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Exclusive: as the two nations prepare to co-host Cop15, Mélanie Joly discusses Canada’s long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy
Canada will work with China when needed – but challenge it when necessary, the country’s foreign minister said, as the two nations prepare to co-host a major environmental summit .
Speaking to the Guardian after her government its long-awaited “Indo-Pacific Strategy”, Mélanie Joly said that Canada will “promote and defend” its national interests in a region where nations are jockeying for influence and power.

Rampant and sudden lockdowns have sparked anger as pressure piles on officials to curb outbreaks
Since the Covid pandemic began, China’s government has operated . The resource-intensive system of targeted lockdowns, mass testing and quarantine successfully kept the virus at bay and the death toll extraordinarily low compared with other countries. However, newer and more transmissible variants such as Omicron , and at times overwhelmed, that system.
This year there have been rampant lockdowns ranging from buildings to entire counties, prompting frustration, fear and anger. Some, such as those in Shanghai, Tibet and Xinjiang, have been enforced harshly, leading to and other deprivations.

One arrested as police reportedly demand information from Beijing protester, while show of force largely prevents fresh demonstrations
Police have been out in force in China to stamp out zero-Covid protests and at least one person was arrested, according to social media videos, after a show of civil disobedience unprecedented since president Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.
There were also reports some demonstrators have been interrogated by authorities over the phone after attending the rare street gatherings in cities across the country.

Protests at American colleges have broken out in solidarity with ongoing anti-COVID lockdown demonstrations in China, part of a solidarity movement seeing support around the world.

Deadly apartment fire in the far west of the country triggers unprecedented demonstrations
Protests against China’s strict zero-Covid policy and restrictions on freedoms took place in cities around the country over the weekend in a wave of civil disobedience not seen on the mainland before under President Xi Jinping.
China has maintained a stringent approach to Covid, even as restrictions in other countries have eased.

Ark., responds to China cracking down on protests against COVID lockdowns and calls on the Biden administration to voice support for Chinese protesters.

Megan Cattel was going about her Saturday chores when she got a call from a friend about her partner, Shuai Hao. The two had gone clothes shopping for the fall, and she hadn’t felt like tagging along.

Justin Zhu alleges that Iterable's board exhibited "casual racism" when they "subtly and overtly tried to force him out as CEO." ...

Ark., responds to China cracking down on protests against COVID lockdowns and calls on the Biden administration to voice support for Chinese protesters.

In today’s newsletter: A timeline of increasing dissent as Chinese citizens demand ‘food, not PCR tests’ and blame Xi Jinping’s government for restrictions they say have cost lives
Good morning. After days of escalating protests across China unprecedented since Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago, . “There was a massive police presence [at the expected protest sites] in Shanghai and Beijing questioning passers-by,” the Guardian’s Helen Davidson, covering the story from Taipei, told me this morning. “They scared people off, which was obviously the intention.” And yet the unrest that has grown over recent days and weeks remains a sign of an extraordinary rupture in China’s political system.
“This isn’t going to lead to a revolution,” Helen said. “But I do think it is a point of no return in the relationship between the general population and the CCP [Chinese Communist party], at least as far as Covid goes. There are frequent protests in China. But people who have been living in China for decades say they haven’t seen anything like this since Tiananmen Square in 1989.”
Foreign policy | Rishi Sunak , using his first major foreign policy speech to warn of the creeping authoritarianism of Xi Jinping’s regime. Sunak called a “systemic challenge to our values and interests”.
Internet safety | Social media platforms that breach pledges to block sexist and racist content under new changes to the online safety bill. Ofcom will have the power to fine companies up to 10% of global turnover for breaches.
Ukraine | Fighting around the key eastern town of Bakhmut has descended into a bloody morass with hundreds of dead and injured reported daily, as neither Russian or Ukrainian forces were able to make a significant breakthrough after months of fighting.
Environment | A report by Unesco and IUCN has concluded that , should be placed on a list of world heritage sites that are in danger.
Media | More than 70 media figures, including the editors of the Guardian and the Daily Mail, to tackle “abusive legal tactics to shut down investigations”. A letter calls for urgent action against the global super-rich’s use of ‘“strategic lawsuits against public participation” (Slapps).

This year (2020), he has sent each of them a puzzle box made of wood. Duke, Birdie, Lionel and Claire band together to solve the puzzles (with the help of a famous Asian American making a cameo ...

Protesters in China deploy creative means to make political statements in order to evade censors
Blank sheets of paper, mathematical equations and even alpacas: protesters in China have found creative ways to express anger at the government’s zero-Covid measures, unleashing a wave of dissent against long and severe lockdowns, the deaths of factory workers in Urumqi, and the censorship they’re not allowed to talk about.
The extraordinary protests, which began over the weekend and spread to cities across China including Shanghai and Beijing, , including clashes with police.