Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is ill and the country's senior diplomat will take his place at a two-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this week in Jakarta, Indonesia

The team's success is despite conditions in Australia, not because of them, those in the sport say.

Progressives are beginning a new offensive on Capitol Hill: Taking on America’s staggering $88bn in medical debt. Headed up by the Bernie Sanders spinoff group Our Revolution, advocates around the country are gathering horror stories of instances where necessary procedures were blocked by insurance companies or, perhaps worse, approved with stipulations such as “out of network” classifications that can quickly (and often do) lead to lifesaving treatment becoming a financial death sentence. The group hosted a town hall led by executive director Joseph Geevhargese on Monday, where a number of Americans shared their own personal versions of ruin at the hands of medical debt collectors and hospital bills. Between 10 per cent and half of adult Americans are thought to carry medical debt in some form, with estimates widely varrying thanks to the complexities of tracking paid-off debts. Elizabeth McLaughlin, one woman who shared her account with participants of the town hall event on Monday, spoke about how treatment she received in 2017 has led to her taking on tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt as she placed utility bills and other basic needs like groceries on lines of credit rather than face medical debt collectors. “I pass it from one [card] to another, and in the meantime I’m just grateful that I’m employed, and insured, and I can keep making the payments,” she explained. Another woman, Kristin Noreen, explained that she even filed for bankruptcy, only for her debt to immediately begin climbing into the thousands again thanks to tax obligations and other costs. Her treatment bills rose past $1m dollars after she was struck by a car on her bicycle and suffered grievous injuries, including the amputation of her hand, and now she explains that she has little chance of ever climbing out of her personal debt trap — even after her insurance paid for all but $60,000 of the treatment cost, and $50,000 of the remaining debt was handled by a charitable donation. The remaining $10,000 was still more than enough, coupled with the cost of years of therapy she says is “barely” covered by her Affordable Care Act plan, to leave her in financial desolation. “I’m back up to $10,000 on credit cards and as of last month, I have another $3,000 in debt to the IRS for prioritising my care over my estimated taxes. I’ve been denied disability and I work part-time from home as much as I’m able to,” she explained, while noting that if her pay increases from her part-time work, she is legally required to pay it towards Affordable Care Act subsidies rather than her own debt. Mr Sanders, along with a colleague in the House, Ro Khanna, reportedly plan to introduce legislation in the coming weeks aimed at addressing the issue — along with a nationwide campaign aimed at pressuring vulnerable lawmakers to get on board. Among the legislation’s priorities will be halting “predatory” debt collection practices and going after price gouging in medical billing. And while the demands in their upcoming legislation are small in comparison to Mr Sanders’s long-held desire to overhaul America’s for-profit healthcare system into a single-payer system aimed at affordability and access, the efforts by progressives to highlight the tragic cases of Americans consumed by medical debt likely aid in the left’s work to popularise the idea of major reforms and changes to the structure of America’s health system. Mr Sanders called for the elimination of all medical debt in the spring of 2022 after three leading credit agencies announced that they would no longer track paid-off medical debts when calculating credit ratings for Americans. “‘Medical debt’ and ‘Medical bankruptcy’ are two phrases that should not exist in the United States of America,” the senator said at the time. “Removing 70 percent of past-due medical debt from credit reports is a step in the right direction, and much more needs to be done. We must cancel all medical debt.” Read More Deal or default? Biden, GOP must decide what's on the table Black voters backing Biden, but not with 2020 enthusiasm House Republicans pressure Biden as they vote to raise debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts

Jeremy Clarkson’s article professing his “hatred” of Meghan Markle in The Sun was sexist, “pejorative and prejudicial” against the Duchess of Sussex, the press regulator has ruled. The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) said the newspaper broke press standards by running the article, in which Clarkson described how he hated her on a “cellular level”. Ipso ordered The Sun to publish a front-page statement explaining how Clarkson broke anti-discrimination rules, which also ran online. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter However, some people were left dissatisfied with the ruling. Catherine Mayer, co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party, said: “It’s so obvious that Jeremy Clarkson's diatribe against Meghan was sexist that it’s odd Ipso had to investigate to reach that conclusion. She added: “The real issue is how such pieces are commissioned and signed off and why journalism is getting shriller and more abusive.” Domestic abuse campaigner David Challen wrote on Twitter: “The real headline should be @IpsoNews takes 7 months to come to glaringly obvious conclusion. Yet another nail in the coffin of our toothless press regulator.” And Lawrence Davies, chief executive of nonprofit Equal Justice, added: “We won on sexism. Can’t see why it wasn’t racist though.” Clarkson wrote that he disliked Meghan more than the serial killer Rose West and dreamed of the day “when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant ‘shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”. The Fawcett Society gender equality charity, which made the initial complaint to Ipso, said the ruling is a “landmark decision” about a “vile and offensive” column. The ruling is the first time a complaint to Ipso about discrimination relating to someone’s sex has been upheld, the regulator said. Clarkson’s article attracted more than 25,000 complaints when it was published in December, and was swiftly pulled from the internet. A spokesperson for The Sun said the company regretted publishing the column, pointing to high female readership at the newspaper, as well as its campaigns on domestic abuse and the cost of being a young mother. Ipso chairman Lord Faulks said the imagery used in the article was “humiliating and degrading” towards Meghan. Among the critics of the article at the time were Clarkson’s daughter, while the Duke of Sussex called it “horrific, hurtful and cruel”. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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