Emanuele Scimia

The airline lost US$580 million as a result of the pandemic. Some 330,000 jobs in the air transport business are at stake as is Hong Kong’s role as a regional hub. Passenger demand for air travel worldwide dropped 94.3 per cent in April. The United States, Germany and Italy have bailed out their airline companies.

The North Korean regime responds to the release of defamatory leaflets by dissidents sheltered in the South. The North Koreans will treat the Seoul government as an "enemy". A military pact and the common industrial area of ​​Kaesong are also at risk. Experts: Kim Jong-un raises tension to obtain more in future negotiations with South Koreans.

Hsu Kun-yuan jumped from his 17th floor flat a couple of hours after Han Kuo-yu was recalled by a popular vote. There are doubts about any link between the two events. Han is the first Taiwanese mayor to lose his job before the end of his mandate. Experts blame his pro-Beijing stance.

The pandemic has torpedoed foreign demand. The sale of medical equipment for the Covid-19 has limited losses. Imports down too. Growth of US surplus jeopardizes the trade agreement with the Trump administration.

The United Front will follow up on orders from Kim Yo-jong, sister of the North Korean leader. A military pact and the common industrial area of ​​Kaesong are also at risk. Seoul promises to ban the launch of flyers, to which dollar bills and USB sticks are attached.

China is using domestic problems in the United States to show the Trump administration in a bad light and depict its strategic adversary as unfair and racist. Meanwhile, tensions are running high as a US warship sails the Taiwan Strait and China carries out military exercises in the same area. A group of 18 Western lawmakers want stronger actions against Beijing as Southeast Asian countries distance themselves from China.

Participants asked the Chinese regime to right the wrongs committed on June 4, 1989, when thousands of students were massacred for asking for freedom and democracy. Support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and Taiwan's independence. The Taiwanese government calls on all nations to "not hide history".

Tens of thousands of people commemorate the Tiananmen massacre of 4 June 1989 despite government ban.

The oil leaked from a fuel tank in Siberia. An angry Putin asks: “Are we going to learn about emergency situations from social media?" The spill drifted about 12 kilometres contaminating a 350 sq km area. For experts, it might take five to ten years to clean up at a cost of US$1.5 billion.

In February, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced plans to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement with Washington, which allows US forces to be stationed in the country. The pandemic crisis and tensions between the United States and China have led to the reversal. The Philippine military accuse Duterte of bowing to Beijing for investments that never materialised.

The students asked for freedom and democracy, an end to corruption, a fair and equitable dialogue between the people and the government. Their repression violated the Constitution and founding principal of the People's Republic. The regime must respond for what has happened, and the victims must be compensated.

Hu Weifeng contracted COVID-19 in January. He was a colleague of Ai Fen and Li Wenliang, who first sounded the alarm over the pandemic. Thousands of doctors have been infected because the government waited too long to declare an emergency. After testing ten million people, the authorities declare Wuhan to be free from the disease.