New flashpoint: US issues China travel warning\, bans five exports

New flashpoint: US issues China travel warning, bans five exports

Trump admin warns Americans of 'arbitrary detention and exit bans'

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US China

Agencies  |  Washington/Beijing 

us-china, us, china, america, united states
US also banned cotton, hair products, computer components, and some textiles from China’s Xinjiang province which are made “using forced labour”

The Donald Trump administration issuing a sweeping new advisory warning against travel to mainland China and Hong Kong, citing the risk of “arbitrary detention” and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” It also banned cotton, hair products, computer components, and some textiles from China’s Xinjiang province which are made “using forced labour”.

The travel advisory is likely to heighten tensions between the US and China which have spiked since Beijing’s imposition on Hong Kong of a strict new national security law in June. The new advisory warned US citizens that China imposes “arbitrary detention and exit bans” to compel cooperation with investigations, pressure family members to return to China from abroad, influence civil disputes and “gain bargaining leverage over foreign governments.”

Earlier, the US government banned the import of select goods from China, alleging that they are produced in forced labour camps in the restive Muslim-majority Xinjiang province.

China’s foreign ministry said the import ban on some products from Xinjiang region was sabotaging global supply chains.

Read our full coverage on US China
First Published: Wed, September 16 2020. 02:06 IST
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New flashpoint: US issues China travel warning\, bans five exports

Palestinians Fire Rockets Into Israel, Wounding Two, During White House Ceremony
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Palestinians Fire Rockets Into Israel, Wounding Two, During White House Ceremony

Palestinians Fire Rockets Into Israel, Wounding Two, During White House Ceremony

Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza into Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, at same time as Israel and two Gulf Arab states signed normalisation agreements at the White House in Washington.

  • Last Updated: September 16, 2020, 12:36 AM IST

JERUSALEM: Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza into Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, at same time as Israel and two Gulf Arab states signed normalisation agreements at the White House in Washington.

Warning sirens sounded in the coastal cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump met the foreign ministers of United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House.

Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said paramedics treated two men for light injuries from flying glass in Ashdod, and four others suffered shock.

An Israeli military spokesman said the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted one of two rockets fired from Gaza.

In Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, dozens of Palestinians rallied outside a U.N. office to condemn the normalisation deals shortly before the signing ceremony began.

“Palestine isn’t for sale,” protesters chanted.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the Bahrain and UAE agreements would not bring Israel peace in the region.

“Peoples of the region will continue to deal with this occupation as their true enemy,” he told Reuters, speaking from Turkey. Hamas did not claim responsibility for the rockets.

In Ramallah in the occupied West Bank there was a small, muted protest at which 200 people gathered in a central square.

Some carried a banner reading: “The UAE-Israeli normalization agreement is a reward for the state of occupation and for settlements, and is a stab in the back of Jerusalem and of Palestine.”

The normalisation agreements are the first signed between Israel and Arab states since the peace accords with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

However, they breach what had been a long-standing Arab consensus that normalisation of ties with Israel should only come after the creation of an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the occupied West Bank with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians see that aspiration as badly damaged by the new agreements.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

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New flashpoint: US issues China travel warning\, bans five exports

German Politicians Give Green Light For More Fans To Return
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German Politicians Give Green Light For More Fans To Return

German Politicians Give Green Light For More Fans To Return

More Bundesliga clubs will be able to start the season in front of fans this weekend after a deal was struck at a meeting of German politicians.

  • Last Updated: September 16, 2020, 12:39 AM IST

BERLIN: More Bundesliga clubs will be able to start the season in front of fans this weekend after a deal was struck at a meeting of German politicians.

Borussia Dortmund said it would now plan to have 10,000 season-ticket holders in the stadium for its first league game of the season Saturday against Borussia Mnchengladbach. Cologne said it’s aiming for 9,200 fans against Hoffenheim the same day.

There was no immediate announcement from champion Bayern Munich about the opening game of the new Bundesliga season Friday against Schalke. Bayern has been trialing plans to welcome back spectators at reduced capacity with social distancing, though the city of Munich has a comparatively high rate of new coronavirus cases.

A conference of politicians from state governments agreed that stadiums can operate at up to 20 percent of normal capacity for a six-week trial period, the dpa news agency reported, citing unidentified participants. Similar rules will reportedly be in effect for other team sports.

The German federal system puts wide-ranging powers over health regulations in the hands of local officials. In soccer, that created a confusing patchwork of regulations. Some Bundesliga teams including Leipzig and Werder Bremen were already allowed thousands of fans and others none.

The coronavirus pandemic and the loss of ticket income has shaken German sports’ finances. Soccer clubs have held onto TV income, though several have cut costs and asked players to take temporary wage cuts earlier this year. Other sports such as ice hockey and basketball have been hit even harder because rely more heavily on game-day revenue.

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