Stephen Kinnock is a member of Parliament and shadow minister for Asia and the Pacific. He represents the constituency of Aberavon in Wales, which is home to the largest steel production plant in the UK. As MP, Kinnock has often focused on the oversupply of Chinese steel and its impact on UK steelworkers.
Yuan Yang is deputy Beijing bureau chief for the Financial Times (FT), where she has covered technology for the past five years. She was born in China and grew up in the UK, where she read philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Oxford, and later co-founded the nonprofit campaign Rethinking Economics, which advocates for a change in the way economics is taught and practiced globally. She is currently on book leave to write about China’s newfound anxieties over social mobility.
Sherard Cowper-Coles is the group head of public affairs at HSBC and chair of the China Britain Business Council.
US president Joe Biden spoke from the White House today (Aug. 16) about the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan as a result of the US military’s withdrawal after two decades.
Nearly 20 years since the 9/11 terror attack that launched the US’ “forever war,” American troops pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving behind a vacuum that the Taliban is now filling.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body, concluded in a report published today (Aug. 9) that carbon-emitting human activity has caused an unprecedented change in climate patterns whose effects are already being felt, are largely irreversible, and will get worse—the only real question is how much worse.
The head of the World Health Organization shamed rich countries in a press conference today (Aug. 4) for using a disproportionate share of available Covid-19 vaccines while leaving poorer countries in need.
On Aug. 2, Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi, two Chinese cyclists, won Olympic gold in the women’s team sprint.
In Sep. 2004, the Sri Lankan national handball team arrived in Munich to play a series of matches against local players from TSV Wittislingen as part of a tournament organized by the nonprofit Asian-German Sports Exchange Program.
China has a new man in Washington.
The more transmissible delta variant is spreading fast in the US and other parts of the world, mostly among the unvaccinated.
The Tokyo Olympics are officially open.
Good morning, Quartz readers! We apologize that this brief, like the Olympics, was delayed.
On the first day of competition in Tokyo, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the Games of the 35th Olympiad in 2032 to Brisbane.
Helen Glover is a woman of firsts. In 2012, she and her partner Heather Stanning picked up the first-ever gold medal for female British rowers, and the first gold medal for Team GB in its home Games in London. In 2016, they won gold again. Then, Stanning retired, and Glover had three children. Now she is back with another goal in mind: To be the first rower on Team GB to compete in an Olympics after giving birth. She was selected in June and will get her chance next Thursday (July 29) in Tokyo.
The US and some of its allies, including the UK, EU, and NATO, issued statements today (July 19) linking—with varying degrees of forcefulness—a large-scale hack of Microsoft that took place earlier this year to individuals affiliated with China’s government.
US tennis player and team captain Coco Gauff was a favorite to win medals at this summer’s Olympics. But yesterday (July 18), just days before she was set to compete in the first-round women’s singles in Tokyo, Gauff tested positive for Covid-19, and dropped out of the Games. It’s not clear whether Gauff, 17, is vaccinated.
The 2020 Summer Olympics begin later this month in Japan, a year behind schedule, and mired in controversy as the city of Tokyo enters a state of emergency due to rising Covid-19 cases.
The US Department of Commerce added 23 Chinese entities to its blacklist, including 14 it alleges “have enabled Beijing’s campaign of repression, mass detention, and high-technology surveillance” against ethnic and religious minorities in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where the US has accused the Chinese government of committing “genocide and crimes against humanity.”
Li Keqiang, the premier of China, spoke with UK business leaders today (July 6) in a meeting organized by the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC), a network that promotes the interests of British business in China.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced today (July 5) that most restrictions related to the spread of Covid-19 will end in England on July 19, nicknamed “Freedom Day,” as part of the fourth and final stage of the roadmap out of lockdown.
Today (July 1), China’s Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary. For the occasion, Chinese president and party chairman Xi Jinping gave a speech on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, which is translated into English in the transcript below, provided by the party to Nikkei Asia via Xinhua News Agency:
