Aug 05,2022:China has resumed its largest-ever military exercises in the waters around the self-ruled island of Taiwan, with the territory’s defence ministry saying numerous warships and fighter aircraft had crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line.
The exercises, which on Thursday included firing ballistic missiles and deploying fighter jets, follow the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the democratic island, which Beijing claims as its own.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said that multiple Chinese “warships and warplanes” had conducted exercises in the Taiwan Strait as of 11am (03:00 GMT) on Friday, crossing the median line of the waterway that separates China and Taiwan.
The ministry said China’s military activities were “highly provocative” and that it was monitoring the “enemy situation” closely.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the military exercises – which also included firing missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone – as a “significant escalation”.
“China has chosen to overreact and use Speaker Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait,” Blinken said at a news conference following a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on Friday.
SHANGHAI ,Aug 04,2022: China’s average ground temperatures have risen much more quickly than the global average over the past 70 years and will remain “significantly higher” in the future as the challenges of climate change mount, a government official said.
In its annual climate assessment published this week, China’s weather bureau described the country as “a sensitive region in global climate change,” with temperatures rising 0.26 degrees Celsius (0.47 degrees Fahrenheit) a decade since 1951, compared to the global average of 0.15 degrees.
“In the future, the increase in regional average temperatures in China will be significantly higher than the world,” said Yuan Jiashuang, vice-director of China’s National Climate Center (NCC), at a Wednesday briefing.
He warned that changing weather patterns in China will affect the balance of water resources, make ecosystems more vulnerable and reduce crop yields.
Extreme weather has wreaked havoc in recent weeks, with lengthy heatwaves causing droughts and forest fires across the world. Historically high rainfall in some countries has also caused deadly floods.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned last month that “no nation is immune” from climate change and said the world now had to choose between “collective action or collective suicide.”
China has already endured weeks of torrid weather, with temperatures reaching in excess of 44C (111F) in southwestern Yunnan and Hebei in the north.
As many as 131 Chinese weather stations have recorded temperatures that equalled or exceeded historical highs, up from 62 for the whole of last year, according to NCC data.
China’s 2021 climate assessment said coastal water levels last year were at their highest since 1980. Glacial retreat also accelerated, active permafrost along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway reached a record high and sea ice continued to decline.
China also recorded a 7.9% increase in vegetation cover in 2021 compared to the 2001-2020 average, and the assessment noted growth periods for many plants are starting earlier each year.
Aug04,2022:United States President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that lays the groundwork for Medicaid to help women seeking abortions to travel between states to obtain access to the procedure.
The details of the new order, signed on Wednesday, are still being worked out, and the administration faces a challenging legal landscape because it is illegal to use federal funding to pay for abortions unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
However, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Department of Health and Human Services would invite states where abortion remains legal to apply for permission to use Medicaid funds to “provide reproductive healthcare to women who live in states where abortion is banned”.
Like Biden’s first order signed in July, it is meant to address the recent Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade which opened the door for new restrictions on abortion at the state level.
Aug 01,2022:Supporters of powerful Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr have erected tents and are preparing for a long sit-in at Iraq’s parliament, deepening a months-long political standoff.
On Saturday, supporters of the firebrand al-Sadr forced their way into the legislative chamber for the second time in days, after October elections failed to lead to the formation of a government.
July 30,2022:Iraqi protesters have once again breached concrete barricades leading to Baghdad’s Green Zone in a show of support for influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, days after they stormed parliament and suspended a session to nominate a new prime minister.
Demonstrators on Saturday morning pulled down and climbed over a number of large concrete barriers surrounding the area that cordons off government buildings and foreign embassies, making their way along the highway.
“All the people are with you Sayyid Muqtada,” the protesters chanted, using his title as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
It was unclear whether security forces would back down and let the protesters enter as they did on Wednesday, when a large crowd occupied the parliament building.
The protesters oppose the candidacy of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, a former minister and ex-provincial governor, who is the pro-Iran Coordination Framework’s pick for the premier’s post.
Al-Sadr’s bloc emerged from elections in October as the biggest parliamentary faction but still fell far short of a majority.
Ten months on, the deadlock persists over the establishment of a new government.
July 30,2022:Elon Musk countersued Twitter Inc on Friday, escalating his legal fight against the social media company over his bid to walk away from the $44 billion purchase, although the lawsuit was filed confidentially.
While the 164-page document was not publicly available, under court rules a redacted version could soon be made public.
Musk’s lawsuit was filed hours after Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered a five-day trial beginning Oct. 17 to determine if Musk can walk away from the deal.
July 27,2022:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says nearly 40,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, and tens of thousands more “wounded and maimed” since February 24.
He has labelled Gazprom’s moves to cut flows to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 20 percent from Wednesday a form of “price terror” after gas prices surged.