BEIJING: China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government’s policies on the COVID-19 outbreak, as the country moves to further open up.
The popular Sina Weibo social media platform said it had addressed 12,854 violations including attacks on experts, scholars and medical workers and issued temporary or permanent bans on 1,120 accounts.
The ruling Communist Party had largely relied on the medical community to justify its harsh lockdowns, quarantine measures and mass testing, almost all of which it abruptly abandoned last month, leading to a surge in new cases that have stretched medical resources to their limits. The party allows no direct criticism and imposes strict limits on free speech.
The company “will continue to increase the investigation and cleanup of all kinds of illegal content, and create a harmonious and friendly community environment for the majority of users,” Sina Weibo said in a statement dated Thursday.
Criticism has largely focused on heavy-handed enforcement of regulations, including open-ended travel restrictions that saw people confined to their homes for weeks, sometimes sealed inside without adequate food or medical care. Anger was also vented over the requirement that anyone who potentially tested positive or had been in contact with such a person be confined for observation in a field hospital, where overcrowding, poor food and hygiene were commonly cited.
The social and economic costs eventually prompted rare street protests in Beijing and other cities, possibly influencing the party’s decision to swiftly ease the strictest measures.
As part of the latest changes, China will also no longer bring criminal charges against people accused of violating border quarantine regulations, according to a notice issued by five government departments on Saturday.
Individuals currently in custody will be released and seized assets returned, the notice said.
The adjustments “were made after comprehensively considering the harm of the behaviors to the society, and aim to adapt to the new situations of the epidemic prevention and control,” the official China Daily newspaper website said in a report on the notice.
China is now facing a surge in cases and hospitalizations in major cities and is bracing for a further spread into less developed areas with the start of the Lunar New Year travel rush, set to get underway in coming days. While international flights are still reduced, authorities say they expect domestic rail and air journeys will double over the same period last year, bringing overall numbers close to those of the 2019 holiday period before the pandemic hit.
The Transportation Ministry on Friday called on travelers to reduce trips and gatherings, particularly if they involve elderly people, pregnant women, small children and those with underlying conditions.
People using public transport are also urged to wear masks and pay special attention to their health and personal hygiene, Vice Minister Xu Chengguang told reporters at a briefing.
Nonetheless, China is forging ahead with a plan to end mandatory quarantines for people arriving from abroad beginning on Sunday.
Beijing also plans to drop a requirement for students at city schools to have a negative COVID-19 test to enter campus when classes resume Feb. 13 after the holiday break. While schools will be allowed to move classes online in the event of new outbreaks, they must return to in-person instruction as soon as possible, the city education bureau said in a statement Friday.
However, the end to mass testing, a highly limited amount of basic data such as the number of deaths, infections and severe cases, and the potential emergence of new variants have prompted governments elsewhere to institute virus testing requirements for travelers from China.
The World Health Organization has also expressed concern about the lack of data from China, while the US is requiring a negative test result for travelers from China within 48 hours of departure.
Chinese health authorities publish a daily count of new cases, severe cases and deaths, but those numbers include only officially confirmed cases and use a very narrow definition of COVID-related deaths.
Authorities say that since the government ended compulsory testing and permitted people with mild symptoms to test themselves and convalesce at home, it can no longer provide a full picture of the state of the latest outbreak.
On Saturday, the National Health Commission reported 10,681 new domestic cases, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed cases to 482,057. Three new deaths were also reported over the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 5,267.
The numbers are a fraction of those announced by the US, which has put its death toll at more than 1 million among some 101 million cases.
But they’re also much smaller than the estimates being released by some local governments. Zhejiang, a province on the east coast, said Tuesday it was seeing about 1 million new cases a day.
China has said the testing requirements being imposed by foreign governments — most recently Germany and Sweden — aren’t science-based and has threatened unspecified countermeasures. Its spokespeople have said the situation is under control, and reject accusations of a lack of preparation for reopening.
Despite such assertions, the Health Commission on Saturday rolled out regulations for strengthened monitoring of viral mutations, including testing of urban wastewater. The lengthy rules called for increased data gathering from hospitals and local government health departments and stepped-up checks on “pneumonia of unknown causes.”
If a variant emerges in an outbreak, it is found through genetic sequencing of the virus.
Since the pandemic started, China has shared 4,144 sequences with GISAID, a global platform for coronavirus data. That’s only 0.04 percent of its reported number of cases — a rate more than 100 times less than the United States and nearly four times less than neighboring Mongolia.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong also plans to reopen some of its border crossings with mainland China on Sunday and allow tens of thousands of people to cross every day without being quarantined.
The semi-autonomous southern Chinese city has been hard-hit by the virus and its land and sea border checkpoints with the mainland have been largely closed for almost three years. Despite the risk, the reopening is expected to provide a much-needed boost to Hong Kong’s tourism and retail sectors.
China suspends social media accounts of COVID policy critics
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China suspends social media accounts of COVID policy critics
- China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government’s policies on the COVID-19 outbreak
Senegal counts votes as new leaders eye parliamentary win
- It has emerged as the vote winner in most of the first polling stations to give their provisional results, according to media reports, beating the two main opposition parties
DAKAR: Senegal began counting votes Sunday after parliamentary elections in which the new government is aiming for a resounding majority to deliver the ambitious reform agenda that swept it to power eight months ago.
Voting took place peacefully across the West African country, and reliable projections of the new parliament’s makeup could be available from Monday morning.
Tallying started shortly after a polling station in the capital Dakar closed at 6:00 p.m. (1800 GMT), an AFP journalist saw.
The governing Pastef party of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye is the favorite to win.
It has emerged as the vote winner in most of the first polling stations to give their provisional results, according to media reports, beating the two main opposition parties.
Faye secured victory in March pledging economic transformation, social justice and a fight against corruption — raising hopes among a largely youthful population facing high inflation and widespread unemployment.
But an opposition-led parliament hampered the government’s first months in power, prompting Faye to dissolve the chamber in September and call snap elections as soon as the constitution allowed him to do so.
“I hope that Pastef will win the elections to gain a majority so that they can better carry out their mandate,” said Pascal Goudiaby, a 56-year-old voter in Dakar.
“The priority is unemployment, young people are facing so much unemployment,” he said.
Faye appointed his firebrand mentor Ousmane Sonko as prime minister. Sonko’s own bid to run for president had been blocked following a three-year deadly standoff with the former authorities.
The pair promised a leftist pan-African agenda, vowing to diversify political and economic partnerships, review hydrocarbon and fishing contracts and re-establish Senegal’s sovereignty, which they claimed had been sold abroad.
Mademba Ndiaye, a 20-year-old student, was voting for the first time.
“It’s one of the only ways we can really have an impact on society, and I think that if we don’t vote, we couldn’t really complain about what happens in society afterwards,” he said.
Various actors reported that the turnout on Sunday was typically lower than in the presidential election.
Senegal’s roughly 7.3 million registered voters were called to elect 165 MPs for five-year terms.
Voters have historically confirmed their presidential choice during parliamentary elections, say analysts.
“I think that whoever you gave your confidence to in the presidential election, you need to renew your confidence in him so that he can achieve what he started,” said 56-year-old voter Toure Aby.
“We want life to be less expensive for the Senegalese,” she added. “Everything’s expensive: water, electricity, food.”
Voters continued a long democratic tradition in Senegal, widely seen as a stable outlier in a coup-plagued region.
Faye and Sonko both called for calm as they cast their ballots.
“Democracy is expressed in peace and stability, and I believe that in a democracy there is no room for violence,” Sonko said in the southern city of Ziguinchor.
Reminiscent of his years as a fiery opposition leader, he had called for vengeance after attacks against his supporters, but later urged restraint.
Clashes were only sporadic in the run-up to the vote. Although some agreements have been reached between coalitions, the opposition remains fragmented.
Former president Macky Sall is leading an opposition grouping from abroad called Takku Wallu Senegal. On Sunday it claimed the vote was marred by “massive fraud organized by Pastef,” without providing details.
Sall left power in April after triggering one of the worst crises in decades with a last-minute postponement of the presidential election.
Former prime minister and presidential runner-up Amadou Ba and Dakar’s mayor Barthelemy Dias are also heading coalitions.
The opposition has accused the new government of inaction, amateurism and a desire to settle scores with the previous administration.
Unemployment stands at more than 20 percent and scores continue to risk their lives every month attempting to reach Europe by boat.
The government said an audit of public finances revealed a wider budget deficit than previously announced.
Moody’s downgraded Senegal’s credit rating and placed the country under observation.
The new authorities have lowered the price of household goods such as rice, oil and sugar and launched a series of reviews.
They also launched justice system reform and presented an ambitious 25-year development plan aimed at transforming the economy and public policy.
Ukraine strikes on Russia with US missiles could lead to world war, Russian lawmakers say
- “This is a very big step toward the start of World War Three,” lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov says
- Poland, defending Ukraine, said missiles against Russia is “a language Putin understands”
MOSCOW: Washington’s decision to let Kyiv strike deep into Russia with long-range US missiles escalates the conflict in Ukraine and could lead to World War III, senior Russian lawmakers said on Sunday.
Two US officials and a source familiar with the decision revealed the significant reversal of Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict earlier on Sunday.
“The West has decided on such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning,” Andrei Klishas, a senior member of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee, said that Moscow’s response will be immediate.
“This is a very big step toward the start of World War Three,” the TASS state news agency quoted Dzhabarov as saying.
President Vladimir Putin said in September that the West would be fighting Russia directly if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would alter the nature and scope of the conflict.
Russia would be forced to take what Putin called “appropriate decisions” based on the new threats.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma lower house’s foreign affairs committee, said that US authorization of strikes by Kyiv on Russia with US ATACMS tactical missiles would lead to the toughest response, Russian news agencies reported.
“Strikes with US missiles deep into Russian regions will inevitably entail a serious escalation, which threatens to lead to much more serious consequences,” TASS news agency quoted Slutsky as saying.
NATO member Poland welcomed Biden's decision, saying missiles against Russia is “a language Putin understands.”
“With the entry into the war of North Korea troops and (Sunday’s) massive attack of Russian missiles, President Biden responded in a language that (Russian President) V. Putin understands,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski posted on X.
“The victim of aggression has the right to defend himself,” Sikorski added in his post. “Strength deters, weakness provokes.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pushed for authorization from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that approval would mean that NATO was “at war” with his country — a threat he has made previously when Ukraine’s Western backers have escalated their military assistance to Kyiv.
Gabon votes yes to new constitution, says interior minister
LIBREVILLE: Gabonese voters approved a new constitution by a landslide 91.8 percent, the interior minister said on Sunday, after a referendum that the junta in power promised would be a steppingstone to democratic rule.
Speaking on state television, Minister Hermann Immongault said turnout was an estimated 53.5 percent.
General Brice Oligui Nguema, who is interim president, has touted Saturday’s vote as a sign of the government’s commitment to a democratic transition, tentatively scheduled for summer 2025.
Military officers seized power in a coup in August last year. The Gabonese largely welcomed the ouster of President Ali Bongo. His family’s poor management of the central African country’s oil wealth had led to a stagnant economy and a third of the population living in poverty.
The proposed new constitution introduces a two-term limit on the presidency, each lasting seven years. It removes the position of prime minister and recognizes French as Gabon’s working language.
The draft does not bar Nguema from running for the presidency, raising concern for some commentators about the junta’s ambitions.
France, UK and Poland reaffirm support for Kyiv as Russia targets Ukraine’s power facilities in massive missile attack
- UK’s Starmer allies have to double down now to support Ukraine for as long as it takes
- Missiles against Russia ‘a language Putin understands’, says Poland's FM
BUENOS AIRES/LONDON/WARSAW: France, Britain and Poland on Sunday reaffirmed their support for Ukraine as Russia staged its biggest missile attack since August, targeting Ukraine's power facilities with the winter setting in.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the relentless air barrage showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not want peace and is not ready to negotiate.”
The priority for France was to “equip, support and help Ukraine to resist,” Macron told reporters as he prepared to leave Argentina to attend the G20 Summit in Brazil. “It’s clear that President Putin intends to intensify the fighting,” he added.
He declined to comment on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call with Putin on Friday, stressing that Ukraine’s allies “must remain united .... on an agenda for genuine peace, that is to say, a peace that does not mean Ukraine’s surrender.”
He added that he would only consider a call with the Russian leader when the “context” was right.
In London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he has no plan to speak with Putin as he pledged support for Ukraine as the UK’s top priority at this week’s G20 summit.
Speaking with reporters on the way to the meeting in Brazil, Starmer said he wouldn’t speak to Putin as Scholz did on Friday.
The call between the two leaders, which the Kremlin said was initiated by Germany, was the first publicly announced conversation between Putin and a major head of a Western power in almost two years.
Ukraine's Zelensky criticized the call and said it would only make Russia less isolated.
Ukraine’s allies fear that the election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has questioned US aid sent to Kyiv and spoken favorably about Putin, could alter support from Washington, its biggest backer.
Starmer said allies have to double down now to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.
“We are coming up to the 1,000th day of this conflict on Tuesday,” Starmer said. “That’s 1,000 days of Russian aggression, 1,000 days of huge impact and sacrifice in relation to the Ukrainian people and recently we’ve seen the addition of North Korean troops working with Russians which does have serious implications.”
The UK has committed $16.15 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Also on Sunday, Poland welcomed news that US President Joe Biden had cleared Ukraine to use long-range missiles against military targets inside Russia, something Kyiv had been urging for months.
“With the entry into the war of North Korea troops and (Sunday’s) massive attack of Russian missiles, President Biden responded in a language that (Russian President) V.Putin understands,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski posted on X.
“The victim of aggression has the right to defend himself,” Sikorski added in his post. “Strength deters, weakness provokes.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pushed for authorization from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that approval would mean that NATO was “at war” with his country — a threat he has made previously when Ukraine’s Western backers have escalated their military assistance to Kyiv.
Rising Islamophobia poses threat in UK amid ‘bleak and dystopian’ political climate, warns head of race equality think tank
- Shabna Begum said political rhetoric had fueled the problem
LONDON: The UK is witnessing an escalation in Islamophobia that risks becoming “brutally divisive,” with failure to address its underlying causes potentially leading to more racist riots, according to the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust think tank.
In an exclusive interview with The Guardian newspaper, Shabna Begum, who took the helm of the race equality group earlier this year, highlighted how political rhetoric has fueled the problem.
“The way politicians talk about Muslims now is so derogatory, it’s in the most brutally divisive terms,” she said, adding that British political discourse had evolved beyond Sayeeda Warsi’s “dinner table test,” a phrase coined by the Conservative peer in 2011 which claimed Islamophobia had become socially acceptable.
Referring to last summer’s riots, Begum warned that without change, such violence could become recurrent.
“(The unrest) was the ugliest representation of the years of racism that have been manufactured through the political media conversation. And if we don’t do something differently, that ugliness will become just a regular feature of our politics,” she said.
The Runnymede Trust’s report on Islamophobia, launched with backing from Warsi, Amnesty International UK, and the Muslim Council for Britain, documented increasing hostility faced by British Muslims.
It cited Tell Mama’s findings of a 335 percent spike in hate incidents in the four months up to February 2024, with women disproportionately affected.
Police figures indicated that nearly 38 percent of religious hate crimes targeted Muslims, and anti-religious hate crimes reached a record high last year, coinciding with the Israel-Gaza conflict, which broke out on Oct. 7 last year.
Begum emphasized that the issue extended beyond physical attacks to “state-sponsored Islamophobia” embedded in policies and narratives, without naming specific politicals, and added that the ruling Labour Party and the Conservatives had both been guilty of feeding a “bleak and dystopian” hostile climate for British Muslims.
She also highlighted the double standard faced by Muslims in public life, saying: “Whether it’s through being governors at schools, as we see through the Trojan horse affair … we are seen trying to take over and hijack local schools.”
She continued: “Or when we go on protest marches, along with many other people, we are described as hate marchers and Islamist extremists. And when we use our vote to express our political preferences, we’re described as sectarian and divisive.”
Drawing on her personal history as the daughter of Bangladeshi migrants who grew up in Tower Hamlets in London, Begum described how her upbringing had shaped her understanding of systemic discrimination.
After more than two decades as a teacher, she moved into academia, ultimately leading her to running the Runnymede Trust.
While she welcomed a recent £15 million ($18.9 million) community recovery fund introduced by the UK government, she called for more substantial investment to combat structural racism.
“What we’re objecting to is a dispersal of insecure funds to community groups... There’s no point saying all Muslims are all bad, but go and have a cup of tea with them in your local community.”
