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Dozens of lawmakers from across the world called Tuesday for the immediate and unconditional release of pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, before he is due to give evidence in his collusion trial in Hong Kong.Parliamentarians and foreign affairs experts from at least 22 countries and the European Parliament signed an open letter, expressing concern about the 76-year-old media tycoon's incarceration."His health is deteriorating. He has been held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison in Hong Kong for almost four years. This is inhumane," they wrote, calling the charges against him "trumped up".The letter's release came on the same day a Hong Kong court jailed all 45 defendants convicted in the city's largest trial under a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.The separate charges against Lai, who founded the now-shuttered popular tabloid Apple Daily, revolve around the newspaper's publications, which supported the pro-democracy protests and criticized Beijing's leadership.Lai, who is a British citizen, denies two counts of "conspiracy to collusion" and one count of "conspiracy to publish seditious publications".But the parliamentarians said his trial was "tainted with unfairness", involving "hand-picked judges" and evidence allegedly obtained by torture."On the eve of the recommencement of his trial, we urgently demand Jimmy Lai's immediate and unconditional release," they added, warning China that "the world is watching as the rule of law, media freedom and human rights in Hong Kong are eroded and undermined".British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised Lai's case with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil on Monday.Some 30 signatories were from the UK, which handed back sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997 but which has been increasingly critical of the authorities in the territory for its crackdown on political dissent.

Whisky and migration thwarted earlier deal but UK PM hopeful of reaching agreement with Narendra ModiKeir Starmer is to restart the aborted UK-India trade talks in the new year after an agreement stalled amid disagreements over whisky tariffs and migration.No progress has been made on the deal since early this year after the last round of talks concluded. As prime minister, Boris Johnson promised a swift deal, but Rishi Sunak was said to be deeply uneasy with some of the provisions that had been negotiated by his predecessor. Talks were put on hold in March while both countries prepared for general elections. Continue reading...

If President-elect Donald Trump is serious about hitting all Chinese goods with tariffs of 60 percent or higher, experts warn it could lead to all-out economic warfare that would be particularly damaging to two key swing states that Trump flipped in 2024.CNBC reports that the U.S.-China Business Council, in conjunction with Oxford Economics, estimates that a large-scale "economic war" with China could result in "permanent loss of revenue and pressure businesses to slash jobs and investment plans," costing the economy nearly one million jobs next year alone."The report projected that Nevada, Florida and Arizona would be among the states hardest hit by such tariffs due to their economic reliance on consumer demand," CNBC writes. "Manufacturing states such as Indiana, Kansas, Michigan and Ohio would also be vulnerable, the Oxford report found."ALSO READ: 'Seeds of his demise': Reporter says things are about to get 'worse for TrumpOne area that China could target that could be particularly troublesome would be American agricultural products, as the country has already been looking for ways to lessen its dependency on products such as American soy, according to the report."If alternative supplies are available, China may well shift away from American farmers where they can,” explained James McGregor, a longtime business consultant on China.He also warned that China is well positioned to simply shove American firms out the door via regulatory squeezes should it be given reason to do so."We will likely see retaliation against American companies in China where they could be step-by-step squeezed out of the China market and replaced," he said.

The deaths of 23 children in Johannesburg this year from suspected food poisoning has ignited anger in South Africa against foreign nationals who run small corner shops known as spazas.There is still police tape around a now-closed spaza shop in Soweto's Naledi area that allegedly sold snacks to six young children who died from poisoning in October.The tragedy angered local residents who attacked and looted the spaza and hounded out the shopkeeper, reportedly an Ethiopian national. Even the person who was renting out the premises fled in fear.While an autopsy revealed that a pesticide had caused the deaths, a link to the shop has not been officially established.As similar cases were reported in other areas, the outcry mounted, leading authorities to launch raids on foreign-run spazas to check compliance with laws and regulations.Several have been forced to shut and the shopkeepers -- generally from Ethiopia, India, Pakistan or Somali -- have fled.Six spazas were closed at Olievenhoutbosch outside the capital Pretoria last week for irregularities, municipal council official Sarah Mabotsa said."They're selling expired food, they're selling skin products, they're selling meat, everything is in one shop," she charged.- 'Operation Dudula' -As the continent's most industrialized economy, South Africa is a prime destination for people seeking work even though its own unemployment rate is around 32 percent.The competition has triggered mistrust and even violence.If authorities don't step in, a xenophobic vigilante group known as Operation Dudula -- which means "push back" in Zulu -- often does.In Naledi, efforts by Dudula recently saw the foreign shopkeepers at six spazas replaced with South African nationals."We have chased the foreigners. Foreigners were running the shop before and we kicked them out," one of the new shopkeepers, Maphoka Mohalanwani, said proudly.The recent spate of food poisonings is without doubt "related to the foreigners", the 54-year-old said."When our kids eat chips from the streets, they do not die... they are dying because of their poison," said Mohalanwani.The former cashier was selected for the job by Operation Dudula, which awards some finance to South Africans to take over from foreign nationals running spaza shops."Some stores were closed down by officials because they don't respect the laws of this country," the head of Operation Dudula, Zandile Dabula, told AFP.And for those that reopened, "we went back to go and make sure that they closed again," she said.Even politicians have made outright calls for all spaza shops to be run by South Africans.- Eliminating competition -The tragic wave of deaths of the young children has gripped South Africa, with speculation running wild in the absence of proven facts about what really caused their deaths.Some people believe that foreigners are deliberately setting out to poison South Africans; others say the outcry is a manufactured ploy to get the spazas and their profits back into the hands of locals."We don't know what is causing these things (cases)," said Somali national Zachariah Salah at one spaza in White City, Soweto.It was not even clear if the claims of poisonings were genuine or not, he said. Either way, "it's tragic for us."Loren Landau, who studies migration at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said attacks against foreign-owned shops were "really about eliminating competition for business."If you try to shut down South African businesses, people would protest," he said. But "you can go after a foreigner, no one will protest."Back in White City, one of the spazas that shut down in the initial flare of anger a few weeks back has reopened, to the relief of locals who rely on their corner shops."When it was shut, I had to go to ... malls that are very far," said Nomsa Skosan, 63, who was browsing the aisles of cereal, frozen food and household items."If what they sell in these stores is as bad as they say, why loot them?"