The state of Florida has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to demand cruise ships be allowed to start sailing immediately, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday.
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 34 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Friday (16 April), taking the country's total case count to 60,769.
The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has come under fire again in China for removing a statement on its website about forced labour in Xinjiang without explanation. The world’s largest cotton sustainability programme, which covers 14 per cent of global cotton production, said it ceased all field-level activities in Xinjiang in October due to allegations of forced labour and human rights issues and had suspended all licensing for the region since March 2020. However, the statement was removed when foreign clothing retailers, many of them BCI members such as H&M and Nike, faced boycotts in China for avoiding cotton produced in Xinjiang in March.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. The Communist Youth League and Chinese state media publicised the removal of the statement this week, and accused the BCI of being hypocritical and ungrateful. “[Your] face must hurt! BCI secretly removed a statement ‘boycotting Xinjiang cotton’,” the Communist Youth League posted on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, on Thursday. China News Service published a column that said the BCI should acknowledge it made a mistake and apologise. Headquartered in Geneva, the BCI said the statement was removed due to a cyberattack on its website and its policy remained unchanged. The Economist’s China affairs editor Gady Epstein said on Twitter on Thursday that he had asked the BCI about the statement’s disappearance and was told “they took down the statement in response to DDoS attacks and would eventually ‘repost relevant information’”. The BCI told the South China Morning Post it had no comment to make on the issue. Industry bodies in China are stepping up plans to launch a Chinese version of the BCI, which would set national standards for cotton production. Xinjiang court to hear defamation case against German researcher Adrian Zenz over forced labour claims The United Nations and human rights groups have alleged that 1 million Turkic-speaking Muslim Uygur people have been interned in re-education centres and subjected to indoctrination, torture and forced labour. Beijing has repeatedly denied the allegations and said its policies were designed to fight terrorism, alleviate poverty and raise people’s standard of living through job training. Western countries, including the US and Canada, said the treatment of the Uygurs constituted genocide and levelled sanctions against Chinese officials and entities. The US banned cotton and tomatoes from Xinjiang in January. Beijing has retaliated with its sanctions of its own and propaganda campaigns to drive boycotts of international brands that do not follow its stance on Xinjiang.More from South China Morning Post:Xinjiang: will the West’s sanctions on China force the issue or unravel?Better Cotton Initiative’s fall a cautionary tale of trying to be all things to all peopleChinese branch of Better Cotton Initiative challenges headquarters and says it has found no evidence of Xinjiang forced labourXinjiang cotton: Western companies in China are between a rock and a hard placeHit by Xinjiang cotton backlash, H&M aims to ‘regain trust in China’This article Xinjiang cotton: BCI attacked for removing statement on forced labour first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Myanmar's military opened fire on protesting healthcare workers Thursday, killing at least one bystander as the demonstrators fled for safety to a nearby mosque.
Hong Kong police displayed a cuddly bear mascot and unveiled a new goose-step march Thursday as the financial hub held a "National Security Education Day", part of its push to instil patriotism in a city chafing under China's rule.
How young is too young to start thinking about retirement? Saving for retirement is something we have been told to worry about again and again.
President Joe Biden on Friday receives Japan's prime minister for his first in-person summit, with the leaders expected to announce a $2 billion 5G initiative as part of a concerted US push to compete with China.
Singapore new private home sales doubled to 1,296 last month from 645 units in February, Urban Redevelopment Authority data showed..
The head of Pfizer said in an interview aired Thursday that people will "likely" need a third dose of his company's Covid-19 shot within six to 12 months of vaccination, while elsewhere defending the relatively higher cost of the jab.
Israelis will no longer have to wear masks outdoors starting from Sunday as the number of virus infections plummets, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said.
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was jailed for 14 months on Friday along with four other veteran democracy activists for their roles in protests that helped trigger a sweeping crackdown on dissent by China.
Business groups in the Philippines called on China to withdraw its ships from a disputed reef as tensions rise in the South China Sea.
Relations between Taiwan and the United States are "stronger than ever", an envoy for President Joe Biden said Thursday during a visit to the democratic island as it faces increasingly hostile moves by China.
India's huge coronavirus second wave accelerated Thursday with a record number of infections reported, as a top Japanese politician warned Covid-19 could still derail the already delayed Olympics.
Paris Saint-Germain were revelling in the joy of knocking holders Bayern Munich out of the Champions League in midweek when Neymar offered more cause for celebration.
The employer was allegedly against the idea of his bodyguards fasting during Ramadan. This article, Four suspects arrested for beating up bodyguards who were fasting, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company.
An electric massage chair burst into flames in a deadly fire at a public housing estate in Hong Kong on Friday, killing four members of a single family, including a two-year-old girl, whose grandfather was left fighting for his life in hospital. A preliminary investigation showed a short circuit in the chair, which was in the living room of the family’s three-bedroom flat, was the likely cause of the fire, which engulfed the unit on the fifth floor of Tat Hei House, Po Tat Estate in Kwun Tong, and led to the evacuation of about 180 residents before daybreak, according to police. “We believe that due to a wiring problem, a lithium battery [in the chair] overheated and led the massage chair to burst into flames,” Chief Inspector Ma Ling-ho said. “The fire spread to a three-metre L-shaped sofa nearby so the blaze was quickly spread and generated dense smoke.” Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Ma said the massage chair was in the corridor near the front door when it caught fire, and officers believed this had made it difficult for the family to escape. Emergency personnel responded to the scene shortly after 3am. A 60-year-old man, his 47-year-old wife, their two daughters, aged 26 and 27, and two-year-old granddaughter were inside the flat at the time the fire broke out. A son-in-law, 26, was alerted when he received a call from his wife and immediately raced home, according to the force. “The grandfather managed to get out and run downstairs before rescuers arrived,” a police source said. His wife, daughters and granddaughter were unable to escape and were trapped in the three bedrooms of the burning unit. The man was semi-conscious when found on the ground floor of the building and was taken to Tseung Kwan O Hospital, where he remained in critical condition. Firefighters equipped with breathing apparatus pulled the three women and toddler – all unconscious – from the flat. The older of the two daughters was certified dead at the scene while her daughter, sister and mother later died in hospital. According to the Fire Services Department, nine fire engines and seven ambulances were sent to the scene and nearly 100 firefighters were deployed. The blaze was put out just before 4am. A man in his 90s who lived on a higher floor of the public housing block complained of feeling unwell after inhaling smoke. He remained in stable condition at United Christian Hospital as of Friday afternoon. Assistant divisional officer Wong Kwok-chun said his team initially found four people trapped in rooms in the flat. “The fire was violent and temperatures at the scene were very high,” Wong said, adding a task force had been set up to investigate the cause of the blaze. Firefighters helped about 30 other residents to safety, while another 150 evacuated the building on their own. Speaking at a Legislative Council meeting, security minister John Lee Ka-chiu expressed condolences for the victims and their families, adding the government would provide them with all necessary support.This article Four family members, including 2-year-old girl, killed in Hong Kong housing estate blaze after massage chair catches fire first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Arch-foes Israel and Iran have long fought an undeclared shadow war across the Middle East, landing blows in Lebanon, Syria and inside the Islamic republic itself.
India's daily coronavirus caseload has doubled in 10 days, with a record 200,000 new infections logged Thursday as authorities grapple with shortages of vaccines, treatments and hospital beds.
US stocks hit fresh records on Thursday, supported by buoyant economic data and a strong start to the earnings season, while European equities shrugged off news of weaker growth expectations in Germany.
Former domestic helper Parti Liyani's application for compensation from the prosecution was heard at the High Court on Friday (16 April).
