China has relaxed its family planning policy to allow couples to have a maximum of three children after a census showed its population is rapidly ageing, state media Xinhua reported Monday.

For almost 40 years, China enforced a controversial “one-child policy” — one of the strictest family planning regulations worldwide — which was lifted in 2016 due to widespread concerns over an ageing workforce and economic stagnation.

“To actively respond to the ageing of the population … a couple can have three children,” Xinhua said, citing a Monday meeting of China’s elite Politburo leadership committee hosted by President Xi Jinping.

Despite government efforts to encourage childbirths, China’s annual births have continued to plummet to a record low of 12 million in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said last month.

China’s fertility rate stands at 1.3 — below the level needed to maintain a stable population, the bureau revealed.

The once-in-a-decade 2020 census results published last month also showed that China’s population grew at its slowest rate since the 1960s, reaching 1.41 billion.

It comes alongside a sharp drop in the number of working-age people, once again raising fears of a looming demographic crisis.

China’s gender balance has also been skewed by decades of the one-child policy, and a traditional social preference for boys which prompted a generation of sex-selective abortions and abandoned baby girls.

(AFP)

Police in the Peel region near Toronto said on Saturday one person was killed and four were transported to hospitals in the Toronto area “in various conditions” after a shooting.

Police said in a statement on Twitter they had no information on suspects in the shooting, adding that the homicide bureau would take over the investigation. There were no further details.

Local reports said the shooting took place inside Chicken Land, a family-run take-out restaurant in a small strip mall.

(Source: Reuters)

New York prosecutors have convened a grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict former president Donald Trump, suggesting they may have found evidence of a crime, US media reported Tuesday.

The development is the latest step towards the 74-year-old Trump, who left the White House in January, possibly becoming the first ever ex-US leader to face criminal charges.

The grand jury was set up recently and will sit three days a week for six months, reported The Washington Post, citing two unnamed people familiar with the case.

The panel is also hearing several matters unrelated to Trump’s case, the paper added.

ABC also reported the move.

The Washington Post said it suggests that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance may have found evidence of a crime, if not by Trump then somebody close to him.

A spokesman for Vance refused to comment when contacted by AFP.

In the United States, prosecutors typically refer important cases to grand juries made up of citizens who examine the prosecution’s case in secret. They hear evidence and can request additional documents before deciding whether criminal charges should be brought.

Vance and New York state Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, are investigating Trump’s business dealings.

They are probing whether the Trump Organization committed tax evasion, insurance and bank fraud.

Trump denies wrongdoing and has called the investigations “a continuation of the greatest political witch hunt in the history of the United States.”

Vance’s probe initially focused on hush payments made to two women who allege they had affairs with Trump — but the investigation has since been expanded.

Investigators suspect the Trump Organization may have artificially inflated and reduced the value of assets, particularly several properties in New York state, to either get bank loans or reduce their taxes.

Last week, James said her office was investigating the Trump Organization in a “criminal capacity” and was working with Vance’s team.

Vance, who leaves his post at the end of December, acquired eight years of Trump’s tax returns in February after a years-long legal battle that went to the Supreme Court.

Source: AFP

US, UK, Egyptian and UN leaders on Thursday welcomed a ceasefire announced by Israel and Hamas after 11 days of bombing and rocket strikes that killed nearly 250 people.

“I believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress and I’m committed to working towards it,” Biden said at the White House, highlighting Egypt’s role in brokering the truce.

He said he had spoken Thursday with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Biden, who has come under criticism from many within his own Democratic party for not pushing US ally Israel more publicly to call a ceasefire, touted his administration’s “quiet, relentless diplomacy”.

Echoing a line taken by the White House throughout the 11-day conflict, Biden indicated that the US goal, involving “incredible efforts”, was above all to limit the duration of the bloodshed.

The aim was “avoiding the sort of prolonged conflict we’ve seen in previous years”, he said.

Biden referred to the casualties on both sides, and said, “Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy.”

He also pledged US humanitarian aid, while emphasizing that this would be channeled through the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, not Hamas so that the organisation could not “simply restock its military arsenal”.

Biden put particular weight on a pledge to back “Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups.”

In a rejection of some Democratic members of Congress who are pushing to stop an imminent US arms sale to Israel, Biden said he had assured Netanyahu of his “full support” in replenishing the Iron Dome anti-missile system used to shoot down Hamas’ projectiles.

Biden also had notable words of thanks for Sisi, whose authoritarian rule has complicated the long close US-Egyptian relationship.

“I extend my sincere gratitude to President al-Sisi and the senior Egyptian officials who have played such a critical role in this diplomacy,” Biden said.

Sisi reciprocated with a series of tweets thanking Biden for his role in making the Egyptian ceasefire initiative succeed.

Sisi said he and President Biden both saw the urgency of managing the conflict between all parties with diplomacy.

‘Unacceptable cycle of violence’

Britain on Thursday welcomed a ceasefire announced by Israel and Hamas and called on all sides to work to make it durable and “end the unacceptable cycle of violence” in the region.

“All sides must work to make the ceasefire durable and end the unacceptable cycle of violence and loss of civilian life,” UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Twitter, adding that Britain supports “efforts to bring about peace”.

United Nations pleads for ‘real national reconciliation’

The ceasefire was also welcomed at the UN, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres adding a warning.

“I stress that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have a responsibility beyond the restoration of calm to start a serious dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict,” Guterres said.

“Gaza is an integral part of the future Palestinian state and no effort should be spared to bring about real national reconciliation that ends the division.”

UN Middle East Peace Envoy Tor Wennesland wrote on Twitter: “I welcome the ceasefire between #Gaza & #Israel. I extend my deepest condolences to the victims of the violence & their loved ones. I commend #Egypt & #Qatar for the efforts carried out, in close contact w/ the @UN, to help restore calm. The work of building #Palestine can start.”

Israel, Hamas claim victory

Both Israel and Hamas, meanwhile, claimed significant gains from the fighting.

“This is the euphoria of victory,” said Khalil al-Hayya, the second most senior member of Hamas’s political bureau in the Gaza Strip, in a speech to thousands of people celebrating in Gaza City after the ceasefire came into place. He also promised to reconstruct homes destroyed by Israeli air strikes.

Al-Hayya claims Israel failed to destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure, and says the group’s fighters are still “striding proudly” in the underground tunnels.

He did not reveal the terms of the deal.

Separately, another senior Hamas member warned that the group remained ready to take up arms at a moment’s notice.

“It is true the battle ends today but Netanyahu and the whole world should know that our hands are on the trigger and we will continue to grow the capabilities of this resistance,” said Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, in an interview with Reuters.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Twitter that the Gaza offensive had yielded “unprecedented military gains”.

Speaking to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, Gantz said Israel’s defence establishment would “continue to work closely and in full cooperation with the Pentagon and the US administration to stabilise the region”, Gantz’s office said.

Since the fighting began on May 10, health officials in Gaza said 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, had been killed and more than 1,900 wounded in aerial bombardments. Israel said it had killed at least 160 combatants in Gaza.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres laid out his vision for a second term as U.N. chief on Friday, calling for a “surge in diplomacy for peace,” urging the world’s nations to avoid a new type of Cold War, and stressing that in the 21st century everything from the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation and the pushback on human rights is inter-linked.

Guterres is the only candidate in the race so far, and he won support during a three-hour question-and-answer session in the 193-member General Assembly from two major groups — the 120-member Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing nations and the 27-member European Union — as well as smaller groups and individual countries.

In his opening presentation, Guterres painted a grim picture of a world where “more and more people live within their own echo chambers … (and) are lured by misinformation, populism, extremism, xenophobia and racism.” He called it “a kind of post-enlightenment era that has nurtured irrational, even nihilistic belief systems, spreading fear, denying science and truth.” And he reiterated his warning about “the new geostrategic divide and dysfunctional power relations, making international co-operation infinitely more difficult at a time when we need it most.”

Guterres stressed his strong belief in nations working together to solve the world’s crises and conflicts but said multilateralism “depends a lot on the establishment of trust among member states, and on making functional relationship among the biggest powers.”

“If there is no trust among member states and if the relationship among the biggest powers remains dysfunctional, then there’s not much the multilateral system can do,” he said. “If those two things are properly addressed, then I think there is a chance for multilateralism to be more effective.”

While the General Assembly elects the secretary-general, it is on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council where the five permanent members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — have veto power. So their support is crucial.

Before Guterres was elected, the assembly adopted a resolution in 2015 that made the previously largely secretive selection of the secretary-general more open and transparent. It allowed the world body’s member states for the first time to see basic information about all candidates, including their resumes, and to meet and question them at open sessions.

Traditionally, candidates have been nominated by a U.N. member state, but that is not a requirement in the U.N. Charter or the resolution.

Guterres, whose current 5-year term ends on Dec. 31, was nominated by Portugal, his home country. But this year has also seen seven individuals submit applications to be secretary-general without backing from any government including most recently former Ecuadorean president Rosalia Arteaga.

General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir told a news conference on Tuesday “the rule” is that an applicant can only become a candidate when a letter signed jointly by the presidents of the assembly and the Security Council is sent to all member states.

“It looks like the Security Council has the opinion that, traditionally, only applicants supported by a country can become a candidate,” he said, so the only joint letter has been sent on behalf of Guterres. An email request to China, the current council president, seeking comment was not answered.

Arteaga, whose candidacy has been pushed by the global political movement Forward, indicated earlier this week that she would have support from the government of Ecuador.

Source: The Associated Press

Twitter has suspended multiple accounts that were set up to share statements from former US President Donald Trump’s website.

The popular microblogging site said they violated its rules against evading an account ban on the former US President.

A new page was added to Trump’s site on Tuesday, dubbed “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” where he posts messages that can be shared by his audience to both Twitter and Facebook.

“As stated in our ban evasion policy, we’ll take enforcement action on accounts whose apparent intent is to replace or promote content affiliated with a suspended account,” a Twitter spokesman said in a statement.

The suspended accounts linked to the former US President who is permanently banned by Twitter include @DJTDesk, @DJTrumpDesk, @DeskofDJT and @DeskOfTrump1.

Trump was banned from Twitter, where he had more than 88 million followers, and other popular social media platforms after the deadly January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

At least five people, including a Capitol police officer, died after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as Congress attempted to tally the Electoral College vote won by his opponent Joe Biden.

Trump, who gained notoriety for using social media platforms to whip up political violence and indulge in brazen racist rhetoric, became the first American leader to have his social media handles banned.

Twitter has maintained that the ban on the former US President is permanent even if he runs for office again. However, it says users can share content from the Trump page if it does not violate its ban evasion rules.

Pertinently, on Wednesday, Facebook’s oversight board upheld the company’s suspension, giving it six months to decide a proportionate response.

Facebook was among the first to suspend Trump’s account following the January 6 events. The unprecedented decision was later referred to the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body vested with power to reverse Facebook content decisions and set precedent for the company.

Trump adviser Jason Miller had told Fox News in March that he expects the former US president to come out of his social media hibernation with his “own platform”.

Source: Presstv

An armed person was shot by FBI agents Monday after a standoff of several hours at the entry gate to the CIA headquarters, the federal investigation agency said.

The unidentified person was prevented from driving past the initial gate into the CIA’s sprawling wooded compound just outside Washington early Monday afternoon.

Security personnel reportedly tried to negotiate with the person to surrender for several hours.

The FBI said in a statement that the individual “emerged from his vehicle with a weapon and was engaged by law enforcement officers.”

“The subject was wounded and has been transported to a hospital for medical attention.”

Earlier, a CIA spokesperson said they were aware of the situation outside the compound’s secure perimeter, several hundred meters from the agency’s main building.

“Our compound remains secured, and our Security Protective Officers working the incident are the only Agency personnel directly involved,” they said.

Security has grown in recent years at the CIA, which sits in Langley, Virginia just off a busy road.

In 1993, a Pakistani man, Mir Aimal Kansi, shot two agency employees dead and wounded three others as they sat in their cars waiting at a stoplight to enter the compound.

Kansi escaped back to Pakistan and was only found and arrested four years later. He was extradited to the United States, where he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He was executed in 2002.

(AFP)

President Joe Biden declared Wednesday night in his first address to a joint session of Congress that “America is rising anew,” and pointed optimistically to the nation’s emergence from the pandemic as a vital moment to rebuild the U.S. economy and fundamentally transform government roles in American life.

Biden marked his first 100 days in office as the nation pushes out of a menacing mix of crises, making his case before a pared-down gathering of mask-wearing legislators because of pandemic restrictions.

Speaking in highly personal terms while demanding massive structural changes, the president urged a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education to help rebuild an economy devastated by the virus and compete with rising global competitors.

His speech took place in a setting unlike any other presidential address in the familiar venue, with the U.S. Capitol still surrounded by fencing after the building was stormed in January by insurrectionists protesting his election.

The nationally televised ritual of a president standing before Congress for the first time was one of the most watched moments of Biden’s presidency so far, a chance to sell his plans to voters of both parties, even if Republican lawmakers prove resistant.

“America is ready for takeoff. We are working again. Dreaming again. Discovering again. Leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world: There is no quit in America,” Biden said.

“I can report to the nation: America is on the move again,” he said. “Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength.”

This year’s scene at the front of the House chamber had a historic look: For the first time, a female vice president, Kamala Harris, was seated behind the chief executive. And she was next to another woman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both clad in pastel.

The first ovation came as Biden greeted, “Madam Vice President.” He added “No president has ever said those words from this podium, and it’s about time.”

The scene was familiar yet strange, with members of Congress spread out, a sole Supreme Court justice in attendance and many Republicans citing “scheduling conflicts” to stay away.

There was no need for a “designated survivor,” with so many Cabinet members not there, and the chamber was so sparsely populated that individual claps could be heard echoing off the walls.

Biden was upbeat and forceful.

“I have never been more confident or more optimistic about America,” he said. “We have stared into an abyss of insurrection and autocracy — of pandemic and pain — and ‘We the People’ did not flinch.”

He repeatedly hammered home how his plans would put Americans back to work, restoring millions of jobs lost to the virus. He laid out a sweeping proposal for universal preschool, two years of free community college, $225 billion for child care and monthly payments of at least $250 to parents.

His ideas target frailties that were uncovered by the pandemic, and he argues that that economic growth will best come from taxing the rich to help the middle class and the poor.

For Biden, whose moment has been nearly a half century in the making, his speech also provided an update on combating the COVID-19 crisis he was elected to tame, showcasing hundreds of millions of vaccinations and relief checks delivered to help offset the devastation wrought by a virus that has killed more than 573,000 people in the United States.

He also championed his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, a staggering figure to be financed by higher taxes on corporations.

Unimpressed, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said in the Republicans’ designated response that Biden was claiming too much credit in fighting the pandemic and reviving the economy.

“This administration inherited a tide that had already turned,” Scott said. “The coronavirus is on the run.”

Seizing an opportunity born of calamity, Biden has embraced major action over incremental change. But he will be forced to thread a needle between Republicans who cry government overreach and some Democrats who fear he won’t go big enough.

The Democratic president’s strategy is to sidestep polarization and appeal directly to voters. His prime-time speech underscored a trio of central campaign promises: to manage the deadly pandemic, to turn down the tension in Washington in the aftermath of the insurrection and to restore faith in government as an effective force for good.

Biden also was addressing an issue rarely confronted by an American president, namely that in order to compete with autocracies like China, the nation needs “to prove that democracy still works” after his predecessor’s baseless claims of election fraud and the ensuing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

No American politician has more familiarity with the presidential address to Congress than Biden.

He spent three decades in the audience as a senator and eight years as vice president seated behind President Barack Obama during the annual address.

Yet the desire for swift action is born from political necessity. Biden understands that the time for passing his agenda could be perilously short given that presidents’ parties historically lose congressional seats in the midterm elections, less than two years away. The Democrats’ margins are already razor-thin.

He spoke against a backdrop of the weakening but still lethal pandemic, staggering unemployment and a roiling debate about police violence against Blacks.

Biden also used his address to touch on the broader national reckoning over race in America, and to call on Congress to act on prescription drug pricing, gun control and modernizing the nation’s immigration system.

In his first three months in office, Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill — passed without a single GOP vote — and has shepherded direct payments of $1,400 per person to more than 160 million households.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in aid will soon arrive for state and local governments, enough money that overall U.S. growth this year could eclipse 6% — a level not seen since 1984.

Administration officials are betting that it will be enough to bring back all 8.4 million jobs lost to the pandemic by next year.

A significant amount proposed Wednesday would ensure that eligible families receive at least $250 monthly per child through 2025, extending the enhanced tax credit that was part of Biden’s COVID-19 aid.

There would be more than $400 billion for subsidised child care and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.

Another combined $425 billion would go to permanently reduce health insurance premiums for people who receive coverage through the Affordable Care Act, as well a national paid family and medical leave program.

Further spending would be directed toward Pell Grants, historically Black and tribal institutions and allow people to could attend community college tuition-free for two years.

Funding all of this would be a series of tax increases on the wealthy that would raise about $1.5 trillion over a decade.

Biden wants to raise the top tax rate on the most affluent families from 37% to 39.6%. People earning in excess of $1 million a year would see their rate on capital gains — the profits from a sale of a stock or home — nearly double from 20% to 39.6%, which would mean the wealthiest Americans could no longer pay at a lower rate than many families who identify as middle class.

He took aim at a hallmark achievement of the Trump presidency, saying the 2017 tax cuts failed to deliver on Republicans’ promise of strong growth. It was a recognition of how narrow the common ground is between the two parties.

“When you hear someone say that they don’t want to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% and on corporate America – ask them: whose taxes are you going to raise instead, and whose are you going to cut?” Biden said.

Republican lawmakers in Congress so far have balked at the price tags of Biden’s plans, complicating the chances of passage in a deeply divided Washington.

Source: AP

An unarmed Black man was shot by a Virginia sheriff’s deputy who mistook his cordless house phone for a gun, according to authorities who late on Friday released the body camera footage of the incident.

Isaiah Brown, 32, called 911 over a dispute with his brother. The same deputy, who gave him a ride home after his car had broken down, responded to the call made on Wednesday.

Brown was holding the cordless house phone when he was shot by the deputy six times in the abdomen, according to authorities and the footage.

He called 911 to say his brother would not allow him to enter into his mother’s room to retrieve his car keys, according to the audio recording. Brown then says he will kill his brother.

Several minutes into the call, he says he is walking down the road with his house phone, but adds he does not have a gun.

However, in the recordings of the incident, the deputy states that Brown has a “gun to his head.” The deputy demands to see Brown’s hands and drop the gun.

The officer then screams “stop!, stop!” before opening fire. After the shots, the deputy again asks Brown to show his hands and drop the gun.

The officer then begins to perform “live saving measures” on the black man, seen in the video lying in the street.

A spokesperson for the Virginia State Police told CNN that Brown was unarmed at the time of the incident.

“After viewing the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s deputy’s bodycam video and listening to the 911 call, it is evident that the tragic shooting of Isaiah Brown was completely avoidable,” David Haynes, an attorney for Brown’s family, said in a statement.

“The deputy in question made multiple, basic policing errors and violated established protocols,” Haynes said. “The deputy was situated nearly 50 feet from Isaiah, was never threatened and should not have discharged his weapon.”

“Isaiah is now fighting for his life as a result of these completely avoidable errors by the deputy and dispatch,” Haynes said.

The shooting of Brown comes at a time when law enforcement agencies are under increased scrutiny following fatal shootings of African Americans, including 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, and Andrew Brown Jr. in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Fatal attacks on people of color in the US have witnessed a disconcerting surge in recent years, which activists have attributed to former president Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric.

Source: Presstv

Three of seven Catholic clergy who were kidnapped in Haiti earlier this month have been released, a Church spokesman told AFP on Thursday, as the island nation grapples with a rise in violence and ongoing political crisis.

A total of 10 people were abducted in Croix-des-Bouquets, a town northeast of the capital Port-au-Prince, in mid-April, including the seven clergy—five of them Haitian, as well as two French citizens, a priest and a nun.

Father Loudger Mazile, spokesman for the Bishop’s Conference for the island nation, said “the French were not released. There were no lay people among those released.”

“Three of the seven clergy kidnapped on April 11 were released,” he told AFP.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is plagued by insecurity and natural disaster.

Kidnappings for ransom have surged in recent months in Port-au-Prince and other provinces, reflecting the growing influence of armed gangs in the Caribbean nation.

Haiti’s government resigned and a new prime minister was appointed in the wake of the clergy kidnappings, a move President Jovenel Moise said “will make it possible to address the glaring problem of insecurity and continue discussions with a view to reaching the consensus necessary for the political and institutional stability of our country.”

The kidnapped victims were “on their way to the installation of a new parish priest” when they were abducted, Mazile had previously told AFP, with the kidnappers demanding a $1 million ransom for the group.

Authorities suspect an armed gang called “400 Mawozo”—which is active in kidnappings—is behind the abduction, according to a police source.

(AFP)