Daily Archives: July 31, 2022

Issued on: 30/07/2022 - 09:18Modified: 30/07/2022 - 09:16

Hong Kong (AFP) Macau beachgoers were left high and dry as the Chinese gambling hub reopened two beaches on Saturday but banned swimming and water sports, citing coronavirus concerns.

The city is gradually recovering from its most serious outbreak to date, which earlier this month led officials to shutter casinos and most businesses for nearly two weeks.

As temperatures reached 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday, Macau residents were allowed to "enter the beach for walks and relaxation" but officials drew a line in the sand by banning water-based activities.

Beachgoers must "at all times wear masks of the right specification, maintain social distancing, avoid gathering in crowds and refrain from strenuous exercise," the government said.

Families flocked to Macau's Hac Sa beach Saturday morning, with one beachgoer expressing understanding for the restrictions, public broadcaster Teledifusao de Macau reported.

The city on Wednesday reported no new infections for the first time since the outbreak began in mid-June, with a total of just over 1,800 cases recorded during this coronavirus wave.

Macau strictly enforces anti-epidemic regulations, with one wouldbe beachgoer fined 3,000 patacas ($370) last week after driving onto Hac Sa against regulations, according to local media.

Macau adheres to China's zero-Covid policy which quashes outbreaks with strict lockdowns, border controls and social distancing measures.

2022 AFP

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Covid-hit Macau reopens beaches but bans swimming - FRANCE 24 English

Madagascar authorities on Sunday were on the hunt for a gang of cattle rustlers that killed at least 32 people by setting homes on fire in a village north of Antananarivo.

Army helicopters have been deployed to locate the suspects and help ground troops searching the Ankazobe area about 75 kilometres (47 miles) north of the capital, the defence ministry said in a Facebook statement.

The perpetrators must be found and punished according to the law, President Andry Rajoelina said in a social media statement, describing the killings as a massacre.

The Malagasy army is in charge of rescuing the local population and hunting down the outlaws.

Police said 32 people were killed and three injured as a gang of about 12 bandits attacked the village of Ambolotarakely, in Ankazobe, on Friday.

The attackers cattle rustlers, known locally as the dahalo rounded up the victims inside three houses and set the buildings on fire, police said. The three wounded were in intensive care at a local hospital.

Located on a small hill, the village of Ambolotarakely is made up of about a dozen homes with thatched roofs.

Television footage from the scene showed the three houses completely burnt down, with only parts of the walls still standing.

Police said the culprits likely lived in surrounding areas.

The army will do everything possible to arrest the perpetrators of this massacre as soon as possible, Defence MinisterRichard Rakotonirina told local media as he visited Ambolotarakely on Saturday.

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Madagascar hunts gang that killed 32 in burning homes - Macau Business

Saudi Arabias year-on-year economic growth hit nearly 12 percent for the second quarter, led by a surging oil sector, the governments statistics agency said Sunday.

The Middle Easts largest economy has benefited from a spike in oil prices triggered by Russias invasion of Ukraine, and has largely resisted appeals from Western countries to raise output in order to bring prices down.

Growth in the second quarter was 11.8 percent compared to the same period last year, according to initial flash estimates published by the General Authority for Statistics.

This dynamic growth was mainly due to the increasing in oil activities by 23.1 percent, the agency said.

Non-oil economic activities grew by 5.4 percent and government services grew by 2.2 percent compared to the second quarter of 2021, it said.

The Ukraine war and the resulting rise in crude prices has been a boon to oil-producing states like Saudi Arabia, the worlds biggest crude exporter whose gross domestic product is expected to grow by 7.6 percent in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund.

As the war got underway, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates stressed their commitment to the OPEC+ oil alliance, which Riyadh and Moscow lead, underscoring Riyadhs and Abu Dhabis increasing independence from long-standing ally Washington.

US President Joe Biden, who once vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah over human rights abuses, visited the kingdom earlier in July, drawing criticism from human rights activists for greeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump.

Oil was on the agenda during Bidens meeting with Saudi leaders and during a subsequent summit of regional leaders, but the visit ended without any agreements to raise production.

The OPEC+ group is to meet on Wednesday.

The main US contract, West Texas Intermediate crude, surged by more than five percent on Friday to rise back above $100 per barrel.

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Saudi GDP climbs nearly 12% in 2nd quarter on oil gains - Macau Business

Monday marks the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Liberation Army. During that course of time, the PLA has made historical achievements in striving for national independence, peoples liberation and national prosperity and safeguarding world peace and promoting human progress.

Entering the new era, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the PLA has made great strides on the road to building a strong military with Chinese characteristics.

From guarding borders and defending territory to counter-terrorism, from emergency response and disaster relief to helping rural vitalization, the PLA has diligently fulfilled all the missions and tasks it has been called on to undertake and resolutely safeguarded Chinas sovereignty, security and development interests.

At the same time, the PLA has taken an active part in international peacekeeping operations, naval escort missions in Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, international anti-epidemic cooperation, international disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, and provided more and more public security goods to the international community.

With various security challenges emerging one after another, and instability and uncertainties on the rise, the PLA must enhance its awareness of potential dangers and resolutely shoulder its responsibilities.

One of the most pressing challenges is the United States support of the secessionists in Taiwan. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosis proposed visit to the island, if materialized, will constitute a grave violation of Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity and seriously shake the political foundation of the Sino-US relations. The ongoing military drills in the waters near the island and in the South China Sea demonstrates the PLA is fully prepared to thwart any endeavors to split the island from its motherland.

It is the US side that has taken the initiative to try to unilaterally change the status quo of the situation in the Taiwan Straits. And it is the US side that should be held accountable for all possible dire consequences that might have been caused by doing that.

China will do its utmost with utmost sincerity to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. However, the nation is unyieldingly opposed to Taiwan independence. No one should underestimate the PLAs determination and ability to defend the nations territorial integrity.

At the same time, while striving to achieve its centenary goal of becoming a world-class military by 2027, the PLA will continue to be a staunch force committed to maintaining regional stability and promoting world peace.

The country has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order, and the Global Security Initiative that China has proposed, which insists on common, integration, cooperation and sustainable security concept, and calls for dialogue rather than confrontation, and non-aligned, win-win cooperation rather than zero-sum game mentality, can help make up for the peace deficit in the world. It also provides the orientation for the PLA in its efforts to safeguard regional and world peace, security and stability.

Editorial, China Daily

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PLA shows it stands ready to safeguard nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity - Macau Daily Times

No new fever cases were reported in the past 24 hours through 0900 GMT on Friday in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Saturday.

It is the first time that zero fever cases have been reported nationwide since COVID-19 broke out in late April.

Citing information of the state emergency anti-epidemic headquarters, the KCNA said that since late April till Friday evening, 4,772,813 fever cases have been reported across the country with 4,772,535 recoveries and 74 deaths.

The anti-epidemic agency is still intensifying operation and command to stamp out the spread of the malignant epidemic, strengthen liaison, assistance and cooperation between sectors in the anti-epidemic campaign across the country, the report said.

On May 12, the KCNA reported that the Omicron subvariant BA.2 was detected after samples were collected from a group of patients in the capital Pyongyang on May 8, marking the first time that COVID-19 cases had been confirmed in the country.

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No new fever case reported in DPRK - Macau Business

Britains Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher waves to the media on returning to No. 10 Downing Street from Buckingham Palace, in London, May 11, 1980

Two people are running to be Britains next prime minister, but a third presence looms over the contest: Margaret Thatcher.

The late former prime minister dominated Britain in the 1980s, and has left a large and contested legacy. Critics see her as an intransigent ideologue whose free-market policies frayed social bonds and gutted the countrys industrial communities. But for the governing Conservative Party, Thatcher is an icon, an inspiration and the presiding spirit who made Britain fit for the modern era.

In the race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and prime minister, both Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak claim to embody the values of Thatcher, who died in 2013 at 87.

Asked who was Britains greatest prime minister? Both candidates unhesitatingly say Thatcher. Sunak made a key speech in the late leaders hometown of Grantham, declaring himself a proponent of common-sense Thatcherism, while his wife and children took selfies in front of the Iron Ladys bronze statue.

Truss talks about her own modest origins, inviting comparisons to grocers daughter Thatcher, and adopts poses and outfits bold blue dresses, pussy-bow blouses that echo the distinctive style of Britains first female prime minister.

Historian Richard Vinen of Kings College London says Truss is an Instagram Thatcher.

Victoria Honeyman, associate professor of British politics at the University of Leeds, says Thatcher is a talisman for Conservatives. Robert Saunders, a historian of modern Britain at Queen Mary University of London, believes she has become a creature of myth.

Like Thors hammer, Thatchers handbag can bestow godlike powers on those deemed worthy to lift it, Saunders wrote on the Unherd website.

In one sense, the Thatcher fixation is easily explained. She led the Conservatives to three successive election victories and was never defeated at the ballot box. She was eventually brought down like Johnson by her own party, ousted in 1990 after 11 years in power.

Every Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher has failed, said Vinen, author of the book Thatchers Britain.

John Major lost the party power in 1997, and the three leaders after him kept the Tories in opposition. Prime Minister David Cameron gambled on a 2016 referendum that, against his wishes, took Britain out of the European Union. His successor Theresa May was defeated by Brexit infighting, and Johnson has been given the boot by Conservative lawmakers after months of ethics scandals.

Thatchers decade in power, through war and peace, boom and bust, also offers rich pickings for acolytes to choose from. She was a wartime leader who defeated Argentina over the Falkland Islands, a democrat who stood up to the Soviet Union and saw the Cold War end, a union-bashing capitalist who unleashed the power of the financial markets.

You can basically cherry-pick what you want, Honeyman said.

That selective memory is at work when todays Conservatives, who are overwhelmingly pro-Brexit, say Thatcher would have supported the decision to leave the EU. Vinen says its almost sacrilegious to point it out, but Thatcher was actually pro-European for most of her time in office.

Thatchers economic legacy is also contested. Truss and Sunak both claim to be offering Thatcherite economics, but their policies are very different. Truss says she will boost borrowing and cut taxes immediately to ease Britains cost-of-living crisis, while Sunak says its vital to get the countrys soaring inflation rate under control first.

Both can point to decisions Thatcher made in support of their stances, although Vinen thinks Sunaks inflation-busting focus is closer to Thatcher economically.

She (didnt) believe that you can lower tax unless you cut spending, he said.

Britains new leader will be elected by about 180,000 members of the Conservative Party, many of whom regard Thatcher as a heroine. Millions of other British voters remember her differently.

Thatcher privatized state-owned industries, sold off public housing and defeated Britains coal miners after a bitter, year-long strike. Under her leadership, industries shut and millions were thrown out of work, especially in the north of England.

Johnson, whose Conservative hero is Winston Churchill rather than Thatcher, secured a huge election victory in 2019 by winning over voters in northern Englands post-industrial towns who had never considered supporting the Conservatives before.

Honeyman said that Johnsons successor would be wise not to laud Thatcher too loudly if they hope to hang onto those northern districts, where people still talk about the closure of factories and mines and about the impact that that had upon their communities, about the way it fractured peoples lives.

This isnt ancient history for some of these people, she said. This is their lived experience.

Those memories are not so vivid for the 47-year-old Truss, who was a teenager when Thatcher left office. Sunak, now 42, was just 10 years old in 1990.

But 84-year-old Conservative veteran Norman Fowler, who served in Thatchers government and later served as speaker of the House of Lords, warned the candidates against overdoing it with the Iron Lady worship.

I was in her Cabinet, shadow and real, for 15 years, Fowler told Times Radio. Even I wouldnt say that she was perfect in every way. And therefore, the party need not model itself entirely upon her. So I would give it a rest. JILL LAWLESS, LONDON , MDT/AP

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Maggie's legacy: Divisive Thatcher looms over UK Tory race - Macau Daily Times