Beijing

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily said it will print its last edition on Thursday, after a tumultuous year in which it was raided by police and its tycoon owner and other staff were arrested under a new national security law.

More than 40 countries urged China on Tuesday to allow the U.N. human rights chief immediate access to Xinjiang region to look into reports that more than a million people have been unlawfully detained there, some subjected to torture or forced labour.

Hong Kong’s High Court on Tuesday approved bail for a pro-democracy activist who is among 47 charged with conspiracy to commit subversion under a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on its freest city last year, the city’s public broadcaster RTHK reported.

The pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily looked set to close for good by Saturday following police raids and the arrest of executives - a move that critics say undermines the city's status as a free and open society as Beijing tightens its grip.

Hong Kong's strategy to strengthen the city's global financial hub status is through greater integration with mainland China, now that Beijing has helped restore "stability" in the city, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Sunday

Taiwan welcomed 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the United States on Sunday as help from a true friend, more than doubling the major semiconductor-producing island’s arsenal of shots as it deals with a cluster of domestic infections.

The United States will ship 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan on Saturday, a senior administration official told Reuters, more than tripling Washington’s previous allocation of shots for the island, which has faced increasing political and military pressure from China.

Australia will take China before the World Trade Organization over Beijing’s imposition of crippling tariffs on Australian wine exports, it announced Saturday, in the latest sign of worsening tensions between the two countries.

Hong Kong police charged the chief editor and chief executive of pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily on Friday with collusion with a foreign country, a national security case that has sent chills through the city’s media.

The White House will consider arranging talks between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, as the two countries spar over issues including human rights, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the details of its project to plant the “Olympic Forest” in Mali and Senegal, an element of the IOC’s climate-positive strategy.

Five hundred Hong Kong police officers sifted through reporters' computers and notebooks at pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily on Thursday, the first case in which authorities have cited media articles as potentially violating the national security law.

Twenty-eight Chinese air force aircraft, including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers, entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday, the island’s government said, the largest reported incursion to date.

China's mission to the European Union urged NATO on Tuesday to stop exaggerating the "China threat theory" after the group's leaders warned that the country presented "systemic challenges".

NATO leaders designated China as presenting “systemic challenges” in a summit communique on Monday, taking a forceful stance towards Beijing at Joe Biden’s first summit with an alliance that Donald Trump openly disparaged and ridiculed.

NATO will confront China’s military ambitions for the first time and designate Beijing as presenting “systemic challenges”, according to a copy of a summit communique seen by Reuters and set for release later on Monday.

China denounced on Monday a joint statement by the Group of Seven leaders that had scolded Beijing over a range of issues as a gross interference in the country’s internal affairs, and urged the grouping to stop slandering China.

U.S. President Joe Biden is to take part in his debut NATO summit on Monday as the 30 countries look to turn their attention to external threats.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday there is no new Cold War with China but the western allies will have to adapt to the challenge of Beijing’s rise.

A new study conducted by Culture Intelligence from RED reveals that the majority of Nigerians believe there are political and economic risks to the current Twitter suspension by the federal government, and 81% would rather have the issue resolved quickly.

Group of Seven leaders on Sunday scolded China over human rights in its Xinjiang region, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full and thorough investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China.

Beijing has broken its legal obligations by undermining Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and used a national security law to “drastically curtail freedoms” in the global financial hub, according to a report by Britain on its former colony.