Categoria: News

Leaflets in support of Tong Ying-kit are placed at a shopping mall near the High Court in Hong Kong, July 30, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

World

Some 200 Afghans arrived at the Fort Lee Army base in Virginia in an airlift of translators and others who risked Taliban retaliation because they worked for the U.S. government during its 20-year war in Afghanistan.

The first person convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law was jailed for nine years for terrorist activities and inciting secession.

Nations across the Asia-Pacific region are tightening restrictions as COVID-19 continues its spread. Japan expanded its state of emergency to three prefectures near Olympics host Tokyo and the city of Osaka, while Australia called out the military to enforce a lockdown in some Sydney neighborhoods.

Outrage over femicides is growing in Pakistan after Noor Mukadam, 27, the daughter of a former Pakistani diplomat, was found beheaded in a posh neighborhood of Islamabad earlier this month. Police have charged Zahir Jaffer, a U.S. national and scion of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families, with murder.

Business

Scarlett Johansson, star of the Marvel superhero movie “Black Widow,” sued the Walt Disney Company, alleging that it breached her contract when it offered the movie on streaming services at the same time it played in theaters. The outcome could have broad ramifications in Hollywood as movie studios often negotiate payments to actors based on how films perform in cinemas, not on services like Disney+, where increasing numbers of people are watching them.

Ratings data from the opening ceremony and first few nights of events indicate that the Tokyo Games are currently the least watched Olympics in recent history across Europe and in the United States.

Find out why Astra the short-haired kitty didn’t get her salmon Whiskas and Loki the Alaskan malamute had to do without his usual Royal Canin kibble.

Quote of the day

“They are going to become just a little bit more than a small marina”

Filippo Olivetti

Managing director of the Bassani group, which provides port and tourism services, who says Venice can’t survive without cruise ships.

Venice ban may not end cruise ship battle

Source: Reuters

WORLD

It’s been a day of meetings on the international front, though some were not as promising as others.

– Relations between China and the U.S. appear to be at a standstill as high-level diplomatic talks in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin failed to produce any outcomes. The talks, aimed at ensuring that competition does not veer into conflict, did produce combative statements, though not with the same volume of vitriol that marked their previous meeting in Alaska in March.

– South and North Korea’s flourishing correspondence seems to have produced more fruitful results as the two countries restored communications hotlines that Pyongyang severed a year ago.

– U.S. President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi met as well, sealing an agreement formally ending the U.S. combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year, though U.S. forces still will operate there in an advisory role.

– Tokyo reported a record number of coronavirus cases even as the Olympic Games continued. It was another tough day for Japan on a second front: Naomi Osaka is out of the running for tennis gold after losing 6-1 6-4 to the Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova.

– In Hong Kong, a judicial panel set up to deal with national-security cases found former waiter Tong Ying-kit, 24, guilty of terrorism and inciting secession in a landmark case. The ruling imposes new limits on free speech in the former British colony, activists say. Tong was denied bail and a jury trial.

– The European Union is on course to hit its target of 70% adult vaccination against COVID-19 by the end of the summer, the European Commission said. Even so, shifting restrictions as the pandemic ripples around the world are making it hard for those who make their living in tourism, such as Greek hotel manager George Tselios, who says there’s no way to know how business will be more than two weeks into the future.

BUSINESS

– Global securities markets regulators said on Tuesday they have begun monitoring special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, due to potential regulatory concerns. Emerging markets have so far been on the fringes of a fundraising boom using SPAC deals. Wider global investor caution about the funding tool and a few recently delayed landmark deals will play a role in how much some countries can unlock this vital new source of cash.

– Investors should get some insight this Thursday on how the aftershocks from the Greensill and Archegos scandals are hitting Credit Suisse when it reports its quarterly financial results. The bank on Tuesday appointed Goldman Sachs partner David Wildermuth as its new chief risk officer, its second recent big Wall Street hire to work on its turnaround.

– Ask for more. You are worth it, according to a top London-based recruiter who says that the pandemic has worsened a shortage of white-collar workers in many countries, forcing companies to pay higher salaries to snare talent.

Quote of the day

“Allowing free speech… on the field of play seems now entirely dependent on the goodwill of the IOC.”

Maximilian Klein – Athleten Deutschland representative for international sports policy

Protest rules at Tokyo Games not transparent, German athletes group says