Author: LoveWorld UK

The United Kingdom will not walk away from the people of Hong Kong if China imposes a national security law which conflicts with Beijing’s international obligations under a 1984 accord, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday. “Hong Kong succeeds because its people are free,” Johnson wrote in The Times. “If China proceeds, this would be in direct conflict with its obligations under the joint declaration, a legally binding treaty registered with the United Nations.” China’s parliament last week approved a decision to create laws for Hong Kong to curb sedition, secession, terrorism and foreign interference. Mainland security and intelligence…

Small crowds at sporting events may be possible in the near future, Australia’s deputy chief medical officer said on Wednesday, citing successful efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus. Australia has not reported a death from the disease for more than a week. It has recorded 102 COVID-19 deaths and almost 7,200 infections. With fewer than 20 cases each day, Australia has allowed professional sport to begin, though no crowds are permitted. Australia’s national cabinet will on Friday meet to discuss how to further ease social distancing restrictions, including potentially allowing small, spaced out crowds at stadiums. “We’re going to…

The new coronavirus is losing its potency and has become much less lethal, a senior Italian doctor said on Sunday. “In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy,” said Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy’s coronavirus contagion. “The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago,” he told RAI television. Italy has the third highest death…

Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Snapchat developer Snap Inc (SNAP.N) became the latest U.S. companies condemning racial inequality in the United States as violent protests flared up across major cities over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis last week. The two tech companies followed Intel Corp (INTC.O), Netflix Inc (NFLX.O), Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google, International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) and Nike Inc (NKE.N) in taking a public stance against Floyd’s death – calling out discrimination against African-Americans. But tech companies such as Facebook and Google for years have struggled to quell…

British lawmakers will form a long queue snaking through parliament on Tuesday to decide whether to ditch the system of remote voting and parliament-by-videoconference that has allowed scrutiny of the government’s coronavirus response. In April, the House of Commons announced changes that allowed its 650 lawmakers to question ministers by video link, and in May the house held its first remote vote – casting aside centuries of tradition in a building known worldwide for adversarial debates and arcane procedures. The system was temporary, and despite functioning as planned, ministers said it should be scrapped when parliament returned on June 2…

President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to use the U.S. military to halt protests over the death of a black man in police custody, before law enforcement officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas to clear demonstrators and allow the president to walk to a church and pose for pictures. But as darkness fell hours after the president’s remarks in the Rose Garden of the White House, violence erupted for a seventh night. Demonstrators set fire to a strip mall in Los Angeles and looted stores in New York City. “Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence…

Britain’s house prices fell by the most in more than 11 years in May as the coronavirus crisis hammered the market, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Tuesday. Nationwide said prices fell by 1.7% last month from April, the biggest monthly decline since February 2009. In annual terms, prices rose by 1.8%, slowing from 3.7% in April. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a monthly fall of 1.0% and an annual rise of 2.8%. Britain’s government relaxed some of its restrictions on the housing market in England in May. Property website Rightmove said on Saturday it had its busiest…

Fashion retailer Primark is working to re-open all its 153 stores in England on June 15, in line with the country’s easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, its owner Associated British Foods said on Monday. All Primark stores were closed over a 12-day period from March 11 as the virus spread, resulting in a loss of sales of about 650 million pounds for every month that all stores were closed. As governments around Europe have begun to ease restrictions Primark has been able to re-open stores in those countries too. Primark is currently trading from 112 stores across Europe and the…

Looting broke out on Sunday in Southern California, a tanker truck drove into marchers in Minneapolis and demonstrators clashed with police in Boston and Washington, D.C. as the United States struggled to contain chaotic protests over race and policing. National Guard troops were deployed in 15 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. as darkness fell in major cities still reeling from five nights of violence and destruction that began with peaceful protests over the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody. “I hate to see my city like this but at the end we need justice,” said 18-year-old…

The Costa Atlantica cruise ship, which docked in southern Japan with over 100 crew members testing positive for COVID-19, has left the country and is en route to the Philippines, local government officials said on Monday. The ship departed Nagasaki on Sunday over a month after it became the second virus-stricken cruise ship to dock in Japan. Lax control on the movement of crew whilst docked highlighted Japan’s patchy response to the pandemic. The 86,000 tonne Costa Atlantica docked for maintenance in late April carrying no passengers and 623 crew, most of whom were eventually quarantined inside the ship after…