Peoples perceptions of various cultures usually comes from some form of media, with the main avenues being music and movies. Thus people can have the wrong impression of a region or country because of their limited exposure to the actual cultural origins. What do people know of China other than what's delivered through the media and entertainment. China is a nominal communist nation based on authoritarian rule by a single party, they see repression in Tibet and the Uygar regions of western China, censorship of the internet and the media on a massive scale, human rights violations, corruption and a myriad of other problems. One must question why the Chinese government has decided that the best way to promote the real China was to release a gangsta rap video by a group that is know for being homophobic and glorifying sexual violence?
CD Rev, whose four members are from the south-western city of Chengdu – home to anascent hip-hop scene, released their first state-sponsored track this week in association with the party’s youth wing, the Communist Youth League.
“I wanna restore the impression you have on my country, China, which have been exactly fabricated by media for such a long time,” the lyrics say.
Wang Zixin, one of the rappers, told the Guardian his group had opted to rap in English to communicate directly with a western audience.
This is China – which has been shared more than 40,000 times on social media since being released on Tuesday – shows more affection for law enforcement than is customary for gangsta rappers.
“We can trust public security cuz the policemen are kind to citizens but crucial to our enemies,” the MCs rap, adding: “We have tight gun control laws and we don’t fear gun slaughtering.”
Can Afghan archaeologists take on the Chinese and the Taliban to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site?
A 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan is under threat of demolition as a Chinese mining company, eager to access the world's largest untapped copper deposits, closes in.
China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC) wants to extract the $100bn worth of copper lying beneath the ruins of the ancient Buddhist city of Mes Aynak.
Only 10 percent of Mes Aynak has been excavated, though, and some believe future discoveries at the site have the potential to redefine the history of Afghanistan and the history of Buddhism itself.
Saving Mes Aynak follows Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to stop the crumbling monasteries and ruins from being destroyed.
Iran is covertly recruiting hundreds of Afghan Shias in Afghanistan to fight for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, drawing them out of their own conflict-ridden country and into another war in which Afghanistan plays no official part.
The Afghan fighters are often impoverished, religiously devout or ostracised from society, looking for money, social acceptance and a sense of purpose that they are unable to find at home.
Iran’s recruitment of Afghan migrants and refugees within its own borders has been documented. But similar Iranian activities inside Afghanistan had previously gone unreported.
Iran denies using “any kind of allurement or coercion”, or to otherwise recruiting Afghans to fight in Syria, according to an embassy spokesman in Kabul. But a Guardian investigation can reveal both how Iran coaxes Afghan men into war, and the motives that prompt these men to travel thousands of miles to join a battle they might not return from.
Chilling images show Istanbul bombers - and how they 'herded' victims to create more chaos and carnage
'The other two took advantage of the panic to get inside'
In a briefing, the Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim said officials now believe the first attacker detonated his bomb outside the airport’s international arrivals hall – so his accomplices could take advantage of the chaos inside.
Turkey has blamed Isis for the attack, which injured a further 239 people, though there has been no official claim of responsibility from the group.
Philippines swears in 'vigilante president' Duterte
The incoming president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has taken office vowing to launch a violent crack down on crimes and criminals. But critics fear his support for vigilantism will worsen the cycle of violence.
Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as the country's 16th president on Thursday, and minutes later he told the nation that he would wage a "relentless" and "sustained" battle against crime and warned officials that he would not tolerate corruption.
Duterte has capitalized on his image as a man-of-the-people with no tolerance for the nation's political and business elite.
"When I become president, by the grace of God, I serve the people, not you," he told reporters in the final stages of the election campaign, referring to the elite. "My problem is the people at the bottom of society... my problem is how to place food on the table."
‘Get back to Africa’ video highlights rise in racist attacks post Brexit
“Get back to Africa”. If the teenagers shouting this abuse in a Manchester tram had been a little bit smarter, they would have realized that the man they were insulting had an American accent. Indeed, Juan Jasso is an American who has lived in the United Kingdom for 18 years.
But intelligence was clearly not these teenagers’ strong suit, as we can see in the video filmed by a passenger on Tuesday. It shows the former soldier being verbally abused by the young men, who call him an immigrant and shout at him to “f---ing get off the tram now. Don’t chat sh--- or get deported.”
Jasso stays calm, and asks them, “What are you, 18, 19? I’ve been here longer than you have.” One of the teenagers then flicks beer at him from the bottle he’s carrying. Passengers yell at the teenagers: “You are an absolute disgrace, a disgrace to England”. The teens then get off the tram, all the while continuing to hurl abuse.
Inside Britain's secret weapons research facility
By Dr Michael MosleyBBC
As Porton Down marks its 100th anniversary, what really goes on inside Britain's most secretive and controversial military research base?
Porton Down - also known as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory - is where much of our top-secret military research is concentrated. It has a budget of £500m a year and employs more than 3,000 scientists. It is the most controversial, most misunderstood and, some say, most-feared scientific institution in Britain. Though many will have heard of Porton Down, few will have much idea about what goes on inside.
So I was delighted when I was invited to go behind the fence, make a documentary about the research that goes on there.
Hong Kong's Brexit ambitions: Could city ever be independent from China?
Hong Kong has its own legal system, government, currency, flag and Olympic sports team.
So could the city -- officially a Special Administrative Region of China -- ever become fully independent? That's what an increasing number of people, frustrated by a stalled political reform process and perceived Chinese encroachment, are asking.
The city's leaders, and Beijing, have dismissed the calls out of hand -- with some commentators even suggesting discussion of independence could be a criminal offense. But in the wake of the UK's shock vote to leave the European Union and the increasing likelihood that Scotland andCatalonia will break away in the near future, is it so crazy to suggest that Hong Kong could go it alone?
UNICEF says more than 200 million children will die or live in poverty within the next 15 years if they do not get help.
The UN's children agency, UNICEF, is warning world leaders that if they do not address global inequality, 69 million children under the age of five will die from preventable causes by 2030.
The UN report paints a bleak picture for the prospects of disadvantaged youngsters.
UNICEF says 167 million children are expected to be living in poverty by 2030, and by that time 750 million women will have been married when they were children.
"Invest in children now, or allow our world to become still more unequal and divided," says the director of UNICEF.
Education is critical to ending recurring cycles of poverty, says UNICEF. About 124 million children do not go to primary or lower-secondary school now.
Tuesday's attack looked like a major co-ordinated assault, says the BBC's Mark Lowen.
Ataturk airport has long been seen as a vulnerable target, our Turkey correspondent adds, reporting from a plane stuck on the tarmac in Istanbul.
There are X-ray scanners at the entrance to the terminal but security checks for cars are limited.
India's supreme court refuses to hear challenge to law against gay sex
Setback for gay community, which argued that penal code undermined their rights by failing to protect sexual preferences
Reuters
India’s supreme court has refused to hear a petition challenging a law criminalising gay sex, in a setback for activists battling in the country’s courts to get the ban overturned.
A number of well-known lesbian, gay and bisexual Indians had argued that section 377 of India’s penal code, which prohibits “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal”, undermined their fundamental rights by failing to protect their sexual preferences.
“The supreme court refused to hear the matter and asked the petitioners to approach the chief justice of India,” said Arvind Dattar, a lawyer for one of the petitioners.
Turkey questions international reaction to Istanbul airport terror attack
Some world leaders have condemned the suspected Isis bombings – but Turkish president suggests response has been muted
Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the rest of the world to see the target could have been “London, Berlin, Chicago”, amid suggestions the international response had been muted.
World leaders have written to condemn the attacks on Twitter, and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the perpetrators of the “terrorist attack” must be brought to justice.
But others suggested the reaction would have been far greater if the incident had taken place in a similarly bustling transport hub in western Europe.
Why Belarusians are getting naked at work
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko made a cringeworthy slip of the tongue when he asked citizens to “undress” at work in a recent speech. Unfortunately for Lukashenko, no one is going to forget his words anytime soon, especially as Belarusians have decided to rub it in a little bit by taking his advice literally.
While giving a speech at a forum on innovation and new information technologies on June 23, Lukashenko declared: “We must, in short, undress and work". What he apparently meant to say was “We must, in short, develop and work”. In Belarusian, the words “undress” and “develop” sound alike.
Since then, Belarusians have posted dozens of photos showing themselves naked at their workplace: be it at a desk, behind an industrial oven in a restaurant kitchen or even on a construction site. This tongue-in-cheek campaign was launched on Friday, June 24 (the day after the president’s fateful words) under the hashtag #getnakedandwork (#раздеватьсяиработать).
Venezuelans are storming supermarkets and attacking trucks as food supplies dwindle
June 29, 2016 - 1:43PM
Joshua Partlow
Caracas: In the darkness the warehouse looks like any other, a metal-roofed hangar next to a clattering overpass, with homeless people sleeping nearby in the shadows.
But inside, workers quietly unload black plastic crates filled with merchandise so valuable that mobs have looted delivery vehicles, shot up the windshields of trucks and hurled a rock into one driver's eye. Soldiers and police milling around the loading depots give this neighbourhood the feel of a military garrison.
"It's just cheese," said Juan Urrea, a 29-year-old driver, as workers unloaded thousands of pounds of white Venezuelan queso from his delivery truck. "I've never seen anything like this before."
The fight for food has begun in Venezuela. On any day, in cities across this increasingly desperate nation, crowds form to sack supermarkets. Protesters take to the streets to decry the sky-rocketing prices and dwindling supplies of basic goods. The wealthy improvise, some shopping online for food that arrives from Miami. Middle-class families make do with less: coffee without milk, sardines instead of beef, two daily meals instead of three. The poor are stripping mangos off the trees and struggling to survive.
Retired Israeli security experts' plan challenges Netanyahu
The Commanders for Israel's Security, an alliance of former top security commanders, have cautioned Israel to change course to avoid intensifying conflict with other countries and Palestinians.
ByDan Perry and Josef Federman, Associated Press
Long-serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a potentially formidable challenge to his hard-line rule — not from Israel's civilian politicians but instead from its revered security establishment.
An extraordinary array of former top commanders are criticizing Netanyahu in increasingly urgent terms, accusing him of mishandling the Palestinian issue and allying with extremists bent on dismantling Israel's democracy.
On Tuesday, a group representing more than 200 retired leaders in Israel's military, police, Mossad spy service and Shin Bet security agency presented a plan to help end the half-century occupation of the Palestinians through unilateral steps, including disavowing claims to over 90 percent of the West Bank and freezing Jewish settlement construction in such areas.
Malaysia's former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, wants to "save Malaysia" and oust the country's current PM Najib Razak over claims that he mismanaged the economy, suppressed free speech and allegedly took hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes, all accusations the PM denies.
The "Save Malaysia" movement, led by Mahathir and made up of opposition leaders from across the political spectrum, is centred on a multimillion-dollar corruption scandal that alleges nearly $700m found in Najib's personal bank accounts came from the state-funded 1Malaysia development fund. Najib, however, says the money was a campaign donation from Saudi Arabia and has since been returned.
Anwar Ibrahim is the former Deputy Prime Minister under Mahathir Mohamad who was tried and convicted twice on sodomy charges after falling out with his mentor.
Mahathir Mohamad really wants to save Malaysia. Perhaps Malaysia should save itself from him and his authoritarian tendencies which have led to the imprisonment of opposition political leaders, social media critics and the curtailment of civil rights.
The digital revolution arrives in remote Indian villages such as Akbarpur by communication methods old and new: a WhatsApp message buzzes through to the village chief; he notifies his fellows via megaphone.
The world’s biggest biometric ID programme is coming to town.
The next day, two men arrive at the village in Palwal district, Haryana state, with devices the residents have never seen: an iris scanner, a fingerprint machine, a camera and laptop. They are here to register the people of Akbarpur.
The officials set up an enrolment centre at the village chief’s house. For three days, queues snake around the courtyard. Some of those who come are afraid the iris scanner will hurt their eyes; others do not understand why they need to be enrolled.
Overcrowding and shortages in the hell of a refugee camp near Fallujah
An Iraqi commander announced Sunday that Fallujah had been “liberated” from the Islamic State group, which has held the city for more than two years. However, thousands of civilians were forced to flee the city during the intense fighting in the runup to the battle. Many of these displaced civilians are now living in makeshift camps scattered in the countryside around the city. Humanitarian aid has been slow to arrive and, according to one refugee, the situation is becoming more and more unbearable.
Iraqi authorities launched a large-scale offensive in early May to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State group. While large parts were recaptured last week, IS group militants remained entrenched in some areas, especially in their stronghold in the northwestern al-Julan neighbourhood. On Sunday, June 26, a senior commander announced that they had finally succeeded in clearing the IS group militants from al-Julan.
Rio de Janeiro's acting governor: Olympics could be a 'big failure'
The headache for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games organizers shows no signs of subsiding.
Six weeks before the Games are set to begin, Francisco Dornelles, the acting governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that the state has not yet received recently-approved federal funds to beef up security and transportation for the quadrennial competition.
"I am optimistic about the games, but I have to show the reality. We can make a great Olympics, but if some steps are not taken, it can be a big failure," Dornelles told O Globo.
UNICEF: Early deaths await 69 million children by 2030
Angola tops the list worldwide with 157 of 1,000 children under age five dying annually from "preventable causes".
Every day, 13-year old Birhanu Haftu walks four hours to fetch water in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. Severe drought has hit this year and children such as him struggle to get an education being so stuck in poverty.
"We catch the water in cups, then we carry it back using jerry cans," Haftu said. "I don't study at night because I'm too exhausted."
Haftu is among 247 million children from sub-Saharan Africa facing extreme poverty who are deprived of basic education and other needs to survive and break the cycle of hardship, the UN said.
Report says South African leader should pay $507,000
A court had instructed the treasury to compile the report after ruling that President Jacob Zuma violated the constitution by inappropriately benefitting from state funding.
ByChristopher Torchia, Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG — South African President Jacob Zuma should reimburse the state for $507,000 in a scandal over upgrades to his private home, according to a report by the national treasury released Monday.
The money amounts to a "reasonable percentage" of costs for improvements to Zuma's Nkandla home that were unrelated to security, including a visitors' center, a swimming pool and a chicken run, said the report, which was delivered to the Constitutional Court.
The court had instructed the treasury to compile the report after ruling that Zuma violated the constitution by failing to comply with a government watchdog report that concluded he inappropriately benefited from state funding.
A ski industry has sprung up in the remote alps of Afghanistan. But will this enterprise survive a resurgent Taliban?
It's an unlikely ski resort in the middle of wartorn Afghanistan.
There's no ski lift, no apres ski bars - in fact there are few skis - but it is a symbol of the hope and resilience of the Hazara people.
The Taliban persecuted the Hazara when they were in control of Bamiyan, infamously destroying the magnificent giant Buddhas that dated back to the 6th century.
Today, a resurgent Taliban is seizing huge swaths of the country.
But instead of fleeing, the Hazara are aiming high - from encouraging international tourism to rebuilding the sacred Buddhas of Bamiyan.
Amman, Jordan - Weapons shipped into Jordan by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market, according to American and Jordanian officials.
Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, FBI officials believe after months of investigating the attack, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The existence of the weapons theft, which ended only months ago after complaints by the US and Saudi governments, is being reported for the first time following a joint investigation by Al Jazeera and The New York Times
Israel and Turkey to announce end of six-year standoff
The animosity began when nine Turkish activists on a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli forces
Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Israel is planning on Monday to announce a reconciliation deal with Turkey ending a six-year diplomatic standoff that started when Israeli naval commandos shot dead nine Turkish activists travelling on an aid flotilla making for the Gaza coast.
A deal negotiated in Rome yesterday is expected to restore full ambassador-level relations, provide for about $20m in compensation for the families of those killed and wounded aboard the Mavi Marmara in 2010, and clear the way for potentially lucrative contracts for Israel to transmit natural gas to Turkey.
While the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem refused to comment last night, Reuters reported that journalists travelling to Rome with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, were told the deal had been reached.
Brexit campaigners admit 'there is no plan' for what comes next as rivals plan Tory leadership bids
Figures on both sides of the debate have suggested the next Prime Minister should come from the Vote Leave campaign
The next Prime Minister must be a backer of Brexit, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has said, as a number of leading Conservatives geared up to be the ‘Stop Boris’ candidate in the leadership election triggered by David Cameron’s bombshell resignation.
As the Tory party wrestled with the implications of the Brexit vote, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove continued to maintain a low profile, amid calls for them to take responsibility and spearhead Britain’s exit negotiations with the EU.
However, one senior Conservative MP and Johnson ally reportedly admitted to Sky News that for Vote Leave “there is no plan” for managing the aftermath of Brexit, in the expectation that Downing Street would have made a contingency plan.
It would not be unfair to deem 2016 the year of high-profile kidnapping news.
It was mainly good news: five years after being abducted, Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, was recovered in March. More celebrations followed in May when Ali Haider Gilani, son of ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, was recovered from Afghanistan.
But as the Taseers and Gilanis sigh with relief, the family of Barrister Awais Ali Shah — son of sitting Sindh High Court Justice Sajjad Ali Shah who was picked up in Karachi just last week — is plunged into a terrifying, unpredictable ordeal.
The African migrants giving up on the Chinese dream
Guangzhou, China The heart of Little Africa -- or Chocolate City, as it has been dubbed by some -- is not easy to locate without a tip-off.
At the foot of an unremarkable tunnel, peeling off the busy Little North Road, in Guangzhou, stands a place that just two years ago was totally unlike the rest of China.
Angolan women carried bin bags of shopping on their heads, Somali men in long robes peddled currency exchange, Uygur restaurateurs slaughtered lamb on the street, Congolese merchants ordered wholesale underwear from Chinese-run shops, Nigerian men hit the Africa Bar for a Tsingtao and plate of jollof rice.
Dengfeng -- a previously quieturban village, or chengzhongcun, in central Guangzhou -- had been electrified by migration, both from internal Chinese migrants and those from Africa.
How do EU people in the UK feel about Brexit?
By Claire Bates & Camila RuzBBC News Magazine
One of the most visible signs of Britain's membership of the EU in recent years has been the Polski Sklep.
Polish grocery stores have popped up on the High Streets of most big towns, responding to the growing population of Eastern Europeans in the UK.
Pod Orlem, in Cambridge, is one of them. Inside the shop, the shelves are packed with expat favourites like Goralki chocolate wafers, Winiary pasta sauces and spicy ketchups. Two Polish football shirts are pinned high in the window in honour of Euro 2016.
The staff and customers smile and chat as if it's a normal Friday. But it's soon apparent that hurt and anger lie close beneath the surface as a result of Britain's decision to leave Europe. It's never been suggested that people already in the UK would have to leave but there is a measure of fear nonetheless.
