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BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s Communist Party has defied the odds to retain firm control of power for 70 years, adapting to a changing world to outlast its comrades in the Soviet Union. As the People’s Republic of China celebrates its anniversary on Tuesday, here is a look at how the party has evolved over the years. Turbulent decades For almost three decades, China had its own style of rule: Maoism. Under the […]
by Laurent Thomet and Helen Roxburgh BEIJING, China (AFP) — China celebrates 70 years of Communist Party supremacy Tuesday with a parade of tanks, missiles and troops, a muscular display of its rising superpower status even as it faces an unprecedented challenge to its authority in seething Hong Kong. Authorities in Beijing have closed roads, banned the flying of kites, and shut some bars as they tightened security for an event celebrating China’s journey […]
by Jerome Cartillier and Chris Lefkow WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump attacked the Democratic lawmaker spearheading the impeachment inquiry on Monday as congressional committees subpoenaed his personal lawyer, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, for documents related to his dealings with Ukraine. As Trump lashed out at Democratic congressman Adam Schiff, suggesting he should be arrested for “treason,” a new poll showed a growing number of Americans support removing the president […]
by Sean Chang TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Communist China’s creation seven decades ago irrevocably changed Taiwan, but Beijing’s huge celebrations this week will be met with a collective shrug on an island where people increasingly see themselves as distinct from the mainland. After the People’s Republic of China was declared on 1 October 1949, its rival, the Republic of China, set up in Taiwan — the island Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated nationalists fled to and […]
by Emma Charlton WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he wants and deserves to meet the anonymous whistleblower at the center of the fast-moving scandal that has triggered an impeachment probe against him. The whistleblower, who could testify soon before Congress, fears for their safety if their identity is revealed, according to a lawyers’ letter released by CBS News. Battling the deepest crisis of his presidency, Trump in […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Russia on Friday urged the United States not to publish Donald Trump’s conversations with Vladimir Putin after a growing scandal led the White House to release a transcript from a call with Ukraine’s leader. “As for transcripts of phone conversations, my mother when bringing me up said that reading other people’s letters is inappropriate,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters at the United Nations. “It is indecent,” […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook will not fact-check the statements politicians post to the site, the social network announced Tuesday ahead of the US 2020 elections, even as it works to discredit false information meant to manipulate public opinion. While the social network relies on third-party fact-checkers, including news organizations such as AFP, to help it discredit viral misinformation, it will stop short of wading into the veracity of political claims. “We don’t […]
by Jerome TAYLOR / Yan ZHAO Agence France Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Riot police and protesters in Hong Kong fought brief skirmishes near the Chinese border on Saturday, the latest clashes during huge pro-democracy protests that have battered the financial hub for more than three months. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at small groups of hardcore activists who had built barricades in the outlying town of Tuen Mun, some of […]
by Sebastian Smith Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Wednesday named his pointman for hostage situations, Robert O’Brien, to replace his hawkish national security advisor sacked just as relations with Iran are entering a new crisis point. Trump made the announcement by Twitter and later appeared with O’Brien in front of reporters while traveling in California, where he said his new foreign policy aide was “highly respected.” […]
by Jerome TAYLOR Agence France Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Fights erupted in Hong Kong on Saturday with political rivals trading blows in a mall and Beijing supporters using Chinese flags to assault opponents on a street, deepening the city’s polarisation after months of pro-democracy protests. The once-stable international hub has been convulsed by weeks of huge, sometimes violent rallies calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability. The movement is the biggest […]
by Luis Jaime CISNEROS Agence France Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s Supreme Court on Thursday halved the pre-trial detention of Keiko Fujimori, paving the way for the opposition leader to leave jail in April of next year. Fujimori, 44, was ordered held for 36 months last October in a corruption case linked to Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Fujimori, who is detained at a women’s prison south of the capital Lima, had petitioned the […]
by Hiroshi Hiyama TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s Shinzo Abe on Wednesday appointed new foreign and defence ministers and promoted a popular rising political star, in a cabinet reshuffle that fuelled speculation over the prime minister’s successor. The spectacular appointment as environment minister of the telegenic Shinjiro Koizumi, the 38-year-old son of much-loved former PM Junichiro Koizumi, set tongues wagging in Tokyo political classes as the Abe era draws to a close. “Abe intends to […]
