In his first major foreign policy speech, Sunak said Britain's approach to China needed to evolve and Beijing was "consciously competing for global influence using all the levers of state power".

"The actions of the US military seriously violated China's sovereignty and security," said Tian Junli, spokesman for the Southern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army.

The country's leadership is facing a wave of protest not seen in decades, fuelled by anger over the unrelenting lockdowns as well as deep-rooted frustrations over China's political direction.

The comments came after hundreds of people took to the streets in China's major cities over the weekend, in a rare outpouring of public frustration that has spread to international Chinese-speaking communities.

A UNESCO-tasked report on Monday said that warming seas and agricultural pollution had put the reef at risk, and that its resilience had been "substantially compromised".

The protests on the mainland were triggered by a fire in China's Xinjiang region last week that killed 10 people who were trapped in their apartments.

That compares with 39,791 new cases a day earlier – 3,709 symptomatic and 36,082 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

Morrison appointed himself minister for finance, home affairs, treasury, resources, agriculture and environment, without telling the public or existing ministers.

The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has based its strategy on five major planks: promoting peace and security, notably by sending a warship to the region; bolstering trade and investment; boosting "feminist international assistance"; financing sustainable infrastructure; and increasing its diplomatic presence.

The appointment of Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia will strengthen Indonesia-Malaysia relations due to his closeness with Indonesia as well as his image as a pluralistic moderate Muslim figure from Malaysia, experts believe.

Growing discontent overshadows ASEAN progress on the Myanmar crisis as Indonesia searches for the regional bloc’s next special envoy and the junta regime in the conflict-torn country inks a cooperation deal with Moscow.

Government agencies have two weeks to review the implications of narrowing the subsidies, he told a news conference.

"There is a powerful strategic intimacy that is being born with Indonesia and France," French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told AFP.

The message from Xi came days after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in one of its most powerful tests yet, declaring it would meet perceived US nuclear threats with nukes of its own.

A fire on Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, has sparked widespread public anger as many internet users surmised that residents could not escape in time because the building was partially locked down, which city officials denied.

According to Anwar, the first order of the Dec 19 sitting would be tabling a motion on holding a confidence vote by members of parliament.

In his decades-long quest for the top job, the 75-year-old has tasted political triumph and defeat, led street protests for democratic reforms and strung together a multi-ethnic opposition coalition while behind bars.

The ceremony at the palace closes the chapter on one of the most dramatic elections in Malaysia's history, after no party managed to secure a majority to form a parliament for the first time since independence in 1957.

The 75-year-old has time and again been denied the premiership despite getting within striking distance over the years: he was deputy prime minister in the 1990s and the official prime minister-in-waiting in 2018.

Residents of Zhenghzhou's city centre cannot leave the area unless they have a negative Covid test and permission from authorities, and are advised not to leave their homes "unless necessary", the local government said.

The Barisan coalition will not support a government that is led by ex-premier Muhyddin Yassin's alliance, its biggest component party said, though it did not make any reference to Anwar.

Saturday's election ended in an unprecedented hung parliament with neither of two rival alliances able to secure enough seats in parliament to form a government.

China recorded 31,454 domestic cases -- 27,517 without symptoms -- on Wednesday, the National Health Bureau said.

The 97-year-old statesman came fourth in a five-way fight for his long-held constituency on the resort island Langkawi in Saturday's election.

The king is due to pick a new prime minister after the leading contenders - opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and former premier Muhyiddin Yassin - failed to secure enough support for a majority following a Saturday election that produced an unprecedented hung parliament.

A Philippine police officer has been jailed for torturing two teenagers killed at the height of former president Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, court documents show, in a rare conviction of an enforcer of the crackdown. 

Schools and businesses closed, restaurants empty, and the fear of being locked down at any moment – the Chinese capital is a cauldron of dread and fatigue as Covid curbs tighten nearly three years into the pandemic.

The wait for a new Malaysian prime minister entered its fourth day on Wednesday, after the leading two contenders failed to secure enough support for a majority and break a hung parliament following last weekend's election.

Malaysian King Al-Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah is in the spotlight as he mulls his choice on who will be the country's next prime minister, after an election left no party with a majority in parliament and coalition talks failed.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe in Cambodia on Tuesday as the two sides move to keep tensions in check.