Law enforcement authorities in six different countries have joined forces to take down a “super cartel' of drugs traffickers. Read more here 👉
Live reporting by Emily Mee. Updates from Helen-Ann Smith in ShanghaiAnalysis: Letting Omicron spread unchecked could lead to 1.5 million deaths - but Chinese government faces dilemmaThe Chinese Communist Party has boxed itself into a dilemma: people want an end to draconian zero-COVID restrictions. But easing them could lead to a massive wave of COVID deaths because the country is simply not prepared.
"And I would say China is in a worse situation. Hong Kong has a good health care system, probably had slightly better vaccination rates - so yes it could be pretty grim."It only has 3.6 intensive care beds per 100,000 people – ranking well below other nations. The female protester, who asked not to be named, told AFP news agency that she and five friends who were at the protest in Beijing were interrogated by police via phone call.
She added the officer was mostly"even-toned" during the call, and that she would likely still attend future protests. Chinese embassy tells UK to 'stop meddling' as it defends arrest of BBC journalist "The Chinese side urges British officials to respect facts and the rule of law, stop meddling in Hong Kong-related affairs, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs," it said.
"Passages must remain clear for medical transportation, emergency escapes and rescues," a city official said - but they did not mention the apartment fire in Urumqi that killed 10 people last week. However, the public has become less tolerant of the strict measures as people in some areas have been confined to their homes for up to four months and say they lack reliable access to food and medical supplies.The demonstrations have spread to Hong Kong, where protesters paid tributes to the victims of a fire in China's Urumqi.
Mengyu Dong, a tech and censorship analyst, wrote on Twitter:"Chinese bots are flooding Twitter with *escort ads*, possibly to make it more difficult for Chinese users to access information about the mass protests." A United Nations report this year described an"invasive" surveillance network in Xinjiang, where police databases contain biometric data such as facial and eyeball scans. Particularly unusual are the calls for President Xi to step down - however, disquiet has been growing in recent months as the public loses patience with the government's zero-COVID strategy.
Frustrations have been building for some time over the state's zero-COVID policy - which has been imposed to tackle any outbreaks and has led to long spells of confinement at home for many millions of people.
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