Business Archives - Page 25 of 40

AP Exclusive: Full-blown boycott pushed for Beijing Olympics

14Jun

By Desk TeamNo Comments

AP Exclusive: Full-blown boycott pushed for Beijing Olympics

Groups alleging human-rights abuses against minorities in China are calling for a full-blown boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a move likely to ratchet up pressure on the International Olympic Committee, athletes, sponsors and sports federations. A coalition representing Uyghurs, Tibetans, residents of Hong Kong and others issued a statement Monday calling for the boycott, eschewing lesser measures that had been floated like “diplomatic boycotts“ and further negotiations with the IOC or China. “The time for talking with the IOC is over,” Lhadon Tethong of the Tibet Action Institute said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “This cannot be games as usual or business as usual; not for the IOC and not for the international community.” The Beijing Games are set

14Jun

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Govt steps up border patrols

A soldier from the Naresuan task force stands guard on the Thai side of the border with Myanmar in tambon Tha Sai Luad, Mae Sot district, Tak province. (File photo: Nutthawat Wicheanbut) The government on Monday ordered border security agencies to increase their patrols and suppression measures to prevent people entering Thailand illegally and spreading Covid-19 around the country. The order was issued immediately after Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, who oversees national security, finished a virtual meeting with fellow ministers, border provincial governors and senior government officials. The meeting was concerned that the highly-contagious Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa had been detected in the deep South on Saturday. Defence Ministry spokesman Kongcheep T...

Surveillance to increase the productivity of tech employees, forced to work long hours

10Jun

By Grace TsoiNo Comments

Surveillance to increase the productivity of tech employees, forced to work long hours

Beijing, China: In order to bring productivity-enhancing tools into everyday office life of techies in China, a software driven surveillance management and monitoring into their professional lives.Nikki Sun for Nikkei Asia writes that rapid technological development in China's tech industry is accompanied by poor labour regulations, which has created a potential for labour abuse. The big tech companies themselves, locked in cutthroat competition for new business opportunities, are pioneering these technologies and tools in their own operations.Andy Wang, an IT engineer at a Shanghai-based gaming company, said that a surveillance software called DiSanZhiYan, or "Third Eye" was installed on the laptop of every employee to track their screens in real time, recording their chats, browsing act...

Chinese activist who reviled human rights condition in country, put behind the bars.

9Jun

By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Chinese activist who reviled human rights condition in country, put behind the bars.

Beijing, China: Wang Aizhong, a Chinese veteran activist was arrested last month for writing his mind out on twitter. He wrote about the condition of human rights in the country. Whereas he was accused under charges of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’. The veteran activist helped found the Southern Street Movement in Guangzhou 10 years ago, calling for an end to one-party rule, reported South China Morning Post. He has been active on social media, commenting on human rights abuses in China. His online activities brought him attention from the police, who warned him to stay home early last month when he was invited to attend a dinner with a group of private businesspeople in the neighbouring city of Zhongshan. Despite complying with the order, the police raided the dinner

Beekeepers of remote village of Rajouri seeks govt help to market honey

9Jun

By Nectar GanNo Comments

Beekeepers of remote village of Rajouri seeks govt help to market honey

Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir, India: several years ago, villagers of a remote village of Rajouri took up the work of beekeeping to increase their income, but today they are approaching government for the help to market their product.Farmers of the Dandesar village in Rajouri are hoping that the government will assist them in getting access to a suitable platform.The sarpanch of the village, Arshad Mehmood said that villagers have been facing difficulties in selling honey."The villagers have been demanding an increase in markets for selling honey. They work very hard round the year. Some people even produce large quantities of honey but have no place to sell it. Many villagers of Dandesar are poor," Mehmood told ANI.As many as 200 farmers in the village have around 2000 man-made hive boxes, ...

9Jun

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Thai agencies close in on RCEP approval

A file photo shows economic leaders on screen during the 4th RCEP Summit, part of the 37th Asean Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam in November of last year. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact, the world's biggest free trade deal, is making good progress with Singapore and China already submitting their ratifications. According to Auramon Supthaweethum, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, other members are accelerating their internal processes, while three Thai state agencies are revving up issuance of related regulations for submission to the Asean Secretariat by October. The agreement was signed by 15 nations in Asia-Pacific including Thailand last November. It requires ratification from at least nine countries (at least six from Asean and three...

Members accuse teachers’ union of silencing Black and racialized people, union claims rule breaking during meeting

9Jun

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Members accuse teachers’ union of silencing Black and racialized people, union claims rule breaking during meeting

Deborah Buchanan-Walford, a teacher and member of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said she was removed from the union’s annual meeting when she tried to bring up starting a standing committee for dismantling anti-black racism. Four members were removed from the meeting on Sunday for “speaking out against suppressing racialized voices,” Buchanan-Walford said. The annual meeting is held to bring forward motions and vote on issues that affect the members, such as the budget and the union’s constitution. The Star reported on a public petition put out in April calling for the dismantling of anti-Black racism within the union, which has impacted contract negotiations and resulted in a lack of diversity in union leadership. One demand by the petition was a “provincial commi

Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 916 COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths; 550 vaccinated front-line health-care workers invited to attend Game 7 of the Leafs-Canadiens series

8Jun

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 916 COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths; 550 vaccinated front-line health-care workers invited to attend Game 7 of the Leafs-Canadiens series

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Monday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available. 9 p.m. These are the latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 9 p.m Monday. There are 1,381,582 confirmed cases in Canada. Canada: 1,381,582 confirmed cases (33,753 active, 1,322,282 resolved, 25,547 deaths). *The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers. There were 2,118 new cases Monday. The rate of active cases is 88.81 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 18,572 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 2,653. There were 35 new reported deaths Monday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 274 new reported deaths....

Censorship, surveillance and profits: hard bargain for Apple in China

7Jun

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Censorship, surveillance and profits: hard bargain for Apple in China

Censorship, surveillance and profits: hard bargain for Apple in China Apple and China flags fly above the entrance to Apple's new data center in Guiyang, China, on Oct 31, 2020. (NYT photo) GUIYANG, China: On the outskirts of this city in a poor, mountainous province in southwestern China, men in hard hats recently put the finishing touches on a white building a quarter-mile long with few windows and a tall surrounding wall. There was little sign of its purpose, apart from the flags of Apple and China flying out front, side by side. Inside, Apple was preparing to store the personal data of its Chinese customers on computer servers run by a state-owned Chinese firm. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has said the data is safe. But at the data centre in Guiyang, which Apple hoped would

The Latest: DHS says no passport plans, clarifying Mayorkas

6Jun

By Desk TeamNo Comments

The Latest: DHS says no passport plans, clarifying Mayorkas

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security says there won’t be any federal vaccination database nor any mandate that requires people to get a single vaccination credential. It says there are no plans for anything like a U.S. passport. DHS made the announcement Friday seeking to clarify what Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said earlier in response to a question in a TV interview. Mayorkas had said the agency was “taking a very close look” at the possibility of vaccine passports as the coronavirus pandemic eases and Americans begin to travel overseas. A DHS spokesperson says the agency is looking at how to ensure Americans traveling abroad have a quick and easy way to enter other countries. Mayorkas was asked on ABC’s “Good Morning America” if there could be “vaccine passports for trav