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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

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  

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...

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....

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 68,82...

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...

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 lockdow...

The Indian Express May, 11, 2020 In these gloomy times, looking for any good news is difficult. But, we can take some satisfaction in the fact that India seems to have contained the mortality rate from  COVID-19  infections at around 3.3 per cent. This is much lower than the global average of about 7 per cent, and lower than that of countries like the US (5.8 per cent),  Spain  (11.6 per cent),  Italy  (13.7 per cent), the UK (15.4 per cent), France (14.7 per cent) and even Germany (4.1 per cent). But, India is certainly not out of the woods yet. The real test will come when the lockdown is lifted. Next to saving lives is the necessity of having food to survive. On the food front too, India has done reasonably well. Despite initial disruptions in supply lines, India has somehow managed to feed its large population of 1.37 billion. There have been no large-scale food riots and no major flaring up of food prices for consumers. In fact, if there is any ...

The Times of India May 11,05,2020 NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has resumed the construction work of its much-delayed Phase IV project and the extension of the Airport Express Line (AEL) and Grey Line (Dwarka-Najafgarh). In the guidelines on lockdown measures announced by the Union home ministry last month, continuation of work on construction projects was allowed where workers are available on site and no workers are required to be brought from outside. DMRC had prepared a detailed standard operating procedure for the resumption of construction work following the guidelines as workers were available at its sites. “At present, DMRC had about 3,500 workers available across five to six different sites in the city including actual work sites of Dhansa, Airport Express Line expansion work in Dwarka as well as sites and casting yards for Phase IV projects,” a DMRC official said. The official said that all guidelines set by the government agencies are being implement...

The Times of India May, 11, 2020 Removing what the industry terms a long-standing hurdle to its growth, the Karnataka government has implemented the amended Land Reforms Act, 1961 which now allows industries to buy land directly from farmers, in a big decision to hasten rebooting of the sector maimed by the lockdown. The industries will still be required to seek permission from the revenue department. It will, however, be deemed approved if the deputy commissioner doesn’t raise red flags or clear the application within 30 days. Earlier, industries could get agricultural land allotted through Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB). The amendment was notified after the governor approved the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2020 that had been okayed by the legislature in March. The April 27 gazette notification repeals the related Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Ordinance 2019. On January 25, CM B S Yediyurappa had said the government would amend Section...