said on Monday (Jun 8). Britain introduced a 14-day quarantine period for international arrivals on Monday despite warnings from its biggest airlines that the move will decimate domestic tourism and damage exports. "We cannot go on like this as a country," Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye told Sky News. "We need to start planning to reopen our borders. "If we don't get aviation moving again quickly, in a very safe way, then we are going to lose hundreds of th...
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[America] Joe Biden promise refugee status to Afghan Sikhs if elected
20Jun By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, USA

[America] Joe Biden promise refugee status to Afghan Sikhs if elected

Expressing concerns over targeting of Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan after the attack on Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib, US Presidential candidate and former Vice-President Joe Biden has said they will be given refugee status in America if he was elected President.“If I am elected President, my administration will renew our commitment to refugees….I will raise the annual global refugee admissions cap to 1,25,000,’’ he declared in a statement issued on a day when a US panel, frequently in the cross-hairs of the Ministry of External Affairs for its observations on Kashmir and Islamophobia in the Indian media, also made common cause on the Sikh issue.The influential Sam Brownback, head of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), called the attacks on the Sikhs in Afghanistan a ...
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[News] Pakistani man arrested for attacking UK Sikh Shrine, leaves note on Kashmir
20Jun By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, USA

[News] Pakistani man arrested for attacking UK Sikh Shrine, leaves note on Kashmir

A Pakistani man has been arrested by the UK police for breaking into a gurdwara in eastern England. Guru Arjan Gurdwara in Derbyshire alerted the Police after its front doors were found smashed in the early hours of Monday morning.He was later identified and arrested.As per the statement of the gurdwara, at around 6 a.m., "an individual entered the gurdwara premises causing thousands of pounds of damage. We can confirm that no individual was injured and that the clean-up process has begun."The gurdwara described the vandalisation of the shrine as a hate crime. The CCTV footages of the person, showed smashed glass doors of the gurdwara, glass shards scattered all over the floor and a man inside the premises.The vandal left a hand-written note in broken English on a piece of paper in the gur...
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China making inroads into Pakistan’s mainstream media and telecommunications, warns experts
17Jun By Michael SmithNo Comments
USA

China making inroads into Pakistan’s mainstream media and telecommunications, warns experts

Chinese inroads into Pakistan's mainstream media, and state-level bilateral cooperation on telecommunications infrastructure and surveillance is growing, posing a threat to people's freedom of speech in the country, a researcher has warned.Nowmay Opalinski, a research intern with the Centre for Internal & Regional Security (IreS), said, "These developments are taking place against a backdrop of Pakistani state's growing attempts to censor online content domestically. “How does this set of circumstances favour China? Where does China's big picture media strategy fit into this?" he added. Opalinski found that since 2012, the government of Pakistan has been attempting to implement a national firewall to tighten control over content shared online. The introduction of the Pakistan Electroni...
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