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Every weekend, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.
This week, the following hot news you should know:
Top 1 | China informs U.S. to close its Consulate General in Chengdu
Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday informed the U.S. Embassy in China of its decision to withdraw its consent for the establishment and operation of the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu.
The ministry also made specific requirements on the ceasing of all operations and events by the Consulate General, said a statement issued by the ministry. On July 21, the United States launched a unilateral provocation by abruptly demanding that China close its Consulate General in Houston, the statement said.
"The U.S. move seriously breached international law, the basic norms of international relations, and the terms of the China-U.S. Consular Convention. It gravely harmed China-U.S. relations," said the statement.
Top 2 | Trump calls off Florida events of GOP convention over coronavirus outbreak
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he is canceling the Jacksonville, Florida component of the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC) over the coronavirus outbreak.
"The timing for this event is not right. It's just not right with what has happened recently, the flare-up in Florida," he said during a press briefing at the White House. "To have a big convention, it's not the right time."
Previously, Trump planned to accept the Republican Party's presidential nomination for a second term in Jacksonville after North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, had refused to allow the RNC, scheduled for Aug. 24 to Aug. 27 in Charlotte, to take place without restrictions on crowd size and other measures against the coronavirus. The latest announcement came as Florida is experiencing a surge in new coronavirus cases.
Top 3 | UK-Hong Kong extradition treaty suspended immediately
The UK has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong "immediately and indefinitely" because of concerns about the national security law in Hong Kong.
UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab told the House of Commons on Monday: "The imposition of this new security legislation has significantly changed key assumptions underpinning our extradition treaty arrangements with Hong Kong." He added: "The government has decided to suspend the extradition treaty immediately and indefinitely."
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in London said the UK had "once again violated international law and basic norms of international relations – grossly interfering in China's internal affairs, attempting to interfere with the implementation of Hong Kong's national security law and undermining the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong."
Top 4 | Trump says virus in US will get worse before it gets better
President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the “nasty horrible’” coronavirus will get worse in the U.S. before it gets better, but he also tried to paint a rosy picture of efforts with governors to conquer the disease that has claimed more than 140,000 American lives in just five months.
He also professed a newfound respect for the protective face masks he has seldom worn. He pulled one from his pocket in the White House briefing room but didn’t put it on. After a three-month hiatus from his freewheeling daily virus briefings, Trump returned to the podium, keeping the stage to himself without the public health experts who were staples of his previous events but keeping close to scripted remarks prepared by aides.
Besides declaring support for masks as a way to fight the pandemic, he admonished young people against crowding bars and spreading the disease. It all marked a delayed recognition by Trump that the economic reopening he’s been championing since April — and more importantly, his reelection — were imperiled by spiking cases nationwide.
Top 5 | Putin approves Russian national development goals through 2030
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Tuesday instructing the government to implement a set of national development goals by 2030.
The decree published by the Kremlin said the country aims to achieve breakthrough developments, increase its population and raise living standards. Other goals include ensuring the growth rate of its gross domestic product above the world average and keeping incomes and pensions above inflation.
Russia aims to raise the share of electronic social services to 95 percent and the share of households with access to the broadband Internet to 97 percent. To this end, investments in the domestic information technology industry should grow fourfold during the period, Putin said.
Top 6 | Obama blasts Trump, praises Biden in new 2020 campaign video
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama stepped up their attacks on President Donald Trump and defended their time in the White House in a new video showing their first in-person meeting since the coronavirus outbreak began.
The 15-minute video, posted online Thursday, is the latest maneuver to get the former president involved in the 2020 campaign for his former vice president, as Biden tries to rebuild Obama’s winning coalition in November.
The former president and vice president used the interview-style conversation to amplify Biden’s arguments against Trump, with Obama emphasizing Biden’s experience and personal attributes. They pointed to their administration’s signature health care law and blamed Trump for stoking division and animosity among Americans from the moment he entered the 2016 presidential race. They also were sharply critical of the Republican president’s efforts to combat the coronavirus, which has killed more than 140,000 Americans.
Top 7 | UK trade deal unlikely for now: Britain, EU clash over post-Brexit ties
Britain and the European Union clashed on Thursday over the chances of securing a free trade agreement, with Brussels deeming it “unlikely” but London holding out hope one could be reached in September.
Since Britain left the bloc in January, talks on the trade agreement and other future ties have all but stalled, with each side accusing the other of failing to compromise before a transition period runs out at the end of this year.
Those accusations grew louder after the latest round, with the EU’s negotiator Michel Barnier saying London had shown no willingness to break the deadlock and his British counterpart David Frost describing the bloc’s proposals as failing to meet the government’s demand to be treated as an independent country.
Top 8 | Italexit! Popular senator launches party to take Italy out of EU
A well-known Italian senator is set to launch a political movement with a mission to take Italy out of the European Union, seeking to capitalise on anti-Brussels sentiment as the country struggles to revive its coronavirus-hit economy.
Gianluigi Paragone, a former TV journalist, met Brexit architect Nigel Farage in London on Monday before announcing the formal birth of his “Italexit” party later this week. “We can no longer be blackmailed by countries that offend the great prestige of Italy,” Paragone said, adding that only a “really sovereign state”, like Britain, can address the economic crisis the pandemic has provoked.
It remains to be seen if Paragone’s movement can tap into the well of anti-EU sentiment which has grown among Italians in recent years but lacks an obvious political home. Paragone left the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement soon after it formed a government with the pro-European Democratic Party (PD) last year, moderating its critical attitude towards Brussels institutions.
Top 9 | New study shows Italy's earliest coronavirus strains not from China
The earliest coronavirus strains spreading in Italy's Lombardy region did not come directly from China, according to a new study.
After analyzing more than 300 blood samples of COVID-19 patients from Lombardy between February and April, researchers found that the variant of the virus is observed frequently in European countries, such as the Netherlands, Switzerland and France, but seldom observed in China, said a non-peer-reviewed paper published Monday on medRxiv.org, a preprint server for health sciences.
Italy was the first country in the world that suspended all flights from China after its outbreak of COVID-19 in December last year. But the genome sequencing suggested "a transmission chain not directly involving China," researchers led by Professor Carlo Federico Perno of Milan University said in the paper.
Top 10 | France not banning Huawei from 5G, says minister
French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that France is not banning China-based tech company Huawei from investing in its next-generation 5G telecom networks, but will protect its interests of "national security."
In the meantime, France will protect its "strategic" and "national security" interests, the minister added, defending the French position as "clear and balanced."
French telecommunications operators, such as SFR and Bouygues, have used Huawei's equipment in their current networks. A previous article published by French financial newspaper Les Echos said that banning Huawei's equipment will cost the operators dearly.
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(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)