News Update

  OAKLAND: America’s biggest cities should brace for a chunk of families moving out because they prefer to work remotely from less crowded and less expensive areas, according to a survey by Upwork released Thursday. The survey showed 14 million to 23 million people plan to pack up, many of them from big US cities. The trend is no surprise since the pandemic made it dangerous to commute on mass transit and work in crowded offices. Still, Upwork chief economist Adam Ozimek said the large number was a surprise. Ozimek commissioned two smaller surveys with new questions to confirm the trend. Some 20,000 people participated and results of the three surveys show 6.9% to 11.5% of households plan a move because of remote work opportunities. That comes on top of families that would be moving regardless of the pandemic-led changes. Of those planning a move, 20.6% are currently in a major city, 41.5% are moving more than four hours away and 13.2% are moving two to four hours away. Upwork help...

  Future pandemics will happen more often, kill more people and wreak even worse damage to the global economy than Covid-19 without a fundamental shift in how humans treat nature, the United Nations' biodiversity panel said Thursday. Warning that there are up to 850,000 viruses which, like the novel coronavirus, exist in animals and may be able to infect people, the panel known as IPBES said pandemics represented an "existential threat" to humanity. Authors of the special report on biodiversity and pandemics said that habitat destruction and insatiable consumption made animal-borne diseases far more likely to make the jump to people in future. "There is no great mystery about the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic -- or any modern pandemic," said Peter Daszak, president of the Ecohealth Alliance and chair of the IPBES workshop that drafted the report. "The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk though thei...

  BEIJING: Chinese and US military chiefs held talks on crisis communication this week, amid heightened tensions between the two military superpowers this year in the South China Sea, with the United States denying a report on a possible drone attack. The exchange, days ahead of the US elections, came as US Defence Secretary Mark Esper toured Asia with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo where they had urged countries to cooperate with the United States to confront the security threats posed by China, a position China has criticised as a Cold War mentality and zero-sum mindset. Chinese and US militaries held a video conference meeting about crisis communication on October 28-29, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Thursday. According to Wu, Esper denied a media report about the United States studying a plan to attack Chinese islands and reefs in the South China Sea using an MQ-9 drone in the event that the US presidential election was not looking favourable for President ...

  LONDON: Britain’s opposition Labour party suspended its former leader Jeremy Corbyn on Thursday for seeking to deflect blame away from himself after a report found that under his leadership the party was responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination. Corbyn’s successor, Keir Starmer, apologised and said Labour was facing a “day of shame” after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found serious failings in how the party had dealt with allegations of anti-Semitism within its ranks. Corbyn’s tenure was marred by persistent complaints of anti-Semitism in the party and criticism of the leader’s response. He was suspended after saying he did not accept all the report’s findings, that his attempts at reforming complaints processes had been stalled by “obstructive party bureaucracy” and that the scale of the problem had been overstated for political reasons. “In light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspend...

  Prime Minister Imran Khan has felicitated the people of Turkey as the brotherly country celebrates its 97th anniversary of the Republic Day, which commemorates the founding of the nation's name and proclamation of the country's status as a republic. "Warm felicitations to leadership and people of Turkey on 97th Republic Day. Our forefathers stood by Turkish people in their glorious struggle against forces of imperialism. In contemporary times, our two countries remain indispensable partners. Long live Pakistan-Turkey brotherhood!" the premier wrote on his official Twitter handle on Thursday.   Earlier, President Arif Alvi also congratulated the people and government of Turkey on their Republic Day. "It gives me immense pleasure to convey my heartfelt felicitations to the government and the brotherly people of the Republic of Turkey on the occasion of the 97th Republic Day," he wrote in his letter addressed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Presiden...

  NICE, FRANCE: A woman was beheaded by an attacker with a knife who also killed two other people at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, police said, in an incident the city’s mayor described as terrorism. Mayor Christian Estrosi said on Twitter the knife attack had happened in or near the city’s Notre Dame church and that police had detained the attacker. Police said three people were confirmed to have died in the attack and several were injured. A police source said a woman was decapitated. French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a decapitation having occurred in the attack. The French anti-terrorist prosecutor’s department said it had been asked to investigate the attack. Reuters  journalists at the scene said police armed with automatic weapons had put up a security cordon around the church, which is on Nice’s Jean Medecin avenue, the city’s main shopping thoroughfare. Ambulances and fire service vehicles were also at the scene. The attack comes while Fr...

  The BBC on Thursday unveiled new impartiality guidelines after accusations that journalists and other staff have undermined its credibility via their social media accounts or by accepting lucrative offers to give outside speeches. Staff, contractors and freelancers could face dismissal for "serious" breaches of the guidelines, according to the broadcaster, which has been coming under pressure from the ruling Conservatives over its funding and the politics of some personnel. "Impartiality is the foundation on which we deliver insightful, exciting and ground-breaking stories," new director-general Tim Davie said in an email to staff. "These guidelines are intended to help us continue to deliver this, and build audience trust," said Davie, a former PepsiCo executive and Conservative party member who took over the BBC on September 1. One of the stars potentially in Davie's sights is former England footballer Gary Lineker, the publicly funded corporation...