AUSTRALIA
Melbourne lockdown returns
Shoppers in Melbourne yesterday stripped supermarket shelves as residents prepared to return to a COVID-19 lockdown. Five million people were ordered back into a six-week lockdown beginning yesterday at midnight as soaring community transmission of the virus brings more than 100 new cases daily. The country’s largest supermarket chain, Woolworths, said that it had reimposed buying limits on items such as pasta, vegetables and sugar after shoppers rushed to stores across Victoria state. Experts have warned that people everywhere would need to get used to the “new normal” of on-and-off restrictions as new clusters emerge and subside.
RUSSIA
Marmot hunts discouraged
Authorities have warned residents of regions near Mongolia against hunting marmots, but stressed that there is no risk of bubonic plague spreading across the country. Public health authorities appealed to residents of the Tuva and Altai regions following last week’s confirmation of two bubonic plague cases in Mongolia. The cases involve brothers who had eaten marmot meat. Authorities in the Tuva region urged residents in a statement to be vigilant, and “refrain from hunting marmots and eating marmot meat.”
RUSSIA
Adviser jailed for treason
Moscow’s Lefortovo Court has jailed a former journalist who is an adviser to the head of the country’s space agency on suspicion of treason. The Federal Security Service said that Ivan Safronov was suspected of passing information on arms sales, as well as other defense and security matters, to an unnamed NATO country, news agency RIA Novosti reported. Safronov, who had only worked at Roscosmos for a few months, denies any wrongdoing, his legal team said. Media outlets, including Vedomosti and RBC, issued statements denouncing his arrest as an effort to pressure the media.
UNITED KINGDOM
Saudi arms sales to restart
The government on Tuesday said that it would resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Weapons exports were stopped in June last year after the Court of Appeal ordered the government to clarify how it assesses whether their use in Yemen’s civil war breaches international humanitarian law (IHL). However, the government has concluded that Saudi Arabia “has a genuine intent and the capacity to comply with IHL,” Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss said, allowing for export license reviews to restart. The announcement came just a day after 20 Saudi Arabians were slapped with sanctions for their suspected roles in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
BRAZIL
President tests positive
President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said that he tested positive for COVID-19, but is confident that he can swiftly recover thanks to treatment with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that has not been proven effective against the virus. The president told reporters that he underwent a lung X-ray on Monday after experiencing fever, muscle aches and malaise. As of Tuesday, his fever had subsided, he said, and he attributed the improvement to hydroxychloroquine. Bolsonaro is “the democratic leader who has most denied the seriousness of this pandemic,” State University of Rio de Janeiro political science professor Mauricio Santoro said. “Him getting infected is a blow to his credibility.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese