Port-Au-Prince residents sheltering in place as violence escalates
Port-au-Prince, Haiti Reuters Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince was on lockdown on Thursday, as flaming barricades across several neighborhoods forced residents to shelter in place or return home in the latest flare-ups in chronic gang violence plaguing the Caribbean country. Streets were blocked off by burning tires and rocks, sending up huge plumes of black smoke in […]
Chinese authorities seek out COVID protesters
Beijing, ChinaReuters Chinese authorities have begun inquiries into some of the people who gathered at weekend protests against COVID-19 curbs, people who were at the Beijing demonstrations told Reuters, as police remained out in numbers on the city’s streets. Two protesters told Reuters that callers identifying themselves as Beijing police officers asked them to report […]
After two months, a scarred Shanghai’s COVID-19 lockdown ends
Shanghai, ChinaReuters Following two months of frustration, despair and economic loss, Shanghai’s draconian COVID-19 lockdown ended at midnight on Wednesday morning, prompting celebrations tempered with fear that an outbreak could return. Most of Shanghai’s 25 million residents can now freely leave home, return to work, use public transport and drive their cars – a moment […]
Hemmed in by COVID curbs, Beijingers seek respite in urban outdoors
Beijing, ChinaReuters On a hot, sunny day, children and adults splashed in the cool run-off of the Yongding River in a park on the western outskirts of Beijing, a city under near-lockdown in China’s head-on battle with COVID-19. While gatherings are discouraged and many parks in the sprawling city of 22 million are shut, Beijingers […]
Beijing shoppers throng stores as district starts mass testing
Beijing, ChinaReuters Beijing residents snapped up food and other supplies as the city’s biggest district began mass COVID-19 testing of all residents on Monday, prompting fears of a Shanghai-style lockdown after dozens of cases in the capital in recent days. Authorities in Chaoyang, home to 3.45 million people, late on Sunday ordered residents and those […]
Humbled British PM apologises after fine for lockdown birthday bash
London, UKReuters British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised but defied calls to resign on Tuesday after being fined for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules by attending a gathering in his office to celebrate his birthday. Johnson said people had the right to expect better after he, his wife, and his finance minister Rishi Sunak were fined […]
Shanghai scrambles to secure food supplies as COVID lockdown hits
Shanghai, ChinaReuters Residents in the major Chinese financial centre of Shanghai, with 26 million under lockdown, scrambled to secure food on Wednesday, with supermarkets shut and deliveries restricted amid another citywide COVID-19 testing program. The government of the city, which is in the grips of its biggest-ever COVID-19 outbreak, said on Wednesday it would not […]
Hong Kong residents brace for citywide lockdown as leader calls for calm
Hong Kong, ChinaReuters Hong Kong residents braced for a city-wide lockdown, emptying supermarkets and pharmacies on Tuesday, even as leader Carrie Lam called for calm and appealed for the public not to worry over a compulsory mass COVID-19 testing plan. Mass testing for the city’s 7.4 million residents is set to take place over nine […]
Tonga goes into lockdown; COVID cases not at international aid port – official
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Two COVID-19 cases in wharf workers in tsunami-hit Tonga were at a different wharf to that used by foreign naval ships delivering aid, a Tongan official said, as the previously virus-free nation prepares to go into lockdown on Wednesday to stop infections. There have been fears an influx of international ships and planes […]
Explainer: Can vaccines save Bangladesh’s garment sector?
Dhaka, BangladeshThomson Reuters Foundation Save lives or save livelihoods? Bangladesh, the world’s second largest apparel producer, is hoping it can do both as it begins vaccinating its garment workers who make clothes for major brands like H&M, Inditex and Marks and Spencer. A surge in cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant has seen […]