Edward Lawrence

MOFA announcement also notes that “the above visa waiver policy runs until December 31 2026” #china

China announces visa-free entry for UK and Canadian citizens for business and travel for up to 30 days will be implemented from Tuesday 17th February - Foreign Ministry. #china

Six years ago, heading into locked-down Hubei province with @stephenmcdonell.bsky.social as the coronavirus became very serious.

We were then promptly kicked out...

#throwback #china #covid19

Late November / December I remember the first murmurings but it’s was quite quickly shut down or dismissed. It was also a much more brutal flu season too.

#throwback China, January 2020. Panic and worry as a mystery respiratory virus began to spread from Wuhan…

5 years ago on China’s northernmost border with Russia - “Your body is in the northernmost part of China but your heart is towards the Central Party Committee.”

(Behind the trees is Russia)

#china #heilongjiang #beijicun #propaganda

Taiwan and US seal deal to lower tariffs, boost chip investment Washington seeks improved access to strategic chip industry of island nation, over which China claims sovereignty.

Washington seeks improved access to strategic chip industry of island nation, over which China claims sovereignty.

At a press conference in #Beijing, #Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney just said that his country's relationship with #China is now more predictable than that with the #US and that you can see the results of this state of affairs.

The Romanesque Revival St Joseph’s Church (1904), Wangfujing, Beijing. The perspective has benefitted from some landscaping, & it’s now a sci-fi pilgramge spot after featuring in Cixin Liu's The 3 Body Problem, where the 3 vaults mirror the nature of the physics conundrum at the heart of the novel….

😭😭😭😭😭

Spotted in London!!!!

Updating my LEGO White House

Always love logging into Student Finance to find my student loan debt has risen by thousands yet again despite regular payments.

Took 5 months for Italian rail operator Trentitalia to refund £70 for a train cancelled due their staff being on strike. It took several emails, and even a phone call to Italy. It's since taken 4 months to pay. Mad.

Slow clap for the halfwit who’s parked this here… #london

Extraordinary

Xi renews warning against Taiwan independence in National Day address Xi Jinping pledges to ‘practice true multilateralism’ and urges protection of national sovereignty.

In National Day address, Xi Jinping warns against Taiwan independence and ‘external interference’ – SCMP: ‘While he used similar language about Taiwan in his National Day speech last year, Xi did not single out external forces then.’

The man who can't stop opening disastrous London cinemas Preston Benson received millions of pounds in public funds to help revive London's high streets with a chain of cinemas stretching from Ealing to Catford, and Sidcup to Sutton. What keeps going wrong?

One man opened a series of cinemas in abandoned London buildings (from Catford to Ealing, from Sidcup to Sutton) as part of a plan to revive the capital’s high streets. Politicians love the idea and provided millions to help. So why do they keep going bust? www.londoncentric.media/p/preston-be...

'Go to Gaza!' - harsh Israeli crack down on anti-war protest YouTube video by Channel 4 News

We witnessed Israeli police aggressively break up a small and peaceful protest against the war in Gaza with one man being dragged out of his car, strangled and arrested for simply beeping his horn in support. From 1.37 @channel4news.bsky.social #Israel #Gaza
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B1p...

Peaceful demonstration in Arab town northern Israel broken up violently by police, who even drag a man out of a car for honking support and assault him.
'As soon as you start saying anything, the police come in very hard.' Secunder Kermani who is himself subject to aggression #c4news

Israel ramps up Gaza offensive - as France set to recognise Palestinian state YouTube video by Channel 4 News

As the UK and other nations recognise a Palestinian state, we’ve again travelled across the occupied West Bank to explore what recognition might mean to the Palestinians living there as settlements expand at an unprecedented rate. #Israel #Palestine

From 8mins 30.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjt1...

Just finished a very intense three week stint in Israel and the occupied West Bank with the brilliant Channel 4 News team. Now back to London… #c4news

Israeli settlers encroach on West Bank village again one month after killing YouTube video by Channel 4 News

Our @channel4news.bsky.social piece tonight on the killing of Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist and filmmaker who was shot dead by an extremist Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank. Please share. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5C7... #Israel #WestBank

Thanks mate. C4 has been solid on the complexities of this story and it’s great to work with them!

Denmark summons US envoy over report on covert American ‘influence operations’ in Greenland | CNN The US envoy to Denmark was summoned by the Danish foreign ministry on Wednesday, after the country’s public broadcaster reported that a number of American men have attempted to conduct “influence ope...

I was hoping that the Greenland madness had abated. A key unanswered question in this piece is who is behind these operations. Are they seld-initiated? Did Trump recruit amateurs to do this a la FDR? Is this a CIA endeavor?

Annnd more of our work from last week on the day that Israel announced the approval of a controversial new settlement that would cut right through the middle of the West Bank. Activists and far-right ministers have both said it will mean the end of a Palestinian state… #israel #westbank

Also few seconds before @c4ciaran.bsky.social was due to begin presenting, an air-raid alarm and an alarm of an incoming strike from Houthis in Yemen, according to the IDF. Iron dome launch and thuds in the background handled brilliantly by Ciaran.

From us last week.
Been a bit busy so a bit late to post…

Thousands protest across Israel demanding ceasefire and hostage deal Thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in Israel - blocking highways and marching on the Prime Minister's Office to demand a ceasefire deal in Gaza and the release of all the remaining host...

Thousands protest across Israel demanding ceasefire and hostage deal
www.channel4.com/news/thousan...

Presenting channel 4 news from Tel Aviv last night.