The Afghan government has despatched a "technical team" to Qatar to prepare for long-delayed peace talks as authorities pressed ahead with the release of Taliban inmates, officials said Wednesday.

Japan’s longest-serving PM Shinzo Abe announced on Friday he was resigning because of poor health, news agencies reported. “I cannot be prime minister if I cannot make the best decisions for the people. I have decided to step down from my post,” he told a news conference.

The Chinese government has expressed its support for a lawsuit against the Trump administration, which challenges his executive order to sell or spin-off TikTok’s operations on US soil. Beijing supports the effort by Chinese companies to use legal means to defend their rights and interests in the US, including the lawsuit by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian told journalists on Monday.

China has ended a judicial assistance treaty between Hong Kong and the United States, following Washington’s decision to terminate three bilateral agreements with the semi-autonomous city.

Floods on the upper reaches of China’s Yangtze river forced authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 people on Tuesday and threatened a 1,200-year-old world heritage site.

China has eased entry restrictions for nationals from 36 European countries, months after thousands were left stranded when the country closed its borders and slashed flights to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced on Friday that the government will postpone highly anticipated legislative elections, scheduled for September, by one year, citing a worsening coronavirus outbreak, news wires reported.

Joshua Wong and a group of fellow pro-democracy activists were disqualified from Hong Kong's upcoming 2020 Legislative Council elections on Thursday, the Hong Kong government confirmed in a statement.

China ordered the United States to close its consulate in the city of Chengdu on Friday, responding to a US demand this week that China close its Houston consulate, as relations between the world’s two largest economies deteriorate.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 3.2% year on year in the second quarter of 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday.