Overnight protests against Covid-19 lockdowns continued in China on Sunday, with a rare demonstration in Shanghai and street protests in the north-western city of Lanzhou.
Residents gathered on Saturday night on Shanghai’s Wulumuqi Road for a candlelight vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday, Reuters reported.
In recent months, some people have taken to social media to vent their frustration about lockdowns in China, a policy known as zero Covid, saying they pose more of a danger to life than the now waning virus.
China this month eased its Covid restrictions for people entering the country, reducing quarantine for visitors from 10 days to eight, three days of which can now be spent isolating at home, as opposed to in a government facility, which was the case under the previous rules.
Gita Gopinath, the first deputy managing director at the IMF, last month suggested China should "recalibrate" its zero-Covid policy. Her remarks followed President Xi Jinping's promise to press on with the policy, calling it the "people's war to stop the spread of the virus."
The new rules provided some comfort to foreign investors concerned about the continuing effects of zero Covid, but lockdowns covering entire districts and mass testing remain central pillars of government policy to control the virus.
China is the last country in Asia to follow the “zero-Covid” approach to containing the virus, a policy credited by the International Monetary Fund with initially helping the country "weather the storm" and recover quickly once vaccines were distributed. But the IMF last week said the strategy had likely contributed to a slowdown in growth.
On Thursday, a fire in a residential building killed 10 people in a tower block in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, leading to a wave of public anger due to the belief that residents were locked in at the time due to Covid restrictions. Authorities denied that this was the case.
Last week, a lockdown was extended by authorities in Guangzhou, a city of 19 million, closing down the district of Baiyun. Beijing has also been under lockdown recently, closing down its Chaoyang district.
China reported its fourth straight daily record of 39,791 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday, of which 3,709 were symptomatic and 36,082 asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.
That is compared with 35,183 new cases a day earlier — 3,474 symptomatic and 31,709 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.
There was one new death, compared to none a day earlier, raising the official death toll to 5,233.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (87')
Athletic Bilbao 1
Williams (14')
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
2020 Oscars winners: in numbers
- Parasite – 4
- 1917– 3
- Ford v Ferrari – 2
- Joker – 2
- Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood – 2
- American Factory – 1
- Bombshell – 1
- Hair Love – 1
- Jojo Rabbit – 1
- Judy – 1
- Little Women – 1
- Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl) – 1
- Marriage Story – 1
- Rocketman – 1
- The Neighbors' Window – 1
- Toy Story 4 – 1
RESULTS
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Winner: AF Mouthirah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alajaj, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Hawafez, Connor Beasley, Abubakar Daud
6.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Tair, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Wakeel W’Rsan, Richard Mullen, Jaci Wickham
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m
Winner: Son Of Normandy, Fernando Jara, Ahmad bin Harmash
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE squad
Rohan Mustafa (captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Ghulam Shabber, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Naveed, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan
Lewis Hamilton in 2018
Australia 2nd; Bahrain 3rd; China 4th; Azerbaijan 1st; Spain 1st; Monaco 3rd; Canada 5th; France 1st; Austria DNF; Britain 2nd; Germany 1st; Hungary 1st; Belgium 2nd; Italy 1st; Singapore 1st; Russia 1st; Japan 1st; United States 3rd; Mexico 4th
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
