BEIJING/SHANGHAI: Beijing authorities extended work-from-home guidance for many of its 22 million residents to stem a persistent COVID-19 outbreak, while Shanghai deployed more testing and curbs to hold on to its hard-won ‘zero COVID’ status after two months of lockdown.
On Monday, the Chinese capital reported 99 new cases were detected on May 22, up from 61 the previous day — the largest daily tally so far during a month-old outbreak that has consistently seen dozens of new infections every day.
In Shanghai fewer than 600 daily cases were reported for May 22, with none outside quarantined areas, as there has been the case for much of the past week.
Analysts at Gavekal Dragonomics estimated last week that fewer than 5 percent of Chinese cities were reporting infections, down from a quarter in late March, in a COVID-19 outbreak that has cast a pall over growth in the world’s no. 2 economy. But vigilance, and concern, remains acute in Shanghai and the capital.
While there were no new announcements of areas being closed in Beijing, five of the city’s 16 districts advised residents to work from home and avoid gatherings. Those who have to go to work should have a negative result on a PCR test taken within 48 hours, and must not deviate from their home-to-work commute.
“The city’s epidemic prevention and control is at a critical moment,” Beijing’s Tongzhou district posted on its WeChat account late on Sunday, asking residents who work in five other districts to do their jobs from home this week.
“One step forward and victory is in sight. One step back, and previous efforts would be wasted.”
Beijing had already curtailed public transport, asked some shopping malls and other stores and venues to close and sealed buildings where new cases were detected.
In one large residential compound not under isolation orders, shelves have been set up for deliveries at the entrance, according to residents, fueling concern that preparation was in place for tougher controls on movement.
The curbs in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere in China are leaving behind significant economic damage and disruption to global supply chains and international trade.
The highly-transmissible omicron variant of the virus first discovered in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 has proven hard to defeat even with strict measures that starkly contrast the resumption of normal life elsewhere in the world.
“We’ve been massively hit,” said a convenience store owner surnamed Sun, whose shop in Beijing has only been allowed to operate during daytime rather than its usual 24/7 hours.
“Even during the Wuhan outbreak we could stay open the whole time.”
In Shanghai, which reopened more than 250 bus routes and a small part of its sprawling subway system on Sunday, many towns and districts announced more mass testing for the coming days and asked residents not to leave their compounds.
The commercial hub of 25 million has allowed more people to leave their homes for brief periods over the past week, but it generally plans to keep most restrictions in place this month, before a lifting its two-month-old lockdown from June 1.
However, while more people are being allowed outside, several residents in various areas of Shanghai said they had been told of new infections in their vicinity that required new curbs on movement.
One resident in Hongkou district, which has not reported any new community-level cases since May 7, said he was told last week not to leave his flat, having been allowed to move within his compound previously.
Hongkou was among six districts which have announced some tightening of curbs in recent days to “consolidate” the results of their efforts so far.
But such moves made some people fear the virus was making a comeback.
The top comment on a post by state agency Xinhua on China’s Twitter-like Weibo post on Shanghai’s latest numbers read: “This can’t be accurate, zero COVID cases at community level? Our compound had one new case yesterday.”
Asked to comment, the Shanghai government said that all cases found in recent days were in “sealed” high-risk areas or quarantine centers, and that any community transmission cases would be announced on official channels.
Beijing urges millions to keep working from home amid COVID-19 outbreak menace
https://arab.news/9ptp9
Beijing urges millions to keep working from home amid COVID-19 outbreak menace
- The Chinese capital on Monday reported 99 new cases were detected on May 22, up from 61 the previous day
Bangladeshi students rally in solidarity with global student movement against Israel
- US student protests have sparked more around the world, including in India, France, Australia
- Dhaka’s thousands-strong rally took place at Bangladesh’s largest, oldest tertiary institution
DHAKA: Thousands of people protesting Israel’s war on Gaza rallied at one of Bangladesh’s top universities on Monday in solidarity with the student-led protests and occupations sweeping the globe.
Pro-Palestinian student leaders and activists from different universities marched and carried flags of Bangladesh and Palestine, chanting slogans in solidarity with Gaza as they made their way to Dhaka University, Bangladesh’s largest and oldest tertiary institution.
Their protest culminated at the symbolic Aparajeyo Bangla sculpture, one of the most well-known landmarks dedicated to the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.
“Our stance is very clear: We express solidarity in support of a free Palestine state, in favor of a world free from war. And we support the demands made by US students, like divestment from Israel and other organizations that support the Israeli aggression,” Saddam Hussain, president of the organizing student group Bangladesh Students’ League, told Arab News.
They are also rallying in solidarity with the global student movement, he added.
“We believe all protests hold the same spirit of the youth, be it on the banks of the Atlantic or here on the bank of River Padma,” he said.
“The youths around the world have a common dream, and I urge all of them to move forward to make this dream come true. I hope all the youths of the world will join in this protest to build a world free from war, free and guided with humanitarian spirit.”
The Israeli strikes on Gaza that began in October have killed nearly 35,000 people in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children. The leader of the World Food Program said over the weekend that parts of the Gaza strip were experiencing a “full-blown famine” that was spreading across the besieged enclave.
Students started to rally or set up tents at various universities around the US last month to protest Israel’s war on Gaza, sparking a global solidarity movement among the youth in India, Australia, France and elsewhere, with many putting pressure on their administrators and governments to cut ties with Tel Aviv.
While US colleges have seen protests since October, the unrest has escalated in recent weeks after police arrested pro-Palestine demonstrators at an encampment in Columbia University, sparking even more campsites at other campuses, as well as more crackdowns and arrests.
Unlike in the US, students in Dhaka were able to protest peacefully with scant police presence.
“The US and some other big players always speak in favor of freedom of speech. But what we have seen in the university campuses in the US is a shame for world leaders,” Solaiman Khan, a 23-year-old Dhaka University student, told Arab News.
“It’s a double standard. We, the youth (of Bangladesh), came out to the streets against this sort of hypocrisy from the superpowers of the world.”
Khan said the violence against Palestinians must be “stopped now and forever.”
“We have seen enough atrocities done by the Israeli forces. How many more lives must the world lose? Is it not enough?” he said.
“I think world leaders should come to their senses and act more rationally in stopping the atrocities in Gaza orchestrated by the occupying Israeli forces. Now is the time to play a decisive role. Otherwise, the next generation will not forgive us.”
Pro-Palestine Oxbridge students set up encampments
- They are demanding transparency about the universities’ financial links to Israel
- ‘We will not move until our demands are met’
LONDON: Students at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge have set up encampments in support of Palestine, The Times reported on Monday.
Around 50 have refused to leave the lawn of King’s College, Cambridge, while students have also declared a “liberated zone” outside Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum.
A banner hung outside King’s College read: “Welcome to the people’s university for Palestine.” Chants of “stop the bombing now” have also been heard on the campus.
The protests have been organized by Oxford Action for Palestine and Cambridge for Palestine.
They are demanding transparency about the universities’ financial links to Israel, which they have described as a “settler colonial state,” and are calling for the end of all investments and endowments from Israeli and Israel-linked companies.
“We have set up camp in university grounds, and we will not move until our demands are met,” the groups said in a statement, adding that the universities are legitimate targets for protests because of their “role in the British empire and its disastrous colonial legacies.”
The Times reported that protesters had been given an itinerary for their involvement including “de-escalation training” and “banner-making.”
A spokesperson for Cambridge University said it is for the college to decide whether to call the police, adding: “The university is fully committed to academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law and we acknowledge the right to protest.
“We ask everyone in our community to treat each other with understanding and empathy. Our priority is the safety of all staff and students.
“We will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia and any other form of racial or religious hatred, or other unlawful activity.”
The relatively small UK protests come after nearly 2,000 people were arrested across the US after widespread demonstrations on over 130 American university campuses about Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Muslim group issues UK Labour Party leader with demands over Gaza
- Muslim Vote group calls for ‘real action’ to regain trust
- Support for Labour in recent local elections fell in areas with high Muslim populations
LONDON: Pro-Palestinian activists have presented a list of 18 demands to the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party and said they will not vote for the party at the next general election if he does not fulfill them.
The Muslim Vote, a campaign to get Muslim voters to back pro-Palestine candidates, has called for Sir Keir Starmer to promise to cut military ties with Israel, implement a travel ban on Israeli politicians involved in the war in Gaza and impose sanctions on companies operating in occupied territories.
The group told Starmer he must commit to “real action” and deliver on its requests if he was “serious” about his pledge to rebuild trust with those angered by his stance on the conflict in Gaza, The Telegraph reported.
Supporters would vote for the Green Party or Liberal Democrats if he could not commit to their demands, it said.
Labour’s campaign chief Pat McFadden acknowledged that Starmer’s approach to the conflict had cost the party votes at last week’s local elections. Support for Labour dropped dramatically in areas with a high Muslim populations, including Oldham in Greater Manchester, where the party lost overall control of the council in a shock defeat.
After the result, Starmer said he was determined to regain the trust of those who abandoned Labour as a result of his stance on the Gaza war but did not make any concrete pledges on the matter.
The Muslim Vote challenged Starmer with committing to the 18 demands and implementing them should he become the next prime minister.
They include removing the definition of extremism introduced by Secretary of State for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove and issuing guidance that allows Muslims to pray at school.
Philippines rules out use of water cannon in disputed South China Sea
- Philippines and China have clashed several times in disputed, resource-rich waterway
- Latest skirmish took place late last month, in an incident Manila describes as dangerous
MANILA: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Monday that Manila will not use offensive equipment in the disputed South China Sea, after China’s coast guard used high-pressure water cannon on Philippine vessels last week.
The Philippines and China have had several confrontations in the resource-rich area, where Beijing has used water cannon against Filipino vessels in incidents Manila has described as harassment and dangerous.
The latest in a string of maritime clashes occurred on April 30 as tensions continued to rise in the vital waterway that Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite a 2016 international arbitration ruling that rejected its assertion.
“What we are doing is defending our sovereign rights and our sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea. And we have no intention of attacking anyone with water cannons or any other such offensive (weapons),” Marcos said Monday.
“We will not follow the Chinese coast guard and the Chinese vessels down that road because it is not the mission of the navy (or) our coast guard to start or to increase tensions … Their mission is precisely the opposite, it’s to lower tensions.”
Philippine vessels have been regularly targeted by Chinese ships in areas of the South China Sea that are internationally recognized as belonging to the Philippines, which Manila calls the West Philippine Sea.
The Philippines’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs last Thursday summoned Zhou Zhiyong, China’s deputy chief of mission, after the incident left a Philippine coast guard vessel and another government boat damaged.
It was the 20th protest Manila has made against Beijing’s conduct in the South China Sea this year alone, while more than 150 diplomatic complaints have been made over the past two years.
Marcos said the Philippines will continue to respond to South China Sea incidents through diplomatic means.
Marcos’s statement comes days after the defense ministers of the Philippines, the US, Japan and Australia met in Hawaii and issued a joint statement on their strong objections to the “dangerous and destabilizing conduct” of China in the South China Sea.
UK considered Rwanda-style asylum deal with Iraq
- Documents seen by Sky News reveal London has struck returns agreement with Baghdad
- They also suggest a desire to improve relations with Iran to return people to the country
LONDON: The UK considered sending asylum-seekers to Iraq for processing, new documents have shown.
Iraq is considered very dangerous, with the UK government advising against all travel to the country.
But a plan similar to the Rwanda scheme to process migrants in a third-party country was floated at one stage by Whitehall officials, with negotiations said to have achieved “good recent progress.”
The UK has struck a returns agreement with Baghdad for Iraqi citizens, which was achieved without a formal announcement or acknowledgement and a plea for “discretion,” the documents, seen by Sky News, suggest.
The cache of papers casts new light on the UK government’s approach to dealing with asylum-seekers and illegal migration, including a desire to improve relations with the Iranian Embassy in London in order to ease the repatriation of Iranian citizens, and moves to establish return agreements with Eritrea and Ethiopia.
