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GENEVA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said it is working with China to manage the risks of COVID-19 surging again as people travel for Lunar New Year celebrations but the country's response continues to be challenged by a lack of data. COVID-19 is spreading unchecked in China after the country lifted its zero-COVID policy in December, but the WHO said it still does not have enough information from China to make a full assessment of the dangers of the surge. That is also an issue in working with China on how to mitigate the risks of travel ahead of the Lunar New Year public holiday, which officially runs from Jan. 21, the WHO said. The WHO also said China is still heavily underreporting deaths from COVID-19, although it is now providing more information on its outbreak. "There are some very important information gaps that we are working with China to fill," said COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove.

☆ UK strike law will make it harder for key workers to strike
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —The UK government is planning to introduce a new law forcing workers in key public sectors such as ambulance services to maintain a basic level of service during strike action or risk dismissal. Workers who strike after they have been told to report to work by their employer and union could face dismissal. Critical care was exempt from the nurses’ strike, and unions pledged to cover life-threatening emergencies during recent walkouts by ambulance workers. The government said that it will impose minimum safety levels in these areas only if “voluntary agreements” cannot be reached. “Trade unions will fight this every step of the way,” the Trades Union Congress, which represents 48 UK unions, said on Twitter.

☆ UK train strikes will disrupt return to work this week
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Britain’s largest transport union, RMT, said workers will strike on January 3, 4, 6 and 7. The rail strikes will make city centers “ghost towns” for another week, Nicholls said. “The sector has struggled to recover from Covid and these protracted rail strikes since May have made that bounce back much tougher,” she added. According to PwC, the average British worker’s pay in 2023 is expected to fall back to 2006 levels once inflation is taken into account. In a statement, Network Rail said that the RMT strike was “unnecessary and deeply damaging” to the railway and the economy.

☆ Russia says 89 troops were killed in New Year's attack, blames use of mobile phones
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 4 (Reuters) - Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday that 89 servicemen were killed in the Ukrainian attack on Makiivka in the Moscow-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, adding the main reason for the attack was unauthorised use of mobile phones by the troops. "This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers' location for a missile strike." Russia previously said 63 Russian soldiers were killed. The defence ministry said four rockets from the U.S.-made HIMARS launchers hit the building, adding that "from the detonation of the warheads of the HIMARS rockets, the ceilings of the building collapsed." The ministry added in its statement on the Telegram messaging app that a commission is investigating the circumstances of the attack.

REUTERS/Tingshu WangBEIJING/WUHAN, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Some people in China's key cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan braved the cold and a spike in COVID-19 infections to return to regular activity on Monday, confident of a boost to the economy as more recover from infections. But Monday's one new COVID death - flat with the previous day - among China's population of 1.4 billion does not match the experience of other countries after they re-opened. Cumulative deaths in China since Dec. 1 have probably reached 100,000, with infections at 18.6 million, it said. Airfinity expects China's COVID infections to reach their first peak on Jan. 13, with 3.7 million daily infections. China has said it only counts deaths of COVID patients caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure as COVID-related.

☆ China reopening earlier than expected could hit supply chains in the short term, but boost growth in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Jihye Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMainland China's reopening came sooner than expected for investors, and Goldman Sachs warns it will lead to short-term strains in the workforce and supply chains. Positive outlook for GDP, Chinese yuanDespite shorter-term concerns for China's reopening, economists have a rosy outlook for China's growth in the long run. "Improved growth expectations in 2023 might outweigh unfavorable factors such as deterioration in goods and services trade balances," the Goldman Sachs note said. International travel to resumeThe economists at Goldman Sachs said the latest measures will likely benefit the surrounding region's growth as travel normalizes. Travelers with luggage's inside Terminal 1 at the Hong Kong International Airport on December 20, 2022 in Hong Kong, China.

The deal McDonald's struck with former licensee Alexander Govor included a set of requirements the new brand, Vkusno & tochka, must stick to, including restrictions on branding, colour scheme and product usage. New owner Alexander Govor said this week he and the management team regularly talk over video link to the former parent company. "We are not talking about how they somehow participate in our business, this is already done," Vkusno & tochka, which translates to "Tasty & that's it," CEO Oleg Paroev told Reuters. In a statement to Reuters, McDonald's said it fully exited the Russian market earlier this year. Russian authorities in June said McDonald's has an option to buy back its Russia restaurants within 15 years.

Changes continued Monday as authorities announced a deactivation of the “mobile itinerary card” health tracking function planned for the following day. But as the scrapping of parts of the zero-Covid infrastructure come apace, there are questions about how the country’s health system will handle a mass outbreak. Throughout the weekend, some businesses were closed in Beijing, and city streets were largely deserted, as residents either fell ill or feared catching the virus. Covid was “spreading rapidly” driven by highly transmissible Omicron variants in China, a top Covid-19 expert, Zhong Nanshan, said in an interview published by state media Saturday. Authorities recorded 8,626 Covid-19 cases across China on Sunday, down from the previous day’s count of 10,597 and from the high of more than 40,000 daily cases late last month.

☆ China's reopening from Covid won't be a straight path forward
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Hector Retamal | Afp | Getty ImagesBEIJING — As mainland China relaxes many of its stringent Covid controls, analysts point out the country is far from a quick return to a pre-pandemic situation. Mainland China's daily Covid infections, mostly asymptomatic, surged to a record high above 40,000 in late November. Looking ahead, it's pretty clear that China's Covid policy is about to cross a turning point, said Bruce Pang, chief economist and head of research for Greater China at JLL. That means there may be a surge in Covid infections, and China's policy will never go back, Pang said. Goldman Sachs analysts expect China's reopening — defined as a shift away from lockdowns — to come in the second quarter of 2023, according to a separate report on Wednesday.

☆ German architect von Gerkan, who designed Berlin airport, dies at 87
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Meinhard von Gerkan, one of Germany's most famous architects who designed Berlin's Tegel Airport and the capital's main railway station, has died at age 87, his office said on Thursday. A year after graduating from his architecture studies in 1964, von Gerkan founded a partnership with Volkwin Marg, which survives under the name "von Gerkan, Marg und Partner" (gmp). Von Gerkan also designed Berlin's main railway station, which is near the chancellery and within sight of the Reichstag parliament's glass cupola, though he fell out with rail operator Deutsche Bahn, which he said mutilated his design. Von Gerkan said Deutsche Bahn had made the underground hall look like a supermarket when it should have been an undulating, cathedral-like space. In 2008, Bahn and von Gerkan settled their dispute, with the rail operator paying an undisclosed sum to a foundation set up by the architect's office.

☆ EU delays talks on Russian oil price cap until next week, diplomats say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A meeting of European Union government representatives, scheduled for Friday evening to discuss a Group of Seven proposal to cap Russian seaborne oil prices, was canceled, EU diplomats said. On Thursday, European Union governments were split on the level at which to cap Russian oil prices to curb Moscow's ability to pay for its war in Ukraine without causing a global oil supply shock. The EU diplomats, who declined to be identified, said it was not clear how near both sides were to an agreement. "The latest is that Poland, Estonia and Lithuania are trying to outdo each other on their toughness on the price cap," one of the diplomats close to the talks said, adding that Poland wanted to link agreement of the price cap to a new package of sanctions against Russia. "Meanwhile Malta, Greece and Cyprus are in it for the money, whichever way they can get it - through a higher cap, or compensation, etc.

☆ Shanghai cancels auto event as rising COVID cases add to reopening worries
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The rise in cases is testing China's resolve to stick to recent tweaks recently made to its COVID rules, putting pressure on local authorities to stamp outbreaks without one-size-fits-all measures such as mass lockdowns. Chengdu, with 428 cases on Tuesday, became the latest city to announce mass testing from Nov. 23 to Nov. 27. The capital Beijing, where 1,486 cases breached another daily high, was largely a ghost town with malls, restaurants and parks staying shut. RISING CASES, MASS TESTING - AGAINWhile China's infection numbers are low by global standards, the country continues to stick with its outlier zero-COVID approach, fuelling widespread public frustration and inflicting damage on the world's second-largest economy. Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Miral FahmyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/5] The first train from Kyiv to Kherson arrives after Russia's military retreat from the city, at the main train station in Kherson, Ukraine November 19, 2022. Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson from Russian occupation on Nov. 11 in what amounted to another major battlefield setback for Moscow. It had been the only regional capital captured by Russian forces since the Feb. 24 invasion. The event included a performance by Ukrainian rock singer Oleh Skrypka, with passengers in the crowd, including Ukrainian soldiers, singing along. The southeastern city of Mariupol, which was heavily damaged earlier this year and is still occupied by Russian forces, is among the other destinations.

☆ Analysis: Russia's planned Kherson retreat a double-edged sword for Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/2] Civilians evacuated from the Russian-controlled part of Kherson region of Ukraine arrive at a local railway station in the town of Dzhankoi, Crimea November 10, 2022. If it happens, the planned retreat could make life easier for the Russian army, in some respects, and harder for Ukraine. Both men publicly accepted that Russia's position in Kherson had become untenable. Regardless of any potential military upside, retreat would represent a humiliating defeat for Russia's political and military leadership. Kherson is the first and only regional capital Moscow's forces have captured, at great cost, since their Feb. 24 invasion.

☆ North Korea ICBM may have failed in flight, officials say; Japan residents told to shelter
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on March 16, 2022. North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles on Thursday, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that triggered an alert for residents in parts of central and northern Japan to seek shelter. Despite an initial government warning that a missile had overflown Japan, Tokyo later said that was incorrect. Officials in South Korea and Japan said the missile may have been an ICBM, which are North Korea's longest-range weapons, and are designed to carry a nuclear warhead to the other side of the planet. South Korean officials believe the ICBM failed in flight, Yonhap news agency reported, without elaborating.

Seoul, South Korea CNN —The South Korean military said Wednesday North Korea launched the highest number of short-range missiles in a day as Seoul retaliated to Pyongyang’s latest barrage of weapons tests, further escalating tensions in the region. JCS said the South Korean Air Force targeted international waters north of the NLL at an equal distance to that which the North Korean missile had earlier landed south of the line. North Korea is “fully responsible” for the situation as they are the ones continuing to provoke despite warnings, JCS added. South Korea responded to North Korea's barrage of missiles on Wednesday by firing three air-to-surface missiles from F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets. Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that this is not the first time North and South Korea have fired missiles off their respective coasts, and to reflect that North Korea fired a number of missiles of various types and the distance in kilometers from the NLL.

☆ Overcrowded stadium crush kills 11 people in Congolese capital
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KINSHASA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Eleven people were killed on Saturday, including two police officers, in a crush at an overcrowded stadium concert in Kinshasa headlined by Congolese singer Fally Ipupa, the interior minister said. Police have recorded "11 deaths including 10 as a result of suffocation and the crush, and 7 hospitalisations," said Minister Daniel Aselo Okito in a statement. The eventual number of attendees inside the stadium vastly exceeded the number state and private security personnel present could control. In 2020, French police evacuated the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris after people started fires nearby in unrest ahead of a planned Ipupa concert. Reporting by Paul Lorgerie, Justin Makangara and Stanis Bujakera Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ukrainian troops holding out against crazy Russian tactics -Zelenskiy
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 26 (Reuters) - Ukrainian troops are holding out against repeated attacks near two key towns in the eastern Donbas region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, describing the Russian tactics as crazy. Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the Ukrainian-held cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Ukrainian troops say they expect a tough fight there. Separately, Russian-installed authorities in Shakhtarsk, just to the east of Donetsk, said Ukrainian shelling had set ablaze fuel tanks at the town's railway station. Ukrainian forces, some equipped with artillery supplied by the United States and other allies, have methodically shelled Russian fuel and ammunition bases and railway lines.

☆ North, South Korea Fire Warning Shots Along Disputed Western Sea Border
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Dasl Yoon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A screen showing an image of a South Korean navy vessel during a news program, at a railway station in South Korea on Monday. SEOUL—North and South Korea fired warning shots in waters off their west coast early Monday, blaming each other for breaching their de facto maritime border as confrontations between the two countries rise in frequency. The latest exchange of fire comes as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated beyond heated rhetoric, as the two Koreas increasingly engage in tit-for-tat military actions.

☆ Russian officers and medics evacuated from Kherson region leaving inexperienced soldiers to defend the annexed city from advancing Ukrainian forces, says think tank
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"Russia's poorly trained, newly mobilized reservists are very unlikely to stand and resist a Ukrainian counterattack if Ukrainian forces chose to attack them and chase the withdrawing forces," it said. STRINGER/AFP via Getty ImagesKherson, which had a prewar population of 280,000, is the only regional capital to be captured by Russian forces. On Saturday, The UK Ministry of Defense said that Russian forces had built a barge bridge alongside the damaged Antonovskiy bridge in Kherson and forecasted it would become a critical crossing point for retreating Russian forces. The ISW also said that Russian forces are removing patients from the Kakhovka Hospital on the Dnipro's left bank to clear space for anticipated Russian casualties. The reported Russian retreat comes amidst reports of Putin's military faltering in Ukraine, losing momentum, men, and equipment.

BRUSSELS, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Some European Union foreign ministers on Monday called for new sanctions against Iran if Tehran's involvement in Russia's war on Ukraine is proven. Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. "We will look for concrete evidence about the participation (of Iran in the Ukraine war)," Josep Borrell told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, adding Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba would take part in the gathering. Additional EU sanctions on Iran will not be limited to blacklisting some individuals should Tehran's involvement in Russia's war on Ukraine be proven, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said. "Then it will be no longer about some individuals to be sanctioned," he told reporters as he arrived for the EU meeting.

Passengers help a baby wear a mask at the Shanghai railway station in China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, February 9, 2020. REUTERS/Aly SongBEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) - China will enact policies to boost its birth rate, President Xi Jinping said on Sunday, as policymakers worry that an imminent decline in China's population could hurt the world's second-biggest economy. "We will establish a policy system to boost birth rates and pursue a proactive national strategy in response to population ageing," Xi told some 2,300 delegates in a speech opening the once-in-five-year Communist Party Congress in Beijing. Its fertility rate of 1.16 in 2021 was below the 2.1 OECD standard for a stable population and among the lowest in the world. Still, the desire among Chinese women to have children is the lowest in the world, a survey published in February by think-tank YuWa Population Research showed.

☆ Security, red banners and COVID curbs: Beijing readies for 20th Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Eduardo Baptista | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

REUTERS/Thomas PeterBEIJING, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Beijing has stepped up security and COVID curbs and decorated the capital Beijing with red political banners as it gears up for a Communist Party congress where President Xi Jinping is poised to become China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The 20th party congress, which opens on Oct. 16, occurs every five years and brings together 2,300 party members, mostly behind closed doors, at the vast Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square. One hashtag about Beijing "pop-up windows" started on Oct. 5 and generated over 12 million views by Tuesday. A lockdown in Beijing during Congress would be an even larger dent on Xi and the Party's unwavering commitment to zero-COVID. Besides the COVID "pop-up windows", Beijing authorities recently introduced a series of measures to show their commitment to keeping the Congress virus-free, from reinforcing COVID monitoring teams at key airports and railway stations to increasing the frequency of COVID testing for office workers.

☆ Occupied Ukrainian regions to ask Putin to annex them after 'sham' votes
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Russian-installed officials in occupied regions of Ukraine said Wednesday they would ask President Vladimir Putin to incorporate them into Russia, a day after claiming that their residents overwhelmingly supported such a move in Kremlin-orchestrated votes widely viewed as illegitimate. The referendums asking residents whether they wanted the four occupied southern and eastern Ukraine regions to be incorporated into Russia began Sept. 23, often with armed officials going door-to-door collecting votes. Pro-Moscow officials in the eastern Luhansk region and the partially occupied southern region of Zaporizhzhia said they will make the request on Wednesday. Sergey Bobok / AFP - Getty ImagesAuthorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol say Russian rockets and artillery have pounded the city overnight. In the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, which is partially occupied by Moscow, Russian fire killed five people and wounded 10 others over the past 24 hours, said Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

☆ North Korea fires ballistic missile into sea ahead of visit by U.S. VP Kamala Harris
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Visitors to a Seoul railway station watch news about North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch on Sunday, Sept. 25. A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier arrived this week for drills with South Korea, and Kamala Harris is due to visit. Jung Yeon-je | AFP | Getty ImagesNorth Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast on Sunday, ahead of planned military drills by South Korean and U.S. forces involving an aircraft carrier and a visit to the region by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Forces Korea Commander Paul LaCamera discussed the situation and reaffirmed their readiness to respond to any threat or provocation from North Korea, it added. North Korea rejects U.N. resolutions as an infringement of its sovereign right to self defense and space exploration, and has criticized previous joint drills by the United States and South Korea as proof of their hostile policies.

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