According to a new Right-to-Privacy Index (RPI), Asia has become the world’s worst region for mass surveillance privacy violations, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports. Published by British-based risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, the RPI cites Pakistan, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, India and the Philippines as among the worst offenders.
A Christian aid group urged churches Wednesday to join the November 3 ‘International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church’ amid “genocide” and other attacks faced by believers.
Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden were in a verbal war as they debated issues ranging from Trump’s leadership on the coronavirus outbreak to deadly riots, job losses, and how the Supreme Court will impact the nation’s future.
The pastor of a house church in China’s southern Fujian province was summoned to appear in court earlier this month because he and his wife have chosen to home-school their children, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. According to ICC, the Chinese government is not only continuing its crack-down on churches but is now also impeding parents from home-schooling their children.
China’s recent takeover of Hong Kong is raising fears Taiwan is the next target in Beijing’s aggressive push for regional control, said White House National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien.
China’s network of detention centers in Xinjiang, where Muslim minorities are allegedly being subjected to acts of repression, appears to be expanding — and a greater number of the facilities are resembling prisons, an Australian think tank says.
China is using the prospect of access to technology related to a nuclear weapons program to lure American allies into Beijing’s geopolitical orbit, U.S. officials and lawmakers fear.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in a years-long effort to infiltrate state and local governments across the U.S. as part of its ongoing espionage effort that continues to intensify.
Russia and China this week kicked off a large-scale military exercise in southern Russia along with troops from several other countries – including Iran – at a time when all three countries’ relations with the United States are chilly.
The Senate Republicans’ controversial report on Joe and Hunter Biden was released on Wednesday, detailing allegations of problematic foreign business dealings by Biden’s son as the former vice president helped lead the Obama administration’s foreign policy. The report also pushes back on Democratic claims of Russian disinformation.
President Trump will impose sanctions on China if Beijing authorizes arms sales to Iran following his move to dismantle the 2015 nuclear deal and renew international sanctions on Tehran.
The Trump administration announced Monday that its sanctions on Chinese companies which use Muslim Uighur slave labor could affect up to $250 million worth of goods that come from the Xinjiang region of China, the Western Journal reports.
In a reflection of the COVID-19 crisis and ensuing governmental measures, Global debt/GDP skyrocketed to an all-time high in the first quarter of 2020, Zero Hedge reports. Overall debt for the non-financial sector has jumped from 241% of global GDP at the end of 2019 to 252% of global GDP now. This is the biggest jump ever recorded by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
President Trump announced plans to bolster pharmaceutical manufacturing in Puerto Rico from China, touting the help he has given the island and pointing to Democratic nominee Joe Biden for its economic woes.
Saudia Arabia has reportedly enough mineable uranium ore reserves to produce nuclear fuel, raising fears of a possible nuclear arms race with regional rival Iran.
Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has spoken to the United Nations Human Rights Council despite Belarussian efforts to prevent her and other critics from giving speeches. During Friday’s turbulent session of the Geneva-based U.N. body, she demanded that the country’s authorities end violence against protestors and organize a free and fair presidential election.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense has announced it is deploying additional troops to the nation’s eastern border with China because it says there are rising tensions in the wider Asia-Pacific region, the Epoch Times reports. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the announcement on the ministry website on Thursday, but did not specify the nature of the new threats or where the additional troops would be stationed.
As the US believes Iran has continued to develop nuclear weapons, and as the United Nations arms embargo on Iran expires next month, the State Department announced Wednesday that it is pressing forward with “snap back” sanctions that are provided for under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran Nuclear deal, Fox News reports. Under the terms of the JCPoA, snapback sanctions can be re-imposed if Iran is perceived to be violating the terms of the agreement. However, as the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPoA in 2018, UNSC members Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia have unequivocally stated the US has no authority to unilaterally enforce snapback sanctions once the current embargo is lifted on October 18.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said intellectual property theft campaigns against the United States by the Chinese government, including economic espionage aimed at U.S. government-funded research, has the “perverse effect” of U.S. taxpayers funding China’s rise.
The FBI is opening a new counterintelligence probe of Chinese-linked threats “every 10 hours,” bureau Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Thursday, underscoring the threat Beijing poses to U.S. interests.