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- JOE MCDONALD
Beijing, China
AP
China said on Tuesday it would take unspecified “necessary measures" after the US Government imposed trade sanctions on 11 companies it says are implicated in human rights abuses in China’s Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang.
The sanctions add to US pressure on Beijing over Xinjiang,
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- A CORRESPONDENT
Jerusalem, Israel
AP
Jordan's Prime Minister says the kingdom would look “positively” on the creation of a binational state that guarantees equal rights to Israelis and Palestinians if Israel's proposed annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank closes the door on a two-state solution.
The international community
Australian Churches Refugees Taskforce seeks assurances people in immigration detention are being kept safe during pandemic
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- David Adams
The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce is seeking reassurances from public health authorities that people held in immigration detention centres in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney are being kept safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to federal Health Minister Greg Hunt and Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly, the taskforce -
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- CHRISTINE MURRAY
Mexico City, Mexico
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Countries should focus on prosecuting human traffickers to stop a surge in exploitation as the economic fallout from coronavirus lockdowns makes more people vulnerable to the crime, a senior European security official said on Tuesday.
Criminal justice has been interrupted globally by
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- COLIN PACKHAM
Sydney, Australia
Reuters
Australia will spend $A16.8 billion to extend its wage subsidies for businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic, as a surge in new infections in the country's southeast threatens to keep the economy in recession.
The six-month extension of the program allays fears a hard end
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- JAN STRUPCZEWSKI and JOHN CHALMERS
Brussels, Belgium
Reuters
European Union leaders agreed on a massive stimulus plan for their coronavirus-blighted economies at a pre-dawn meeting on Tuesday after a fractious summit that lasted almost five days.
Summit chairman Charles Michel tweeted "Deal" shortly after the 27 leaders reached agreement at a 5.15am (0315
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- UMBERTO BACCHI
Milan, Italy
Thomson Reuters Foundation
As countries around the world emerge from coronavirus lockdowns, many are stepping up contact tracing efforts to head off a second wave of infections.
Yet, some mobile apps that were initially touted as a possible game-changer to help contain the virus have had
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- BOB SMIETANA
John Powell, a church planter and pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in New Caney, Texas, was killed in a highway accident Saturday, 18th July, reportedly as he was helping a driver who had stopped in the traffic lanes.
According to television station KXII, a truck driving north on
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- KIERAN GUILBERT
London, UK
Thomson Reuters Foundation
A government taskforce and proposed factory licensing scheme are unlikely to prevent labour abuses in Britain's garment industry without the involvement of trade unions and community groups to help workers, several advocates in the city of Leicester said.
The textile sector in Leicester,
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- VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Moscow, Russia
AP
A Russian court on Monday ordered an influential monk, who has denied the existence of the new coronavirus and urged his followers to ignore government lockdown orders, to pay a fine for fomenting enmity through his sermons.
When contagion engulfed Russia, Father Sergiy declared the
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- JULIE STEENHUYSEN
Chicago, US
Reuters
Early data from trials of three potential COVID-19 vaccines released on Monday, including a closely-watched candidate from Oxford University, increased confidence that a vaccine can train the immune system to recognise and fight the novel coronavirus without serious side effects.
Whether any of these efforts
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- ELANA SCHOR
More than two dozen faith leaders and religious advocates, most progressive-leaning, are warning that a recent draft human rights report from the State Department - which places a particular emphasis on freedom to worship - could “weaken religious freedom itself” by elevating it above other rights.
In
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- A CORRESPONDENT
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- COLIN PACKHAM and SONALI PAUL
Sydney, Australia
Reuters
A surge in COVID-19 cases in Australia's second-biggest city could take weeks to subside despite a lockdown and orders to wear masks, Australia's acting chief medical officer said on Monday as the country braces for a second wave of infection.
Authorities in the state of
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- KIM HARRISBERG
Johannesburg, South Africa
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Heatwaves over the last century in sub-Saharan Africa have not been properly recorded, undermining early warning systems to save lives and prevent economic losses caused by soaring temperatures, a University of Oxford report said last week.
Researchers found the Emergency Events Database
