Politics

Beijing’s city government reviewed a new anti-drug bill tightening oversight of celebrity drug use on Wednesday, the country’s latest attempt to codify its unspoken practice of banning entertainers with drug history. The bill was discussed at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the municipal People’s Congress, the city’s top legislative body. China’s congresses are

China’s internet regulator has launched a hotline for citizens to report online comments that defame the ruling Communist Party and its approved description of history ahead of the Party’s upcoming 100th anniversary. The new hotline will enable internet users to stop the spread of “mistaken opinions” and create a “good public opinion atmosphere” to pave

Stacey Abrams has set the record straight: she was not offered a position in the Biden White House, nor has she made a decision about her next political campaign. “I know there’s a governor’s race coming up, but I’m working on making sure we have democracy in Georgia,” she said Friday during “Women in Focus:

Britain is slowly coming to terms with the death of Prince Philip on Friday, with major figures extending condolences and Britons reflecting on the royal consort’s enduring legacy. Married to Queen Elizabeth II for 73 years, the prince had been in and out of hospital in recent years with ill health, and retired from public

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband to Queen Elizabeth II, has died. He was 99. Buckingham Palace confirmed the death of the prince, who was married to the Queen for more than 70 years, on Friday afternoon local time. “It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her

China is set to host the winter Olympics in February, but the extent of American involvement is on shaky ground. There’s plenty of precedent for Olympic-scale strife — in 1980 and 1984, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. engaged in respective boycotts of each other’s Olympics — but this Cold War is raising complicated questions for a

Paing Takhon, a prominent model and actor in Myanmar who has opposed the recent military coup, was arrested on Thursday. He is one of over 100 celebrities being sought by the military junta. “Some 50 soldiers with eight military trucks,” came to arrest him, his sister Thi Thi Lwin posted on Facebook. “As he’s seriously

Olympic champion and former reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner is exploring the idea to run for governor in California. The announcement, first reported by Axios, comes as current Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a recall election. General GOP dislike of Newsom heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of the state’s strict restrictions on the

California officials are eyeing June 15 as the day to fully reopen the economy and lose the four-color tiered system that has guided the state’s reopening process during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, state officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and health and human services secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, urge that life will not completely revert back

The Supreme Court has vacated a ruling that held that former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was a public forum, and that therefore under the First Amendment he could not block people from responding to his tweets. The court held that the dispute — involving a former president’s now-banned social media account — is moot,

Every cinema in China must schedule and actively promote at least two screenings of propaganda films per week beginning this week until the end of the year, Chinese authorities have declared, announcing the first batch of eligible titles Friday. Theaters that are part of the National Alliance of Arthouse Cinemas or the “People’s Cinema” circuit

Facebook has removed an interview between Donald Trump and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, from the latter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, with the social-media giant citing its suspension of the former president. On Jan. 7, the day after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol, Facebook said it was suspending Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely.

John Sudworth, China correspondent for the BBC, has left the Chinese mainland and relocated to Taiwan. His move follows mounting East-West tension over Xinjiang and Hong Kong and accusations that the BBC in particular has defamed China. Sudworth’s move was announced Wednesday by the BBC in a Twitter message. “Our correspondent John Sudworth has relocated

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New Yorkers ages 30 and up will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine starting Tuesday, and people ages 16 and up can get it starting April 6. The announcement on Monday came just a few days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom officially stated that Californians ages 50 and older

In the year that Hong Kong has achieved an Academy Awards nomination for “Better Days,” the territory’s leading free-to-air TV network Television Broadcasts (TVB) will be dropping television coverage of the Oscars ceremony. The network Monday confirmed that it did not have rights to broadcast the show this year. “It was purely a commercial decision,”

The deaths of at least 114 people on Saturday has put the crisis in Myanmar back on the front pages of media around the world. But the country’s government is trying hard to prevent such coverage. The country’s military seized power on Feb. 1 in a coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi

In Hong Kong, where unsmiling mainland Chinese authorities have asserted their “comprehensive jurisdiction,” satire has become a dangerous form of humor. But at least one new satirical segment is soon set to brave the Special Administrative Region’s airwaves. From next month, activist and broadcaster James Ockenden is launching “The Alphard Wars” on RTHK. The pitch

Hundreds gathered in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood to march in support of the #StopAsianHate movement. Among them was journalist Lisa Ling. “We have been rounded up and put in camps,” Ling said during the unity rally, which took place at the Normandie Avenue and Olympic Boulevard intersection. “We have been attacked, and we have been

Thursday’s congressional hearing on “Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” — which again hauled the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google before U.S. lawmakers — was predictably long (running more than 5 hours) and predictably heavy on political posturing and theatrics as both Democrats and Republicans blasted the execs for their companies’ perceived

President Joe Biden held his first televised news conference Thursday with a limited amount of journalists, starting off with the good news on America’s progress with COVID-19 vaccinations. “By my one-hundredth day in office, we will have administered 200 million shots in people’s arms. It’s ambitious, and no other country has done it,” Biden said

Despite extensive news reporting about China’s secretive “re-education” camps in the Xinjiang region, it is difficult to imagine what it’s like for more than a million Uyghur, Kazakh and other minorities detained inside. A new film aims to put you in their shoes — almost literally — with the help of virtual reality technology. “Reeducated,”

The Mail on Sunday won’t have to print a statement from Meghan Markle on its front page just yet, despite being ordered to do so by a U.K. court. Markle had sued Associated Newspapers, publishers of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, for publishing articles that in 2018 reproduced parts of a letter she had

Donald Trump may no longer be POTUS, but his opinions remain as trenchant as ever. In an interview with Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe that launches her new podcast, the former U.S. president held forth on a number of matters. On the subject of the U.S. presidential elections, which he lost, Trump said: “We did

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have spoken up following a website’s claims that U.K. tabloid The Sun paid a private investigator to dig into her life. The Sun U.S. hired private investigator Dan Hanks to obtain information about Markle, and her father Thomas, in 2016, shortly after she started dating Prince Harry, according to a

The house arrest of two members of Russian feminist protest group Pussy Riot, Maria Alekhina and Lucy Shtein, is likely to be extended by a few months, with their case coming up for hearing Thursday and Friday. The pair are accused of calling for a rally in support of political prisoners through posts on Instagram

Tensions between China and the U.K. flared this week after Beijing summoned Britain’s ambassador to China to chastize her for an article she wrote defending the role of independent foreign press in the country. The latest tussle comes amid a backdrop of strain between the countries over matters such as human rights abuses in Xinjiang,

President Joe Biden will direct states to expand vaccine eligibility to all adults by May 1, the White House announced Thursday in a preview of Biden’s first primetime address. Biden is scheduled to speak from the East Room of the White House at 8 p.m. ET. Earlier on Thursday, he signed the $1.9 trillion COVID

The Senate has narrowly passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package with a 50-49 vote down party lines, after the House of Representatives approved the bill on Feb. 27. The long-awaited relief package includes $1,400 stimulus checks for those making less than $75,000 annually and a $20 billion vaccination plan, as well as direct aid

China’s top law-making body will consider this week a popular proposition to ban actors who have used drugs from entertainment industry for life at its annual weeklong meeting, which kicked off Friday. The National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber stamp parliament, counts some 3,000 professionals from across the country as delegates, including directors Jia Zhangke,

China on Friday said it would revamp Hong Kong’s electoral system to tighten its grip on the city, a strong move against the region’s democratic governance and freedoms that has incited backlash from critics abroad. Beijing’s rubberstamp parliament, known as the National People’s Congress (NPC), convened for the first day of its annual week-long meetings