Agricultural expert and government critic Ny Nak was attacked and beaten by baton-wielding motorbikers on a Phnom Penh street earlier this month, leaving him hospitalized. It was the latest assault on an outspoken activist in Cambodia. At least 50 political and social activists have been victims of similar attacks in the country in recent years. Most have targeted opposition party members. None of the attackers have been brought to justice. In the days and weeks before the attack, Ny Nak had posted comments critical of the government on Facebook under…
Month: September 2023
China says US is an ‘empire of lies’ as it hits back at report into information manipulation
The United States is the true “empire of lies”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday, lashing out at a report that accused Beijing of ploughing billions of dollars annually into information manipulation efforts. Despite the unprecedented resources devoted to the campaign, Beijing had hit “major setbacks” when targeting democratic countries, due to local media and civil society resistance, according to the report, which was produced under a congressional mandate to detail state information manipulation. The report has disregarded facts, and is itself false information, the Chinese foreign ministry said…
VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, Sept. 24-30
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. What Happens to Immigration if US Government Shuts Down? With congressional leaders gridlocked over the nation’s budget and the deadline to pass spending bills fast approaching, the federal government could shut down on October 1. And that could affect some immigration services and visa programs. If the federal government closes, only essential personnel will be working. All other federal workers will not be allowed to work. So…
De-risk? Decouple? A Chinese official says it’s just the West disrupting supply chains
The West’s push for “de-risking” or “decoupling” from China is just an excuse to disrupt normal operations of global supply chains, a Beijing official told a finance conference in Egypt this week. Wang Dongwei, China’s vice-minister of finance, said that Beijing hoped to see a world with enhanced industrial global chains, which are “necessary for an open and inclusive global economy” – especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, Wang said, the “actions of some countries” had thrown global industrial chains into disarray. In a veiled reference to the US and…
Afghan currency posts world-beating rally in third quarter
Receive free Currencies updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Currencies news every morning. Afghanistan’s currency was the best-performing in the world in the third quarter of this year, as foreign aid inflows and strict capital controls helped the afghani recover from the historic lows it reached after the Taliban’s takeover two years ago. The afghani’s near-10 per cent climb makes it the third-best performing currency this year, behind the Colombian peso and Sri Lankan rupee. Its strengthening helps to bolster the Taliban’s finances…
Whale Strikes Boat Near Sydney; One Man Dies
Australian officials say one man died and another was hospitalized after a whale reportedly struck their boat in the waters off Sydney early Saturday. New South Wales Water Police Acting Superintendent Siobhan Munro said, “Early reports are that a whale may have breached near the boat or onto the boat.” Saturday marks the first day of National Safe Boating Week in Australia, an initiative focused on the importance of having lifejackets on boats. It was not immediately clear whether the men were wearing lifejackets during their deadly encounter with the…
Everyone’s going big for Indian miniatures
Receive free Collecting updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Collecting news every morning. The scope of the Indian miniature isn’t miniature at all. This genre, which flourished across the south Asian continent for centuries, covers a vast terrain – various cultures, religions and subjects, from formal portraits of bureaucrats to fantastical mythical scenes. Mostly small in size, these images, produced originally for albums or folios, are distinguished by brilliance of colour, attention to detail and often very precious materials – many are made using…
Ukraine’s War of Drones Runs Into an Obstacle: China
Surrounded by rooms filled with stacks of cluster munitions and half-made thermobaric bombs, a soldier from Ukraine’s 92nd Mechanized Brigade recently worked on the final part of a deadly supply chain that stretches from China’s factories to a basement five miles from the front lines of the war with Russia. This is where Ukrainian soldiers turn hobbyist drones into combat weapons. At a cluttered desk, the soldier attached a modified battery to a quadcopter so it could fly farther. Pilots would later zip tie a homemade shell to the bottom…
Book Review: ‘Sparks,’ by Ian Johnson
SPARKS: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future, by Ian Johnson By now, it is almost clichéd to compare political misrule to the dystopia that Orwell conjured through the story of the low-ranking functionary Winston Smith in “1984,” but so many aspects of the novel have come true in today’s China — from mass surveillance to fury-inciting demagogy to President Xi Jinping’s declaration that the Communist Party’s rule is “the conclusion of history” — that it may appear to preclude, as it ultimately did for Smith, the possibility…
US Secretary of State Blinken congratulates China on 74th National Day, pledges cooperation on ‘shared challenges’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken published a statement congratulating China on its 74th National Day, which commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic, pledging more cooperation with Beijing on “shared challenges” as high-level exchanges between the two countries have ramped up in recent months. “As the United States continues to work with the international community to solve the world’s most serious challenges, we welcome the cooperation of the People’s Republic of China in addressing shared challenges, including the climate crisis, public health, counter-narcotics, food security, and global macroeconomic stability,”…