RISHI SUNAK PROMISES TOUGHER STAND ON CHINA IF ELECTED BRITAIN’S PM

If elected Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak has pledged to get tough on China. The former finance minister on Sunday called the Asian superpower the “number one threat” to domestic and global security. Sunak’s promise comes after his rival in the final two of the race to lead the ruling Conservative party, Liz Truss, accused him of being weak on China and Russia, according to a report by news agency AFP.

Reporting in support of Sunak, China’s state-run Global Times has previously said that he was the only candidate in the contest with “a clear and pragmatic view on developing UK-China ties”.

According to a report by AFP, Sunak’s proposals include the closure of all 30 Confucius Institutes in Britain, preventing the soft-power spread of Chinese influence through culture and language programmes.

He also promised to “kick the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) out of our universities” by forcing higher education establishments to disclose foreign funding of more than Euro 50,000 (USD 60,000) and reviewing research partnerships.

Sunak said that Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 would be used to help combat Chinese espionage, and he would look to build “NATO-style” international co-operation to tackle Chinese threats in cyberspace. The lawmaker also said that he would study the case for banning Chinese acquisitions of key British assets, including strategically sensitive tech firms.

Sunak claimed that China was “stealing” country’s technology and “infiltrating” its universities at home, “propping up” Vladimir Putin abroad by buying Russian oil, as well as attempting to bully neighbours including Taiwan.

Hitting out at China’s global “belt and road” scheme for “saddling developing countries with insurmountable debt”, he said, “They torture, detain and indoctrinate their own people, including in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, in contravention of their human rights. And they have continually rigged the global economy in their favour by suppressing their currency.”

“Enough is enough. For too long, politicians in Britain and across the West have rolled out the red carpet and turned a blind eye to China’s nefarious activity and ambitions.

“I will change this on Day 1 as PM,” he added.

Sunak and Truss are the only two candidates left in the race to 10 Downing Street after a series of eliminations in the last few weeks.

SAUDI ARABIA UNVEILS FUTURISTIC £1TRILLION SKYSCRAPER TO STRETCH 75 MILES ALONG DESERT

Saudi Arabia is planning to build a sideways skyscraper which would stretch to 75 miles and is expected to house five million people. Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman's urban planners have come out with a blueprint for the world's largest structure, which includes two buildings up to 1,600 feet tall running parallel for 75 miles in a line across the coastal, mountain and desert terrain, Wall Street Journal reported.

The project dubbed Mirror Line takes shape from the vision of MBS, as the prince is popularly called, to build a desert-city called Neom. As per a WSJ report, the prince at a private meeting last year told the people working on this project that he wanted to build his own pyramid.

The project has been designed by US-based Morphosis Architects and involves at least nine top-notch design and engineering consultants. The builders have proposed building the Mirror Line in stages by creating 2,600 foot-long structures that will connect along a line.

If completed, the sidescraper will run from the Gulf of Aqaba, bisecting a mountain range that extends along the coast. The mirrored building will continue east through a mountain resort and complex housing Saudi's government, WSJ report cited the planning documents.

To feed the people, vegetables will be autonomously harvested and bundled, then moved into community canteens and co-living kitchens. The residents will have to pay subscription to be served food.

The plan documents have cited that a big challenge for the structure is the shade created, adding that lack of sunlight could be harmful to health. The development also faces a challenge due to the curvature of the earth, the WSJ report said.

According to the plan, a high-speed train will run under the buildings. The Mirror Line project is also planning a sports stadium up to 1,000 feet above the ground and a marina for the yachts that lies underneath an arch in the two parallel buildings.

AFTER PORT HIT, KYIV RESUMES WORK ON GRAIN EXPORTS

Kyiv : Ukraine pressed ahead on Sunday with efforts to restart grain exports from its Black Sea ports under a deal aimed at easing global food shortages but warned deliveries would suffer if Russia’s strike on Odesa was a sign of more to come.

President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Saturday’s attack as “barbarism” that showed Moscow could not be trusted to implement a deal struck just one day earlier with Turkish and UN mediation.

Public broadcaster Suspilne quoted the Ukrainian military as saying after the strike that the missiles did not hit the port’s grain storage area or cause significant damage and Kyiv said preparations to resume grain shipments were ongoing.

Russia said on Sunday its forces had hit a Ukrainian warship and a weapons store in Odesa with missiles.

The deal signed by Moscow and Kyiv on Friday was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough that would help curb soaring global food prices, with UN officials saying it could restore Ukrainian grain shipments to pre-war levels of 5 million tonnes a month.

But Zelensky’s economic advisor warned on Sunday the strike on Odesa signalled that could be out of reach. “Yesterday’s strike indicates that it will definitely not work like that,” Oleh Ustenko told Ukranian television.

He said Ukraine did have the capacity to export 60 million tonnes of grain over the next nine months, but it would take up to 24 months if its ports could not function properly.

As the war entered its sixth month on Sunday there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting. The Ukrainian military reported Russian shelling in the north, south and east, and again referred to Russian operations paving the way for an assault on Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region.

SL PREZ OFFICE TO REOPEN TODAY, WICKREMESINGHE TO LET PROTESTS CONTINUE

Sri Lanka’s besieged presidential office will reopen on Monday, police said, days after anti-government demonstrators were flushed out in a military crackdown that triggered international condemnation.

“The office is ready for reopening from Monday,” said a police official on Sunday, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media. “The siege of the secretariat, which lasted since May 9, has now been lifted. ”

President Ranil Wickremesinghe told diplomats this week that non-violent protests against his government will be allowed to continue, including in the commercial capital Colombo, his office said in a statement on Sunday.

“President Ranil Wickremesinghe has reaffirmed Sri Lanka’s commitment to upholding the rights of peaceful, non-violent assembly,” his office said in a statement, describing a meeting with Colombo-based envoys.

“The diplomats were also briefed on the measures being taken to ensure that non-violent protests were allowed to proceed within the city without endangering property or lives. ”

Western governments, the UN and human rights groups have condemned Wickremesinghe for using violence against unarmed protesters who had announced their intention to vacate the site later on Friday.

Wickremesinghe defended the crackdown and said he had told Colombo-based diplomats on Friday that blocking government buildings was unacceptable.

CHINA LAUNCHES SECOND SPACE STATION MODULE

China on Sunday launched the second of three modules to its permanent space station, in one of the final missions needed to complete the orbiting outpost by year's end.

A live feed on state broadcaster CCTV showed the 23-tonne Wentian (“Quest for the Heavens”) laboratory module launching on the back of China’s most powerful rocket, the Long March 5B, at 2:22 p.m. (0622 GMT) from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan.

Space agency staff, seen on the live feed observing the progress of the launch from a control room, cheered and applauded when the Wentian separated from the rocket about 10 minutes after the launch.

The launch was "a complete success", CCTV reported shortly after.

The Wentian lab module, 17.9 m long, will provide space for experiments, along with the other lab module yet to be launched — Mengtian (“Dreaming of the Heavens”).

Wentian features an airlock cabin that is to be the main exit-entry point for extravehicular activities when the station is completed.

It will also serve as short-term living quarters for astronauts during crew rotations on the station, which is designed for long-term accommodation of just three astronauts.

Mengtian is expected to be launched in October and, like Wentian, is to dock with Tianhe, forming a T-shaped structure.

POPE ARRIVES IN CANADA ON TOUR OF ‘PENANCE’

Edmonton : Pope Francis landed in Canada on Sunday to kick off a five-day trip that will centre around his apology on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for the abuse that indigenous children endured at mostly church-run residential schools. “This is a trip of penance. Let’s say that is its spirit,” the pope told reporters after his flight took off from Rome.

He touched down in Edmonton in the province of Alberta, where he will visit a former residential school and meet with indigenous peoples on Monday. He will depart on Friday. The first full day of his Canadian tour will be dedicated to indigenous peoples and the apology, with a Mass to be held in Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium on Tuesday.

Between1881 and 1996 more than 1,50,000 indigenous kids were separated from their families and brought to residential schools. Many children were starved, beaten and sexually abused in a system that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide”.

EVACUATION ALERT AFTER VOLCANO ERUPTS IN JAPAN

Dozens of people were urged to evacuate their homes after a fiery volcanic eruption in southern Japan on Sunday as the national weather agency issued its top-level alert for the mountain.

Television footage showed red-hot rocks and dark plumes exploding from Sakurajima volcano in Kagoshima.

There were no immediate reports of damage, said deputy chief cabinet secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has instructed the government "to work closely with the local municipality to ensure damage prevention, such as through evacuations," Isozaki told reporters.

The volcano frequently spits out smoke and ash, and is a major tourist attraction.

Sunday's blast propelled large cinders about 2.5 km from the crater, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said, while the smoke reached around 300 m and merged with the clouds.

The agency raised its alert for Sakurajima to level five, the top level, which urges evacuations.

AFTER PROTEST, PAK MISSION REMOVES ‘DISTORTED’ B’DESH FLAG PIX FROM FB

Dhaka : The Pakistan high commission in Dhaka on Sunday removed the controversial cover photo from its Facebook page that used an alleged “distorted” image of Bangladesh’s national flag, following the country’s strong objection. The high commission had recently uploaded a collage of Pakistan’s and Bangladesh’s national flags as the cover photo of its official Facebook page. The collage picture displayed a flag which adds moon and crescent to the original red and green flag of Bangladesh.

At a press meet, foreign minister A K Abdul Momen said objections were raised on the picture of the flags of Bangladesh and Pakistan together on the Facebook page of the Pakistan high commission and it was asked to remove the image. “However, I believe that there is no bad motive behind it,” he said. “The Pakistan high commission removed the distorted image of the Bangladesh flag from its Facebook page at around midday today (Sunday) as we asked them to do so,” a Bangladesh foreign ministry spokesman said.

Several groups like Liberation War fighter’s organisation ‘Bangladesh Muktijuddho Mancha’ and the ‘Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee’ had also protested against the Pakistan high commission for uploading the distorted image, calling it a humiliation of the Bangladesh flag.

Bangladesh, which was known as East Pakistan, got its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

THOUSANDS ORDERED TO FLEE CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE

A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size on Saturday into one of California’s largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.

Evacuation orders were put in effect on Saturday for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span in the sparsely populated, rural area, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.

“Explosive fire behaviour is challenging firefighters,” Cal Fire said in a statement.

By Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures, damaged five others and was threatening 2,000 more structures, Cal Fire said. The blaze prompted numerous road closures.

More than 400 firefighters, along with helicopters, battled the blaze, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest. Hot weather, low humidity and bone dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades was fueling the blaze and challenging fire crews, he added.

N KOREA: US MAKING BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

North Korea accused the US on Sunday of manufacturing biological weapons in Ukraine, echoing a Russian claim dismissed by the UN in March. Moscow ally Pyongyang in February said US policy was the “root cause of the Ukraine crisis”, and this month formally recognised two self-proclaimed pro-Russian separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to cut diplomatic ties with North Korea.