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Showing posts from May 12, 2020

Will not pay China for eight million 'substandard' masks: Canadian PM Trudea

The Hindustan Times,  Daily Hunt Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his Government will not pay for nearly eight million substandard medical grade masks that were sourced from China. These N95 masks were part of a consignment of 11 million, of which only one million were found to meet Canadian standards while another 1.6 million are still undergoing testing. During a media briefing, Trudeau was categorical on the Federal Government refusing to pay for substandard personal protective equipment, as he said the country 'will not be paying for masks that do not match the standards and quality we want for our front-line workers.' Link- https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/hindustan%20times-epaper-httimes/will%20not%20pay%20china%20for%20nearly%20eight%20million%20substandard%20masks%20canadian%20pm%20trudeau-newsid-n184027042?s=a&uu=0xc1dc2970f31fbabb&ss=wsp

Trump 'not interested' in reopening US-China trade deal after report of Beijing discontent

Daily Hunt, Hindustan Times,  US President Donald Trump said on Monday he opposed renegotiating the US-China 'Phase 1' trade deal after a Chinese state-run newspaper reported some government advisers in Beijing were urging fresh talks and possibly invalidating the agreement. Trump, who himself has considered abandoning the pact signed in January, told a White House press briefing he wanted to see if Beijing lived up to the deal to massively increase purchases of US goods. 'No, not at all. Not even a little bit,' Trump said when asked if he would entertain the idea of reworking Phase 1. 'I'm not interested. Link- https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/hindustan%20times-epaper-httimes/trump%20not%20interested%20in%20reopening%20uschina%20trade%20deal%20after%20report%20of%20beijing%20discontent-newsid-n184035096?s=a&uu=0xc1dc2970f31fbab b&ss=wsp  

China warns of countermeasures after US tightens visa rules for Chinese journalists

The Hindustan Times, May 11, 2020 China on Monday warned that it will take countermeasures in response to the US decision to tighten visa rules for Chinese journalists, urging Washington to immediately correct its mistakes. The US last week announced it was limiting the visa-period for Chinese journalists to 90 days with the option to extend it. The Chinese foreign ministry said Washington to correct its mistakes against Chinese journalists immediately or it will face countermeasures. Opposing the US move, spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the US was escalating political suppression of Chinese media. It will affect their normal reporting in the US and affect bilateral people-to-people exchanges. “We are resolutely opposed and strongly dissatisfied with this,” Zhao said. “We require the U.S. to immediately correct its mistake, or China will have no choice but to take countermeasures.” Beijing and Washington have been involved in a series of tit-for-tat actions ag

Cluster infection breaks out in China’s Wuhan, raises fears of second wave of Covid-19

The Hindustan Times, May 11, 2020 New cluster infections of Covid-19 have been reported from the pandemic’s first epicentre Wuhan and the northeastern Jilin province in the past 24 hours, the national health commission (NHC) said on Monday. The new cases have triggered fear of a second wave of infections in China, which has been gradually easing to normalcy with risk-levels downgraded across the country in recent weeks. The city of Wuhan in Hubei province reported five new cases on Monday, a day after it confirmed the first Covid-19 case since the first week of April. Since Sunday, Wuhan reported a total of six new cases of Covid-19, all of which are from the same local community, Sanmin neighbourhood in the Dongxihu district of Wuhan, the tabloid Global Times reported on Monday. Emergency response level has been raised in the area from low to medium on Monday and nearly 5,000 residents in the neighbourhood were expected to take nucleic acid tests to screen for the disease.

Covid-19 update: India has 8th highest active cases of coronavirus in the world

The Hindustan Times, May 12, 2020 Coronavirus cases  rise unabated across the globe with over 4 million people infected by the deadly contagion. More than 2.8 lakh people have died due to Covid-19 across the globe while more than 1.5 million patients have recovered from the disease globally. The United States, Spain, Italy, France, the UK, Turkey, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Iran and Russia are some of the top affected countries in the world besides the original Covid-19 epicentre China. India accounts for 13th highest cases of Covid-19 infections globally. However, when it comes to the active number of coronavirus cases, India stands at the 8th spot on the global tally, figures updated by global data tracking website Worldometer shows. The Union Ministry of Health on Tuesday morning updated India’s active Covid-19 cases to 46,008. Peru closely follows India at the 9th spot with respect to the number of active Covid-19 cases. As per Worldometer, the country has 68,822  t

Lower-skilled workers at greater risk of dying due to virus: study

The Hindu, May 11, 2020 Lower skilled workers in parts of Britain appear at greater risk of dying from coronavirus than white collar employees, according to an analysis of official figures published on Monday. The finding by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that construction and manufacturing workers could return to work but recommended office staff still work from home. The move is the first change to a seven-week-old nationwide lockdown introduced to curb the spread of the virus, which the government hopes to introduce in phases. But Opposition parties, unions and business leaders said there was a lack of clarity about the new recommendations — and voiced concerns about the safety of people returning to work. The devolved governments in Scotland and Wales have also said they would keep the lockdown in forcebecause of continued fears about high transmission rates. At least 32,000 deaths Britain has been one

Trade unions may move ILO against labour law changes

The Hindu, May 11, 2020 Ten central trade unions on May 11 said they were considering lodging a complaint with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) against the “anti-worker” changes in the labour laws in some States, which they said was at the “instance of the Central government”. In a joint statement, they said the recent blanket exemption given to establishments from the employer’s obligations under several labour laws for three years by the  Madhya Pradesh  and  Uttar Pradesh  governments was a retrograde and anti-worker move. While the U.P. government had brought an ordinance for this, the M.P. government had reportedly said it would also do the same. The Gujarat government was also  reportedly working on a similar exemption . “As the mass of the working people have been subjected to inhuman sufferings owing to loss of jobs, loss of wages, eviction from residences etc reducing them to hungry non-entities in the process of 45 days lockdown, the government of the