Fundamental Rights / Civil Liberties
Germany at odds with Apple on smartphone coronavirus contact tracing
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany has chosen a home-grown technology for smartphone-based tracing of coronavirus infections, putting it at odds with Apple which has refused on privacy grounds to support the necessary short-range communication on iPhones. FILE PHOTO: People wearing protective face masks use a smartphone on a street amid coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns in Kiev, Ukraine …
Hong Kong police arrest protesters in shopping mall
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong police arrested about a dozen protesters and used pepper spray on Saturday to break up a protest in a shopping mall aimed at disrupting retail businesses near the border with mainland China. Demonstrators have been targeting malls across Hong Kong since earlier this week and more than a hundred protesters, many dressed in …
Huawei urging suppliers to break the law by moving offshore: Ross
(Reuters) – China’s telecoms giant Huawei has been encouraging its suppliers to violate U.S. law by telling them to move operations offshore in a bid to avoid U.S. sanctions, Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross told Reuters on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: An attendee wears a badge strip with the logo of Huawei at the World 5G …
Trump rule on health insurance leaves immigrants, companies scrambling for answers
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nearly a decade after receiving U.S. citizenship, Guatemalan-born Mayra Lopez thought she had cleared all the hurdles for her parents to join her in the United States. FILE PHOTO: Hospital beds in the emergency room of a Louisiana hospital. REUTERS/Lee Celano/Files Then on Oct. 4 U.S. President Donald Trump changed …
In swipe at Trump, China tells U.N. tariffs could plunge world into recession
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Chinese government’s top diplomat said on Friday that tariffs and trade disputes could plunge the world into recession and Beijing was committed to resolving them in a “calm, rational and cooperative manner.” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi addresses the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters …
China tells U.S. to remove ‘black hands’ from Hong Kong
FILE PHOTO: Anti-extradition demonstrators run from tear gas after a march of to call for democratic reforms, in Hong Kong, China July 21, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo BEIJING (Reuters) – China accused U.S. officials on Tuesday of being behind violent protests in Hong Kong and advised them to remove their “black hands” from the territory. …
Risky partner: Top U.S. universities took funds from Chinese firm tied to Xinjiang security
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at least one other university have research partnerships with a Chinese artificial intelligence company that has business ties with police in China’s Xinjiang region, where a sweeping crackdown on Uighurs has drawn international condemnation. FILE PHOTO: The sign at Building 76 at the Massachusetts Institute of …
Under pressure, Biden drifts leftward on abortion, climate change
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Joe Biden Express to the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination went a bit off track this week. FILE PHOTO: Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign stop at the IBEW Local 490 in Concord, New Hampshire, U.S., June 4, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo Since …
