Â鶹Éç

In May, it looked like Australia’s battle with coronavirus was beginning to ease. Restrictions were lifted and there was hope the country could begin to recover from the pandemic and the job losses it brought. However, for the state of Victoria, those hopes are on hold once more. Five million people in Melbourne – Australia’s second largest city – have been barred from leaving home for six weeks following a spike in new infections, as Shaimaa Khalil reports.

Hong Kong once again finds itself at the centre of a diplomatic falling-out between the UK and China, after China imposed a controversial new security law on the former British colony. The law, which was passed last week, has been criticised internationally as a crackdown on basic freedoms. In response, the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has pledged to offer three million Hong Kong residents the chance to settle in the UK and ultimately the chance to apply for citizenship. However, China reacted swiftly to undermine the UK’s offer and to challenge its credibility, even threatening countermeasures. But for many who were Hong Kong residents before the handover in 1997, it has offered them a way out. Grace Tsoi is amongst those facing a difficult choice.

Ever since the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota there’s been a spotlight on racism the US and elsewhere, with protests and support for the Black Lives Matter movement across the world. This includes South Asia, too. But the conversation around race and colour is very loaded for South Asians themselves and not just in regard to people of different ethnic backgrounds. As Karishma Vaswani has experienced often the deep divides within Asian society itself aren’t scrutinised enough.

The Balearic Islands, off eastern Spain, have long provided sun, sea and sand to tourists eager to leave their troubles behind. German, British and Scandinavian travellers have been known to turn up in their millions each year but it’s the Brits and their taste for booze that have made tourism bosses enforce a new ruling. Government chiefs in Ibiza and Majorca have imposed a 6 drink-a-day limit in all-inclusive hotels, a ban on happy hours and made it illegal to advertise pub crawls. The hope is that the Balearics can attract a different kind of holidaymaker and change the area’s reputation.
The archipelago has not been immune to coronavirus and tourism has plummeted, but as Lottie Gross has heard, that has not put the plans on hold.

Presenter: Pascale Harter
Producer: Bethan Head

(Image: Police officers at a check point in Albury, New South Wales, speak to drivers hoping to cross the border from the state of Victoria. Credit: AAP Image/Lukas Coch via Reuters)