Blog Archive

Hong Kong’s street shops in flux as pandemic upends businesses, creates new opportunities

US Treasury chief Yellen, Chinese Vice Premier Liu hold introductory meeting

BEIJING (REUTERS) – Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He exchanged views with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on issues of mutual “concern”, in his second virtual call in a week with top economic and trade officials under the US Biden administration. Mr Liu, who has led China’s negotiations in Sino-US trade talks since former US president Donald Trump went on a trade war with Beijing, held a similarly “candid” exchange with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on May 26. China’s increased engagement between the trade and economic chiefs of the world’s largest economy, since Mr Joe Biden took office in January, comes as the US administration criticises Beijing on human rights abuses and seeks to rally other rich nations to form a united front on China. “Secretary Yellen discussed the Biden-Harris administration’s plans to support a continued strong economic recovery and the importance of cooperating on areas that are in US interests, while at the same time frankly tackling issues of concern,” the US Treasury Department said in a brief statement. In Mr Liu’s video call with Ms Yellen on Wednesday (June 2), both sides conducted extensive exchanges on the macroeconomic situation and bilateral and multilateral cooperation, the official Xinhua news agency reported. “The two sides believed that

Pope widens church law to cover sexual abuse of adults by priests and laity

ROME (NYTIMES) – Pope Francis has broadened the Roman Catholic Church’s definition of sexual abuse by revising its penal code to explicitly acknowledge that adults, and not only children, can be victimised by priests and powerful laypeople who abuse their offices. The Vatican announced on Tuesday (June 1) that Francis had made changes to the Vatican’s Code of Canon Law, the legal framework for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, after years of consultations. The revisions – the first since 1983 – are part of the church’s continued process of seeking to address gaps in its response to the sexual abuse scandal that has devastated the Catholic church over the past quarter century. The changes reflect a new appreciation in the church that imbalances in power dynamics can be a key factor in sexual abuse, stemming in part from revelations in recent years that the church had failed to respond when adult seminary students were abused by powerful prelates, such as the disgraced former cardinal archbishop of Washington, Theodore E. McCarrick. “It is necessary that these norms be closely related to social changes and the new needs of the People of God,” the pope wrote last month in

Biden recognises Pride month, vowing to fight for LGBTQ rights

WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) – US President Joe Biden on Tuesday (June 1) issued a presidential proclamation recognising June as Pride Month, vowing to fight for full equality for the LGBTQ community to be codified into law. The official acknowledgement of Pride, a month typically defined for many in the community by marches, parades and parties across the United States, offered Mr Biden his latest opportunity to contrast his own priorities with those of his most recent predecessor. Last year, former president Donald Trump steadfastly ignored Pride, refusing to acknowledge the celebration with even a presidential tweet. Embassies overseas were prohibited from flying the Pride flag. The Trump administration also rolled back a 2016 regulation that mandated health care as a civil right for transgender patients under the Affordable Care Act, and activists worried that their rights were being systematically scrubbed after LGBT rights pages quietly disappeared in 2017 from the official White House website and other federal websites. “For the past four years, it was difficult to get out of bed,” said Mr Alphonso B. David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group. “It was difficult to get out of bed because you understood

Huge sinkhole threatens to swallow Mexican home

PUEBLA, MEXICO (AFP) – A giant sinkhole that was expanding by dozens of meters each day has alarmed residents in a rural area of central Mexico where it was threatening to swallow a house. When the Sanchez family heard a loud crash on Saturday (May 29), they first thought that it was a lightning strike. But they soon discovered that the ground had collapsed just meters from their home in a field in Santa Maria Zacatepec in the state of Puebla. The hole, which is full of water, was about 30 metres wide by Sunday. It rapidly grew to 60 metres on Monday and around 80 metres on Tuesday, the authorities said, coming perilously close to the house of the Sanchez family, who fear they will be left homeless. “We have nothing. We’re not from here. We have no relatives. We’re alone,” Mr Heriberto Sanchez, originally from the southeastern state of Veracruz, told the media. Scientists and the authorities were considering hypotheses including a geological fault or variations in the soil’s water content as the possible causes. As the sinkhole has grown, large chunks of earth continually have broken away from the rim, scaring