Tories and Labour

SINGAPORE — Singapore and Vietnam have agreed to "expeditiously conclude ongoing discussions" on a "green lane" agreement for essential business and official travel, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Tuesday (Dec 15). MFA's permanent secretary Chee Wee Kiong and Vietnam's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung have…

MUMBAI: The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted leading Indian manufacturers in automobile, metals, mining and heavy engineering to increase the representation of women on shop floors. In the last six months, Tata Motors has increased the number of female employees on shop floor to 11% from 4%. The company aims to…

Barack Obama delivers “frank confessions of his uncertainties and doubts” in an account of his rise to power and the beginning of his presidency. Australian-born Carmen Callil challenges Britain’s “snotty imperial delusions” in a sweeping and heartfelt family memoir. And Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader, creates another “study of…

Workers at care homes have been given two weeks to get tested for Covid-19 as a number of facilities were hit by the latest wave of coronavirus infections. The government says all staff working at care homes for the elderly and disabled people must get tested before December 14 at…

The government is planning to subsidise care home workers by at least HK$200 a month to take Covid-19 tests, as they face mandatory testing from Monday. The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Law Chi-kwong, called it "mission impossible" for such staff to get tested in the care homes, so the…

Chen Nianxi, who started writing about how Chinese people were learning to live with the virus in rural areas, is one of the participants in the biannual Global Migrant Festival. Photo: Handout A Chinese demolition labourer turned poet is one of 200 migrant workers sharing experiences in the virtual arts…

In DepthYour guide to the best columns and commentary on Friday 20 NovemberThe Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.1. Christoph Strack on Deutsche Welleon the fear of corona-fascismAmid coronavirus, democracy is at stake“Since March, the German…

If Erin O'Toole was sincere when he surprised everyone last month by bemoaning the decline of unions, you'd think he'd publicly rebuke Premier Jason Kenney for his ongoing campaign to turn Alberta into a right-to-work state. So far, though, the new Conservative Party of Canada leader has had nothing to…

Amaarae is a diligent student of transnational music. The Ghanaian polymath - born in New York and raised between Atlanta, New Jersey and Accra - may create songs that have an identifiable alté nuclei, but she can be so many things at once, such is her chameleonic approach to song…

A turbulent week in Downing Street has ended with the apparent departure of Dominic Cummings, the prime minister's right-hand man.He “was seen leaving No. 10 a short while ago carrying a box”, reports the BBC, which says he has left his post “with immediate effect”.Speculation had been growing about Cummings’…