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Extinction Rebellion climate activists take part in a protest in London on Aug 27, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/May James) - 

Climate change activists daubed red paint on the glass facade of the London headquarters of bank Standard Chartered and on the medieval Guildhall building nearby on Friday (Aug 27) as they ramped up a two-week campaign focused on the capital's financial district.

Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion protesters marched through central London carrying banners saying "People over Profit" and "Built on Blood Money". Demonstrators had gathered near the Bank of England before moving to streets in the area.

A line of police officers stood in front of the Guildhall, home of the City of London Corporation which governs the city's historic financial centre, after protesters sprayed red paint on the stone and glass front of the building.

At the Standard Chartered building, two men sat above its revolving doors. Bright red paint was daubed on the facade and on the large blue letters spelling out the bank's name.

Extinction Rebellion, which caused days of traffic chaos in London two years ago, said it is targeting the city's financial district. It accuses the industry of funding climate change.

The group wants an emergency response from governments and a mass move away from polluting industries to avert the worst scenarios of devastation outlined by scientists.

Extinction Rebellion's two-week campaign has prompted banks and buildings in London's other financial district, Canary Wharf, to increase security after its supporters previously smashed large glass panels on the buildings of banks there.

A Standard Chartered spokesperson said the bank's security team worked with police to protect the safety of staff.

"We have been clear that we intend to remain leaders in articulating a path to net zero by 2050 and are committed to detailed transparency on our transition strategy and plan to put it to a shareholder advisory vote in 2022," the spokesperson said//CNA

A Vietnamese soldier delivers food in a strict lockdown area amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, on Aug 24, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Stringer) - 

Vietnam's health ministry reported a record 12,920 new COVID-19 infections and 356 deaths on Friday (Aug 27). Most of the cases were in Ho Chi Minh City and its neighbouring industrial province of Binh Duong. Vietnam has recorded more than 410,000 cases and 10,000 deaths to date.

On Thursday, the government said it is expecting 50,000 coronavirus infections in Binh Duong, adding that 2,000 troops, 50 mobile medical stations and 15 ambulances will be deployed to the province.

The Southeast Asian country has already deployed soldiers to the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to help enforce the country's strictest movement curbs yet which prevent people from leaving home, even for food.

Ordinary residents who need to travel in the event of a medical emergency can still do so, but the military has taken over the distribution of food in most parts of the city.

Provincial authorities are preparing for a worst-case scenario within which cases could exceed 150,000, the government said in a statement on its website. The number refers to a contingency plan, and is not a projection.

Binh Duong is home to production facilities for dozens of major firms, including South Korea's Kumho Tire and Tetra Pak, the world's largest food packaging company. The province also hosts a string of suppliers for Samsung Electronics and Pegatron, a key supplier for Apple.

It is one of Vietnam's largest recipients of foreign investment after Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

After successfully containing the pandemic for much of last year, Vietnam has been battling a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus.

The country has one of Asia's lowest inoculation rates, with just more than 2 per cent of its 98 million people fully vaccinated as of Thursday.

Italy will send Vietnam 801,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine via the COVAX Facility, the Vietnam news agency reported.

The batch of vaccine is expected to be delivered in early September//CNA

The US economic recovery is on track to return to a strong labour market, said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Aug 27, 2021. (Photo: AFP) - 

The US economic recovery is on track to return to a strong labour market, and the central bank could begin to withdraw its stimulus measures by year-end, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday (Aug 27).

But the Fed leader stressed that there was no hurry to raise the benchmark lending rate in response to temporary inflation pressures.

In his highly anticipated speech to the annual Jackson Hole central banking symposium, Powell said despite the impact of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the economy has continued to recover and show strong job growth.

While inflation is currently running at a high 4.2 per cent annually as of July, Powell said it was likely to decline as temporary pressures, like skyrocketing prices for used cars, recede.

He warned that moving to respond to temporary inflation pressures "may do more harm than good".

"The ill-timed policy move unnecessarily slows hiring and other economic activity and pushes inflation lower than desired," he said, warning that with the labour market still recovering, "Such a mistake could be particularly harmful."

Any move to taper the pace of bond buying would still leave a large amount of stimulus in place, he added.

Powell did not provide details of the taper plans, but instead repeated the Fed's stance that "it could be appropriate to start reducing the pace of asset purchases this year"//CNA

An Afghan man carries a boy on his shoulders upon arrival at a processing center for refugees evacuated from Afghanistan at the Dulles Expo Center near Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, US, on Aug 24, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque) -  

The United Nations said on Friday (Aug 27) it was bracing for a possible exodus from violence-ravaged Afghanistan of up to half a million more refugees by the end of 2021.

As a crisis unfolds in the country, a few thousand Afghans have been recorded as entering Iran daily, while traders continue going back and forth from Afghanistan to Pakistan, said Kelly Clements, deputy UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"While we have not seen large outflows of Afghans at this point, the situation inside Afghanistan has evolved more rapidly than anyone expected," Clements told a Geneva news briefing.

"In terms of numbers we are preparing for around 500,000 new refugees in the region. This is a worst-case scenario," she added.

She stressed in particular the need to boost support for neighbouring countries that already host more than 2.2 million Afghan refugees, and which could soon see the fresh influx.

Even before the Taliban swept into power in Afghanistan nearly two weeks ago, the humanitarian situation in the country had deteriorated dramatically.

Half of the population was already in need of humanitarian assistance, and half of all children under five were estimated to be acutely malnourished.

The UN on Friday presented a plan for UN agencies and partner NGOs to prepare for and respond to the unfolding crisis within Afghanistan and in neighbouring countries.

It urgently appealed for nearly US$300 million to fund the plan.

"We are appealing to all countries neighbouring Afghanistan to keep their borders open so that those seeking safety can find safety," Clements said.

In particular Iran and Pakistan, who together host 90 per cent of the Afghan refugees in the region, along with about 3 million other Afghans without refugee status, "will need a lot of support", she said.

So far, the overwhelming majority of people fleeing the surge in violence in Afghanistan have remained inside the country.

About 7,300 Afghans crossed into neighbouring countries seeking refugee status between Jan 1 and Aug 20, a UNHCR spokesman told AFP.

During the same period, nearly 560,000 Afghans fled within the country, joining some 2.9 million internally displaced people already registered there at the end of 2020, the agency said.

More than 80 per cent of those displaced in 2021 have been women and children.

People are calling an Afghan crisis helpline, reporting "executions and beatings and clampdowns on media and radio stations", said Najeeba Wazedafost, CEO of the Asia Pacific Refugee Network, who voiced special concern for women's safety.

"They tell us their fear of being killed simply for being a female," she said//ANT