PROTESTS ACROSS CHINA, AS ANGER MOUNTS OVER ZERO-COVID POLICY

Shanghai/Beijing : Hundreds of demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night as protests over China’s stringent Covid restrictions flared for a third day and spread to several cities in the wake of a deadly apartment fire in the country’s far west. The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China since President Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago, as frustration mounts over his zero-Covid policy.

In Shanghai, police using pepper spray drove away demonstrators who called for Xi to step down and an end to oneparty rule, but hours later people rallied again in the same spot. Police again broke up the demonstration, and a reporter saw protesters under arrest being driven away in a bus. In a video of the protest in Shanghai verified by AP, chants sounded loud and clear: “Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!” The atmosphere of the protest encouraged people to speak about topics considered taboo, including the 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen Square prodemocracy protests, an unnamed protester said.

A large crowd gathered in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, according to videos on social media, where they also held up blank sheets of paper and chanted: “We don’t want lifelong rulers. We don’t want emperors,” a reference to Xi, who has scrapped presidential term limits. In the central city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began three years ago, videos on social media showed hundreds of residents take to the streets, smashing through metal barricades, overturning Covid testing tents and demanding an end to lockdowns. Other cities that have seen public dissent include Lanzhou in the northwest, where residents on Saturday overturned Covid staff tents and smashed testing booths, posts on social media showed. Protesters said they were put under lockdown even though no one had tested positive.

At Beijing’s Tsinghua University on Sunday, dozens of people held a peaceful protest against Covid restrictions during which they sang the national anthem, according to images and videos posted on social media.

Videos on social media also showed a mass vigil at Nanjing Institute of Communications, with people holding lights and white sheets of paper. Videos from campuses in Xi’an, Guangzhou and Wuhan showing similar protests also spread on social media. China’s case numbers have hit record highs for days, with nearly 40,000 new infections on Saturday.

KHAMENEI NIECE SLAMS IRAN REGIME, ARRESTED

Iranian authorities have arrested a niece of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after she recorded a video describing the authorities led by her uncle as a “murderous and child-killing regime”.

Farideh Moradkhani comes from a branch of the family that has a record of opposition to Iran’s clerical leadership and has herself been jailed previously in the country.

Her brother, Mahmoud Moradkhani, wrote on Twitter that she was arrested on Wednesday after going to the office of the prosecutor following a summons. Then on Saturday her brother posted a video on YouTube, with the link shared on Twitter, where she condemned the “clear and obvious oppression” Iranians have been subjected to, and criticised the international community’s inaction.

“Free people, be with us! Tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime,” she said.

Ms. Moradkhani is the daughter of Khamenei’s sister Badri who fell out with her family in the 1980s and fled to Iraq at the peak of the war with Iran’s neighbour. She joined her husband, the dissident cleric Ali Tehrani who was born Ali Moradkhani Arangeh.

Meanwhile, an Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi, who expressed support for the protests has been charged with “corruption on earth” and could face the death penalty, judicial authorities said.

In another incident, an Iranian bank manager who served an unveiled woman has been fired, media reported on Sunday. Mehr news agency reported that the bank manager in Qom province, “had provided bank services on Thursday to an unveiled woman”. As a result he was “removed from his position by order of the governor”, Mehr quoted deputy governor Ahmad Hajizadeh as saying.

WORLD CUP 2022: CLASHES IN BRUSSELS AFTER MOROCCO BEAT BELGIUM

Police used water cannon and tear gas to deal with unrest in the centre of Brussels on Sunday following Morocco's 2-0 World Cup win over Belgium in Qatar.

Dozens of football fans smashed shop windows, threw fireworks and torched vehicles.

Police said that around 11 people had been arrested.

DID NOT ATTEND INDIAN OCEAN MEET HELD BY CHINA, SAY AUSTRALIA, MALDIVES OFFICIALS

Australia and the Maldives said on Sunday that they did not participate in the recently held Indian Ocean Region Forum convened by China, which the organisers had claimed brought together representatives from 19 countries in the region, except for India.

Both countries clarified there was no official representation at the China-backed forum.

According to a statement from the organisers, the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), which is Beijing’s new development aid agency, the forum in Kunming had brought together “high-level representatives” from 19 countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Oman, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Djibouti, and Australia.

No representative from India was invited for the meeting.

‘No govt. presence’

The Maldives Foreign Ministry in a statement said it had noted the CIDCA statement and would “like to clarify that the Government of Maldives did not participate” and “there was no official representation”, stressing that “participation by individuals” did not constitute official representation.

Australia’s High Commissioner in Delhi, Barry O’Farrell, said in a post on Twitter that “no Australian Government official attended the Kunming China-Indian Ocean Forum on Development Coopera- tion”.

Former Maldives President Mohammed Waheed Hassan and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd were reported to have virtually joined the meeting, and both were attending in their individual capacity, not representing their governments.

‘MISLEADING, BLATANT LIES’: PAK. ARMY DENIES CLAIMS ABOUT BAJWA

The Pakistan Army finally broke its silence on Sunday to reject reports that its outgoing chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s family members and relatives became billionaires during his six-year tenure, terming them as “misleading” and based on “blatant lies.” Gen. Bajwa, 61, is scheduled to retire on Tuesday after getting a three-year extension.

According to a report published by the FactFocus website, the alleged tax records of Gen. Bajwa’s family show the current market value of the known assets and business of the Army chief, both within and outside Pakistan, amounted to Rs. 12.7 billion.

Following this, the Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan government launched a probe and suspended two officers from service for their involvement in leaking the tax records.

The Pakistan Army’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations, said misleading data regarding the assets of Army chief Gen. Bajwa and his family were shared on social media, and the same assumption-based data was presented in an exaggerated manner on different platforms.

The report claimed that the assets of Gen. Bajwa’s wife, Ayesha Amjad, went from zero in 2016 to Rs. 2.2 billion (declared and known) in six years.

RUSSIA MAY LEAVE ZAPORIZHZHIA PLANT: UKRAINE N-BOSS

Kyiv : The head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm said on Sunday there were signs that Russian forces might be preparing to leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which they seized in March soon after their invasion.

Such a move would be a major battlefield change in the partially-occupied aporizhzhia region where the front line has hardly shifted for months. Repeated shelling around the plant has spurred fears of a nuclear catastrophe.

“In recent weeks we are effectively receiving information that signs have appeared that they are possibly preparing to leave the (plant),” Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom,said on national television. “Firstly, there are a very large number of reports in Russian media that it would be worth vacating the (plant) and maybe worth handing control (of it) to the (International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA)," he said, referring to the United Nations nuclear watchdog. “One gets the impression they’re packing their bags and stealing everything they can. ”

Russia and Ukraine have for months accused each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia reactor complex. Asked if it was too early to talk about Russian troops leaving the plant, Kotin said: “It’s too early. We don’t see this now, but they are preparing (to leave). ”

TWITTER SIGNUPS AT ALL-TIME HIGH, SAYS ELON MUSK

Twitter CEO Elon Musk says new user signups to the platform are at an “all-time high”, as he struggles with an exodus of advertisers and users fleeing to other platforms over concerns about hate speech. Signups were averaging over two million per day in the last seven days as of November 16,up 66% compared to the same week in 2021, he tweeted. He also said user active minutes were at a record high, averaging 8 billion active minutes per day in the last seven days as of November 15, a rise of 30% in comparison to the same week last year. Hate speech impersonations decreased as of November 13 compared to October 2021.

NORTH KOREA WILL HAVE THE MOST POWERFUL NUCLEAR FORCE, SAYS KIM

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country aimed to have the world’s most powerful nuclear force as he celebrated the launch of its newest intercontinental ballistic missile at a ceremony with his young daughter, state media reported on Sunday. The Hwasong-17 is believed to be capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.